The two poems that I have chosen
to analyze are: “To the Fringed Gentian” by William Cullen Bryant and “Old
Ironsides” by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I
think that these poems are similar in that they are both very descriptive and
creative, but I also noticed that the poems are very different. “To the Fringed
Gentian” reminded me of “Thanatopsis” which I did not realize was also written by
William Cullen Bryant. Both of these
poems were about nature and dealt with death and dying. “To the Fringed Gentian only mentioned death
in the very last stanza (Bryant Lines 17-20).
I
would that thus, when I shall see
The
hour of death draw near to me,
Hope,
blossoming within my heart,
May
look to heaven as I depart.
The poem “Old Ironsides” by
Oliver Wendell Holmes was also related to death, but in this case it was the
death of a battle ship. The USS Constitution was going to be scrapped because
it was no longer in use, but Oliver Wendell Holmes saw the ship’s beauty and
protested the scrapping of the ship by writing this poem. I the first few lines
of the last stanza Holmes talks about the “dead” ship and its grave (Holmes
Lines 17-20).
Oh,
better that her shattered hulk
Should
sink beneath the wave;
Her
thunders shook the mighty deep,
And
there should be her grave.
That was an example of a
similarity of the two poems that I have chosen to analyze. Now I am going to talk
about a few differences. “To the Fringed Gentian” was written as William Cullen
Bryant encountered nature while he was hiking through the mountains in
Massachusetts. He talked about the beauty of the nature and how the fall season
was slowly approaching winter. “Old Ironsides” was written because Oliver
Wendell Holmes was upset that the Navy was going to scrap the USS Constitution.
He thought that the ship was beautiful and deserved to live much longer. It
seems to me like “To the Fringed Gentian” was written more for an entertainment
reading whereas “Old Ironsides” was written to rile up the public to protest
with Oliver Wendell Holmes as he was against the scrapping of the USS
Constitution.
Although they were different in the fact that
they had different purposes, they are similar in the aspect of the Romanticism
time period characteristics. Because they both involved the description of
nature, they represented the Romanticism characteristic. “Old Ironsides” definitely
represents the feeling of intuition over reason. I think that the author wrote
this poem because he liked the ship and did not want it to be scrapped, not because
he had a very important reason they should keep it. He probably did not think
through all of the reasons why it would be a logical decision to keep the ship;
he just liked it and thought other people would like to look at it too! I am
glad that I chose these two poems because they have many noticeable similarities
and differences.
Bryant, William Cullen. "To the Fringed Gentian." American Literature. Ed. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. Columbus: Mc-Graw Hill, 2009. 210-11. Print.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "Old Ironsides." American Literature. Ed. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. Columbus: Mc-Graw Hill, 2009. 210-11. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment