American Literature Classics

American Literature

• Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" can be considered an epic poem.
• Whitman wrote "A Woman Waits for Me".
• In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", the old man is carrying a serpent staff and is revealed to be the devil.
• Henry W. Longfellow wrote "The Cross of the Snow" in response to his wife's death in a fire.
• Longfellow's poem "The Cross of the Snow" was inspired by his wife's death, specifically her skirt catching fire.

Literary Analysis

• Whitman's "Song of Myself" explores the theme of self-identity and the contradictions within oneself.
• Henry W. Longfellow's purpose of life, according to his poetry, is to act and improve each day.
• A caesura in poetry is a pause, often represented by a dash (-).

Authors and Their Works

• Washington Irving wrote "Rip Van Winkle".
• "Rip Van Winkle" features a strange sight in the forest, where the protagonist encounters a group of dwarves bowling.
• Lydia Maria Child wrote "The Quadroon".
• Emily Dickinson wrote "Because I Could Not Stop for Death".
• Herman Melville wrote "Moby Dick", where the narrator's name is Ishmael.
• Walt Whitman wanted to be remembered as the American Bard.

Literary Devices and Themes

• Transcendentalists, a term used to describe Romantic writers, emphasize the intuitive power of the mind and connection to nature.
• Henry David Thoreau wrote "Walden".
• In "Moby Dick", the character Queequeg is covered in tattoos.
• In "Young Goodman Brown", the pink ribbon that belonged to his wife, Faith, symbolizes the loss of faith.
• The poem "A Certain Slant of Light" by Emily Dickinson explores the themes of death and the afterlife.
• The poem "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun" by Emily Dickinson features two potential readings: rage and religion/devotion to Christ.

American Romanticism

• Defining themes of the American Romanticism Movement include the blending of cultures, beauty and poverty, and self-respect and dignity.
• The 4 ways we understand Nature according to Emerson are:
  • Commodity: how we physically use nature
  • Beauty: byproduct of man channeling nature
  • Language: nature is the root of all language
  • Discipline: understanding of the natural world comes back to nature

Other Works

• Frederick Douglass wrote "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?"
• Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Fall of the House of Usher".
• Julia Ward Howe wrote "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
• The poem "The Picket Guard" features an extended metaphor of a house divided, representing the slave states and free states.
• Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address features the phrase "This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people".