Eyes graze across the surrounding the landscapes. Ears perk up to the sounds of family, friends, strangers, and even animals. The heart delves into the past, recounting memories that had been stowed away for later use. The pastoral landscapes pull the recolations from the minds of the creators, transferring them to the ink of a pen. The symbolism in Walt Whitman’s “I saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing”, Richard Wilbur’s “The Writer”, and Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” reveal that the author’s purpose is to show the reader that natural elements create a desire to become better. Whitman’s use of an oak tree raises the question of what happiness truly is, as he watches a lone tree grow vigorously in Louisiana. He wonders how a tree could be so …show more content…
Through this poem, Heaney unveils how he chose a path different from his father and his grandfather. The pen in his hand was “snug as a gun”(Arp, pg#). It was the tool the ended the cycle of digging, yet it was also the tool to reminisce the past. His father’s digging rang through his ears as he sat with the pen in his hand. Heaney’s anecdote reminds him of the hard work that the men in his family had done, changing his pen from a gun, to a continuation of a new tradition. His pen would now be something he would “... dig with it” (Arp, …show more content…
"Walt Whitman." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 23 Feb. 2017. libproxy.dallasisd.org:2080/levels/high/article/Walt-Whitman/76878. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017. Oakes, Karen. "'I stop somewhere waiting for you': Whitman's Femininity and the Reader of Leaves of Grass." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Kathy D. Darrow, vol. 205, Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center, http://libproxy.dallasisd.org:2334/apps/doc/H1420088178/LitRC?u=j057905&sid=LitRC&xid=610eb3ed. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017. Originally published in Out of Bounds: Male Writers and Gender(ed) Criticism, edited by Laura Claridge and Elizabeth Langland, University of Massachusetts Press, 1990, pp. 169-185. Ramanen, Mohan. "Wilbur's 'The Writer'." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt, vol. 110, Gale, 1999. Literature Resource Center, http://libproxy.dallasisd.org:2334/apps/doc/H1100003298/LitRC?u=j057905&sid=LitRC&xid=d2290d0b. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017. Originally published in The Explicator, vol. 50, no. 1, Fall 1991, pp.
Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Tompkins. "Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism." Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). 21 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. .
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “My Father as a Guitar” by Martin Espada, and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney are three poems that look into the past of the authors and dig up memories of the authors fathers. The poems contain similar conflicts, settings, and themes that are essential in helping the reader understand the heartfelt feelings the authors have for their fathers. With the authors of the three poems all living the gust of their life in the 1900’s, their biographical will be similar and easier to connect with each other.
... alive. Dillard’s language in her description of the landscape not only makes it vivid for the reader, but mimics the sense of rhythmic movement which she assigns to the land as well. Dillard’s use of repetition, sound devices, metaphor, images and active verbs create for the reader a sense of fluid, changing language on a page, which in turn describes an apparently fluid and changing landscape. The final image of the oscillograph, while indicative of an inorganic process, measures the activity witnessed by Dillard, reflecting itself upon the image of the forest. Perhaps an oscillograph of Dillard’s writing in this passage during her transcendent moment would also generate rhythmic waves and currents, progressing and yet doubling back, continues and full of movement and life.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
Waterman, Bryan. "Coquetry and Correspondence in Revolutionary-Era: Reading Elizabeth Whitman’s Letters." Early American Literature (2011): 541-563.
...Chrie, D., (ed.), Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1986. Vo. 13, pp. 53-111.
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden encompasses a variety of themes and elements which cultivate an astounding work of American literature. “Spring” is focused on the changing of the season from winter to spring, and Thoreau’s analysis of Walden Pond and the area surrounding the pond. Thoreau looks at the pond from a spiritual aspect, describing the relationships between life and nature with an abysmal passion. Without Thoreau’s incorporation of precise literary elements, and integration of the themes of solitude, newness of life, and transcendentalism to clearly outline the spiritual revelations he obtained from his retirement at Walden Pond, the readers of his work would not be able to completely grasp the concepts Thoreau presents.
In Seamus Heaney’s poetry, there is a recurring theme of his talking of the past, and more predominantly about significant moments in time, where he came to realisations that brought him to adulthood. In “Death of a Naturalist” Heaney describes a moment in his childhood where he learnt that nature was not as beautiful as seem to be when he was just a naive child. Heaney does this on a deeper level in “Midterm Break” describes his experience of his younger brothers funeral and the mixed, confusing feelings he encountered, consequently learning that he no longer was a child, and had no choice but to be exposed to reality. Robert Frost in one sense also describes particular moments in time, where his narrator comes to realisations. However, Frost writes more indirectly than Heaney, and all together more metaphorically. In “A Leaf Treader” he symbolically talks about life and death through the autumn season. He does the same, in “The Road Not Taken” where the two roads are described to be a metaphor for the decisions one makes in life, and the inevitable regrets we face due to those decisions. In “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening” Frost directly talks directly of a moment in time, however the significant meaning being that in life one needs a moment of solace to appreciate peace and beauty.
Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Literature. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, xi-xxiv. Print.
How does one compare the life of women to men in late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century America? In this time the rights of women were progressing in the United States and there were two important authors, Kate Chopin and John Steinbeck. These authors may have shown the readers a glimpse of the inner sentiments of women in that time. They both wrote a fictitious story about women’s restraints by a masculine driven society that may have some realism to what women’s inequities may have been. The trials of the protagonists in both narratives are distinctive in many ways, only similar when it totals the macho goaded culture of that time. Even so, In Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing we hold two unlike fictional characters in two very different short stories similar to Elisa Allen in the “Chrysanthemums” and Mrs. Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”, that have unusual struggles that came from the same sort of antagonist.
“Digging” by Seamus Heaney is the first poem in the first full volume of Heaney’s poems, “Death of a Naturalist”. “Death of a Naturalist” is about the transition into adulthood and the loss of innocence. The poem shows how Heaney looked up to his father and grandfather, especially their hard work. Even though Heaney did not follow in their footsteps and become a farm laborer, he respects the work they do, especially their skill at digging.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow?, leads me to believe that Big