From William Cullen Bryant:
“He chose / A bride among their maidens. And at length / Seemed to forget, − yet ne’er forgot, −the wife / Of his first love, and her sweet little ones / Butchered, amid their shrieks, with all his race. (Page 497)
I found this description of the interaction between Natives and Europeans interesting. It can be flipped, but instead of the Natives taking a bride, they take up Christianity or other western customs, yet never forgetting what they are losing.
“There is a Power whose care / Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, − / The desert and illimitable air, − / Lone wandering, but not lost.
I wonder if the “Power” Bryant speaks of is nature itself or a divine being over man and nature.
From Henry Wadsworth …show more content…
He discusses this in “My Lost Youth”, but the passage above is striking because it represents a lost identity. As the slave remembers his former existence, he is freed from the bondage of his current circumstance.
“I remember the gleams and glooms that dart / Across the schoolboy’s brain; / The song and the silence in the heart, / That in part are prophecies, and in part / Are longings wild and vain.” (Page 664)
I enjoyed Longfellow’s exploration of childhood in its joys and troubles. In a youthful mind, there are few limitations but as Longfellow goes on to say, this unfortunately changes over time.
Possible Paper Topic: The quote I chose from Longfellow’s “A Slave’s Dream” intrigued me and led me to a possible topic on the continued discussion of slavery and abolitionism in American literature. I will discuss, how evidenced by Longfellow’s poem, the sentiment by this time has grown more progressive and cognizant of slavery’s power to erase one important history and erect
“He chose / A bride among their maidens. And at length / Seemed to forget, − yet ne’er forgot, −the wife / Of his first love, and her sweet little ones / Butchered, amid their shrieks, with all his race. (Page 497)
I found this description of the interaction between Natives and Europeans interesting. It can be flipped, but instead of the Natives taking a bride, they take up Christianity or other western customs, yet never forgetting what they are losing.
“There is a Power whose care / Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, − / The desert and illimitable air, − / Lone wandering, but not lost.
I wonder if the “Power” Bryant speaks of is nature itself or a divine being over man and nature.
From Henry Wadsworth …show more content…
He discusses this in “My Lost Youth”, but the passage above is striking because it represents a lost identity. As the slave remembers his former existence, he is freed from the bondage of his current circumstance.
“I remember the gleams and glooms that dart / Across the schoolboy’s brain; / The song and the silence in the heart, / That in part are prophecies, and in part / Are longings wild and vain.” (Page 664)
I enjoyed Longfellow’s exploration of childhood in its joys and troubles. In a youthful mind, there are few limitations but as Longfellow goes on to say, this unfortunately changes over time.
Possible Paper Topic: The quote I chose from Longfellow’s “A Slave’s Dream” intrigued me and led me to a possible topic on the continued discussion of slavery and abolitionism in American literature. I will discuss, how evidenced by Longfellow’s poem, the sentiment by this time has grown more progressive and cognizant of slavery’s power to erase one important history and erect