Fireside Poets and Romanticism

Quick Write: November 19, 2009 Read the following quotations. Choose one and write two paragraphs explaining the connection between life and death. “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.” Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789) I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street. Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941), The Waves (1931) Cowards die many times before their actual deaths. Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

Fireside Poets “Real Literature” rare in America before 19th century Very early American writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Oliver Wendell Holmes John Greenleaf Whittier James Russell Lowell Called “Fireside Poets” because works were read in front of the fire for entertainment Wrote about “uniquely American settings and subjects”

Poetic Devices Theme Meter Imagery The central message or insight into life revealed by a literary work. Can be directly or indirectly stated. Meter The rhythmic pattern of a poem. Determined by the number and types of stresses or beats, in each line Imagery The descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader. These pictures , or images, are created by details of sight sound, taste, touch, smell or movement

Poems for Today “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” 275-276 “Thanatopsis” 277-279 Discussion questions: How do these poems discuss life and death? How are they similar? How are they different? What do the poets compare to death? What images do you see What sounds do you hear? How do the pictures that accompany the poem help you understand it? Do the poems take a negative or positive view on death? How do the poems connect nature to life and death?

Assignment Write your own “fireside” poem Choose a theme that you think applies to the Modern American Use at least one metaphor that compares your theme to something that, on the surface seems unsimilar Use at least one simile that compares your theme to something that, on the surface, seems unsimilar Poem must have at least 15 lines Poem must have a rhythm, using meter, and or rhyme Attempt to use some form of repetition (as in The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”) Attempt to have a clear message about life and death