The Harvest Moon Analysis

The three poems I chose for this week’s discussion are “Thanatopsis”, “The death of Lincoln” and “The Harvest Moon”. From my readings I discovered that Bryant, the author of the initial two poems selected for the discussion was an exceptionally bright child, who was familiar with the alphabet by the “tender age” of 16 months. I believe that his early works give evidence to the certainty that he was a child prodigy. Bryant, as explained in the lesson material used English forms in his poems as did Longfellow. Which also refers to the fact that both poets imitated English poets’, subjects and forms. As I found out based on my research on Bryant, he did not look back at his childhood as a happy time given the rigidity of chores around the farm …show more content…
I believe that his fascination with England was based on a three year stay in the Old Country. As Longfellow traveled Europe he came under the spell of a German romantic poet, Novalis. Since Longfellow lost his wife during his European tour, the newly discovered poet’s works hit a cord with the grief-stricken poet. Although influenced by English and European Poets, including Goethe, Longfellow stays true to the American form. And this form can be seen in his poem “The Harvest Moon”, which may sound transcendentalist because of its subject, which is his love of nature. The poem describes the changing of the seasons, with autumn coms harvest. Both Longfellow and Bryant lived and worked in New England and Longfellow in his poem describes what he perceives around him at the time of the harvest. Following European poetic style, as this poem is written in Iambic, employing unstressed and stressed syllables, but American in nature as it describes a scenario close the American readers’ experiences and understandings. As well as the author’s feelings’ every time he sees the “Harvest