South Winds Jostle Them

I read the poem "South Winds Jostle Them" by Emily Dickinson. This poem is about flowers even though Dickinson never directly tell you that. She never once mentions a a flower or even a specific type of flower. But, the whole point of the poem, I believe, is to show the significance of a flower that most people ordinarily may over look. As the wind blows they "jostle" in the wind. The sweet smell attracts the bees. This is crucial because it keeps the flowers alive. You may not think of the wind as something that is important or completely necessary in life, but it is to the flower. The wind is life to this part of nature. It moves around the pollen to have new flowers grow.

Then there is the importance of not only the bumble bee but other insects as well. They smell the sweet nectar of the flower and hesitantly go in to feast. This also continues the life cycle of the flower as well as the wind. The little things that most people over look continues the life of something so beautiful that we could not imagine living with out. Of course, everyone would be fine with out some of those unattractive, stinging bugs and maybe not having wind bursts would make that much of a difference in someone's life. We most likely go outside and pay no attention to the swaying air moving the world around in a swirl. But to the flower this is everything.

Dickinson wrote about many things people over look. She does this a lot in her nature poems and this is a good example of that. How many people notice the wind blow or the bees buzzing by the flowers? Well, Emily sure did. I believe in this poem the little actions of nature represent life and death. "Dickinson is often characterized as a poet in love with death. Death is one of her most prevalent themes." (Priddy) She does not go right out and speak of life and death in this poem but I think it is definitely symbolized throughout it. It was a very common theme in a lot of her poems so I am not surprised if this is what she was thinking of when writing this poem.

For the most part this poem represents life. The flowers life and what it does to stay alive in the world. But the last couple lines I believe represent death. "I softly plucking, Present them here!" (Dickinson) After the struggle the flower may go through to keep itself going and reproduce it is plucked and it is all over. What the flower lived for is now over. It cannot spread itself. It can not make new flowers. It is dead. The speaker is thrilled about the flower and that they have collected it. But, even though the speaker seems joyful there is kind of a depressing mood hid within the lines. It is sad to know the flowers journey is over.

Priddy, Anna. "How to Write about Emily Dickinson." Bloom's How to Write about Emily Dickinson. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson's poems can be translated to mean many different things. The meaning of the poems can change from person to person, depending on their past experiences or the way they see life. Based on how I view life I may have responded to the poem differently than someone else. Dickinson made her poems this way on purpose. She let the reader hold the true meaning. The poem was a basic guideline to the readers thoughts on the poem. She left them the responsibility of figuring out what she really meant. Her word choice had a lot to do with this.

Growing up in a religious family I saw this poem in a religious point of view. The dying speaker of this poem says, "Between the light and me; And the windows failed," (Dickinson) I think the window symbolized the stage between life and death. The light is heaven and she is striving to get there. But she had to go through the "window" to get there and she could not get through. But, the way Dickinson wrote this could be taken a different way. The light could just be the light from the sun and the window could be her eyes seeing the light. The last line says she could not see anymore which makes me thing the window symbolizes her eyes instead of the window to heaven.

The description of the speaker on their death bed is so real in my head. I can see the dying person around gasping for air. The breaths begin coming slowly like they are heaves between a storm. (Dickinson) The air around them is still and the people are silent as the person is slowly falling into death. She creates a very specific mood in the first stanza. Not all people could completely understand the feeling of witnessing someone die. So she describes the scene well and creates and image and mood to go off for the rest of the poem.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Bartleby.com. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Emily Dickinson's Writing Style

Emily Dickinson, along with Walt Whitman, does not fall into a specific literary period. They are called Tweeners because their styles consisit of writing styles from both the Realism and Moderinsim period. (Totally off topic, but I like how it is DickinSON and whitMan, just two kind of guys. Okay now back to the blog.) She is a very unique writer and tried to keep her poems in a very simple format. She uses puncuation a lot in her poems to let out a certain emotion through the writing. Her poems are very emotional and personal. In the poems you could figure out a lot about Emily's life and how she felt.
Dickinson's poems were full of detail. She really appreciates that she is alive. The life that she is in may not be perfect but, the fact that she has it is the most important thing. She tends to look at little things in life that most people may over look and she really examines and appreciates them. Such as things in nature. Dickinson believes that nature is a source of beauty and joy. But, there could be a negative side of nature as well. She connects nature with death and makes it seem like a dark, dangerous thing. She writes about death, life and immorality and connects these ideas through nature.(McChesney) But, the natural things are not always so serious. She does gain happiness from the nature around her.
But her poems were not always dark like this. Actually, she tended to write about the light fluffy things in life. She incorporated love and religion in her writings. This makes sense because Emily was raised up as a very religious child. She often refers to her poems as if she was a child again and this is where the religion come into play. But as she grew older she started to question her religion a bit. She believed in individual faith over all. What you do privately is more important than what comes out in front of others. As long as you know you are a good, faithful person than God will be happy with you. It matters that you're soul is clean. So she does question the common religious person. Personal faith is more important than showing it off to the world.

McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In
Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea
House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Walt Whitman's Writing Style

What kind of writer was Walt Whitman? This is a bit of a difficult question to answer. There is not an exact definition of what style he really focused on. He didn't fall into a specific writing period. Therefore, you cannot go by the basic characteristics of any one period. Whitman was described as an individual and definitely broke away from "typical poetry" that had come before his time. But, even though he did have his own ideas he did admit to being somewhat inspired by Emerson's writings. This can be found throughout his poems. But, he did not copy all his ideas completely. "Emerson thought Whitman was often too vulgar. Whitman embraced certain aspects of transcendentalism and rejected others. The transcendental can often be found in Whitman's poetry when he is dealing with the concepts of death and time." (Casale) But, overall transcendentalism was a part of Whitman;s ideas. Anyways, back to speaking of death, Whitman thought very deeply into it. He begins to think of strange ideas, such a immorality. He believed you could study life and death through nature. This reminds me as Emerson as well and the romanticism literary period.

As seen in many of Whitman's poems he believes the body is "healthy, holy, and something to be proud of" (Casale) Whitman states in his poem part of his poem Leaves of Grass, "I celebrate myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." (Whitman) Everyone is technically the same through there body. Therefore, everyone should be treated as equals since everybody was given this body to live in. He uses the body to show a sense of unity through the whole human race. Having a body to live in is the one thing that everyone has in common and can relate to. Everyone is made up of the same things such as he says atoms. One persons' atoms are not different than any other so why should anyone be treated as more significant? You should respect others and understand their opinions because it means as much to them as it would to you. He believed in respecting others and everyone is equal despite there gender, race, or class. America was founded upon this idea. It states this right in the Declaration of Independence, so Whitman thinks that is the way the country should run still. Therefore, during the Civil War, Whitman really supported the Union. He did not believe in slavery and felt it was wrong. He felt very inspired by the patriotism that was going around during the time during the war. This helped inspire many of his poems about war, such as, O Captain! My Captain! Which spoke about a group of soldiers coming home after a long, hard battle. He discussed how proud the men were for making it home but, they were upset for losing their captain along the rough journey. "O CAPTAIN! my captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;" (Whitman) These men were also very patriotic and against slavery.

Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!" Internal.org. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Casale, Frank D. "How to Write about Walt Whitman." Bloom's How to Write about Walt Whitman. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Whitman, Walt. "Leaves of Grass." Bartleby.com. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.

Walt Whitman

I read the Walt Whitman poem "O Captain! My captain!" This poem was about a group of soldiers finally making their way back home after a long struggle in war. They are so relieved to be home but it is also a sad moment. During the war, or the journey home, the captain of these soldiers has died. The man telling the story is speaking about how the struggle is over and how happy he is but he keeps bringing up the dead captain. He wishes the captain could be there withi him to experience the homecoming. "O CAPTAIN! my Captain, our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won." (Whitman) The man still talks to the captain as if he is still there with him. He wishes the captain could experience this moment with him. I believe that Thoreau could somewhat be like the soldier telling this poem. Thoreau believe standing up for what you believe in is very important in life. You can tell he believes in this idea in his story "Civil Disobedience." In Civil Disobedience Thoreau disagrees with the United States government and decides to just not listen to what the government had to say. He believed the government was wrong so Thoreau intended to do what he believed is right. But, he did have punishment for doing this. He was sent to jail because he stood up for what he believed in. This is like the captain in this poem. He stood up for what he believed in and fought for his country in the war. He believed this is what was right and as you can see he had a punishment as well. His punishment is worse than Thoreau's was though. Instead of being sent to jail the captain was killed for what he thought was right. Thoreau would think that is a shame that people have to die when they stand up for what they believe in.

Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!" Internal.org. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Emily Dickinson

I read the poem "God Gave a Loaf" by Emily Dickinson. In this poem she speaks how she is hungry and getting a crumb from God is a real treat but she does not want to eat it, even though she is starving. Instead, she saves it because she is happy that she has this crumb of bread. But, in a way she is not happy at all with this small crumb because even the birds get a full loaf and leave her with less. It is not fair that others get more than she does especially birds because they are more insignificant than people. The rich get more as well and she does not understand why. According to the literary criticism by Leiter, Dickson was not going starving in the time she wrote this poem. "She had material comfort, family, and friendships; by the time she wrote this poem she knew she possessed great poetic talent. Perhaps she felt deprived of physical beauty, of a requited love, of literary recognition, or of a soothing and certain Christian faith." (Leiter) In this poem the bread represents something more. I believe it represent happiness that Dickinson lacks. But, how could she be unhappy? According to Leiter she has family, material things, and real talent. If Thoreau were to read this poem he would know exactly why Dickinson was unhappy because of his idea of materialism. Thoreau believes that money cannot buy happiness. In this case talent and material things cannot make Dickinson happy. In Thoreau's "Walden" he ditches his life he has to live a simpler life in the wilderness. He leaves his material goods to live with the things he absolutely needs and he was perfectly happy. Thoreau was happy with the simple things, alone in the woods, without the luxuries of city life. If Dickinson had this some attitude she would not be upset with life. She believes she does not have a lot and other people have lives so much better than her. In reality Dickinson has a lot more than a lot of people do and she does not see all the good in her life and it is quite a shame.

Dickinson, Emliy. "God Gave a Loaf." Mith. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Leiter, Sharon. "'God gave a Loaf to every Bird—'." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

To Build a Fire

This story by Jack London is about a man on an extraordinary journy through the Yukon, which is a river that streams in parts of Alaska and Canada. Needless to say the wheather was extremely cold. He slowly made his way through the bitter cold in the dark because he was going through days without sunlight. This would have made it even colder. The wheather kept dropping, from negative fifty and kept a steady trail downwards making the conditions colder and colder. The wheather was pretty extreme and throught out the story London made the reader wish the traveler would just stop and turn back around. You feared for the traveler but he had his mind set to continue on his journey and get back with the other men. He had a strong mindset and was a strong man all together for trying something like this. This can be compared to Emerson's self reliance. According to Emerson, "By tapping into his or her inner strength, the individual becomes powerful." (Brugman) I believe this is exactly what the man in the story is. He believed in himself and never once doubted the wheather. He never thought of what bad might come, " Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed
him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all." (London) I think with this attitude it made the man a strong indiviual just like Emerson. When Emerson had a challenge he would not back down from it and he set his whole self into the idea. Of course, this writing can also be compared to Thoreau's Walden. Both stories take place in nature and speak of nature. Nature is something that cannot be controlled and is stronger than all man kind. Nobody can change the natural things that happens in this world, not even the strongest of the people. I think Thoreau believes with this idea because nature is such a strong part of life and affects so many people and how they act that is basically controls all. You may not realize it but nature does have a big impact in everyone's life.


London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." The World of Jack London. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.
Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.
Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts
On File, Inc.

The Darling

This story by Anton Chekov is about a woman named Olga. This story just tells about the constant loss and disappointed that Olga goes through throughout her life. It really is quite depressing. But, then again, most of the stories we have been reading lately are pretty sad. Anyways, in the beginning Olga has to deal with the death of her father. She did not take the loss very well and lost a little bit of herself with her dad in his death. She was very attached to her father and we begin to learn in the story that she has a problem with attaching herself to other people, or men I should say. She goes on to marry a man who then also dies. Again, she losses some of herself with the death of the man she loved. This process again repeats herself. She put herself into other people too much. She depended on others to be happy and could not keep herself happy through other things. It seemed she had no self confidence or self respect. She had a sad life always having to depend on these different men to make her happy. She loses herself and is no longer an individual or have her own life. Her life is based on her happiness which comes from the men in her life. "In "Self-Reliance" Emerson urges every person "to believe your own thought," rather than be bound by the ideas of others." (Wayne) Olga goes against Emerson's idea of individualism because she does not believe in herself. She lets others control her life. As an individual she must see herself as worthless and her life as nothing important. She cannot stand to live without someone there to make her happy. No matter what she can not think of a way to make herself happy on her own.

Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.
Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Self-Reliance'." In Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Richard Corey

This story is quite disturbing I must say. It spoke about a man named Richard Corey. This man was very much liked around the town that he lived in. He seemed friendly to all and he had a certain "glow" to him that made people attracted to him. He was rich, "And he was rich—yes, richer than a king," (Robinson) Although he was rich it did not seem that people envied his wealth. They seemed to think of him as a normal, nice person. He was just like all the others, only better. But, people did not see through his mask that he really was an unhappy person. One day he shot himself. I bet nobody saw that coming because he seemed like such a perfectly happy and rich person. But, even if people are rich and can by whatever they please that does not necessarily mean that they are happy people. This happens to be the case with Richard Corey. Thoreau would agree with this idea of materialism. Thoreau ditched his life in his writing "Walden" to live a simple life with only what is necessary to live. He did not believe you needed all the extra luxuries to live or even to be happy. He was against the idea of spending money on huge extravagant things. He though of it as a waste and could not bring true happiness. "Thoreau wanted to get back to the basics and live in the simplest manner possible so as not only to remove himself from those negative values he associated with a capitalist economy" (Wayne) By this quote it seemed that he put a sort of negative thought with the economy and spending money on such expensive things. So wrapping up this idea I believe Thoreau would be a man that would not be surprised by Richard Corey's suicide. Like some people may say, "Money cannot buy happiness." This is obviously the case in this poem. I do believe that Thoreau would agree with that phrase because in Walden when her abandoned society and lived on his own without luxuries he was not terribly sad.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. "Richard Corey." Bartleby.com. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.
Wayne, Tiffany K. "Walden." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Spoon River Anthology

Each poem in this book is told by the point of view of a different dead person. Each poem goes to say what kind of person they were and how they lived and died. I read the poem on a man named, Dorcas Gustine. This man seems like he might have been an outsider or a weird one in the town that he lived in. His poem starts off right away with this, "I was not beloved of the villagers, But all because I spoke my mind," (Masters) You can tell that the people there must have found it inappropriate to speak your mind and speak out for what you believe in. But Dorcas seemed to not care at all. He put it this way,

Who hid the wolf under his cloak,

Letting it devour him, uncomplainingly.

It is braver, I think, to snatch the wolf forth

And fight him openly, even in the street,

Amid dust and howls of pain.

I think with this he is trying to say that mostly all people keep their emotions and thought to themselves but, that is not a good thing because it is eating them up on the inside. He is trying to say that it is bad to hold things inside you because eventually it will devour you. But, instead, it is important to let the "wolf" or your thoughts out for all to hear. This is a way to not keep things bottled within and is better for the body and spirit to not have to be involved in horrible things alone. Dorcas has strong opinions and is not afraid to voice it to the people. Of course, this can be compared to Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau stands up for what he believes in, which just so happen to be that the government is awful. He does not change his opinion and keeps up his thoughts for so long that he gets sent to jail. This is like Dorcas. Although Dorcas did not end up in the same sort of trouble that Thoreau did he went through a different kind of struggle. Instead of jail he ended up with hatred from the people of his town. But he felt the punishment was worth it to express himself. In this way he relates a lot to Thoreau.

Masters, Edgar Lee. "Dorcas Gustine." Spoon River Anthology. Bartleby.com. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

I will Fight No More

This was a speech made by Chief Joseph. His tribe was forced to leave their home and move to a new land because of European settlers. So Chief Joseph's tribe, the Nez Perce, set on an expedition to Canada to get away from the Europeans. The whole way there the Nez Perce had to battle the American troops. The tribe ended up being trapped by the troops right outside the border of Canada. They got into a five day fight when finally Chief Joseph delivered this speech and surrendering to the American troops. His tribe was sick and freezing. All the old wise leaders had been killed and children were freezing to death. Chief Joseph was tired of fighting and seeing his people die. He told the people he was done with the fighting. "Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."(Joseph)

I believe that Chief Joseph reflects those same ideas as Emerson does. In Emerson's Self Reliance he states, "The individual is the supreme strength of group thinking, not the other way around."(Emerson) Chief Joseph uses his own knowledge in deciding that the war had to stop. He let it be known that he was against the fighting and he would not take it anymore. Later on Emerson goes and talks about peace and that peace will only come through self-reliance. The Native Americans want nothing more than just to have peace but they must first self-respect and self-satisfaction. I don't believe they have this because they are giving up they feel they are not worth it. I think because they gave up they will not see peace based on what Emerson is trying to say. In a way I think that this speech goes against both Emerson and Thoreau because both of these men have firm beliefs. When they set their minds to something they do not give up and will keep going until they get what they want. But, Chief Joseph, gives up and does not completely stand up for what he believes in like those men would.

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc

Chief Joseph. "I Will Fight No More." Surrender Speech of Chief Joseph. Web. 2 Mar. 2012.