Wild Honeysuckle Poem Analysis PDF

“THE WILD HONEYSUCKLE” PHILIP FRENEAU (1843) PHILIP FRENEAU (1752-1832) Newspaper editor who became heavily involved in early American politics (pro-Jefferson, anti- Washington) His nature poetry had much in common with that of Romantics such as Wordsworth and anticipated Americ...

“THE WILD HONEYSUCKLE” PHILIP FRENEAU (1843) PHILIP FRENEAU (1752-1832) Newspaper editor who became heavily involved in early American politics (pro-Jefferson, anti- Washington) His nature poetry had much in common with that of Romantics such as Wordsworth and anticipated American Transcendentalism.  American literature was still struggling to find its own identity when this poem was published in 1786. “THE WILD This poem resembles the work of HONEYSUCKLE” British Romantic poets, such as (1786) William Wordsworth. More thoughtful and less passionate than the typical Wordsworth poem, however.  IN ENGLAND, THE ROMANTIC ERA EXTENDS ROUGHLY FROM 1789 TO THE 1820S Historical events such as the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars gave birth to this new, self-consciously modern and revolutionary pan-European movement. Romantic poetry placed an unprecedented emphasis on the powers and terrors of the individual inner imagination. Much of it explores the inner self, as did other phenomena of the period, such as biography, autobiography, and the confessional essay. This new emphasis on the self and the inner imagination led to a new emphasis on the author as creator.  The poet as author was seen as the source of poetry through his or her own individual inspired internal reaction to the external world. The individual poet was seen as connected to his or her poetry as never before, especially when the THE author created an autobiographical persona within his or her writings. ROMANTIC The Romantic author was seen as an original “POET” genius, ahead of his or her time, possessed by a mysterious and inexplicable power of imagination and creativity. This notion of the author as the source of literature has remained powerful ever since.  Much Romantic poetry focuses on the beauties of the ROMANTIC natural world. POETRY AND But also focuses on NATURE the “sublime” power of the natural world. THE TRANQUILITY OF NATURE CAN PROVIDE KEY EXAMPLES OF ROMANTIC BEAUTY  THE OVERWHELMING VIOLENCE OF SOME NATURAL PHENOMENA IS A KEY EXAMPLE OF THE ROMANTIC SUBLIME  Romanticism proper had little real presence in American literature. But Transcendentalism, an American movement strongly influenced by Romanticism, did become important. ROMANTICISM AND TRANSCENDENTALISM Also often emphasized nature but put more emphasis on human harmony with nature (and thus less on the sublime). Led by New England intellectuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herny David Thoreau.  Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, Hid in this silent, dull retreat, ADDRESSED Untouch’d thy honey’d blossoms DIRECTLY TO blow, THE Unseen thy little branches greet: No roving foot shall crush thee BLOSSOMS here, No busy hand provoke a tear.  By Nature’s self in white array’d, She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, EMPHASIZES And planted here the guardian PEACEFULNES shade, S And sent soft waters murmuring by; Thus quietly thy summer goes, Thy days declining to repose.  Smit with those charms, that must decay, I grieve to see thy future doom; THE They died—nor were those flowers FLEETING more gay, BEAUTY OF (The flowers that did in Eden bloom) Unpitying frosts and Autumn’s FLOWERS power Shall leave no vestige of this flower.  From morning suns and evening MORTALITY dews At first thy little being came: IS THE If nothing once, you nothing lose, NATURE OF For when you die you are the same; LIVING The space between is but an THINGS hour, The mere idea of a flower.