Bryant once wished to change line 51 to "traverse the Barcan desert," but his editor insisted on "pierce." Why? See Godwin I, 176 and II, 288. VI. Discuss the poet's feeling for nature as shown in this poem. VII. Compare Thanatopsis with June in subject matter and style. How is the difference in effect produced? VIII. Read the poem aloud. Try to show by your reading what you have learned about the sustained majesty of its style. With line 50 compare Psalms 139:9. "If I take the wings of morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea." Bryant tells us to travel in imagination with the speed of morning light and the comprehensiveness of advancing day from the far east (the Barcan desert in Africa) to the western Oregon (Columbia River); even in these lonely places, these "uttermost parts," the dead are found. The phraseology which the Psalmist uses to express the omnipresence of God, the poet adopts to express the omnipresence of Death. THE FLOOD OF YEARS I. Thanatopsis was the young Bryant's "vision of death." When the poet was eighty-two years old (in 1876), he wrote another poem on the universality of death, and it is interesting to observe that he adds to his picture of death the anticipation of a life beyond; he does not stop at the grave now, as he did in Thanatopsis. And he expresses in this later poem the sympathy with human sorrow that would naturally grow out of the experiences of life. Read the poem carefully, with this outline: 1. The work of the Flood in the "Life that is" devastation: lines 1–122. a. It bears away all persons and all things: (1) Men of every age and class, (2) The cities and nations of earth-illustrations. b. A look at the Past shows nothing but the devastation of the Flood, and the sorrow that has accompanied loss and disappointment. c. The earthly future, "where the Flood must pass," mingles hope and fear; finally the Flood passes the dark barrier of Death, "where the life to come touches the life that is." 2. The work of the Flood in the "Life to come" restoration: lines 122-152. a. All that have been swept away re-appear: lines 125ff. b. And are carried into realms of peace and beauty: lines 134ff., c. Where friends are united: lines 140ff., d. And there is eternal happiness: lines 143ff. II. The expression of the thought we find in this poem should naturally be dignified and solemn. As the basis of the whole, Bryant uses a majestic metaphor, comparing time to an everlasting and all-powerful flood. The figure has probably occurred to many men besides Bryant. Who can sit quietly and thoughtfully on the bank of a stream, watching its never-ending current flow past him, without being impressed by its continuance and irresistibility; without saying to himself, "These bits of wood and other débris are borne along on this river as we human beings are borne on the stream of time?" Go through Bryant's poem carefully, and list all the words that belong to his fundamental metaphor. You will find that all those before line 122 picture the flood as rough, stormy, violent, devastating. Those after line 122 picture the flood as calm, peaceful, beneficent. Refer again to the outline, and explain why this is so. 1. Find all the other figures used in the poem, and explain them accurately. 2. Discuss the use of specific words (verbs as well as nouns), of epithets, of poetic compounds, to make vivid the description of the path of the Flood in the present life and in the life to come. Observe contrasts, as "Emperor" and "felon," etc. Notice especially such words as "stricken" (line 43) and "overpays" (line 145). 3. The sentences are rather long, and, since the poem contains much enumeration, the sentences contain many series of phrases and some balance. 4. Discuss the meter. The rhythm is somewhat like that of a chant; each phrase should be read as a unit, smoothly, monotonously for the most part, and rather quickly. In which part are there the most run-on lines? In which is the phrasing more long and sweeping? Why? 5. Make a list of onomatopoetic words used in the poem. Discuss the harmony of sound and meaning. Notice all prominent cases of alliteration. In reading, you should emphasize the explosives before line 122 and the liquids and spirants after line 122; why? III. Read the poem aloud. Keep in mind the powerful movement of a mighty stream: in the first division of the poem, dark, sweeping, and all-destructive; in the last section not less mighty, but at the same time calm and gracious in its course. CHAPTER XIII EDGAR ALLAN POE REFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES Life, by George E. Woodberry; Boston, 1885. Life and Letters, by James A. Harrison; New York, 1902. Life, by Eugene L. Didier; New York, 1879. The Mind and Art of Poe's Poetry, by J. P. Fruit; New York. 1899. A Critical Study of Poe, by Arthur Ransome; New York, 1910 SUPPLEMENTARY READING Israfel, To Helen, The City in the Sea, Ulalume. THE BELLS I. The excellence of this poem is in melody and harmony, not in profundity of thought. The poem is made up of four stanzas of unequal length, each describing the sound of one kind of bell. The author's purpose is to recall to the reader's imagination the sounds characteristic of various bells, and to inspire in him the emotion appropriate in each case. The first three lines of each stanza state its theme and set its tone-color; the last line summarizes the effect of the stanza. II. The first stanza describes the sound of sleigh-bells, here conceived as silver bells, because of their "silvery," tinkling music. The occasion is gay; the movement is rapid, the sounds in the stanza are light and jingling. The predominant vowels are the light vowels e and i, made in the front of the The mouth, and these give the tone-color to the stanza. great number of liquid and spirant consonants make the combinations smooth and flowing, in harmony with the spirit of the occasion; some explosives are used for imitative effects. The melody is aided by the alliteration of m (line 3), s (line 6), r (line 10), and by the assonance of (line 14) and ī (line 4). The words tinkle, jingling, and tintinnabulation are onomatopoetic. III. The second stanza tells of wedding-bells. As the occasion is more formal and significant than that alluded to in stanza one, the bells are made of finer material and their music is less light. The tone-color of the stanza is richer and deeper, and is produced by such vowels as are found in golden, world, happiness, harmony, balmy, molten-golden, notes, tune, etc., these vowels having more resonance than the e and i of stanza one. The melody is still carried on smoothly by an abundance of liquids and spirants. Alliteration of h (line 17) and s (line 25), and assonance of ō (line 20), of ĭ (line 22) of ŭ (line 23) and of ū (line 26) add to the music. Gush and chiming are onomatopoetic. IV. The third stanza strikes a new note at once in the harsh word brazen, which gives the keynote for the tonecolor of the stanza, as silver suggests gay lightness and golden suggests richness of sound in the two earlier stanzas. The use of tale instead of world in the third line is significant in the tone-scheme of the stanza. The harsh words scream (line 40), shriek (line 42), clang, clash, roar (line 54), twanging (line 58), clanging (line 59), jangling (line 62), wrangling (line 63), clamor (line 69) are onomatopoetic, and are admirably adapted to the purpose of the stanza. Many of them are emphasized by repetition. Many of the consonants are explosives, and this gives abruptness to |