A ROMANTIC TRANSCENDENTAL SCHOOLHOUSE TALE;

LITERATURE REINVENTED

By: Kailey DaLonzoPeriod 5

From the beginning of his career as a poet, short-story writer, and critic and reviewer, Poe was developing a body of critical doctrine about the nature of literature. Basically, the doctrine assumes that, whereas the lowest forms of literary art are realistic works and works created to illustrate a didactic moral lesson, the highest form of literary art is the aesthetic creation of beauty.

The Philosophy of CompositionAuthor: Edgar Allan Poe

Where better can one find beauty than in nature?

Transition

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

From NatureAuthor: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only in nature will one come upon the smile of the stars, but to really capture their allure, you must

become one with the cosmos.

Transition

[So,] Iwent to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it [life], whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

WaldenAuthor: Henry David Thoreau

While the angels, all pallid and wan,Uprising, unveiling, affirmThat the play is the tragedy, “Man,”And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

The Conqueror WormAuthor: Edgar Allen Poe

While we continue to learn about life…

Transition

The tide rises, the tide falls.Darkness settles on roofs and walls.But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;The little waves, with their soft, white hands,Efface the footprints in the sands

The Tide Rises, The Tide FallsAuthor: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And we venture through our world and give…

Transition

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,Child of the wandering sea,Cast from her lap, forlorn!From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!While on mine ear it rings,Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: --

The Chambered NautilusAuthor: Oliver Wendell Holmes

“You may call this shooting, Mingos!” “but we’ve squaws among the Delawares, and I have known Dutch gals on the Mohawk, that could outdo your greatest indivours. Undo these arms of mine, put a rifle into my hands, and I’ll pin the thinnest warlock in your party to any tree you can show me, and this at a hundred yards – ay, or at two hundred if the objects can be seen, nineteen shorts in twenty; or, for that matter twenty in twenty, if the piece is creditable and trusty!”

The DeerslayerJames Fenimore Cooper

Transition

And after this glorious song, we seek out man who is attracted to nature.

To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hoursShe has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty; and she glidesInto his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy that steals awayTheir sharpness ere he is aware.

ThanatopsisAuthor: William Cullen Bryant

But is he aware that…Transition

He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvelous, and his power of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spell-bound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover bordering the little brook that whimpered by his schoolhouse, and there con over old Mather’s direful tales, until the gathering dusk of evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes.

The Legend of Sleepy HollowAuthor: Washington Irving

Oh for boyhood’s painless play,Sleep that wakes in laughing day,Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,Knowledge never learned of schools

The Barefoot BoyAuthor: John Greenleaf Whittier

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-This is it and nothing more.”

The RavenAuthor: Edgar Allan Poe

Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly through that once barely discernable fissure, of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened- there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind- the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight- my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder- there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters- and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “House of Usher.”

The House of UsherAuthor: Edgar Allan Poe

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM-Love of Nature

- The importance of nature was emphasized by Romantics, not only for its beauty, but for its ability to help man find his true identity

-Emotions versus Rationality- Emotions, feelings, instinct, and intuition were extremely important

to the Romantics- Many popular pieces of literature written by Romantics were created

by using emotions and feelings-Artist, the Creator

-The artist was viewed as the creator of art, whether in the form of literature or paintings, which reflected individuality and inner mind

-Nationalism-Very often was the idea of nationalism reflected in the works of

Romantics-Exoticism

-This idea used by the Romantics is the opposite of Nationalism although, it never clashed

-Fall off and mysterious locations were depicted in literary works and art-Supernatural

-A fascination for the unreal and mysterious was used in many Romantic works

-It led to the development of Gothic Romanticism

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM

-Focus on Individual over society-Belief in the importance of living harmoniously with nature

-Relations with God should be personal-Idealists

CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTI-TRANSCENDENTALISM- Sin, evil and pain exist

- Use of symbolism

AND SO OUR JOURNEY COMES TO AN END.

FAREWELL, OUR ROMANTIC/TRANSCENDENTAL

FRIENDS!