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In Emily Dickinson's poem "The Bee Is Not Afraid of Me" from her Nature series she talks about nature (obviously) and how she sees nature in her eyes. In the second stanza Dickinson says

"The brooks laugh louder when I come,
The breezes madder play." (Dickinson 5-6)

What Dickinson is trying to say is that things are always better and louder and more exciting when you are up close and not far away. The brooks in this poem are louder and bigger up close instead of looking at them without hearing a peep from a good distance away. The same can be applied to many different things in life like take a baseball game for instance. It is better to sit closer to the action than it is to sit in the upper deck at the cardinal game next to a bunch of drunk guys. When your are at an amusement park the rides seem smaller and less intimidating when far away, but when you are at the front of the line looking up at the ride or on top of the ride before the big drop, you are freaking out and about ready to poop your pants because things are scarier up close. Everyone in life experiences this type of effect in their life it is just different for everyone. Roller-coaster's are the thing that are big for me while I could stand up in front of an auditorium filled with people like it was nothing, but for some people it is the other way around.

Emily Dickinson likes to write about things that are going to apply to many readers, making her writing very universal in comparison to other writers such as Thoreau or Hawthorne who seem to have a particular audience that they are writing for. This idea of universal writing is what started her into wanting to write about nature. Nature is something generally everyone can connect with because we are all apart of nature, whether it is just something as simple as a tree or storm in the city to a wild forest or desert in the urban areas. A literary critic says, "Dickinson's love of nature painted a tremendously complex picture as she tried to find in the natural world a firm understanding of the relationship between people and God and the solutions to questions of shape and continuity of the universe that she could find nowhere in her background. "(McShesney) about Emily's poetry. Sandra is saying that Emily used nature and the actions of people to try and make sense of the world we live in and how God plays a part of it. This is a part of the religious aspect of Emily Dickinson's writing that was very evident in many of her poems. Having that Christian faith background is one of the only things that may disconnect her from some readers, although there still are many Non-Christian people who love many of Dickinson's poems. This mixture of nature, human nature, and religion makes Emily Dickinson's poetry so popular and so interesting for those who get the pleasure of reading it.


McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCED03&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 29, 2012).


Dickinson, Emily. "58. "The Bee Is Not Afraid of Me." Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." 58. "The Bee Is Not Afraid of Me." Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems. Bartleby. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. .

Dickinson Journal

I am going a blog over the poem "I heard a fly buzz when I died" by Emily Dickinson. The poem itself is about a a person who is dieing and describing what they are feeling in and what they saw right before their final breath. She describes things by comparing it to other things instead of just saying that was literally happening at the time. For example "The stillness round my form ;Was like the stillness in the air ;Between the heaves of storm." (Dickinson) is comparing how dead the room feel to the stillness to the time between storms. This is a upper level skill in writing because it is hard to do comparisons to other completely different things while getting the point you were trying to make across. The poem also brings out emotion in the reader, especially because it is is about death. Emotions in a story is really hard to do successfully because writing about something that is going to get to most of the readers takes a lot of thought. There are things that certain people might connect to while others will. This is something that makes the author have to think about who they are writing too. In this poem Emily found a way to write to everyone because we are all going to die someday and are going to have to deal with death as some point in our lives. She says "Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then ;I could not see to see." (Dickinson), which is important because it is when the person finally passes away at the end. This is something that everyone can connect with because they know this is their inevitable fate as a human. There is no cheating death, which is what i believe made this poem so popular.





Dickinson, Emily. "128."I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Part Four: Time and Eternity. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." 128. "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died."Part Four: Time and Eternity. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems. Bartleby, 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. .

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace is a song that has been popular for hundreds of years. The song has brought many people together in many ways because it is such a powerful song. This is one reason that this is significant to Emily because she like the idea of bringing people together. Although she was secluded from the world she found it important to bring us together through her works. The story talked about the Lord doing good and Emily being a Christian women find this very important. She believes very much in he Lord and that he is the only one and thing that can save her. This is significant because the song talks about the Lord doing good and promising hope. This hope is what keeps her going in her life of solitude. It talks about being saved which is important to her because she wanted to be saved from her past and the life she once lived before. The song touches a lot of people and can be considered one of the most powerful songs in America's history. The time that this was written was in a time of troubles in America when we needed inspiration and happiness to lift all of our spirits. This could also be significance in Emily Dickinson's life because of how uplifting it is. The idea of being saved and hope was something that everyone was searching for. This was something that many Christians believed in and found important because of the way of life at this time. The song brought them back to God and back to their faith because of the promises it proclaimed that the Lord had made. This could have contributed to Emily's coming back to her faith and to the Lord. The song does have a connection to many but I will personally say that I have little connection to it. The emotions are there but I am not really affected by it because I think the time period is different.

Emily Dickinson Writing Style

Emily Dickinson is one of the writers that died before she could truly see her work become popular. This was a choice made by Emily because she did not want her work to be published. She also was known for staying in her home and not leaving for days because she was not very social. This could be why her writing is like no other authors writing. This could also be where she got her ideas of individualism. The idea of independence and being able to do things on her own was very important seeming as that is how she lived her life. This is what led her into her writing a Modernism like style of writing. This is shown in her poem "This is my letter to the World" because it is about the world seeing her a for who she is and not taking her as a person for granted. This is when the ideas of equality also came into her writing style and made her writing very much modernistic. The literary critic Conrad Aiken said, " When we come to Emily Dickinson's poetry, we find the Emersonian individualism clear enough, but perfectly Miss Dickinson's." (Aiken) about Emily Dickinson's writing style. In the poem she says,' He Message is committed; To hands I cannot see--- For love of her----Sweet---countrymen---Judge tenderly---of Me" (Dickinson) This shows how she believed that people should give her a break for who she is because she is an individual person, and is great in her own way. This greatness also came into her writing style of Realism. Her realistic writing style is displayed very well in her poem "The Lighting is a yellow Fork". The poem displays the ideas of realistic meanings and leaves out literal psychological meanings. The poem says, "Of mansions never quite disclosed; and never quite concealed; The Apparatus of Dark; to ignorance revealed" (Dickinson) This shows how Emily also liked to write realistically instead of always making the reader decipher what the author is trying to say. This making reading a passage easier for everyone. Using both of these styles has lead her to be to be one of the greatest authors of all time. She is particularly interesting to me because although she was not a "normal" person in her time, she was still fantastic. She worked against all odds that she was faced with to make her writing better and more interesting for herself over anyone else. This is why most of her writings became popular after her death because she did not have most of them published. This would also explain why they have no actual titles to most of her poetry because she didn't feel the need to name things that were thought to be for her eyes only. She thought that she didn’t have to keep any titles in place because if they would not have been published it would not have mattered. This is what makes her writing so unique.


Dickinson, Emily "This is my letter to the World." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.
Dickinson, Emily "The lighting is a yellow Fork." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.



Aiken, Conrad. "Emily Dickinson." In A Reviewer's ABC. New York: Meridian Books, 1935. Quoted as "Emily Dickinson" in Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1998. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMPED04&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 19, 2012).

Walt Whitman Writing Style

The writing style of Walt Whitman is one that cannot be considered Realism nor can it be considered Modernism because his writing as a whole has a combination of both. The Realism period is considered looking at things as they are and not how they "could be". An example of this type of writing from Walt Whitman is "Calvary Crossing a Ford". This is a poem talking about how army men were in the time of war during the day when they were not fighting. The poem is poetic but is realism literacy because it still is very blunt and full of literal meaning. For example, "Behold the brown-faced, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles." (Whitman 1) shows that he is a realistic writer. This a realism literacy because it is a literal meaning and doesn't have a philosophical or symbolic purpose. It is saying that the men are brown faced and the negligent men sit upon their saddles. This is a very simple way of writing in because it doesn't mean that you as a person have to use much thought when reading it. The author though has to use a lot of thought so that they are able to keep the literal meaning while still making the story/poem interesting to the writer. The other type of writing is Modernism, which is about the modern growth in industry and many popular Modernism poems/stories were about the World War 1. Also a huge part of modernism was that the author will write a lot about individualism and the idea of equality. This was the path the Walt Whitman took over the industrial realism part. The story called "from Song of Myself" bleeds the ideas of individualism. The quote "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you" (Whitman 2) represents the idea of individualism and of being oneself. The idea of celebrating oneself is something that has been carried into today's world a lot and I believe it came from this era of literacy. The literary critic Matt Longabucco has a huge article on Whitman's career in literature. He says, "Much has been made of this design choice of Whitman's, since it seems to announce two important thematic premises of the book: first, that the poet is not separable from his physical body (and therefore his portrait is as valid an identification as his name), and second, that the poet is "one of the roughs," as he puts it, "no stander above men and women or apart from them" (and therefore dressed like the mass of working men and women)." (Longabucca), which is explaining the author, set up his poetry writing style. Longabucca realized that Whitman did have a general set-up to his writings which I have also noticed when reading his poetry. The idea that he is a "tweener" shows that he can neither be considered a modernist or a realist writer.

Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Whitman, Walt. "from song of Myself." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.



Longabucco, Matt. "'The Proof of a Poet'—Walt Whitman and His Critics." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh03&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 19, 2012).

"I heard a buzz.." Emily Dickinson

I will be doing a blog over "I heard a buzz" by Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson is known for hew great number of poems and their popularity that soured after her death. The poem is about how in the death of this person they see a fly. Emily gives a great amount of detail about those few seconds before death seeing the fly. "Talking about those few seconds of life that With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; the person had Emily says, " (Dickinson) This shows the how great of an author Emily was. She uses the least amount of actual story but with such great detail, those few seconds can have a thousand words. The author Ralph Waldo Emerson was also very well known for doing this because he would also write things with an exponential amount of detail. This makes both Emily Dickinson and Ralph Emerson some of the most well known authors still today because of how they write, no so much what they write. That is the key to being popular and legendary. Many people can write a great story, poem, or novel. It’s the people whose writing is amazing and legendary in all their works, not just one. I think these two are legendary because they are not popular for just a story or poem; they are legendary for just about all of them together. Another author who has achieved this legendary status is Mr. Henry David Thoreau. All three have made huge strides in literature that continue to be popular today. A literary critic by the name of Randall Huff, whom I have read criticisms before and found him very insightful, said this about her poem; “The startling premise of Emily Dickinson's opening line will not trouble those who believe that one's personality makes up a large part of the soul or is determined by it; thus the immortality promised the soul by church authority and tradition would extend to the personality and perhaps the memory as well. “(Huff) Here is where he explains why some would not find this poem to be troubling or hard for most to read because of how/who the people are reading it. It is almost a good idea to read his criticism before actually reading the poem because he allows the reader to know what mind set to read it from. This is key to reading the legendary Mrs. Emily Dickinson’s poetry.



Dickinson, Emily. "Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson." Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. .

Huff, Randall. "'I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—'." 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= CPAP0190&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 14, 2012).

To A Stranger

I am doing a reflection over the poem "To A Stranger" by Walt Whitman. First off I would like to start out by saying how truly and undeniably talented Walt Whitman was when it came to writing. His stories are still so popular today because of his way of making a connection with us as the the readers. This is very much so the truth in his poem "To A Stranger". He makes you feel like it truly is you passing this stranger on the street and thinking these things. For example Whitman says, "PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking" (Whitman) This makes the reader get into the story which is a technique that was used a lot by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is why Whitman and Emerson's writings have been so closely compared, even in recent years. The poem is about how this person sees a stranger walking down the street but does not feel them to be a stranger. They feel as if they have known the person for forever and will know them forever more into the future. The author does not say a word to the stranger though and even says, "I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone" (Whitman) This gives the story a bit of a mysterious appeal to it. Having this mystery gives the story much more appeal. Although I myself very much enjoy the writing of Whitman, a man named Peter Bayne does not put him in such a fancy light as I would. Reading his criticism over Whitman's poetry, I found him to be rude and almost pushing vulgar brutality. He went as far as saying, "If I ever saw anything in print that deserved to be characterized as atrociously bad, it is the poetry of Walt Whitman" (Bayne) Although I do not share these views, it is important to show that not everyone feels as strongly towards Whitman's poetry as myself.



Bayne, Peter. "Walt Whitman's Poems." Contemporary Review, December 1875: 49–51, 68–69. Quoted as "Walt Whitman's Poems" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVWaW017&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 12, 2012).


Whitman, Walt. "To a Stranger, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .

To Build a Fire

I will be doing a reflection over a story called "To Build Fire" by Jack London. The story was actually written twice by the same author. Each story was basically the same when it came to the plot and general moral. The difference was that the second one was written with nameless characters versus the first one which had names for the main characters. (D'Ammassa). The story is about a man and his dog who are traveling together. The man is inexperienced and not very in touch with nature which is why he himself is faced with so many people. The protagonist of the story made mistake after mistake which got him into situations he was no where near able to get out of. For example in the twelfth paragraph it says "That was why he had shied in such panic. He had felt the give under his feet and heard the crackle of a snow-hidden ice-skin. And to get his feet wet in such a temperature meant trouble and danger." (London) Here London shows how the protagonist isn't very smart about his surrounding and got himself into huge trouble. The idea that there was ice under the snow is something only known to people who are knowledgeable about nature. This is London's way of showing the importance of knowing nature. Thoreau had the same idea because he also wanted the world to know the importance of nature when he wrote "Nature". In the story he shows the beauty of the wild, which I believe is what London is trying to portray through his story as well. He says, "At twelve o'clock the day was at its brightest. Yet the sun was too far south on its winter journey to clear the horizon. The bulge of the earth intervened between it and Henderson Creek, where the man walked under a clear sky at noon and cast no shadow. At half-past twelve, to the minute, he arrived at the forks of the creek. He was pleased at the speed he had made." (London) which shows some of the beauties of nature as well as the struggles of the young man.


London, Jack. "To Build a Fire, by Jack London." The World of Jack London 2012®. The World of Jack London. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .



D'Ammassa, Don. "'To Build a Fire'." Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAdvF140&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 8, 2012)

Edwin Arlington Robinson

I am going to be doing a reflection over Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Miniver Cheevy". The poem itself has a lot of repetition and pattern to it. The poem continuously says repeats "Miniver" then explains him. They explain all the things he loved or disliked in a creative, yet very effective way. The straight forward writing style makes this author very much like Thoreau because he also like to write about things as straight forward as Edwin. Though Edwin does like to use what I would call secretive ways of writing in the poem. For example Edwin writes, "(Robinson) Minever loved the Medici, ;Albeit he had never seen one; He would have sinned incessantly ;Could he have been one." which is insisting that two contradicting this giving the story a lot of range and variety. The poem consistently goes through talking about this one person which insists that the author may have known the person very well, or made him up. This is a lot like Emerson's writings because Emerson was well known for his characters and how realistic and personal all of them were. They all seemed to display different lives and personalities as real people do, making many wonder if some of his characters were really based on real people. A literary critic said, "Like many of Robinson's poems, "Miniver Cheevy" is a character sketch of an emotionally tormented man, but Robinson's use of satire coupled with a playful meter lends the poem its comic effect." (Cusatis) about Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy". This is going back to what I said before about the character and the way he might have gone about writing the character’s personality. The writing of a character can be very difficult for many authors but Emerson and Robinson share a common trait that which neither of them have any problems with doing just that, and doing it very successfully. In my opinion, if an author can make up or even mock a person into

Cusatis, John. "'Miniver Cheevy'." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1232&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 7, 2012).

Robinson, Edwin A. ""Miniver Cheevy" by E.A. Robinson." The Poem Tree: An Online Poetry Anthology. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. .

Anton Chekov

I will be doing a reflection over Anton Chokov's "The Darling". The story is based mainly on the life, love life for that matter, of a women named Olkena, also referred to in the book as Olga Semyonovna. The story starts out talking about how fantastic and lovable the women is to everyone. In the story it says, "At the sight of her full rosy cheeks, her soft white neck with a little dark mole on it, and the kind, naïve smile, which came into her face when she listened to anything pleasant, men thought, "Yes, not half bad," and smiled too, while lady visitors could not refrain from seizing her hand in the middle of a conversation, exclaiming in a gush of delight, "You darling!"" (Chekov)This displays how she truly infatuated those who were around her. The women had many loves because she was such a good hearted women and loving to others, who then would return the love tomorrow. Her first marriage was to a man named Kuklin who she truly fell in love with. Their love made her change to view his ways over her own. This made her slightly changed, then one day she received a notice that he had died. The story then says how she , "as soon as she got indoors, she threw herself on her bed and sobbed so loudly that it could be heard next door, and in the street." (Checkov) This was a sad and gruesome time for the light hearted women until she met Vasily Pustovalov, who would soon become her second husband. As she did with Kuklin, she adapted the ways and lifestyle of her new husband changing the views she had adopted with Kuklin. Though the love does end yet again when Pastovalov dies. She met a man named Smirnin when she was with Vasily, who of which she told preached to him to work on his marriage. When Vasily dies all Olga has is Smirnin and soon they too become lovers, though since he is still married they do not wed. Smirnin leaves for a while and upon his return he reveals that him and his wife have reconciled their relationship, but Olga insists they move in with her and she will live in the guest house. This is when something very odd happens. The book says, "Ah, how she loved him! Of her former attachments not one had been so deep; never had her soul surrendered to any feeling so spontaneously, so disinterestedly, and so joyously as now that her maternal instincts were aroused. For this little boy with the dimple in his cheek and the big school cap, she would have given her whole life, she would have given it with joy and tears of tenderness. Why? Who can tell why? " (Chekov) This is describing how she found a new love for Smirnin's young son Sasha. This to her was very confusing. The story ends hinting that Sasha too would be leaving Olga as all the other had before him. The story is kind of an unfortunate one, but still is so great that it makes it a good story. This writing style is much like Thoreaus writing because of the ups and downs. It relates to Emerson through it extreme amounts of little details that bring the story to life.


Chekov, Anton. "Short Stories: The Darling by Anton Chekhov." East of the Web. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. .

Chief Joseph

I will be doing a reflection over the speech "I Will Fight No More Forever" by Chief Joseph. The speech is about a chief of an Indian tribe who is pleading to General Howard that there be no more fighting. He says in the speech, "What he told me before, I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting." (Joseph) Here the chief displays his true heart and soul is in what he is doing. This is like Thoreau because he would write of things that were important and close to his heart, as Chief Joseph did here. This gives the speech that heartwarming/ heart wrenching personality that makes it so popular. The speech then continues on to talk about how many of his men are missing and dead. This makes the speech very sad and hit another level because any time death is involved in a speech it then goes to another level of writing that can be hard to accomplish successfully without messing with the speech or putting in too much personal views. Here because it is a speech there is much of a personal view to it. This is very much like the idea of having a personal heart wrenching tale to be told that Emerson uses in his own speech "Divinity School Address". Although he uses more happy things instead of death like Joseph did in his speech. He says, “The little children are freezing to death." which pulls hard at your heart because the idea of little children dying is absolutely horrific to most people. This makes the speech slowly turn into a persuasive speech in my opinion because it uses things that would make you want to do what they are telling you to do. For instance, in this case the Chief is trying to get the people to stop fighting his people. By talking about how people and children are dying, this makes many people want to help make the fighting stop.


Joseph, Chief. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Spoon River Anthology

The story I will be reflecting over is called Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. The story itself is actually a collection of fictional poems from people who lived in a fictional place called Spoon River, Illinois. The tales they tell are a cumulative of tow-hundred and twelve characters with a grand total of two-hundred and forty-four stories/poems total. These were all very realistic tales and stories that portray their feelings and lively hoods at this time. Masters would even make most of his stories have names based on real live people he had heard of who passed away. The author even went as far as writing a poem on a women named Ann Rutledge, best known for possibly being the love interest of a Mr. Abraham Lincoln himself. (Willinghton) Although this isn't actually proven it gives these groups of tales a lot of spice and political scandal that at the time would have been pretty interesting to a reader. Although I have not, and more likely will not, go through all of the poems I have read a few. So far I have discovered that there are multiple stories that involve historical people and events. Such as the poem "Kinsey Keene" says, "Of Napoleon’s guard on Mount Saint Jean; At the battle field of Waterloo" (Masters 1) This was just one of many that would talk about a very important and well known historical figure. Many of them display facts and real life situations that are written so well that even if they were made up, you would believe them to be very real. This makes Masters such a wonderful author and puts him in a very close category with Thoreau and Emerson because they all have such raw writing styles. They seem to hold very little back giving the reader a very intense connection with the writing. A huge similarity between Thoreau and Masters is their very keen way of getting into the political parts through their writing. Although Thoreau was much more into the actual political issues, Masters was much more interested in the political scandals. Such as the Abraham Lincoln and Anne Rutledge controversy of whether or not they were truly lovers. His two-hundredth poem names "Anne Rutledge" said, "I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds, ;Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, ;Wedded to him, not through union, ;But through separation. ;Bloom forever, O Republic, ;From the dust of my bosom!" inferring that the controversy is not a controversy at all but a cold hard fact. This gives this story a real nail biting and even awkward feeling because as the reader you not know if this is true, but your reading it as if it were as real as a definition. This makes these stories so gripping and interesting to read, they are all so real feeling and have again such a raw truth to them that no one can deny is all thanks to the great author Edgar Lee Masters.


1) Masters, Edgar Lee. "13. Kinsey Keene. Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartleby Bookstores. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. .

2)Masters, Edgar Lee. "200. Anne Rutledge. Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartleby Bookstores. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. .


Willinghton, William. "Spoon River Anthology." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. .

Two Ways of Seeing a River

The story that I will be reflecting over is "Two Ways of Seeing a River" but Mark Twain. Mark Twain is a very well known author, especially for his book he Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It is in general about a man who has worked on the river basically all his life. At first he absolutely loved the river and everything about it. In the story he even says, "All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river!" (Twain) describing the beauty it truly has. His job on the boat was to be a river boat pilot. This job is very important for the running of a good system of transporting on the waters. The main character has started to realize that the job he has is very dangerous. He begins to reflect on the dangers of what he does and how much he has been putting at risk. He says in the story, "that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights" (Twain) Here is where he displays how he is looking out and sees this reef and reflects that that very reef could kill someone. He continued to look around and describe things in nature that could kill him or his fellow boaters. This is like Emerson because not only the impeccable use of detail but they both use nature a lot in their stories. They bring life and voice to things that can't speak for themselves, theoretically that it. The story then continues to talk about how he believe the river has lost its beauty to him. In the story he says, "No, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat." (Twain) Here is where you realize that all his compassion for the river has left and he doesn't believe that it is a good place to be anymore. Mark Twain writes a lot about truth and things that are real. A literary critic said "Those novels contain the hallmarks for which Twain continues to be revered: honesty, truth, the use of the plain vernacular of the ordinary American, humor, and above all, a genius for telling a story." (Werlock) about Mark Twain. This idea of truth and honesty in his writing is like Thoreau because he wrote many things about facts and what is going on in the time. The truth of both of their writing make them good writers.


Twain, Mark. "Two Ways of Seeing a River, by Mark Twain." About.com Grammar & Composition. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. .



Werlock, Abby H. P., ed. "Twain, Mark." The Facts On File Companion to the American Novel. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CANov0896&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 1, 2012).