American Literature - Poetic Forms and Movements

• Iambic Pentameter is a rhythmic pattern with lines of ten syllables, alternating between stressed and unstressed.
• Anne Bradstreet used Iambic Pentameter in "The Prologue" and "The Author to her Book", as did Phillis Wheatley in "One Being Brought from Africa to America".
• Epic Poetry is a long narrative featuring a hero and their adventures.
• Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is an example of Epic Poetry, as well as Homer's "The Odyssey" and Virgil's "The Aeneid".
• Puritanists aimed to "purify" the Church.
• Anne Bradstreet and John Winthrop were Puritanists, the latter of whom wrote “A Model of Christian Charity".
• Jonathan Edwards, also a Puritanist, wrote “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.
• Transcendentalists thought that people and nature are inherently good and that intuition is more important than reason and science.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature", Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself", and Henry David Thoreau's "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" are Transcendentalist texts.
• Free verse lacks rhythm or regular meter, and Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is an example of this.
• Realism is a way of thinking, school of thought in international relations, an artistic movement, or a philosophical viewpoint.
• Examples of Realism include Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", and "The Story of an Hour".
• Regionalism is a political ideology seeking to increase the political power, influence, and self-determination of people in subnational regions; "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett, and "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin are examples of this.
• Dialect writing is a literary device used to convey a character's background, culture, and personality through their speech.
• Examples of Dialect Writing include Phillis Wheatley, “An Ante-Bellum Sermon” - Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask", "Sympathy” - Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Desiree's Baby” - Kate Chopin, “A White Heron" - Sarah Orne Jewett, “To Build a Fire" - Jack London, and Sarah Orne Jewett.
• Naturalism is a philosophical and artistic theory that views the world as governed by natural laws and forces.
• Naturalism rejects supernatural intervention and the existence of a personal God; "To Build a Fire" by Jack London is an example of this.
• Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was a Puritan and the first woman recognized as a New World Poet.
• Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was brought to America at 8 years old and was the first published African American author.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was the Father of American literature and an American Transcendentalist.
• Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American Transcendentalist, a passionate abolitionist, and the father of free verse poetry; he included transcendentalism and realism in his free verse works.

"A Model of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop

• Focuses on communal unity, charity, and the idea that the Puritan settlers were creating a moral example for the world, as delivered in a sermon in 1630; the quote says, "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us."

"The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet

• Compares her poetry to a poorly made child, which expresses affection and embarrassment about her published work, where in the poem, she writes, "Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain."

"Prologue" by Anne Bradstreet

• Addresses the limitations placed on women writers in Puritan society, arguing for the value of her poetic voice; "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue, Who says my hand a needle better fits."

"Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards

• Edwards writes, “The use may be of awakening to unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up." (178).
• He adds, "The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the meer pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” (179-180).
• Edwards also wrote these words: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.” (180).
• Edwards also states this: “Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those 9 that provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath, when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave order that the burning fiery furnace should be het seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it: but the great God is also willing to shew his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies.” (182).

"On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley:

• Wheatley expresses, ''Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand; That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train."

"Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman

• From Leaves of Grass, the poem celebrates individuality, the connection between all people, and the beauty of existence and reads: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

"An Ante-Bellum Sermon" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

• Dunbar's poem, written in dialect, presents a sermon-style reflection on hope and liberation for enslaved people, with the following passage: "We is gathahed hyeah, my brothahs, In dis howlin' wildaness, Fu' to speak some words of comfo't To each othah in distress."

"We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

• Dunbar's poem is a powerful commentary on the need for Black Americans to hide their true emotions behind a mask of resilience stating, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes."

"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

• Dunbar's poem expresses the pain of oppression and inspired Maya Angelou's famous memoir with the lines: "I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore."

"Désirée's Baby" by Kate Chopin

• This short story explores themes of race, identity, and tragic irony; Désirée's husband, Armand, cruelly rejects her and their child due to racial prejudice, only to discover his own hidden Black ancestry, where she is reminded, "He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?"

"Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• This essay emphasizes the spiritual and philosophical connection between humans and nature, arguing that nature provides insight, renewal, and transcendence, where he states, "In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life-no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair."

"Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" by Henry David Thoreau

• Thoreau's passage reflects his philosophy of simple, intentional living in nature to gain wisdom, where he says,"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

"A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett

• This story follows a young girl, Sylvia, who must choose between revealing the location of a rare white heron to a hunter and preserving the bird's life, emphasizing themes of nature, innocence, and moral conflict, where "She could not tell the heron's secret and give its life away, but she did not reason about it. She only stood still and heart beat fast, while a tear or two fell on the pine needles."

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• The passage reflects the narrator's growing obsession with the wallpaper in the room where she is confined, symbolizing her descent into madness due to the oppressive treatment of women's mental health, detailing, "I lie here on this great immovable bed—it is nailed down, I believe—and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you."

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

• The story follows Mrs. Mallard, who briefly experiences the joy of freedom after hearing of her husband's death, only to die when she learns he is actually alive, where it is said, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills."

"To Build a Fire" by Jack London

• This story depicts a man struggling against the brutal cold of the Yukon, highlighting themes of human arrogance, survival, and nature's indifference; "The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death."