Camparing The Fire-Side Poems Reflection

The two poems I will be comparing and making sense of are The Chambered Nautilus and Flower-de-Luce. Both poems are very well known, but for different reasons I believe. The first poem, The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes is about life and the growing in life. In line 17 and 18"Still, as the spiral grew,; He left the past year’s dwelling for the new," ("801. The Chambered Nautilus..)This displays how the poem talks about life and moving forward. It says how the "spiral grew" meaning the thing is growing. Metaphorically it is meaning us as humans are growing physically, emotionally, and intelligently. This growth means to move forward in life and leave the past behind. Like the poem above said "He left the past year's dwelling for a new", meaning leaving the past as the past and moving on to new things. Randell Huff writes in his criticism "The moral is to keep growing spiritually (the soul's building of ever more stately mansions, line 29), leaving the "low-vaulted past" (line 31) for ever loftier temples until finally free from the outgrown shell (the physical body after death) by "life's unresting sea" (line 35).",(Huff) showing that he also believes that leaving the past behind and moving forward is the general meaning of the story.
On the other hand the poem Flower-de-Luce is about the opposite. It is about mourning and living in the past of those who are dead and have left their earthly form. In line 13 and 14 "For the one face I looked for was not there,; The one low voice was mute;" (Longfellow) This is talking about how the author or reader is looking for someone who is not there because they have passed on. They are trying to hear their voice but it isn't there because they have passed. The metaphorical meaning of the whole poem is those that are dead are gone for good and will not be able to pass on their knowledge or ideas anymore. An article on Facts on File revealed this about Longfellow, "Tragedy struck again on July 9, 1861, when Fanny and two of their daughters died in a house fire. While melting wax to seal envelopes containing cuttings of her children's hair, Fanny dropped a match onto her dress. Fanny was only 44 years old; their two youngest daughters were five and seven. Longfellow had tried to rescue Fanny by smothering the flames with a rug. As a result, he received terrible burns on his hands and face, and, since shaving became difficult due to scars from the fire, Longfellow grew a beard. Deeply depressed, he immersed himself in translating Dante into English and returned to Europe." (Oakes) This being in 1861 and the work of Flower-de-Luce being written short years after could also be a reason why poem is so sad and stuck in death. Although the poem is about the great author, Hawthorne, and his death, I believe there is also an underlying feelings of his family.
These poems are alike because they both relate to the emotions of a person. Although the emotions are on total opposite sides of one another, they are still displayed. Also a great deal of nature and description is involved which a key part to something is being a Romanticism piece of work.



Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 12, 2011).

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011. www.bartleby.com/356/[224]Web. 12 Dec.

Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth." American Writers, American Biographies. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= AW144&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 12, 2011).


"801. The Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 12 Dec.

Reflection! The Chambered Nautlis

The poem I chose to do was the poem "The Chambered Nautilus" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I take a lot of emotion from the poem about the greatness of the sea. "Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea" When taking this literally one would say that it is talking about some sort of shelled creature leaving its old small shell for a larger new shell, also adding that the creature lives in a non resting sea. That is the most literal way you can take it. If you look at in a metaphorical sense you would see it differently, just as see if differently than some of my class mates might. I see it that in a world that never stops, we have to learn to leave some things behind and adapt to the changes around us. It is saying not the sea, in other words world, never rests. Also that leaving your old small things in the past makes your future. "Year after year beheld the silent toil; That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew” Literally, again you could take this as a silent creature who begins to grow over time. Metaphorically though, I see a real symbolic message of life involved. The message is how although we may not speak up as loud as others or be as big as others right away, sometimes it's time that adds up. Someone may come up with this big fabulous speech and look really good, which is a good thing, but there are some people who are just as good you tell people the right thing to do routinely and slowly make the same impact. Sometimes it is even a more lasting impact that the one that was given before by the great speaker. I am not the only who sees these as secret metaphors either! "The specimen before him has had its shell "rent" (broken, line 14, or perhaps sawed in half to reveal its exquisite structure) and "its sunless crypt unsealed;" a metaphor inviting comparison with human architecture." (Huff) He believes that this part of the story displays the connection to the human body. This to me is a HUGE display of Romanticism because it is very descriptive with a hidden meaning. Romanticism is huge on displaying metaphors as well because that uses a lot of emotional and imaginative thinking, instead of logical, like in the Realism, or religiously, like in the Puritan era. The author himself though might have had his own reason for these metaphors. Randell Huff wrote in his literary criticism over The Chambers Nautiluses "Applied to the poet's family history, it suggests that he may have viewed his father's ministry as an advancement over its more fundamentalistic predecessors and his own even more liberal beliefs as an advance over his father's." Huff thinks that his poem have a more emotional meaning to the author, not just what we can read or even imagine of without knowing such information. This is what makes Romanticism so beautiful to me, every little stanza and line can mean something different from person to person’s points of view.



Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 7, 2011).












Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 8, 2011).

Journal Autumn

The sonnet is called Autumn by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is about nature. The time of autumn to be specific. Henry gives this time a very pleasant and good light because he must feel that it is beautiful. A sign romanticism is displayed in how it is literally talking about farmers but it is meaning to talk about the autumn. By using descriptions of what happens in he time of autumn. "Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!" (Longfellow) This is meaning to say that literally something is blessing the vast farms. But I think his true meaning is that the time of autumn is the time where farmers are blessed with the crops they need to get money to provide for their family. This time is when they are able to grow their crops for their family and to sell for just their well being. This is also a Romanticism example because it talks about people and their livelihoods. There is no actual logic in how they farm or why the crops grow which makes it not a Realism writing era. It strays more into the hypothetical meaning of why autumn is a beautiful time for the farmers especially. "Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;" (Longfellow) Literally this means that the flames are shining upon the alter. Theoretically it means that this time is when the light shines brighter than ever and the time of God is flowing. This is especially Romanticism because it deals with the feelings and emotions of the people. The beauty of this time makes it the time for people to come to themselves, or that is how I took the poem he was writing. It was important to Henry to get in touch with the nature and the emotion and strength it gives to us as humans. Overall the poem was very good in my opinion because it allows me to take the poem how I interpret it.




Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011. www.bartleby.com/356/.html#[8]. [December 9, 2011].

Reflection: The Devil and Tom Walker

The short story, "The Devil and Tom Walker", was written in 1824 by a man named Washington Irving. The story is set in New England, specifically in Boston, Massachusetts. The story is basically about a man named Tom Walker who lived in Boston in the 1700's. Throughout the story he is confronted by a man that goes by the name of Old Scratch, who in reality is the Devil himself. The Devil begins to tempt Walker with things that he knows to be wrong. The writer reveals that it is not of Walkers personality to fall for such foolishness of the Devil's tricks. "Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not even fear the devil." (Irving 240) This shows how the author gives a background on why the story of him being taken by a Devil's trick is so out of the ordinary. The story is very much from the Romanticism period for a huge reason from the very beginning, nature. "A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp, or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge, into a high ridge on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate." (Irving 240) This is just the beginning of the story and the idea of displaying nature and truly explaining its beauty is a sign of Romanticism writing. Staying away from an scientific or logical reasoning of why nature is the way it is, is another huge give away from Romanticism writing. This is very similar to the story "Rip Van Winkle", also written by Washington Irving, because of its Romanticism qualities. "At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager may have described the light smoke curling up from a village whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape." (Irving) Here Romanticism is displayed in the warm details the author gives and also with the raw explanation of nature. There is no science or logic involve in the descriptions, like there would be in the Rationalism period. Having both of the stories being written by the same author will obviously make the writing itself very similar but not the same. The huge variance in the story lines themselves does give each story a slightly different style simply because Washington knew that stories can't all be told the same way. That’s what makes Washington a good Romanticism author because he knew how to really tell a story, not tell information. The Romanticism period was known for its wonderful stories and details it gave, not logic at all.

Irving, Washington. Matthews, Brander, ed. The Short-Story: Specimens Illustrating Its Development. New York: American Book Company, 1907; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/195/. [December 5, 2011]

Irving, Washington. "The Devil and Tom Walker' Short Story" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 240. Print.