a course in American literature 
Produced by: Mid-West Airborne Program  of Televised Instruction 
Presented by: Georgia State Dept.of Education 
 
 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION James So Peters, Chairman Robert Wright, Vice-Chairman 
Claude purcell, Secretary 
 
MEMBERS 
 
FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 0  0 .J. Brantley Johnson 
 
SECOND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. !  0  Robert Byrd Wright 
 
THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 0 
 
Thomas Nesbitt, Jr. 
 
. . . FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.   
 
 .Donald payton 
 
FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT    0-   0 .David F. Rice 
 
SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT   o     James S. Peters 
 
SEVENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT       .Henry Stewart 
 
. . . EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 
 
  .Lonnie E. Sweat 
 
NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT     Cliff Co Kimsey, Jr. 
 
TENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 0      .William Preston 
 
 FOREWORD 
This series of telecasts in American Literature, "Franklin to Frost" is being made available to the senior high schools of Georgia through the facilities of our statewide educational television network. The series was developed by Dr. Arthur Eastman, noted English teacher for the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction. The works of major authors of American Literature will be presented in a natural chronological order and developed with a critical literary analysis that 
emphasizes the ..f..o...r...m..... and content of each literary work  
All genres of literature will be represented in the series. Drama will be presented with actors and dramatic readers1 poetry will be presented with the printed card with the reader's voice over it1 prose will be presented with pictures or blackboard devices of diagrams, charts, and magnet cards. 
The series is structured so that teachers and students will gain knowledge, discipline, understanding, and pleasure from the study of literature. We are glad that we can make these interesting programs available to you and hope that many Georgia teachers and their students will be able to make use of this interesting and valuable study in American Literature by means of Georgia's Educational Television program. 
---CLAUDE PURCELL state Superintendent of Schools 
 
 PREFACE 
In the next few pages I want to tell you a little about this series of thirty-three telecasts on American Literature--about the problems we have faced in recording the telecasts and how we have tried to solve them. 
content, Arrangement, Emphasis 
Let me begin with the problem of content. I can define this problem best by appealing to your experience with the textbooks you use. The different texts vary in what they containo Some have Hemingway, some have not. Some have Faulkner, some have not. One text gives no poems by Bryant, another gives two, another gives four. One text gives no poems by Lindsay, another gives one, another gives four. So it goes. consider the situation with one major author, Hawthorne. The Harcourt olympic edition has two stories: "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "The Ambitious Guest." Holt has only one, and this a different onel "The Birthmark." Ginn, again, has two, but they are different yet: "The Minister's Black Veil" and "Feathertop." Scott, Foresman has only one, and this is a repeat: "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." That, in a nutshell, is the problem of content--the texts do not agree,* yet we are trying to teach a course to students who are using different texts. The solution? We shall come to that shortly, after considering the problems of arrangement and emphasiso 
As you know from the texts you have examined, three principles of arrangement have been followed by the publishers. Sometimes a book is organized according to one principle alone, sometimes according to various combinations or compromises between two or three. One principle is the survey principle. The text arranges its materials chronologically, including representatives from each period of American literature, sampling both major authors and minor. A second principle is the types principle. The text arranges its materials according to the standard headings: poetry, narrative prose, drama, etc. And a third principle is that of national history. The 
* For further evidence on this point, see the Appendix, An Index of Major Author Selections in High School Textbooks. 
 
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2 
text arranges its materials to illustrate the growth of this nationr usually according to such headings as these, used by Scott, Foresman: 
Spanning the Continent Rights and Duties Building the Nation Work and play Love and Faith. 
Or these, used by Harcourt: 
The Colonial Time The Making of a Nation The Flowering of the East New England's Golden Day Growth and Conflict. 
These principles of arrangement also involve principles of emphasiso The survey puts its emphasis on representativenessT the types approach on the distinguishing characteristics of the various kinds of literature, the national historical approach on history. And it seems to me that there is a good bit wrong with the three principles and their corresponding emphasis. 
The survey principle leads to attention to what is relatively uniroportant--one poem by Bryant, one poem by Holmes. It confuses values so that Hawthorne and Melville receive no greater share of the students' attention than Longfellow or Bill Mauldin. It gives the students a collection of snippets and patches so great that they cannot hold on, they cannot retain, what they have met. Everything becames r or threatens to became, a vast gray continuum without distinction, without precision, without great value. 
The types approach has its merits, of course, but it leads to attention to what is secondary in a course in American Literature--an emphasis on generic differences, a concern with discriminations in form that might as well not be attached to the study of American lettGrs. 
 
 3 
And the national historical approach almost invariably makes literature not the leader, but the follower. Selections are picked to prove a point and if the major authors fail to do it, then secondary figures are called upon. It is not necessary to name authors and works here, I appeal to your experience--if the concern with history does not mean a down-playing of real literary merit in the interest of watered-down history. 
Given the inescapable problem of content, then, and given the limitations of the principles of arrangement and emphasis I have mentioned, what to do? Our solution, for better or worse, has been thisz to select only major works of major authors for presentation, to arrange these in roughly chronological order since that seemed most natural, and to make the emphasis critical--to try, that is, to get inside each work and discover as much as reasonably possible of its form and its content. Hence, the table of contents for this course works out as on P.10 of this manual--with an occasional interruption at what seem useful points to discuss the special problems of the different genres or types. 
Time and Feedback 
Now, very quickly, let us come to the two special problems of time and feedback. By the first I mean the fact that there is less than thirty minutes for each telecast. By the second I mean the fact that there are no students in front of me, looking bored perhaps, or puzzled, or raising their hands to ask for clarification. 
Our solutions have been several. We have tried for clear and tight organization of the sessions--often with an introductory outline to show the student where he is going and often, at the end of the session, with a repeat of the outline to show him where he has been. 
We have tried to meet these problems also by using a reasonably consistent approach to the different works we study. And I hope that if you and your students find me puzzling or difficult or too fast or off-beat or whatever at first, you will get used to me. I hope you will come to recognize the angles and characteristics of my thought--and so find relatively clear what first might not have seemed that wayo 
 
 4 
We have tried to meet these problems by calling on all the experience we have had in lecture and recitation courses. I have had invaluable assistance here from Mrs. Lorraine Alkon, who has made a thousand helpful suggestions about illustrations that might make a point come home to a student or about using a simpler diction so that he is not snowed under. 
Finally, Mrs. Alkon and I have tried to meet these problems by providing you with this manual, a resource publication that is comprehensive, detailed, and accurate, telecast by telecasto It follows the individual sessions closely. It presents the works we discuSS7 it outlines the discussion, it develops each of the principal points in detail, it defines the critical terms. 
The Medium 
Now, to the problems that arise from the use of television. The medium seems so wonderful, at first, until one puts it to use for teaching literature. Television is fine for such things as deaonstrations in chemistry or physics. It is great for anything visual-since it is a visual medium. But literature is essentially a non-visual art. It appeals primarily to the mind's eye, not the body's, to the imagination, not the senses. 
Television is excellent when we are dealing with the drama, for drama is a visual and auditory art. And you will see that we use actors or dramatic readers when we come to O'Neill and Miller~ 
But what are we to do with poetry? Should we have pictures of birch trees for Frost's "Birches"? Or of lilac bushes for Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed'? The answer is clearly no. What we have done instead is try to reproduce on the screen what you have all the time in the classroom--the open page with the student reading silently as someone else reads aloud. We put the poem on a card (usually we cannot work directly from the page of the book because it spreads out too much) and we have the camera scan it while the student hears a reader's voice. This method permits a return to the beginning of a passage, after a first reading, to call attention to words, images, and ideas that may give the student trouble. 
 
 5 
 
For prose we can sometimes use illustration, when the illustration does not interfere--but this is not ve~often. In Session 8, however, we use pictures of the fireside circle, the guest, the guest talking, the father talking, the children's faces, the guest and daughter in communion, the old grandma, the group rising in alarm, the avalanche. We use these only because Hawthorne's technique permits them. Hawthorne presents his story in sharp scenes or picturesj and the pictures are, as he presents them, essentially clich6s. In illustrating his story, therefore, we do not feel that we are betraying himj we are reinforcing the cliches, and that permits us to go on and ask what lies beneath their stereotyped surfaces. 
Usually we cannot use pictures, but we can use charts, diagrams, and magnet cards by way of visual reinforcement. In Session 23, for example, a blackboard circle suggests the structure of The ~Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the idea being that Huck's journey down the Mississippi from st. Petersburg to Pikesville lands him, at the end, in a place much like the place from which he started. And on the circle three different kinds of magnet cards represent the three principal kinds of substance we find in the novel: adventure and violence, natural beauty and joy, humor and satire. In Session 23 magnet cards are used to set up a visual comparison between Huck's character and Tom Sawyer's: 
 
TOO 
 
HOCK 
 
CIVILIZATION ACTIVITY MAKE-BELIEVE APPEARANCE 
 
N~U~ 
PASSIVITY BELIEVE WORKING 
 
In short, we use these devices the way you use the blackboard and for the same ends. 
Our solutions, then, to the problems of the'medium are these: for drama, actors and dramatic readersj for poetry, the printed card with the reader's voice over it; for prose, occasionally pictures, but more often the blackboard devices of diagrams, charts, and magnet cards. 
 
 6 
'rhe Student, ~" and .! 
The student will have some problems with these telecasts. At first they may seem to him to be pitched rather high. 'rhey will make him reach. We think that will be good for him. The greatest incentive to learning is discovery. To discover meaning where one saw none before, to find pattern emerging from apparent chaos, to find relevant to one's own life works that seemed in no way relevant before--these things produce pleasure, produce satisfaction, produce the desire for more o Most young people like to work if the work pays off, 1 it gets them somewhere, if it leads to discovery. 
We have aimed high because it seems to us good teaching. And we think the students, most of them, after initial bafflement and discomfort will begin to get the idea and join in. 
Should the student take notes? That is as you decide. But much of the time he might gain more if he foregoes the notes and listens. You will have full outlines and discussions in this manual. You will be able to handle the questions that arise from some momentary obscurity in the presentation. And you will be able to determine, in advance, whether for any particular telecast note-taking is a good procedure. 
What should the student seek? He should seek: 
Knowledge (of the parts of each work and the whole, of the works of each author, of the works of all the authors). 
Discipline (of mind, of critical or interpretive thinking--the discipline that is signalized by knowing the technical terms of literature and that reveals itself in the ability to use those terms discriminately and wisely). 
Understanding (of the relations of the parts of works to their wholes--as of an incident in a plot, a metaphor in a poem, an irony in a style, etc.--and of the relation of one's life to the works and the works to one's life). 
 
 7 
Pleasure. If the study of literature does not issue in delight, then all is lost--we have perverted our material and we have perverted the student. I list pleasure last, but it comes early, often first, and the student should find it and respond to it. If he does, the rest will follow. 
How should the student be tested? It seems clear to me that he should not be tested on his capacity to remember what I say. That w:> uld test his memory only. BUt if we succeed in these sessions, then we will have been developing a lot more than memory. We will have been helping him develop new powers. And perhaps the best test would be to see how he can handle what we have not dealt with, how he can handle new things. Can he read a story by Hawthorne or Poe or Hemingway that we have not discussed and arrive at thoughtful and useful interpretation? Can he tackle a new poem and discover its form, its use of metaphor, its coherence of idea and image and allusion? 
I turn from the problems of and about the student to problems of and about me. 
About my face and voice I shall not speak since there is not much that can be done about them. About my manner though, I should say this. As I review these telecasts, it seems to me that I am too intense. I do not smile enough. I keep pitching away in grim earnest. I do not think this is good; but something about the camera staring at me, something about the pressure of time, and something aboQt the importance of what we are trying to do, grips me, and I am too intense. 
I talk reasonably clearly, and if I use words out of the student's reach, I try to follow them with synonyms or explanations so that he can follow what I am saying. But often enough I stumble and muff and mix words up--or worse, I simply say the wrong word and do not discover it until it is too late. I caught myself in Session 1 speaking of Edward Arlington Robinson instead of Edwin. I found myself speaking of Arthur Miller's being married to Marilyn Monroe when I had meant to say that he ~ married to her. For mistakes such as these I have no ultimate excuse except 
 
 '~.- :,; 
8 
the limitations of time and my own manifest fallibility. My consolation is that you are there, to straighten things out o 
And this leads, finally~ to you. You are the teacher. These sessions are simply an adjunct to your course--like another book in tre library. This medium of television iS t after alit only another form of publishing. It is a kind of type and I am merely an author, one of thousands available to you. I hope you can use these telecasts. But if you cannot, or if you find them dull--itseems to me you ought to turn them off. 
I am dead serious about this. The worst thing that could happen to you as teachers is for me to come into your 'classroom as a kind of outside authority and take over. You are the authorities. I, in the eighteenth century phrase, am your humble servant. That is the way it should be. 
If you can use met then you will find this manual helpful. And you will find that in the other days of the week there is still a Lord's plenty to do that will tie in with these sessions. Some of these things we have suggested in the telecast descriptions under the heading, "Follow-UP"1 but there are two general ~ields of related activity for every telecast. One is simply the exploring of works I other than those we deal with, by the' same authors. We do not take up "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," for example , but you might well. We do not take up Hemingway's "In Another Country"r you might well. J: discuss certain poems by Dickinson and Frost, but your texts have other poems worth exploration. 
That is one kind of related activity--further reading in the same authors. The other kind of related activity involves discussions, debates, papers on the works these sessions do take up--either before or after the telecasts. Work in advance will prepare the students for critical response. Work afterward will help them digest what they have heard, help them assess it, agree or disagree with it, etc. 
That a.bout does it. We hope you like what we 've done. We hope you can use it. It is now in your own, most competent hands. 
Arthur Mo Eastman 
 
 9 
Dr. Eastman received a B.A. from Oberlin College, and M.Ao and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has fourteen years teaching experience at the college level. In addition to teaching composition at all levels, he has taught American Literature, Masterpieces of Literature, 18th Century Literature, Shakespeare, and Modern Drama. Dr. Eastman has published many articles in professional journals and is a recipient of the University of Michigan Summer Faculty Research Fellowship; the University of Michigan Award for excellence in Teaching; and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. In the past, Dr o Eastman has done a series of ten one-half hour television programs entitled "Legacy," a series of one-half hour television programs entitled "The plays ')f Shakespeare,lt and some 15 or 20 interview broadcasts. 
 
 10 
 
FRANKLIN TO FROST 
 
Introduction Session 1. A sampling Session 2. Selection, Order, Emphasis 
 
Chapter I. Benjamin Franklin Session 3. The Forming of a Style Session 4. Poor Richard and the Maxim: wit 
 
The Style of 
 
Chapter II. Narrative Fiction Session 5. Divide and Conquer: The Meaning of Analysis Session 6. The story as Art: The Thing Made Session 7. Repetition and Contrast 
 
Chapter III. Nathaniel Hawthorne Session 8. "The Ambitious Guest" Session 9. The World of The Scarlet Letter and its structure 
 
Chapter IV. Edgar Allan Poe Session 100 Assessment 
 
Chapter Vo Poetry Session 11. Rhyme Session 12. Rhythm Session 13 0 Diction Session 14. Imagery 
 
Chapter VI. Ralph Waldo Emerson Session 150 Introduction Session 16. Emerson's Critical Theory Session 17. "Self-Reliance": Emerson's Philosophy Session 18. Emerson's Disciple: Thoreau 
 
 11 
 
Chapter VII. walt ~litman Session 19. "Song of Myself": Part I 
 
Chapter VIII. Humor Session 20. Humor Session 21. Satire 
 
Chapter IX. Mark Twain Session 22. Frogs, Jays, and Humor Session 23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Structure, Substance, and Satire 
 
Chapter Xo Emily Dickinson Session 24. A Sampling 
 
Chapter XI. Stephen Crane Session 25. The Red Badge of Courage: Session 26. The Red Badge of Courage: 
 
Part I Part II 
 
Chapter XII. Drama Session 27. The play Seen Session 28. The play Read 
 
Chapter XIllo Ernest Hemingway Session 29. Focus on Death Session 30. The Old Man and the Sea: 
 
Part I 
 
Chapter XIV. Robert Frost Session 31. A sampling Session 32. Simplicity and Complexity 
 
Conclusion Session 33. Retrospect 
 
 12 
 
f~~';,{; 
 
INTRODUCTION Session 1. A Sampling 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
This series of telecasts as a textbook. The title (Franklin to Frost) indicates that the arrangement is chronological. The Table of Contents indicates that the principle of selection is importance. 
 
A sampling of the authors. 
 
Franklin: 
 
Expository prose from the Autobiography: on Poor Richard's Almanack; on Franklin's improving his prose style; on his creation of a public image of himself as industrious and frugal; on his effort to achieve moral perfection. 
 
Maxims: from Poor Richard's Almanack. 
 
Poe: 
 
Fiction: from the conclusion of "The Black Cat ... 
 
Literary criticism: from "The Poetic Principle": on the false belief that "every poem should inculcate a moral"; on Poe's belief that a poem should be "written solely for the poem's sake." 
 
poetry: from "The Raven." 
 
Mark Twain: 
 
Maxims: from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendars. 
 
Fiction: from The Adventures Qi Huckleberry Finn (Ch. 19, Huck and Jim's discussion of the stars). 
Literary criticism: from Fenimore (boper's Literary Offenses. 
 
E.A. Robinson: 
 
Poetry: "Richard Cory." 
 
 13 
 
Arthur Miller: Robert Frost: 
 
Drama: from Death of ~ Salesman (Act I: Willie tells Linda about driving off the road). 
Poetry: "stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." 
 
FOLLOW-UP 
 
Prepare your own sampling or "preview" of a selection from American Literature to provoke the interest of the class (cf. the previews of "coming attractions" at the movie theater or of "next week's" TV program): by a dramatization or reading of a particularly vivid or exciting part; by a series of provocative questions about the selection, giving only enough answers to arouse the curiosity of the audience; by an imaginary interview with the author of the selection; by a discussion or debate on a controversial question dealt with in the selection. 
 
NOTE: 
 
Robert Frost died January 29, 1963, at the age of eighty-eight. Session One, "A Sampling," was produced in September of 1961 while Frost was still alive. 
 
Session 2. Selection, Order, Emphasis 
DISCUSSION 
Selection. only important authors have been selected, since it seems easier for the student to remember more, and more of what is first rate, when the study is thus limited. 
Arranqement. The arrangement is chronological. This is a natural order, the one in which the authors lived and wrote. 
The principles of importance and chronology will occasionally be violated in the interest of illumination. We shall calIon Jonathan Edward3' s sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," from the 17th century to help us understand the puritanism of Hawthorne writing in the 18th 
 
 r 
14 
century. We may calIon a minor poem by a minor poet, "The Long Hill" by Sara Teasdale, to help us see Emerson's "Days" more clearly. We may turn to the minor poets of the genteel tradition to see something of what Whitman was reacting against. 
The principles of importance and chronology will also be violated when it seems wise to specialize-to stop our study of individual authors and explore the basic principles underlying the various genres or kinds of writing--as in Ch. II, Narrative Fiction; Ch. V, Poetry: Ch. VIII, Humor and Satire; Ch. XIII, Drama. 
Emphasis and goal. The emphasis is critical. The goal is to develop a disciplined and pleasurable knowledge and understanding of a series of significant works by American authors, from Franklin to Frost. 
Knowledqe here means the intellectual seizing of the work in its parts and in its whole--i.e., hard, sharp, precise vision. (Application: knowing the words in Emerson I s "Days.") 
understanding here means intellectual and emotional awareness of the relation of part to whole, of cause to effect in the work; and it means awareness of the relation of the experience of the work to the reader's own experience. (Application: seeing the value and relationships of the images in "Days.") 
Discipline here means the careful development of the technical knowledge and skill necessary to read well; and this includes the special concepts and vocabulary of criticism, as of genre or type, rhythm and rhyme, etc. (Application: analyzing the stanza form of "Richard Cory.") 
pleasure here means many things which the student should explore for himself, among them the feelings of delight, satisfaction, and reward that come from the awareness of craftsmanship, from identification, recognition, and discovery. 
 
 15 
 
-mA eFaisnuarel 
 
-w-or-d -on- 
d by the 
 
-n-o-t-e-s. 
ability 
 
Student achievement to repeat the words 
 
cannot be of these 
 
telecasts. It can only be measured by the ability to 
 
apply these ideas to works not discussed in the tele- 
 
casts or in class. Achievement will be shown not by 
 
memory, but by new power. To the extent that notes 
 
can lead to this new power, perhaps they should be 
 
taken. 
 
FOLLOW-UP 
 
Apply the concepts of knowledge, understanding, discipline, and pleasure to your favorite sport or hobby or to an exciting learning experience you have had. Show how knowledge, understanding, discipline, and pleasure may function in the development of a particular mental or physical skill. 
 
CHAPTER 1. FRANKLIN 
Session 3. The Forming of a Style 
WORKS 
Autobiography: (Passages on Franklin's developing his prose style; securing his credit and character as a tradesman; perfecting his moral nature; the story of the speckled ax). 
DISCUSSION 
The relation between manner and matter (style and content)  Are they separable or inseparable? Franklin believed they were separable and proceeded to improve his style by the following method: 
Step 1. Imitating the Spectator by making notes of the 
ideas in each sentence, expanding these notes into new 
 
 16 
sentences, and comparing them with the original--to learn to discriminate between words, appreciate their unique values, and use them precisely. (Spectator: a periodical, 1711-1714, by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, written in the style of genteel and rational conversation at its finest. Today's counterparts: punch, New Yorker.) 
Step ~. Changing the prose of the Spectator into verse and then back into prose--to develop and maintain a stock of words, an awareness of synonyms. 
step~. Jumbling the order of the notes (made in Step 1), and later reducing them to the best order--to teach method in the arrangement of thoughts. We illustrate this method by trying it out, using Franklin's own Autobiography as our standard of good writing. We take notes of Franklin's passage on securing his credit and character as a tradesman. We then expand the notes into sentences, and compare these with Franklin's sentences. 
principles. Franklin's method--the selection of a standard, the imitation of the standard, the comparison of the imitation with the original--assumes a conscious discipline in the practitioner of the method; and it assumes that choice exists, that the individual may select between various alternatives. 
Application. The method has a wide range of application, for it fits different kinds of activities. The student may use it to improve his athletic skill, his dancing ability, his prose style. Franklin used it to develop a prose that is simple, conversational, and clear. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Follow Franklin's three steps to improve your style, using a selection from Franklin's writing as your model or standard 
 
 17 
Session 4. Poor Richard and the Maxim: The Style of wit 
WORKS 
Poor Richard's Almanack: (maxims). "Speech in the Convention at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations" (September 17, 1787). 
"Success Is Counted Sweetest" by Emily Dickinson. 
DISCUSSION 
The maxim. Franklin's style combines clarity, ease, and simplicity--as we have seen--and wit. The wit can be seen most strikingly in his maxims--evaluative or critical expressions of general truths about human nature and conduct. The characteristics of the maxim are these: 
Brevity: "Haste makes waste." 
Rhyme and rhythm: "Cheese and salt meat should be sparingly eat." 
Contradiction--yoking or linking of opposites. An obvious contradiction: "Little strokes fell great oaks" (little and great linked). A less obvious one: "Fish and visitors stink in three days" (fish and visitors linked by stink, applied literally to fish, figuratively to visitors). An implied contradiction: "The cat in gloves catches no mice" (the cat in gloves implies its opposite, the cat without gloves) . 
Figurative language--saying one thing in terms of another through metaphor, simile, and symbol: "The sleeping fox catches no poultry" (a figurative way of saying that idle intelligence fails to solve problems or get results). 
How the characteristics of the maxim work. Brevity, rhythm, and rhyme help hold the maxim in mind. Rhyme and rhythm emphasize its points. Contradiction and figurative language may bring about surprise, recognition, reverberation, and pleasure. First there is surprise or momentary bewilderment-as at the unexpected yoking of ideas in "Nothing is certain 
 
 18 
but death and taxes." Then there is recognition or discovery of the meaning. Then reverberation or explosions of new surprise, new recognition, as the various implications progressively dawn: that governments have always taxed since the beginning of time; that men have always groaned about it; that never have they been able to escape the burden; that in the takeand-give relationship between governments and men there is something as remorseless and destructive as death itself. Finally, there is pleasure--the satisfaction at the neatness, naturalness, perfection, and much-inlittleness of the maxim. 
The significance of the maxim. Much of the wisdom of the human race is found compressed in the maxim compellingly, persuasively: "We must all hang together or we'll all hang separately." The characteristics and dynamics of the maxim underlie one important kind of poetry (the metaphysical, socalled). Emily Dickinson's "Success is Counted Sweetest" has brevity, rhythm, rhyme, and intense contradiction, to which the reader may react with surprise, recognition, reverberation, and pleasure. The same characteristics and dynamics underlie humor. In the joke, "Who was that lady I saw you with last night?" "That was no lady~ That was my wife~" we experience not only surprise but recognition and reverberation as the implications of the husband-wife relationship flood in. And the same characteristics and dynamics inform Franklin's style, giving it, in addition to its clarity, ease, and simplicity, a recurrent trenchancy, irony, humor, as in his "Speech in the Convention at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations." 
FOLLOW-UP 
Write some maxims of your own. Or rewrite some of Franklin's maxims, experimenting with changes in rhythm, rhyme, contradictions, and figurative language, and then compare your version to Franklin's. 
 
 19 
CHAPTER I [ NARRATIVE FICTION 
Session 5. Divide and Conquor: The Meaning of Analysis 
WORKS 
liThe Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet 
DISCUSSION 
Analysis. In order to master narrative fiction, we may analyze it--"divide and conquer." After discussing the traditional analytical categories for narrative fiction (setting, mood, plot, character, and theme), as seen in Benet's liThe Devil and Daniel Webster," we will combine our observations for a new vision or synthesis of the story's meaning--as follows: 
Settinq--in place and time. 
The place, a New Hampshire farm. This characterizes Jabez Stone in his rocky stubbornness, his refusal to go back on his word; it brings Daniel Webster into the story, since New Hampshire is his home state; it makes it natural for Jabez Stone to ask his help; it explains the narrator's tone or attitude since he is a New Hampshireman bragging about the greatest achievement of his state's greatest son. 
The time, in one sense, is long ago. This distance in time makes possible the heroic and legendary quality of character and plot. The time, more specifically, is the nineteenth century, the period when the question of extension of slavery threatened the Union and when Webster championed the forces of union. 
Mood and tone. Since the~e terms are often used interchangeably, it may be wise to distinguish between them. Mood is the emotional quality inherent in the work itself. Tone is the emotional quality in the narrator or in the attitude he takes to his material. In line with this distinction, we shall be concerned only with tone in Benet's story: 
 
 20 
What the tone is not; Matter-of-fact, dry, biographical; or, hostile and derisive. 
What the tone is: admiring, reverential, and humorous, as in the passage on Daniel Webster's farm at Marshfield or the hyperbolic descriptions of the drumsticks and of Stone's bad luck. The reverential or admiring tone defines Webster and his importance in the story. The humorous tone shows the narrator's affection for Daniel Webster and acts as a tonal foreshadowing of the victory of Webster and his principles. 
Plot is story seen casually; it is structured story. A story has its sequence of events connected by time, each event implicitly linked to the next by and then. Jabez Stone had hard luck, and then he met the devil, and then he regretted it, and then .. etc. A story ~ casually has its sequence of events connected by causation, each event implicitly linked to the next by because. Because Jabez Stone had hard luck, he said he would sell his soul, and because he said this, the Devil appeared, and because . etc. A structured story has its events given form or structure by the: 
Inciting incident: the event which destroys the preceding balance or equilibrium--Stone's bargain with the Devil. 
Risinq action: the complication or tension brought about by the inciting incident; the development and exploration of conflicting forces or alternative courses of action. 
Crisis: the turning point; the point at which one of the alternative forces or courses of action becomes dominant. When Webster realizes that the Devil has come for him, and that he must fight him, not with devilish hate but with human kindness, the crisis occurs. Trying to determine the crisis may help us come to terms with the whole meaning of a work. 
 
 21 
Falling action: the return to balance; the consequence of the crisis, one alternative winning out over the other. 
Denouement 2E resolution: the end of the conflict; resumption of balance or equilibrium. 
Character: An old distinction recognizes characters as flat or round on the basis of their relative complexity, vitality, and uniqueness. 
In life it is unwise to view people as flat or stereotyped characters. In literature it may be legitimate to view characters this way since flat characters often function as the human circumstances within which the rounded characters work out their meaning. Jabez stone (flat character) acts as a catalyst for the story of Daniel webster (round character) and his conflict with the Devil. 
We understand flat and round characters by what the author says about them, and by our own inferences from the characters' acts and words. If we regard each character's acts and words as constituting a choice between alternatives, we can examine the principal choices of the characters and discover what principles or values underly these choices. Jabez stone's principal choices were to sell his soul to the Devil, to ask for extension of his debt, to ask Webster to help him, and to beg Webster to leave so that the Devil would not be able to harm him. stone's first three choices were for self, or the forces of division. His fourth choice was selfless, or for the forces of union. 
Theme. The theme is the central idea or concern that gives the story unity (not a moral message or advice). We can determine the theme by pushing the analyses of the separate parts of the story to the point where they link with each other. 
The setting, in its political dimensions, opens up the concern with union and division. 
 
 22 
The tone expresses admiration for Webster as he overcomes the Devil or forces of division. 
The plot makes the great conflict between the forces of union, championed by Webster, and the forces of division, championed by the Devil, the crisis of the story. 
The characters choose either for self or the selfless, for union of all men or division. 
The theme, then, is the conflict between the forces of union and division (caught up in Jabez stone, the united states, and the totality of humanity) and the final triumph of the forces of union embodied in Daniel Webster. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Rewrite Benet's story using a completely different tone. Compare the effect of each story. 
Discuss the idea that a person's words and acts involve a choice between alternatives and imply certain values. Apply this idea to another character in literature or to one of your own experiences. 
Session 6. The story As Art: The Thing Made 
WORKS 
"The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet 
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber 
DISCUSSION 
perspective. Narrative fiction, though it imitates nature, is something made by man. From first to last a story involves the writer in choices between alternatives. Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" shows a series of particular or detailed choices relevant to this story alone, and in addition it opens up certain of the large, general choices all story writers must make. 
 
 23 
Particular Details. What do the details contribute to Thurber's story? 
The details in the opening passage (with Mitty as Commander of a Navy hydroplane) point up Mitty's pathetic inadequacy in his daydreams: his ignorance, his fuzzy assimilation of the cliches of pulp fiction, and his lack of any real understanding of the realms about which he dreams. Mitty is wearing on duty a full-dress uniform, which is worn only on ceremonial and state occasions in the Navy; his hydroplane is eight-engined, but Navy hydroplanes do not have and never have had eight engines. 
other details point to his inadequacy in his waking world and to the reason that he seeks escape in his daydreams. For example, Mitty's wife tells him what to do; the policeman and parking-lot attendant easily intimidate him. 
General problems. What general choices did Thurber make? 
The exposition. In giving the exposition (the background information necessary for understanding the story), one of the writer's problems is to maintain the reader's interest. Benet's solution in "The Devil and Daniel Webster" is to give the exposition in an engaging and humorous style before the plot begins. Thurber's solution in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is to give the exposition as the plot prggresses, the details permitting the reader to infer Mitty's relationship to his wife and to his world. The reader does not learn about Mitty's dream world but is thrust into it and is jolted back to reality as Mitty is so that Mitty comes through imIT'ediately, vividly, and sympathetically. 
Method of presentation. The writer may present his material panoramically (summarizing miles and years in a few sentences or paragraphs) or scenically (rendering particular moments or scenes sharply and dramatically) . Ben~t uses the scenic method in presenting Daniel Webster and Jabez Stone's main choices. Thurber uses the scenic 
 
 24 
method in presenting Mitty's daydreams and his working world. The scenic method used for both his worlds makes them equally vivid, shows that both matter. Apprehending the humdrum, ineffectual and embarrassed Mitty, we understand his flight into fantasy; apprehending his fantasies sharply, we see the quality of being he lacks but wishes he had. 
Kind of plot. The writer may present a single or unique incident in the life of his protagonist or an average or typical incident. Benet uses the unique plot: the battle Webster fought with the Devil occurs only once and makes things different for Webster, Stone, and even New Hampshire. Thurber uses the typical plot: Walter Mitty is denied any heroic dimensions that come from conquering or being defeated in some unique and meaningful conflict. His life does not change; it is static rather than dynamic. 
Point of view: The writer may present his material from different points of view: 
first person: the story told as if it were the personal experience of "I"--one of the characters in the story. The "I" or first person can tell you his thoughts and feelings but not the thoughts and feelings of others. E.g.: I sat down on the bench next to Mary and wondered if she were still angry. "Hello," I said, but I was afraid it was no use. 
third person limited: the story told as it happens to one given character referred to in the third person-the narrator may enter the mind of that character but not the mind of any other character. E.g.: Bill sat down on the bench next to Mary and wondered if she were still angry. "Hello," he said, but he was afraid it was no use. 
third person dramatic: the story told as it might be witnessed on a stage or in a movie--the narrator does not enter the mind of the characters but only gives the externals, the outside, of the characters. E.g.: Bill sat down on the bench next to Mary. They were silent a while. "Hello," he said. There was more silence. Then Mary said, "please go away." 
 
 25 
third person omniscient: the story told with complete freedom of perspective--the narrator may enter any or all the minds of the characters as well as provide information of which the characters themselves are ignorant. E.g.: Bill sat down on the bench next to Mary and wondered if she were still angry. "Hello," he said. But Mary, after a pause, could only say, "please go away." She could not forget what he had done to her. Neither of them remembered that it was on this very bench they had first met. 
Ben~t uses the third person omniscient point of view, with a narrator who stands above the story and can enter the minds of Jabez Stone and Daniel Webster. 
If Thurber had used the third person omniscient point of view, the reader would have entered Mrs. Mitty's mind as well as her husband's and the story would have had a split focus, diminishing or changing its emotional force. If Thurber had used the first person point of view, it might have made Mitty more intelligent, perceptive, and conscious of his two worlds (like Hamlet, the agonized prince) or more stupid selfish, or weak in his conscious entry into fantasy (like the plain fool or person of diseased mind) . 
What Thurber does use is the third person limited point of view. This gives enough distance to escape the immediacy of the first person point of view and enough focus to escape the detachment of the third person omniscient point of view. Mitty is shown as he really is, not knowing himself, not interpreted for us, half engaging our sympathy as well as our laughter. 
(The discussion of point of view is indebted to Richard M. Eastman, A Guide for the Analysis of Fiction, North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, 195~) 
FOLLOW-UP 
Using a different point of view, rewrite Thurber's story. Or write an original sketch experimenting with many different points of view. Discuss how the change in point of view affects our response to the story. 
 
 26 
Observe a particular incident and then try to describe it in great detail to the rest of the students. Note the selection and omission of certain details; discuss selection of detail and its importance in conveying a certain impression to the reader or observer (cf., different reports by witnesses at the scene of an accident)  
Session 7. Repetition and Contrast 
WORKS 
"The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet. 
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber. 
"Sixteen" by Maureen Daly. 
"The Whole Voyald and Heaven Itself" by William Saroyan. 
DISCUSSION 
Repetition and contrast are the main techniques by which the writer defines and reinforces his meaning. 
Repetition. In Ben~t's story repetition of the details illustrating Stone's bad luck and Webster's legendary grandeur helps clarify the choices between self or the selfless, the devilish or angelic, in the story. 
In Thurber's story repetition of Mitty's daydreams clarifies the kind and intensity of his fantasy. Repetition of his experiences in his waking world clarifies his ineffectual, henpecked existence. 
In Daly's story repetition of the details showing she is "not so dumb" (wearing tweedish skirts and shaggy sweaters, reading Winchell's column, etc.) indicates the girl's primary concern with the socially external. Repetition of the humorous or ironic tone (the Stalin quote, the dog's pretended affection, etc.) clarifies the girl's poised self-awareness, her maturing 
 
 27 
capacity to see the appearance and reality of things. Repetition of the irrelevant details (ashes on the side-walk, wearing old shoes, etc.) suggests that, though she is "not so dumb," she is not quite so sophisticated as she would like to be--her concern with irrelevancies, with homely details, places her midway between childhood and maturity. Repetition of the figurative language (the moon tinseling the twigs, the skates smelling like fresh-smoked ham, etc.) shows her unusual sensitivity, her relishing of experience, and her ability to project her mood outward on the world as well as draw the outer world into herself. Repetition of the details of love and romance (Winchell's column, the flirting stars, etc.) shows the girl is ready for romance--it is growing inside her, coloring her mood, as she responds to evidences of romance around her. 
Contrast. 
In Benet's story contrasts between stone's prosperity and his sickness of heart, stone's hopes and those of the Devil, and stone's fainting and Webster's cool aplomb at the Devil's appearance, clarify the conflict between the forces of union and the forces of division, between the Devil and Daniel Webster. 
In Thurber's story contrasts between Mitty's daylight and daydream worlds point up his heroic fantasy and humdrum actuality. 
In Daly's story contrasts between the night the girl went skating and five nights later (contrasts between not finishing her homework and finishing it, between the playful moon and shining stars and the sullen moon and hard glow of the stars, etc.) show the shock of the girl's experience and the extent of her disillusionment. 
General observations about reading narrative fiction. 
Seeing ~ story as art, we can assume it has unity and relevance. This assumption leads us to asking questions about the elements that make up a story--what they signify, how they fit--and therefore to a clearer understanding. 
Seeing ~ story ~ life--as concerned with human experience, problems and values--we can understand the story or find meaning in it only as it comments on or enters our lives. The father in Saroyan's "The Whole Voyald and Heaven Itself" believes that 
 
 28 
everything in every story is about the "human family." seeing a story in this way, as life, we must: 
Interpret only so far as the work permits. We must recognize, for example, that we do not and cannot know what happened to Jabez Stone after Webster's triumph over the Devil or why the boy in "Sixteen" did not call. 
Recognize the shallowness or depth of what we read. Much magazine fiction, cliched in character and plot-boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl--offers little more than an escape from reality into fictionalized daydreams like those of Walter Mitty. 
Some personal advice to the student about choosing between good literature or tripe in reading for pleasure. Do not read good literature out of a sense of duty, because if you do, you will begin to resent it. Do not stop reading tripe just because it is tripe; read it if you want to without feeling guilty about it. The time will come when good literature, effectively and deeply mirroring significant human experience, will open its pleasures to you. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss repetition and contrast as they occur in your own experience: in designs of clothing, automobiles, buildings, etc.; in music, painting, photography, sculpture, etc. What effect do these principles have in the examples you have chosen? 
Discuss repetition and contrast as they occur in a story. What effect rothey have? How do they contribute to the setting, plot, characters, mood, or theme of the story? 
Session 8. "The Ambitious Guest" 
WORKS 
"The Ambitious Guest," "The Minister's Biack Veil," The Scarlet Letter, "Wakefield" 
 
 29 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
A general problem. Why is it Hawthorne so carefully anchors his stories to actuality, to history, to events that have (or are reputed to have) occurred? Hawthorne refers the reader of "Wakefield" to an old magazine or newspaper as his source. He appeClds a note to "The Minister's Black Veil" telling about a New England clergyman who actually wore a veil. He begins The Scarlet Letter with an introductory chapter telling about finding a package containing a scarlet "A" and a document about one Hester prynne. And his story, "The Ambitious Guest," was based on an avalanche called Willey's Slide: 
 
In August 1862 an avalanche occurred at the southern end of Crawford Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A small tavern or inn operated by a family named Willey was in its path. The family and two hired men were killed as they sought shelter nearby, but the house was left untouched as the avalanche split itself on a great rock thirty yards behind and above the house, passing by harmlessly on either side. 
 
Structure of "The Ambitious Guest." The story consists of a series of carefully composed tableaux or pictures, built on contrasts between light and darkness, joy and sadness, life and death: 
 
The opening paragraph has a light joyous mood. There is the laughter of the children, the sober gladness of the parents, the grandmother, the image of happiness grown old. Near the end of the paragraph there is a movement toward a contrasting dark, somber mood in the references to the coldness and danger of the mountain environment. 
 
In the second paragraph a dark mood dominates. "The wind . 
 
rattled the door, with a sound ofwailing and lamentation " 
 
"the dreary blast  .  wailed 
 
. and went moaning away 
 
froIP the door." 
 
The dark mood progressively shades' the light. There is a cumulative force to such hints of foreboding as these: 
the family rose to greet the guest as if his "fate was 
 
 30 
linked with theirs." The love of the guest and daughter might flower in Paradise "since it could not be matured on earth." The storm mounts in fury; there is an increasing focus on death, etc. 
The progressive movement from light to dark prepares for the catastrophic and ironic conclusion--ironic, because it mocks the ambition of the guest, who, seeking to preserve his name forever, dies unknown instead. 
, 
Surface. The story has a clear but cliched surface. The tableau of the family is presented as a stereotype. The hero is conventionally Byronic. The contrasts and shifts from light to dark are heavily melodramatic, and the hints leading up to the ironic conclusion are fairly stale or obvious. 
Depth. Yet the story, like "The Minister's Black Veil," has obscured but meaningful depth. Though the family's habitual mood is happiness, their principal choices show ambition, discontent, and vanity. 
The guest seeks fame, to preserve his name forever, without any idea of what service he will perform to achieve fame. This ambition is a kind of death-oriented vanity. 
The father dreams of a high position in the community, not to help others but for the prestige it will give him. Then he hopes his family will sorrow greatly at his death. This ambition, too, is a kind of self-indulgent, death-oriented vanity. 
The grandam wants her family to hold a mirror over her after she dies so that she will be able to see that her clothes are in order for her burial--another form of death-oriented vanity. 
Thus beneath the stereotyped characterizations Hawthorne probes moral values. The characters in their love and concern for others have found Heart's Ease; but as they grow self-indulgent and give in to isolating dreams of vanity, their Heart's Ease fades and they know a meaningless discontent. 
The destruction by the slide has a neat propriety: it invites a sense that the event is not coincidence but poetic justice or 
 
 31 
retribution. The family lives without harm as long as their hearts are pure. When the corruptive vanity enters, purity disappears and doom falls upon them. The idea is reinforced by the cry of the young lad to go away to the flume (if they had followed this voice of innocence, they might have been saved) and by the group of travelers who stop but pass on (if the father had not been vain and had shown his usual hospitality, the travelers might have entered, and he might have saved himself). Thus, behind the melodramatic coincidence, Hawthorne suggests something about moral law. 
Hawthorne's story has a large parallel in the story of the fall of the angels and man. Lucifer was ambitious; he rebelled against God and was thrust from Heaven. Then he went to Adam and Eve, who had found Heart;s Ease in Paradise, tempted them with his own ambition, and they fell, bringing death into the world and destruction upon themselves. 
Comparisons. Looking at both "The Minister's Black Veil" and "The Ambitious Guest," we find certain resemblances. Both have clarity of architecture: we see this in the distinct scenes 'Jf the former and the sharp tableaux of the latter. Both have obscurity of meaning: in the former, Hawthorne poses the problem of the veil's meaning and obscures the answer; in the latter, he remains silent about the fact that a problem even exists. The stories are similar in content or idea: they are concerned with man's moral nature, with the effect thereon of temptation, the surrender to temptation, and the isolation that ensues. 
The combination of ambiguous technique and moral content makes both stories reach out beyond the minutely historical to the universal experience. Both serve as parables. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss the question of why Ha.wthorne so carefully anchors his stories to actuality, to history, to events that have occurred. Support your opinion with evidence from particular stories where Hawthorne uses this technique. 
 
 32 
Discuss the meaning of the cliches, giving examples of clich~s from your everyday experience--in speech, literature, 
/ 
movies, television, etc. Look for cliches in Hawthorne's other stories and discuss their effect. 
Session 9. The World of The Scarlet Letter and Its Structure 
DISCUSSION 
Tests of Interpretation. Before we begin our interpretation of The Scarlet Letter, we should be aware of two tests of valid interpretation: 
Test of evidence. A valid interpretation must fit the text; it must be grounded on passages from the text or legitimate inferences from these passages. 
Test of consistency. A valid interpretation must have its separate points fit together or harmonize with one another. 
The World of The Scarlet Letter. 
The historical setting: the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1640's, an outpost of civilization, inhabited by first and second generation Puritans who were exceedingly conscious of man's depravity. (An early edition of the New England Primer, a portion of John Cotton's catechism, "Milk for American Babes," and a passage from Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" illustrate the Puritan spirit) 
The society (in its culture and climate of opinion, feeling and belief): adult, somber, hard working but hoping little; convinced of the frailty of the flesh and the will, determined to master its own refractory nature by harshness and punishment; characterized by an almost complete fusion of religion and law. Hester, Dimmesdal~ pearl, and Chillingworth openly or secretly offend the values of this society and see themselves in terms of these values. Hester, 
 
 33 
 
Dimmesdale, and Pearl eventually seek reunion wllh this society and its values. 
 
Nature (not simply an agglomeration of plants, animals, 
 
l 
a, 
 
and physical phenomena, but a kindred totality, sym- 
 
pathetic to and symbolic of man's moral being). In 
 
front of the ugly jail grew burdock and pigweed, "which 
 
evidently found something congenial in the soil that 
 
had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, 
 
a prison" (Ch.I). Pearl, described as a wild flower 
 
sprung from the rank soil "of a guilty passion," is "not 
 
amenable to rules" (Ch. VI). Nature and man interact; 
 
but as nature is outside the moral~ spiritual, and re- 
 
ligious sphere, to obey nature (as did Hester and Dim- 
 
mesdale) is to surrender to depravity and sinfulness, 
 
which the Puritan society tries to surmount or transform. 
 
Supernature--Satan (the powers of darkness in and above nature that act on and influence man). The people asserted that the letter "was red-hot with infernal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight, whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the night-time" (Ch. V). Pearl seemed to many to be the "laughing image of a fiend, . a demon offspring" (Ch. VI). The satafiic supernatural joins with the wild lawlessness of nature and with the corrupt souls of men to destroy them, to bring them out of God's grace and down to eternal perdition. 
 
Supernature--God (above society, nature, and Satan is God, whose provide~ or 'government operates in mysterious ways to work out His own inscrutable and just purposes). Hester appeals to this concept when she fears Pearl will be taken from her: "'God gave me the child~' cried she. 'He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye have taken from me'" (Ch. VIII). Dimmesdale appeals to this concept when he pleads on H~ster's behalf: "This child of its father's guilt and its mother's shame hath come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her" (Ch. VIII) e, 
 
The Structure of The Scarlet Letter. 
 
The story is presented in sharp scenes or tableaux, surrounded by interpretive commentary. The scenes in the 
 
 34 
 
first part of the novel might be labeled as follows: 
 
Prison Door (the crowd around the door when Hester 
 
leaves the prison), Market-place (Hester's public 
 
humiliation), Interview (between Hester and Chilling- 
 
"; 
 
worth in prison), Pearl (questioning her mother about 
 
;) 
 
her father's identity), Governor's Mansion (Hester and 
 
Pearl looking at their reflections in the polished armor) . 
 
- - - - - - The functions of 
1) to illustrate 
 
the the 
 
stycepnicesal-oar 
 
tableaux spects of 
 
are the 
 
two-fold: characters' 
 
lives; e.g., Hester and Pearl's pattern of daily living; 
 
2) to reveal the unique moments of choice; e.g., Dim- 
 
mesdale's choice to remain silent at Hester's humiliation 
 
in the market-place. 
 
The arrangement of scenes ~ tableaux may be looked at according to: 
 
Major points in time. The opening chapters focus on the single day of Hester's exposure and public humiliation. Chapters VII-VIII focus on a single day three years later when Hester makes her successful appeal to retain custody of Pearl. Chapters XII-XXIII focus on a month or two, from the minister's midnight vigil to the final daylight revelation of his guilt. 
 
Great public scenes. The public and private scenes alternate, the private scenes providing individual views and the public scenes collective views. The public scenes might be labeled Humiliation, Governor's Mansion (where Hester makes her appeal), Concealed Revelation (the minister's disclosure of his guilt on the scaffold at midnight), and Open Revelation (his final confession on the scaffold at noon of Election Day) . 
 
Beginning, middle, and end of the plot. Beginning (on the scaffold): the public humiliation of Hester provides the story with its inciting incident. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth make choices which launch the plot--the first two choosing to remain silent, Chillingworth choosing to seek revenge. Middle (on the scaffold): Hester's discovery of what has happened to 
 
 35 
Dimmesdale provides the story with its crisis, for she decides to reveal Chillingworth's identity, and this decision changes the lives of the characters. It leads to Hester and Dimmesdale's meetings in the forest and eventually to the end. End (on the scaffold): Dimmesdale's revelation of his guilt resolves the conflict within his own life; it puts an end to Hester's flight and to Chillingworth's revenge. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Dramatize by readings from the novel the unique moments of choice of the characters. Discuss the consequences of these choices. 
Discuss .the questions: What does the world of this novel matter? Could these characters and events exist in another kind of world-in our world today? 
session 10. Assessment 
WORKS 
"The Bells," "The Black Cat," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Philosophy of Composition," "The Poetic Principle," "The Raven," Review of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales, "To Helen," and "Ulalume" by Edgar Allan Poe. 
"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
"A Fable for Critics" by James Russell Lowell. 
"Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish. 
"What's the Railroad to Me?" by Henry David Thoreau. 
 
 36 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
(Professor Charles R. O'Donnell of the Department of English at the University of Michigan joins in assessing Poe's poetry, criticism, and fiction in the light of Lowell's judgment. Lowell, in his "Fable for Critics," said this: 
 
There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three fifths of him genius and two fifths pure fudge. 
 
Is Lowell's judgment a fair one? Is there fudge (excess or falsity) in Poe's work? 
 
Poe's poetry. 
 
There is some "fudge" or excess in his poetry. It is ex- 
 
cessive in musicality. There is often an over-emphasis on 
 
rhythm and rhyme at the expense of me~rting. The excessive 
 
musicality in "The Raven" is pointed up by a parody, "Ravin's 
 
- of Piute poet Poe," 
by R. P. Falk): 
 
by C.L. 
 
Edson 
 
(in The Antic -M-us-e, 
 
edited 
 
Once upon a midnight dreary, eerie, sc.ary, I was wary, I was weary, full of worry, thinking of my 
lost Lenore, etc. 
 
The poetry is excessive in mood. Themo6d is often out of balance with the meaning. Contrast" The Fall of the HO'.lse of Usher," where the mood is appr'opriate to the particular character and situation, with "Ulalume," where there is little justification for the mood (it seems to float free, not anchored to individual feelings and events). The poetry is excessive in drama (or melodrama). The feelings in the poems seem to arise not from human situations and emotions but from externals, from stage settings and props; the feelings are less real than theatrical. 
 
A partial explanation of these excesses: Poe was reacting 
 
against the poetry of h~s time-~against its didacticism, as in 
 
Longfellow's "A Psalm of.Life"t, against its drab flatness and 
 
unmusicality, of which Thoreau's "What's the Railroad to Me?" 
 
is an example. 
 
,. 
 
" 
 
 37 
Though his poetry is generally excessive in some respect, Poe did achieve a perfect balance of poetic elements in a few poems, such as "To Helen." 
Poe's criticism. 
There is some "fudge" or falsity in Poe's "Philosophy of Composition." He tells how he wrote "The Raven," but his description of his method is unbelievable; it suggests a mechanistic approach, in which poetry resembles engineering or construction, involving nothing of the mind or heart. His concept of brevity is invalid: a literary work does not have to be brief to maintain a single impression or effect. His idea that the tone of beauty's highest manifestation is "invariably" sadness is invalid: beauty may be well expressed in a tone of joy or happiness. 
There is genius, however, in certain critical awareness: Art is art and not life. (In his review on The Characters of Shakespeare by William Hazlitt, Poe criticizes the attempt to account for the inconsistencies of Shakespeare's dramatis personnae by examining these as if they were real people)  Art is rational hard work rather than inspiration alone. (In "The Philosophy of Composition" Poe describes writing, not as the result of a fine frenzy or intuition but as the result of selections, changes, erasures, etc.). Art should be economical. (In his review of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales Poe discusses economy--nothing should be included in a literary work that is not relevant.) Art may exist "for its own sake." (In "Ars Poetica' MacLeish states that a poem "should not mean but be," a modern expression of Poe's concept in "The Poetic Principle" that a poem is written for its own sake, not to teach a moral or message.) 
Poe's fiction (the best of his art). 
There is some "fudge" or excess in Poe's fiction. An overemphasis on mood and melodrama is seen in his use of stealthy steps, furtive servants, wailing wind, silken curtains, etc. In the melodramatic and theatrical story of "The Black Cat," as in others, Poe manipulates the reader's feelings to create a world of madness and horror but without much meaning. 
 
 38 
But there is genius in Poe's fiction as well. His works are still read and enjoyed today. He is a modern author as he deals with contemporary problems--the loss of faith, the conflict between reason and imagination, the doubts about progress, tradition, and community, the loss of confidence in reason and knowledge, the inadequacy of science or reason alone in meeting man's basic needs or problems. Thus, Poe stands as a transitional figure between the world of faith, tradition, and community and the world where man is cut off from these elements and must search for meaning alone. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Make a list of the devices Poe uses to create particular moods in his poems and stories. Find illustrations from contemporary poetry, fiction, or drama (radio, television, and theater) of similar devices; tell how the writer uses them, what mood they help create, and how they compare in effectiveness to Poe's devices. 
Debate Poe's idea that art should exist for its own sake rather than to teach a moral. Support your opinions with evidence from literature and personal experience. 
CHAPTER V POETRY 
Session 11. Rhyme 
WORKS 
"The Railway Train" by Emily Dickinson 
"The Congo" by Vachel Lindsay 
"The Bells," "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe 
"Miniver Cheevy," "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson 
"Beat~ Beat~ Drums~" by Walt Whitman 
 
 39 
DISCUSSION 
Definition and technical terms. Rhyme is the similarity of final sounds in two or more words--moon/June, label/table, hesitance/resiuence. In order to talk precisely about rhyme, we need special or technical terms. 
kinds E. rhyme 
perfect~--the final sounds are identical: road/load. 
slant===the final sounds are only similar: rained/laid, bombs/tombs. 
end or terminal===the rhyme appears at the end of the line. 
internal===the rhyme appears within the line. 
masculine===the rhyme ends on a stressed or accented syllable: look/brook, tonight/we fight. 
feminine===the rhyme ends on an unstressed or unaccented syllable: quickly/sickly, station/nation. 
alliteration===the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or of stressed syllables: "When Better Cars Are Built, Buick will Build Them." 
assonance===the repetition of vowel sounds at the beginning of words or of stressed syllables: "The coldness of the soul," "Moons swoon into blue dooms." 
onomatopoeia===the imitation or echoing, in the sounds of words, of the sounds to which the words refer: buzz, whisper, boom, growl, etc. 
The place of sound in language and in poetry. Babies first hear sounds, not meanings. As they grow, mastering sounds and relating ideas to them, they tend to repeat or rhyme in an elementary fashion--"da-da," "ma-ma," etc. Later, the pleasure in rhyme continues, as the' popularity of nursery jingles testifies. Then, something happens. Our culture and 
 
 40 
our education tend to repress awareness of sound, and stress instead only its idea content. We put a premium on silent reading and reading for speed, reading for tho~ghts alone. Words cease to be sounds to be delighted ini they become. only the signs of meaning. What the poet does is try to recover the total use of language, the sound as well as the meaning. 
The inseparability of sound and meaning in poetry. Sound does not operate independently in poetry. It cooperates with meaning. Each makes the other more pleasurable and intense. 
Testing the value of sound. Two tests may demonstrate how little pleasure we get from sound until it is combined with meaning. 1) passes/glasses. This rhyme or repetition of similar sounds yields little, if any, auditory pleasure until it is combined with a particular meaning: "Men seldom make passes/At girls who wear glasses." 2) The idea that "Adam suffered from fleas" is clear but it also becomes funny when this idea is combined with rhyme in a jingle: 
FLEAS 
Adam Had'm. 
The meanings of sound ~ variable. There is no international language of sound, in which certain sounds suggest certain meanings or areas of application. We may think that the sound or suggests matters of great human significance because of its occurrence in moral, courtship, force, horror, reward, sword, Lord, etc., until we discover it also appears in toward, bored, ~~, four, door, tore, pinafore, etc. 
onomatopoeia. The closest sound ever comes to operating independently of meaning is in onomatopoeia. In "The Bells" Poe tries to make each stanza sound like the kind of bells to which he is referring. Whitman's "Beat~ Beat~ Drums~" and Lindsay's "The Congo" also try to catch 
 
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the sound of their subjects. The poet, in seizing the onomatopoeic potential of language, invokes our awareness of sound, inviting us to derive gratification from it. But the sound works primarily because we know what the poem is about. "The Bells" might sound like a broken record to a listener who did not understand English. Thus again, it is the idea that underlies the sound and makes it meaningful. 
How sound and meaning cooperate for gratification or pleasure, for reinforcement. 
Assonance and alliteration are auditorially pleasant means, outside of logic or grammar, to link or bind ideas together. In ordinary prose, sentence structure links ideas in ~ sentence. In poetry, alliteration and assonance provide an extra kind of linkage. The prose statement, "We ordinary folk looked at him," gains an extra kind of linkage when alliteration is added: "We 'p'eop1e on the .E.avement looked at him" (from Robinson's "Richard cory")  
Rhyme also provided an automatic and non-logical kind of reinforcement (as well as auditory pleasure). In Poe's "To Helen" we can see how much the echoing of sound reinforces the meaning if we replace the rhymed words with synonyms. Though the meaning remains, without the rhyme the poem loses a great deal of its power and inevitability. Rhyme pulls the poem into a tighter structure, a clearer "rightness." 
To summarize, this linking or structural reinforcement is the basic thing sound (alliteration, assonance, and rhyme) offers meaning; while meaning, as it informs sound, makes sound doubly pleasurable. Sound and meaning cooperate for mutual benefit. 
Sound reinforces meaning more complexly when sentence structure (grammar) and stanza structure (rhyme scheme or pattern) cooperate in a poem, the rhymed words coinciding with the ends of phrases or clauses. In stanza #1 of Robinson's "Richard Cory," the reader develops the double expectation of completion of the sentence or meaning and completion of the rhyme scheme ( a b a b ). The final 
 
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period and the final rhyme gratify this expectation and reinforce each other. 
Sound and meaning may also work apart or against each other, developing a kind of tension between them. This principle is at work in Dickinson's "The Railway Train," where each quatrain rhymes abc b (the rhymes are imperfect or slant) and the grammatical or sentence structure, instead of coming to a pause or stop at the end of each quatrain, flows along to the poem's end. 
conclusion. Poetry, calling on sound as well as meaning, offers a more total use of language than does prose. In poetry sound and meaning cooperate simply, complexly, to reinforce each other, enlarge gratification, and underscore meaning. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Paraphrase a poem, restating its ideas and images in prose. compare your prose passage with the poem, discussing how sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia) functions to reinforce the ideas and imagery of the poem. 
write a poem or poems emphasizing the characteristics of sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia). 
Session 12. Rhythm 
WORKS 
"Success Is Counted Sweetest" by Emily Dickinson 
"What Fifty Said" and "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost 
"Trees" by Joyce Kilmer 
"The Congo" by Vachel Lindsay 
"Patterns" by Amy Lowell 
 
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"To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe 
 
"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson 
 
"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
Definition. Rhythm is pulsation--the recurrence, at more or 
 
less regular intervals of time or space, of visual or audi- 
 
tory beats, stresses, or accents. Examples of rhythm in our 
 
daily lives are our breathing and pulse. Our language has 
 
its tendencies toward rhythm too because it is accentual in 
 
/~. 
 
/ 
 
nature. For example, the names Hazel, Annabel, and Marcella 
 
have certain syllables accented. 
 
The place of rhythm in language and in poetry. Customarily we are as deaf to the rhythms of speech as we are to its sounds: we only hear through them to the underlying ideas or meaning. What poetry does is seize the rhythmic potential of language, organize it, and reinforce it. poetry asJ<s us to hear rhythm, derive pleasure from it, and sense the way rhythm joins with meaning for a total use of language. 
 
Vocabulary. 
 
accent===emphasis or stress (/) 
 
unaccented===without emphasis or stress (x) 
caesura===pause (!f) 
 
foot===smallest rhythmic unit. 
 
iamb===(x I): today, supply. anapest===(x x I): unafraid, overturn. 
trochee===(/ x): woman, table. dactyl===(/ x x): terribly, womanly. 
spondee===(/ I): blue moon, side-walk. 
pyrrhic===(x x): There is no single word in the English language that illustrates this foot. 
 
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meter===measure 
 
mono-meter===one foot to the line di-meter===two feet to the line tri-meter===three feet to the line tetra-meter===four feet to the line penta-meter===five feet to the line hexa-meter===six feet to the line 
 
scansion===breaking the line of poetry into feet, marking 
accented and unaccented syllables and caesuras. E.g., from Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening": 
x / I x / II x / I x / 
Whose woods I these areJl I thinkl I know (basic 
rhythmic pattern--iambic tetrameter) 
 
substitution===replacing one kind of foot with another. In Robinson's "Richard Cory" the basic rhythmic pattern in lines 1-3 is iambic pentameter. This pattern changes in line 4 with the substitution of different kinds of feet. 
 
The inseparability of fhythm from meaninq in poetry. Rhythms 
 
by themselves do not have meanings or areas of application; 
 
they can not denote or connote. Rhythm operates almost 
 
solely because it cooperates with idea or meaning. There is 
 
one special kind of cooperation between rhythm and meaning 
 
wherein rhythm clearly reinforces the meaning much as does 
 
sound in onomatopoeia. Whitman's "out of the Cradle End- 
 
lessly Rocking" has a rocking rhythm in its first line re- 
 
inforcing the idea of rocking. 
 
/ 
 
x x I / x II / x x I / x 
 
Out of the Icradle II endlessly I rocking 
 
Lowell's "Patterns" also illustrates this kind of cooperation. But in such poems, where rhythm is thus linked with meaning, it is the ideas that give the rhythm meaning, not the other way around. 
 
How rhythm and meaning cooperate in poetry. 
 
The union of beat and important words. The poet tries to accommodate the meaning of the poem to the rhythm, and the rhythm to the meaning, without damage to either. 
 
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Suppose the poet selects for his rhythm iambic pentameter and for the meaning this idea: that as a youth he found that his teachers, who were older than he, taught the past and the traditions that gave the present its meaning, and that he had to rein in his youthful impetuosity and discipline himself to get educated. If the poet is Frost, a perfect accommodation of this particular rhythm and meaning results in the first stanza of "What Fifty Said." Another perfect accommodation of rhythm and meaning occurs in Dickinson's "Success Is Counted Sweetest." 
Thus, rhythm reinforces or underscores meaning by combining its beats or pulses with key words or main ideas; meaning as it informs rhythm gives the rhythm added power and makes it more pleasurable. 
Expectation. Once we recognize the rhythmic pattern as we read, we expect the recurrence of the beat. As with rhyme, the satisfaction of our expectation of beat further underscores the meaning. 
Consider the rhythm of Dickinson's "Success is Counted Sweetest" : 
Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. 
Replacing succeed with accomplish anything is unsatisfactory because it does not satisfy the rhythmic expectation which the regular beat has set up in us. 
Varietyo If our rhythmic expectation is always gratified it may result in diminishing the power and pleasure of a poem. So the good poet often varies his rhythm but keeps the basic rhythmic pattern in our minds as a point of reference 0 Then we are surprised when he departs from it, substituting one kind of foot for another. This substitution gives unexpected emphasis, as well as recharging our sense of the power of the basic rhythmic pattern. 
 
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Because Kilmer's "Trees" has only one instance of rhythmic variation, its power for pleasure and emphasis diminishes. But Poe's "To Helen," with the explosive substitution in stanza #2, lines 4-5, achieves rhythmical variety and a tremendous reinforcement of meaning. 
A way to achieve variety other than by substitution is to change line lengths within a poem, as in the old pattern of the limerick with its alternating long and short lines. 
Summary. Rhythm reinforces meaning by its beat, the expectation it first develops and then gratifies, and its variety. Meaning gives power and pleasure to rhythm. Though we separate meaning and rhythm in analysis, in a good poem they are one. 
FOLLOW-UP 
play records of popular and classical music illustrating the various rhythms found in poetry. ("William Tell overture" illustrates the anapestic foot.) Use one of the pieces of music illustrating a particular foot as background music for a reading of a poem of the same rhythmic foot. 
write a poem varying the kinds of feet you use, or find poems that illustrate different kinds of feet: Give two readings of the poem or poems, the second accompanied by a percussion instrument (a drum or triangle) beating out the rhythm in the background; or let the class beat out the accented syllables to see if they can discover the kind of feet used in the poem. 
Session 13. Diction 
WORKS 
"the Cambridge ladies," "nobody loses all the time," "spring omnipotent goddess" by E. E. Cummings 
"A clock stopped--not the mantel's," "The soul selects her own society," "This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies" by Emily Dickinson 
 
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"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"by T. S. Eliot 
"The Hired Man" by Robert Frost 
"Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish 
"Poetry" by Marianne Moore 
"The Raven" and "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe 
"Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter" by John Crowe Ransom 
"Credo" by Edwin Arlington Robinson 
DISCUSSION 
The best words. Coleridge suggests that prose is good words in a good order, poetry the best words in the best order. The diction of our prose, in speech and writing, is inferior to the poet's. As an examination of lines from Poe's "To Helen," Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred prufrock," Dickinson's "The Soul Selects Her Own Society," and Moore's "Poetry" shows, the poet chooses words that not only express his ideas but catch just the right shades of tone, attitude, value. To learn to recognize more of the beauty, precision, and power of the poet's diction, we must be aware of the choices he makes between alternative words and phrases. We may study these under the following headings. 
Synonyms and synonymous phrases. These give us different ways of saying approximately the same thing. So, of a person's dying we may say, he died, passed Qg, went to his reward, kicked the bueket, left ~, etc. From among all the synonyms available, the poet chooses that which says it best for him. Dickinson precisely captures one of her attitudes toward death in "This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies" and another attitude in "A clock stopped--not the mantle's." Other examples of precise and unique ways of presenting death may be found in Cummings's "nobody loses all the time," Ransom's rtBells for John Whiteside's Daughter," and Frost's "The Hired Man." 
Classes ~pd categories of diction. 
We distinguish classes of diction by social level, using a different kind of language for different 
 
 48 
occasions, places, people, and times. 
We distinguish between objective and subjective language. The man for whom we work may be the boss (objective language, stating his position) , or he may be a Simon Legree (subjective language, stating our emotional reaction to the position)  
We recognize a class of archaic expressions as "poetic" diction--thou, thy, dost, thinketh, o'er instead of ~, e'er instead of ~, scaly instead of scaled, O~ alas~ ~~~ etc. 
We recognize special classes of language for special activities--the language of the businessman, the lawyer, the teenager. 
We usually speak in the appropriate class of diction without being conscious of these distinctions. The poet, however, is highly conscious of these classes; he selects them with care to give range and depth to his meaning. Two poets write about poetry: MacLeish's "Ars Poetic a" is written in "poetic" diction; its language is formal, elevated, romantic, and a shade archaic. In contrast, Moore's "Poetry" is written in down-to-earth, matterof-fact language, with even a hint of irritation. Cummings's "spring omnipotent goddess" plays two different categories of diction against each other--"poetic" diction and the modern vernacular of the high school crowd, their associations jangling in a kind of comic discord. 
Denotation and connotation.. The denotation of "cat" is a feline, four-legged, whiskered, furry anima]. The connotations of "cat" are self-centeredness, selfishness, daintiness, scratchiness, gossipiness, etc. The denotation of a word does not often change; the connotations do. A word may have many connotations with only certain ones functioning because of the particular context in which the word appears. The denotation of "hair" does not change, but its connotations do: hair on a man's face suggests wildness; hair as woman's crowning glory sugges~beauty; hair on a man's chest suggests manliness, etc. 
 
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The poet seeks not only to arouse the connotations or suggestions implicit in words, but to govern these suggestions, to blend them together, so that his language is richer, fuller, and more total than ours. Robinson's "Credo" begins: 
I cannot find my way: there is no star In all the shrouded heavens anywhere; 
Here "shrouded" suggests death, "heaven" suggests God. The two words and their connotations together suggest that God is dead or absent from Heaven--an idea that fits the previous one, of a person who cannot find his way. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss the different classes or categories of diction you have come across in your own experience~ Find poems that illustrate these different classes of diction; or take one poem and substitute words, thereby changing the class of diction used. Discuss the way a change in the category of diction affects the mood and meaning of a poem. Make up a list of common words and give their denotations in great detail. Then give their connotations-what they suggest out of context, as well as what they suggest in context. Use each word in different sentences to show how the connotation may vary in different contexts. 
Session 14. Imagery 
WORKS 
"the sky was candy luminous" by E. E. Cummings 
"Hope Is the Thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickinson 
"The Love Song of J. Alfred prufrock" and "Preludes" by T. S. Eliot 
 
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"Forbearance," "The Rhodora," "The Snow-Storm," "Uriel" by Ralph Waldo Emerson 
"The Silken Tent" by Robert Frost 
"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound* 
"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg 
DISCUSSION 
Imagery in poetrv. Imagery is the things named in a poem. There is a difference in the imagery of poetry and that of the visual arts. Poetic images are general or multiple in their evocation; visual images are precise or specific in their evocation. The word flower, occurring in a poem, is general and may suggest many different ~ypes of flowers or feelings. A picture of a flower is specific and shows just what kind it is--rose, daisy, trillium, etc. The poet uses imagery, as he uses rhyme, rhythm and diction, to achieve a more total use of language. By his imagery or naming of things, he embodies ideas in forms to arouse and control our feelings. 
Simple naming--the specification of individual items in a physical or mental landscape. In the beginning of Eliot's "Preludes" sane of the things named are winter evening, smell of steaks, smoky days, gusty showers, broken blinds, stamping cabhorse. The imagery is general or multiple in its evocation. We do not know whether the cab-horse is young or old, black, brown, or spotted, male or female, etc. A poem is not just a catalogue of generalities, however. By putting the things named into a particular context, the poet controls their potential connotations or suggestiveness for a certain effect. In "Preludes" the things named, in context, evoke feelings of faint weariness, quiet melancholy. In Emerson's "The Rhodora" the things named, in context, evoke feelings of new beauty, life, and hope with the coming of spring. 
* "In A Station of The Metro" from The Selected Poems of Ezra Pound, ~ 1957, Ezra Pound, by permission of New Directions, Publishers. 
 
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If we are to read well, we cannot simply pass over the things named in search of the idea and feeling. We must recognize tnat the idea and feeling are in in the things named, develop our response to them, and let them act on our mind and feelings. 
Comparative naminq--the more complex kind of naming involving similes, likenesses, analogies, where the poet expresses his meaning by bringing the attributes of one object to bear on another. He engages our minds and feelings in a multiple awareness--of both objects in the comparison and of their relationship to each other. We use comparisons in ordinary conversation but are often unaware of one side of the comparison. Saying "He went like a jet," we express our idea of speed without thinking much about the object named, the jet. What the poet does (and what we have to train ourselv~s to respond to) is make both sides of the comparison work: all the things he names matter. We must respond to both sides of the comparisons in Pound's "In a Station of the Metro," Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,lI and Frost's "The Silken Tent" if we are to get the full meani.ng from the imagery. 
Metaphoric naming--the transfer of the name of one thing to another to which it does not strictly belong. We call our girlfriend "baby,' her mother "the old tiger," the policeman "a flatfoot." As with comparisons, most of the metaphors we use in ordinary conversation are dead: we do not pay attention to the thing named in the metaphor, only to the idea behind it. What the poet does (and what we must train ourselves to respond to) is make both parts of the metaphor work--the idea and its metaphorical embodiment. In Sandburg's "Chicago," Cummings's "the sky was candy luminous," and Dickinson's 'tHope I s the Thing with Feathers," we must respond to the butcher and the city, the colors of the sky and the flavors of candy, hope and the bird to get the full meaning from the imageryo And we must try to do the same with less obvious metaphors, as in Emerson's "The Snow-Storn," "Uriel,n and''Forbearance." 
 
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FOLLOW-UP 
Write a description of arou~d thirty words, choosing your words carefully to create a'S vivid an image as possible within this limitation. Try using figures of speech (personification, metaphor, or simile) and words appealing to the senses in creating the vivid images. 
Discuss the generality or multiplicity of evocation of poetic imagery: pick out a particular image in a poem and write a detailed prose description of what it makes you see, what pictures it brings to mind. Compare your description with others. Note the general or multiple impression the image evokes, picking out the particular words which seem to be responsible. 
CHAPTER VI. RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
Session 15. Style and Ideas 
WORKS 
Essays: passages from "The American Scholar," "The Divinity School Address," "Nature," "The Over-Soul," "Politics," "Self-Reliance." 
Poems: "Brahma," "Fable," "Fiamatreya." 
DISCUSSION 
Style. 
Emerson's style, like Franklin's, is salted with wit, imagery, epigram--"To be great is to be misunderstood" (from "SelfReliance"), "Books are for the scholar's idle times" and "One must be an inventor to read well" (from "The American Scholar")  
The first characteristic of this style is the epigram, which is much the same thing as a maxim. It is brief; it tends toward the rhythmic--"Nature's dice are always loaded" (from "Nature"); it contains direct or indirect contradictions; and it tends to use imagery. Emerson's epigrams have an effect similar to that of Franklin's maxims: shock or surprise, then recognition as we get the sense, ;then reverberation as new 
 
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surprises and new recognitions follow, and finally, gratification or pleasure at the neatness and tightness of the thought. The first point about Emerson's style then is that it is salted with epigrams. 
Second, his style is consistently epigrammatic and imagistic rather than occasionally sOo Line by line it embodies its universal meanings in concrete particulars. in images and contradictions. It is a "poetic" style. Repeatedly one statement follows another, each startling and explosive, each gradually opening up its meaning. E.g., "Character is always known. Thefts never enrich: alms never impoverish: murder will speak out of stone walls" (from "The Divinity School Address")  
Third, his style is repetitively epigrammatic, for his essays were written for oral delivery. The audience had no time to contemplate each puzzling sentence. Before they could do that, the next one had come, contradiction and imagery building on top of each other in sequence. Emerson must have realized that he had to repeat his points to make them stick, and if we read him carefully, we will discover the same basic idea behind image after image--only repeated in different ways. The passage beginning "For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men" (from "The American Scholar") exemplifies this point. 
Fourth, -Emerson's characteristic tone is highly serious, oracular or prophetic, and inspirational. He assaults our thinking with assertions that are authoritative as were those of the Grecian oracles and the Old Testament prophets. He engages our own responses, makes us tryout his thinking on our own lives, feelings, and values. There are other tone, however, within his range: light, playful humor, as in "Fable," and mordant irony, as in "Hamatreya." 
Ideas--~ sampling. 
In order to begin developing an understanding of Emerson's philosophy, we ask questions about his ideas (what they mean and how they fit together). 
 
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"Nature's dice are always loaded (from "Nature"). Does this mean that Nature is "crooked" or that if we compete with Nature, we cannot win? Or does it mean something else? 
Questions about passages from "The Over-Soul," ""Self-Reliance, II "The American Scholar." 
Questions about "Brahma. II' 
FOLLOW-UP 
Read a passage from one of Emerson's essays to your class as if you were Emerson delivering his lecture to an audience. Introduce the reading by reminding the class of Emerson's repetitively epigrammatic style; ask them to determine the universal meaning in the passage and the particular images or contradictions used to express this meaning a 
Discuss Emerson's epigrammatic style by picking some lines from his essays at random. Point out the ways in which they illustrate the characteristics of the maxim or epigram (brevity, rhythm, rhyme, contradiction, imagery) a 
Session 160 Emerson's critical Theory 
WORKS 
Essay: "The Poet" 
Poetry: "Each and All" 
DISCUSSION 
The poet as language-maker. Man is so constituted, so made, that he needs to express himself. Most of us, however, can- 
 
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not express our thoughts and feelings very well. It is the poet, as interpreter or expresser, who expresses for us. 
The poet is the namer, the language-maker. To some, names are merely conventions, like clothes, and are interchangeable. To Emerson, names somehow belong to the heart of the thing, and it is the poet who finds the right name or true label, who says what other men cannot say. 
There is a steady need for new names. The world is constantly changing as new discoveries, new institutions, new political faiths corne into being. We continue to need new names to describe new things as well as to replace those words which have lost their vitality and meaning. 
The poet as conveyor of divine thought. The things of nature speak through and beyond themselves of some higher meaning. To some, nature is merely the trees, flowers, birds and beasts, the earth, and sky above. To Emerson, each aspect of nature symbolizes something higher--the great creative and organizing energy of lifeo 
The poet is passive transmitter of this divine energy, expressing its truths to other meno His power to see the symbolic meaning in nature and consequently name and exress things is traditionally called inspiration a "It does not corne by study," says Emerson, but by the poet's "resigning himself to the divine aura which breathes through formso" Thus the poet is less creator than transmittero 
The poet is poet, not by virtue of his technique in constructing meters, but by the divine aura or energy that flows through him, finding its form in meters (just as in nature it finds its form in a shell or a leaf) 0 Becoming possessed by the passionate idea or meter-making argument, the poet gives it voice. 
 
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Comparison between the critical theories of Poe and Emerson. 
 
Poe 
 
Emer.son 
 
Writing accomplished by-- 
 
perspiration 
 
inspiration 
 
Main concern 
 
effect of the work 
 
source of the work (divine creative energy) 
 
Test for success of the work 
 
efficiency: does each part do its job in producing the effect? 
 
validity: does each part catch the meter-making argument? 
 
Emphasis in the work, on 
 
sadness, beauty 
 
joy, hope (because of the concern with divine energy) 
 
Quality of the subject 
 
the strange or bizzare 
 
the familiar 
 
Application. In the light of Emerson's critical theory, that it is the meter-making argument which makes a poem, we look at Emerson's "Each and All," commenting on sections I, 2, and 3, and concluding with a statement of the poem's meter-making argument: that all things are inseparable, are essentially unified; that beauty and truth are essentially identical in this unity or all-inclusive wholeness. 
 
FOLLOW-UP 
 
Illustrate Emerson's theory that nature is symbolic with examples taken from Emerson's poetry or essays. Discuss the concrete images of nature he uses, what they symbolize, and the appropriateness of the images as symbols. 
 
For a panel of students: Choose one Emerson poem; let each student prepare a statement of its meter-making argument, supporting his statement with evidence from the poem; then open the discussion so that the class may question as well as evaluate the panel's statements and supporting arguments. 
 
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Session 17. "Self-Reliance": Emerson's Philosophy 
DISCUSSION 
The structure .2!:. organization of "Self-Reliance." 
The rational principle. The essay in in three parts, each part clearly introduced. The first part (Definition), beginning "I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional  ," defines self-reliance. The second part (Proof), beginning "The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust  ," develops the reason or proof for self-reliance. The third part (Application), beginning "It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all offices and relations of men," applies the idea of self-reliance to human affairs. 
This three-part structure follows the old sermon pattern of text (definition and exploration of a Bible passage), proof (passages substantiating the text)p application (the meaning of this passage for our lives). This is the essay's logical or rational structure o 
The rational principle or principle of logical progression, as seen in the essay as a whole, is also seen within each part. In the first part (Definition) Emerson defines selfreliance positively, showing where it appears (in art, experience, children, youth) and what its authority is; then he defines it negatively by pointing out what impedes us in relying upon ourselves (society, consistency, subservience). 
If the organization of Emerson's essays is based on the rational principle, why do many have the sense that the essays are not organized at all? This feeling comes from two other principles of organization that often obscure the rational principle: 
The principle of undulation. within each section Emerson moves back and forth between the way things should be and 
 
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the way they are. In "Self-Reliance," the undulation is between the self-reliance we should have and the lack of it we show. 
The emblematic principleo For Emerson every image and idea is emblematic or symbolic: it speaks beyond itself to its causes and consequences. Hence an image in one part. of an essay may call up, quite out of logical order, ideas explicitly developed in another part. For example, in the opening paragraph of "Self-Reliance" Emerson uses the figure of the inner light gleaming. Thus in the first part (Definition) he is already touching on the second part (proof), which sets forth the inner light, or intuition, as the authority for the idea of self-reliance. The effect is a sense in the reader of simultaneous rather than rationally progressive presentation. 
The content of II Self-Reliance." 
The three principles of organization (see above) are not only expressive of Emerson's style but reflect his vision, his philosophy, his way of seeing the universe. To gain an understanding of this vision, we look at same short passages from "Self-Reliance" and ask questions about them. Emerson says, "What is true for you in your private heart is true for all men  ": Is this your experience? Do you think what you most deeply think holds for all others? Does Emerson mean that if you really get down to your own private being, what you discover there is in fact true of all others--mankind, being, somehow, one? And what does Emerson mean by genius? The creative, constructive power? Is it creative to discover in yourself what is true of all men, etc.? 
The final passage we examine is from the second part (proof) and express the authority for the idea of self-reliance. It begins: liThe magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust  It If we understand the whole passage, we are then ready to state Emerson's vision: 
Operating over, in, and through all men is a single power--we might call it God, the inner light, life force, or creative urge; but Emerson calls it the 
 
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Over-Soulo It embodies itself in the objects of Nature and in Man. This common origin in the OverSoul makes Nature the mirror of man. Thus the maxims "Know Thyself" and "Study Nature" are, in fact, the same. 
This belief that Nature and Man derive their being and meaning from the Over-Soul leads Emerson to his insistence on the unity, the harmony of all things, which he expresses in "Blight," "Each and All," and "Brahma." 
Nature perfectly embodies the Over-Soul, but Man has free will. He is free not to follow the OverSoul within him; instead he may follow the flesh, commerce, society, dead religious forms, etc. Thus he is often a dull and conforming thing rather than a self-reliant being. 
The meaning of self-reliance is ultimately God-reliance--the obedience to the divinity within, the opening up of oneself by discipline, will, purity, and virtue to the Over-Soul. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Find your own illustrations in "Self-Reliance" of each of the three principles of organization: the rational principle, the principle undulation, and the emblematic principle; or write an original essay on a similar topic using one of these principles to structure your ideas. 
Wri~e an essay pointing out the ways you may apply Emerson's concept of self-reliance to your own life or the ways in which you feel you have already demonstrated self-reliance. 
 
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Session 18. Emerson's Disciple: Thoreau 
WORKS 
Walden by Henry David Thoreau 
DISCUSSION 
Self-Reliance. Thoreau, lithe genius of Concord," is the most striking exemplar of Emerson's belief in self-reliance. His character is suggested by his concern with living not dying, by his radical independence, self-reliance, and protestantism, by his courage and fortitude and his ultimate serenity. It is in accord with these basic attributes that Thoreau went to Walden pond--to contemplate, to confront only the essential facts of life and learn what they had to teach, so that when he came to die", he would not discover he had not really lived. The record of that experience, Walden, is written in many styles and is multiple in its attitudes; yet it possesses a total unity that expresses the man who wrote it. 
The structure of Walden (simplified to the extreme) is in three parts: 
Material Economy. Chapter I, entitled "Economy," discusses the management of our physical, animal needs. For our material economy, all we need is heat (through food, clothing, shelter, and fuel). 
Thoreau finds the material economy of his fellow man lacking, out of control, or false. His reaction is one of wit and contempt. He describes young men who have inherited farms, houses, barns, etc. as becoming "serfs of the soil." He points out the absurdity in our ideas of food, clothing, and shelter and in our inventions and progress, "which distract our attention from serious things." 
His counteracting action or example of material economy is to wear old clothes, build his simple hut in the woods, and supply his own needs. 
 
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Spiritual Economy. Chapter II, entitled "Where I Lived and What I Lived for," discusses the management of our spiritual needs. 
Thoreau first attacks the foolish or repellant beliefs he finds around him. He finds the general spiritual economy idiotic in its complexity. "We live meanly like ants. Our life is ,frittered away by details." "Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths; while reality is fabulous." 
His reaction is to urge simplification of our lives, abolition of details, and tradition. "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature." "Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition," etc. 
Un this chapter we see that Thoreau's perspective is akin to Emerson's. He too believes in the Over-Soul; his metaphor for it is the morning. He too believes that within every man is genius, a capacity for life, energy, and creation, a god on whom it is truly economical to rely)  
Experience. Chapters III-~III, the third section of the book, are Thoreau's account of putting material and spiritual economy into practice. 
It has two kinds of organization: At first, it is static or analytic as Thoreau separates out the large influences on him in chapters on reading, sounds, solitude, visitors, etc. Finally, time order takes over as the chapters progress from summer to fall to winter to spring. 
Within these chapters Thoreau gives us (along with his reaction and action, his indictment of society and counteracting example) his delicate, refined, and passionate descriptions of Nature. To Thoreau everything in Nature is alive and meaningful. In 
 
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relating the battle of the ants, he reaches out from this natural experience to battles in human history, drawing an analogy between the human and insect worlds. Unlike Franklin, who used such an analogy in "The Ephemera" to make man seem insect-like and trivial, Thoreau nses this analogy for the opposite effect--to enlarge the insects and to make us aware that conflict, the struggle for survival, is the law of all life. 
Significance of Thoreau's writing for ~ today. He reminds us to be self-reliant, to simplify our lives, and to value and be at home in Nature. In his reactions and actions he stands as an example of unimpeachable integrity and truth. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Imagine you are Thoreau and are now a visitor in the modern family, high school, community, etc. Discuss the lack of material or spiritual economy in a particular phase of modern life you have observed. Use the pattern followed in Walden of reaction (your opinion of the economy presently in practice) and action (the kind of economy you advocate instead) to present your ideas. 
Session 19. "Song of Myself": Part 1 
DISCUSSION 
A declaration of independence. Whitman's Leaves of Grass ushered in America's poetic independence. It brought new forms, attitudes, and subjects to poetry. And, of course, it shocked many people of Whitman's own time who had been reared in the tradition of poems that were serious, morally uplifting, and did not threaten or attack, poems written by well-br.ed gentlemen like Bryant, Holmes, Lowell, and Longfellow. If we imagine ourselves to have been alive in 1855, members of Whitman's generation but raised in the genteel 
 
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tradition and fond of such poems as Longfellow's "The Day IS Done," we can see how shocking Leaves of Grass was. 
Its frontispiece is shocking. The picture of Whitman is the first sign of revolt. He is dressed not as a gentleman but as a tough--wearing a slouched hat, jeans a shirt open at the collar, and no coat or tie. 
Its verse is shocking. It is written without regular rhythm or rhyme; it is free verse--Ioose rhythms in long irregular phrases. 
Its egotism is shocking. It begins, "I celebrate myself." Every major nineteenth century lyric poet has himself as his own subject, but no one says this.outright as Whitman does. other passages indicate his egotism, arrogance, narcissistic self-love, and vanity: "I dote on myself  there is that lot of me, and all so luscious." 
Its sacrilege is shockinq. Whitman's attitude arout God and religion disturbs us. We, in our genteel tradition, know the C~eation was over in six days, but Whitman denies this, saying, "There was never any more inception than there is now." We have been raised to believe we are sinful, to believe that our duty is to worship God, but Whitman attacks both these ideas, preferring to live with animals, since: 
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, 
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. 
I ts emphasis .2.!l the body is 'shocking. Whitman ca talogues the body, mentions all parts; he talks of bowels-of subjects not mentioned in poetry. He insistently specifies each part of the. body as a miracle. "The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer." 
Its insistent sexuality is shocking. Not only does Whitman openly admire physical relations, but he uses sexual imagery to describe things that are not sexual. 
 
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Describing a spiritual experience, a communion between him and his soul, he begins, "1 mind how we lay in June, such a transparent summer morning  " 
structure of "Sonq of Myself." This poem is Leaves of Grass in little; it provides the key to much, if not all, that Whitman wrote; but it is difficult to master for at first it seems without structure. It has a structure, however, which may be seen in two somewhat similar ways. 
The musical structure of theme and variations. The composer takes one line of melody as his theme and explores it. varying the key, volume, tempo, etc. 
The structure of a dream or stream of consciousness. Behind a dream or an idle reverie there are likely to be one or two dominant ideas, finding expression now in one image, now in another. 
Theme of "Song of Myself." The idea that governs "Song of Myself," that finds varied expression as it adapts to different moods and experiences, that progressively reaches out and develops larger and larger meaning, is the self. 
Whitman states his theme in his title and in his opening line--"I celebrate myself, and sing myself." The self becomes representative, everyman, summing up all experience--birth, love, death, evil, good. The self includes within it the creative energy of nature. It is bursting, ebullient, unchecked, and ultimately div~ne- "Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from." Finally, the self, thus embodying universal creative energy, sees all the past as but its pedestal, all the future as but its highway. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Contrast a poem of the genteel tradition with some lines from "Song of Myself." Discuss the particular ways in which they differ. pointing out the basic attitude toward life and art implied in their different subject matter and poetic form. 
 
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To understand the reaction of many of Whitman's contemporaries to his departure from conventional subject matter and form, look at some poems by E. E. Cummings, noting his departures from conventional subjects, punctuation, and spelling. 
CHAPTER VIII. HUMOR AND SATIRE 
Session 20. Humor 
WORKS 
"The Humble Bee" by Ralph Waldo Emerson 
"They Have Yarns" by Carl Sandburg (from The people, Yes) 
DISCUSSION 
The humorous perspective. Dictionaries define humor as what is funny. This definition and other synonyms for humor-funny, amusing, comical, that which provokes laughter and mirth--do not tell us much. But the synonyms for humor remind us of their antonyms--earnest, serious, troublesome, tragical, tears, and sadness. These two lists of words make us realize there are two basic perspectives or ways of contemplating our experience, humor being one of these perspectives. 
The characteristics of humor. 
Distance ~ disengagement, the quality of make-believe, of pretending, of "for fun" rather than "in earnest." When Li'l Abner falls on his head or when one of the three stooges gets fingers poked in his eye, we are presented, not with fully apprehended pain and suffering but with some distanced representation or imitation thereof. We can laugh because we do not take the pain seriously 
Incongruity, discord, the coming together of things that do not belong or are not expected together: a square peg 
 
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in a round hole or Emerson's calling the bee in "The Humble Bee" an animated torrid~, a delightful mismating of the little and big, the bee and the globeo 
Four overlapping theories to explain why humor works on us. 
Hobbes's theory. In the 17th century Hobbes theorized that we respond with laughter, with a feeling of "sudden glory," when we feel superior to someone else. Whenever there is a butt or victim, someone puzzled or confused, we may derive a sense of gratification from our own superiority--because it is not happening to us or because we know something the other person does not know. So we laugh at a person slipping on a banana pee11 we take pleasure in puzzling people with riddles and jokes. 
Henri Bergson's theory. In the 20th century Henri Bergson theorized that we respond with laughter when man is shown acting not as a man but as a machine. When man behaves inflexibly, habitually, without adapting to changes in his environment, he falls below his human potential and behaves like a mechanism--as does the absent-minded professor who winds the cat and puts out the clock, who scratches the pancake and pours syrup down his back. Bergson's theory may explain why we experience only partial engagement in a humorous situation, for if a man behaves like a machine, it reduces our capacity to sympathize with him as a man. This theory fits Hobbes's theory, for as we see other humans behaving as machines, we as humans may feel superior. 
Humor ~ release. A third theory explains humor as dependent on release or symbolic escape. In a humorous situation or joke, we can get away with doing and saying things that are ordinarily taboo in our culture. Thus 
, the expression, "Many a truth is spoken in jest." 
Humor as awareness of human frailty. A fourth theory explains humor as a sympathetic awareness of human frailty. We laugh at the victim of jokes and comic 
 
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situations because it is ourselves we see, because we identify our own faults and foolishness with his (not because of our superiority to the victim, as in Hobbes's theory). We see this kind of benign, sympathetic humor about human frailty in Franklin--in his "regret" upon recovering from pleurisy instead of dying, in his naive belief as a youth that he could achieve moral perfection, in his tolerant humor about ladies who talk for hours about nothing, and in his account of the French lady who believes that only she is always in the right (from Franklin's Autobiography). 
FOLLOW-UP 
Read some jokes, humorous stories, or anecdotes to the class. Then discuss what theory or theories of humor most appropriately fit the humor in these selections. 
Have a panel discussion on the question: How does humor work? Discuss your own ideas of what makes us laugh as well as the four theories of humor explained in this session, illustrating your points with humorous jokes, anecdotes, and stories. 
session 21. Satire 
WORKS 
"Blight" .by RalRh Waldo Emerson 
"the cambridge ladies" by E. E. cummings 
~he Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce 
"Letter to the Gas Company (February 12, 1891)" by Mark Twain 
"Little Curtis" by Dorothy Parker 
"What's the Use?" by ogden Nash 
 
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DISCUSSION 
Definition. satire is humor made instrumental to value, humor as it points the finger at fault, humor in the service of morals. As we explore certain selections to see if they are satiric, we shall discover that there is more satire in literature than we might have thought and that it is not always easy to say if there is satire present. 
Some passages for analysiso 
A woman who escapes from East Germany in an old pair of slacks and shirt engages our sympathy and not our laughter. We approve of her values and are not concerned with the superficial incongruity of her dress. But in Nash's poem, "What's the Use?" we see another woman wearing pants. She is presented with distance, as a spectacle, and there is a striking incongruity between what she looks like from the front and from the rear. The poem is humorous and it is also satiric. It points the finger at distortions of value--in dress, in vanity. 
In The Devil's Dictionary Bierce defines a Christian as one who regards his religion as something for his neighbor to follow, not himself. The tone is detached, the definition incongruous, the vice of religious hypocrisy is pointed at. The definition is satiric. 
Twain's letter to the Gas Company complains about their poor serviceo Is this satire or not? There is incongruity--between the efficient manner in which the gas company ought to operate and the inefficiency that is, between the security and comfort the customers should feel at home and the mortal peril that is. There is also disengagement or spectacle--in Twain's imitation of a "slow burn" by his mild opening statement and his subsequent angry explosion. But though the letter is humorous, has the qualities of incongruity and disengagement, it is not satiric. The humor is not really in the service of value; rather it focuses on Twain's irr ita tion as a kind of release. We laugh at Twabi 1;8 being funny rather than at any fault of the Gas Companyo 
In Chapter II of Walden Thoreau is concerned with society's great emphasis on material rather than 
 
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spiritual values. He catches this idea in the image of tpe railroads, in the time and effort people spend building and improving the railroads instead of their own lives. There is incongruity here in the people's concern for the nation or material progress and their lack of concern for themselves or their spiritual progress. There is disengagement as Thoreau criticizes the nation, pointing up its faults, so that we are unable to feel any sympathy or admiration for it. The disengagement and incongruity point up the question of value; thus this is satire. 
other passages for analysis from Emerson's "Blight,ll Parker's II Li ttle Curtis, II' and Cummings's "the Cambridge ladies. II 
How satire works. Does it truly serve morals? Does it change the victim or butt, the person or institution attacked? Do women stop wearing slacks after reading Nash's poem? Are people more concerned with spiritual than material progress after reading Walden? Have hypocritical Christians become true Christians after reading Bierce's definition? Satire does not usually function in this way, but it can change the reader or audience. It can serve as a cautionary example, making us see how we shall be treated or regarded if we follow a certain course of conduct. And it can give us imaginative entry intQ the object of satire so that we feel what it is like~to be that object; consequently, our own values will reject that satirized value or pattern of conduct for ourselves. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss passages from newspaper editorials, books, and magazines which you think are satirical. Point out the elements of distance or disengagement and incongruity as well as the question of value in each passage. How effective do you feel each passage is as satire? 
 
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write a short satire in the form of an essay, short story, or poem. Use both techniques of humor (distance or disengagement and incongruity) so that they point up the question of value with which you are concerned. 
Session 22. Frogs, Jays and Humor 
WORKS 
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" 
"Jim Baker's Bluejay Yarn" 
DISCUSSION 
- - Twain as a humorist. Mark Twain is America's first great 
writer who was first and last a humorist. He saw human conduct and values under the aspect of the absurd; he laughed at man and satirized him because he fell so far below an idea of being that was both available to him and profoundly attractive. 
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." 
Style--dry, under-emoted, poker-faced or dead-pan. This dead-pan quality applies to the lives of Twain's characters as well as to his manner of writing: Simon Wheeler never shows any emotion in telling his story; Jim Smiley bets against Parson walker's wife's recovery; etc. 
Content--not dead-pan but extravagantly absurd. Close to the center of the absurdity are: 
The mechanizing of the human world. Characters act, not like free, flexible human beings but like machines responding to stimuli with habitual behavior; they are obsessive or compulsive. Jim Smiley has to bet, no matter what is at stake; his fifteen minute nag is always passed in a race, but getting excited near the end of the race she always gets to the finish a neck ahead. 
 
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The humanizing of the apima1 world. The animals have human names--th~dog, Andrew Jackson; the frog, Daniel Webster. The animals have human qualities--Andrew Jackson is loyal; Daniel Webster is modest, etc. The attitudes of the humans toward the animals are those appropriate toward human beings. So, Simon Wheeler says, "Andrew Jackson . . . would have made a name for hisself if he'd lived, for the stuff was in him and he had genius." Finally, the animals in their detailed and unique descriptions seem human in their eccentricities. 
The contradictions or incongruities (reinforcing the two basic patterns of absurdity--man as machine and animal as man). Wheeler appears gentle and tranquil but in reality is a talkative bore; the narrator listens to a long story about Jim Smiley though he is looking for Leonidas Smiley. 
The pattern of reversals o The nag, bull-dog, and frog are expected~o lose but win instead. There is also a reversed pattern of reversal, when the unexpected champions are unexpectedly defeated, as in the death of Andrew Jackson, the defeat of Jim Smiley. 
Narrative craftsmanship. Twain's narrative skill is indicated by his use of the multiple point of view (the story filters through Smiley to Wheeler to the narrator); the vernacular or dialect, which imitates the way people actually talk; and the vivid characterizations--of Wheeler, of Smiley, and even of the animals. 
"Jim Baker's Blue Jay Yarn." 
Narrative craftsmanshipo Twain's narrative skill is again indicated by his vivid character-strokes (as of the blue jay trying to fill the hole or Baker's innocent believing in his own story); his use of the vernacular; and his use of the multiple point of view (which permits the presentation of various and different attitudes--the narrator's, Baker's, the blue jay's), 
Content--absurd o 
The pattern of reversals. The blue jay expects to fill th~ hole but fails. 
 
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The contradictions. Baker uses poor grammar in criticizing the poor grammar of fighting cats. 
The humanizing of the animal world. The jay is described in human terms: "A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive ... " 
The mechanizing of the human world. The humanized jay proceeds to behave mechanically in his obsession with filling the hole. 
Style--again dead-pan; Baker tells the tall tale as if it were true and he really believed iL himself. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Though their works differ greatly in tone, Hawthorne and Twain employ the same stylistic device of multiple viewpoint. Compare and contrast Twain's use of this device with Hawthorne's. Tell how this device affects the believability of their stories. 
Watch for the technique of the dead-pan used in motion pictures, television, or the theater by such comedians as Jack Benny or Bob Hope. Analyze what makes the comedians use of the dead-pan funny. Apply your theory to Twain's stories. Is his use of the dead-pan funny? If so, why? If not, why not? 
Session 23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Structure, Substance, and Satire-- 
DISCUSSION 
Structure. 
As a line. In one sense the novel's structure is simply that of a journey or voyage from one place to another, as are the Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, and parts of the Aeneid. We might diagram this structure as a straight line, starting at St. Petersburg, Missouri (Chapters 1-11), passing through Cairo, Illinois (Chapters 12-31), and ending at Pikesville, Arkansas (Chapters 32-53). 
 
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As a circle. There is another way of diagramming the structure once we realize that Pikesville and St. Petersburg are, in essence, the same place. (Both places have unreal adventures spurred on by the creative imagination of Tom Sawyer; in Sto Petersburg Tom's gang plans make-believe holdups and kidnappings; in Pikesville Tom helps Huck plan Jim's escape, complicating it to make it more exciting, though Jim is already a free man. Both places have warm maternal people, Aunt Sally and the Widow Douglas, who try to care for Huck. Both places are civilized: In Pikesville and in Sto Petersburg Huck must wear clothes, sit up straight at the table, go to bed at night, never smoke tobacco, etco) Thus the structure of the novel may be seen as a journey out from and back to the same place and may be diagrammed as a circle. 
Substance. If we conceive of the structure as circular, it may remind us of a necklace on which to hang ornaments. We may then conceive of the substance or experiences of the novel as different kind of ornaments on the necklace. There are three kinds of ornaments in the novel: 
Romantic-adventurous. Experiences involving excitement, threat, danger, and triumph. There are two kinds of adventure in the novel: make-believe (Tom's gang stopping carriages, killing the men and kidnapping the ladies) and real (Huck's Pap coming at Huck with a knife to kill him). 
Nostalgic-idyllic. Experiences of quiet retrospective longing, of delight in the free and easy ways of , lazy youth (fishing, swimming, playing hooky, etc.) and experiences of rare and delicate appreciation for natural beauty (as in Huck's response to the summer storm that comes up while he and Jim are on Jackson's Island--Ch. 10). 
Humorous-satiric. Experiences filled with merriment and delightful absurdity (Old Hank Bunker falling off the shot tower and spreading himself out into a layer--Ch. 10; Emmeline Grangerford's obituary poems--Ch. 17; Huck and Jim's argument about the language the French speak--Ch. 14). 
Satiric perspectives. Twain gives us two complementary satiric views of man and his chief failings: 
Man as essentially noble and courageous (e.g., the portrait of Colonel Grangerford--Ch. 18) yet, at the 
 
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same time, radically stupid and committed by his stupidity to the destruction of all he holds valuable (eog., the feud between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, the origins of which they have forgotten)o 
Man as essentially ignoble and cowardly, and committed bY-his cowardice to the destruction of what is good and valuable in life (e.g., the village loafers who get pleasure from setting fire to a stray dog--Ch. 21; the cowardice of the lynching mob as it is scornfully talked down by Colonel Sherburn--Ch. 22). 
These two views encompass most of the people in the novel, Huck's Pap, the Duke and the Dauphin belong with the ignoble, the town loafers whom Colonel Sherburn scorns. Mary Jane, her sisters, and the Revival Preacher who lets the King dupe him out of all the donations belong with the noble but stupid Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. Huck and Jim belong to neither of these categories. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss Huck's physical journey from St. Petersburg to Pikesville as symbolic of his moral growth. Is the journey an appropriate device on which to base the plot? Might it have made any difference to Huck's moral growth if he had remained in St. Petersburg? Bring your own experience to bear on this question. How has a change of environment, a journey to a new place, affected your character or values? 
Session 24. A Sampling 
WORKS 
"Belshazzar Had a Letter," "I Had Been Hungry All the Years," "I Know Some Lonely Houses Off the Road," "I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose," "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense," "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass," "The Sky Is Low--the Clouds Are Mean." 
DISCUSSION 
Random observations. Dickinson uses her own kind 6f punctuation, a dash often replacing other marks, and she 
 
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capitalizes words that we would not ordinarily capitalize. The titles of her poems come from the first lines. 
"The Sky Is Low--the Clouds Are Mean." 
Compare this poem to the nature poems of other poets-poems suggesting that nature is perfect or superior to man (e.g., Emerson's "The Snow Storm") or poems suggesting that nature calms man or gives him a sense of God's divine plan (Emerson's "The Rhodora," Bryant's "To a Waterfowl"). Dickinson makes nature neither perfect nor divine but human. The flake "debates," the wind "complains." The adjectives and verbs relating to nature are psychological or spiritual as well as physical in their meaning and endow nature with unpleasant traits--the sky is "low," the clouds are "mean," the wind is "narrow." But Dickinson catches up all these belittling images in the single, enlarging image of Nature as "Queen," and then catches mankind up in the same enlarging image--we too have "diadems," though we, like Nature, do not always wear them. 
"I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose." 
In this poem Dickinson presents a vivid picture of sunrise and sunset. She catches the different quality of each event in the two kinds of action and imagery of the poem: there is the quick active movement at sunrise (the steeples swam, the news ran like squirrels) contrasted with the slow movement o~unset (the Dominie gently leading the children away) 0 There are the many separate images of sunrise contrasted with the single composite image of sunset. The final image, sunset, also adds a spiritual or religious dimension to the poem, the Dominie and his flock reminding us of the Psalm, "The Lord is My Shepherd." 
Further sampling. Analysis of "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass," "I Know Some Lonely Houses Off the Road," "I Had Been Hungry All the Years," "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense," and "Belshazzar Had a Letter m under the following critical headings: subjective and objective language, literal and connotative meaning, the development of mood, and the concept of "physic reconnaissance" or exploration of spiritual states. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Where there is a conflict in interpretation of certain lines of Dickinson's poetry, try rewriting those lines using 
 
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modern punctuation and capitalization. Does the addition of modern punctuation and capitalization clarify your interpretation of the meaning? Does it fit the poem? Compare your rewritten version with that of other students. 
Consider a Dickinson poem as new territory to explore and develop a list of general questions to serve as a guide for your exploration. What kind of imagery does the poet use? What kind of diction? What are the connotations at work in the poem, and how do they function? You may develop your own list or work in groups and then pool the group lists into one. Apply this list to other poems you read; supplement it with new questions that occur to you or that arise in class discussion. 
Session 250 The Red Badge of Courage: Part I 
DISCUSSION 
The story tells of the baptism of fire of a green boy and a green regiment, of their failure, recovery, and growth. Both pass from innocence into experience, from boyhood into manhood. 
Contrast between nature and man. In this novel man's war, violence, and destruction are-set off and made more striking by the vision of nature as quiet, beautiful, and benign. After the first battle Henry is astonished at the "blue, pure sky and the sun gleaming on the trees and fields" (Ch. V); there is the peaceful twilight scene within the woods at the end of the first day of violent battle (Ch. VIII); etc. 
What does this contrast mean? Is it to suggest that man's war violates nature's calm and serenity? If so, how explain the recurrent comparisons between the human army and the beasts of nature--e.g., the regiment as a reptile (Ch. II)? Or how explain the small animal's pouncing on a fish, an act of violent and predatory nature that Henry witnesses immediately after he has convinced himself that peace and flight are the laws of nature (Ch. VII)? The contrast leads us to the question whether the novel presents war as unnatural or natural, whether man, in fighting, acts against nature's law or with it. 
Historyo In the novel Crane gives us pictures of fighting during the Civil War--the regiment standing up, shoulderto-shoulder, making a target of itself; one man carrying 
 
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the flag unarmed; the regiment crossing a field in close order and without taking cover; etc. These pictures, absurd in the light of what we know today about war, may suggest that Crane knew nothing about war. Pictures from the Civil War, however, show that Crane described the war as it was actually fought. 
Techniqueo Crane makes us experience war as the youth experiences it--through the eyes, through the ears, through the various distortions of terror, fatigue, and exhaustion. The technique is one of visual surfaces-the rendering of the external appearances of things. The surfaces are usually selected: Crane does not give us all, only an image here, a sharp vision there. The images often occur in sequences, as in a montage. The images are usually vivid--they come in sharp colors, not in pastels. More often than not they are off-beat or distorted o Usually they involve motion or change; and usually they employ contrast--in color, between motion and stillness, between violence and calm, between masses of men and the individual. Finally, they usually develop by analogy or comparison, one image being expressed in the terms of another. 
Illustrations: the light of the dawn like a yellow rug, and against it, the figure of the colonel on his horse (Ch. II). The tents like strange plants, the camp fires like blossoms (Ch. II). The "white bubble eyes" looking at the men from the stream they cross (Ch. III). The motionless profiles of the regiment, with the moving throng of men and officers around them (Ch. IV). The "fantastic contortions" of bodies on the battlefield (Ch. V). The "tiny battery . . . dashing along the line of the horizon" (Ch. V). The procession of wounded men and their different reactions to their wounds (Ch.VIII)o The sun "pasted in the sky like a wafer" (Cho IX). 
These are the ways Crane addresses the story to our eyes. Does this method of presenting experience matter? If so, how? 
Tone. Balancing the striking visual technique is the tone of flat irony, of amusement, detached humor, and tongue-incheek awareness of absurdity, The novel's title is ironic: the youth sees a wound as a "red badge of courage," but the wound he receives is from a cowardly soldier who is also running away. Occasionally the irony is less benign than savage, as when Henry reaches a chapel-like place in the forest (which accords with his conception of nature as 
 
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peaceful and gentle) and there discovers a dead man sitting against a tree, his face covered by ants (Ch. VII). This flat or ironic tone gives us distance or detachment from the experience as it is presented, 
Death. What does this nOVEl of war and death say about death? It shows the youth's varying views of death--as worst of evils, as a rest, as a release~ as a justification for fleeing. His experience~ With death are many, but the novel focuses on three. 
The discovery of the dead soldier whose foot projects from his worn shoe shows death as strange, alien, betraying, and pauperizing (Ch. III). The discovery of the corpse whose face is covered by ants in the chapel of the forest shows death as horrible, desecrating, and corrupting (Ch. VII). The death of the tall soldier, Jim Conklin, shows death as a ritual, a rendez-vous or communion with a kind of mad deity. 
All of these experiences let us see death from the outside or impressionistically. Nowhere is death understood, mastered, rationalized. At the end of the novel, however, though the youth has not penetrated the meaning of death, Crane suggests that he has come to terms with death, that he has become a man. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss the different aspects of Crane's visual technique. Find other illustrations of his technique in the novel. What is the effect of this technique on the reader? Is it appropriate to the subject of the novel? If so, why? If not, why not? 
What is heroism? Are there different kinds of heroism displayed in the novel? If so, what are the differences between them? Compare the final heroism of Henry Fleming with the heroism of Fred Collins in Crane's short story, "A Mystery of Heroism." 
Session 26. The Red Badge of Courage: Part 11 
J)ISCUSSION 
To become a man. This novel concerns the passage from innocence to experience, from adolescence to maturity, 
 
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from boyhood to manhood of Henry and his regiment. To understand the novel, we must understand what it means to become a man. 
One interpretation. We may see the novel as presenting a-familiar four-step process of growing from boyhood to manhood. Step 1: error or failure. Step 2: repentance-consciously willing rectification or improvement. Step 3: action--the putting the will into motion, deliberately doing something to bring about rectification or improvement. Step 4: success (and manhood). 
Henry fails when he flees from battle. He repents after he witnesses Jim Conklin's death and begins to understand what heroism means. He acts by returning to his regiment and performing fearlessly in battle. He succeeds in his action and is recognized and applauded by the lieutenant. 
This interpretation, however, does not fit the facts. It imposes on the novel a stereotype that examination shows to be irrelevant. It assumes a hero who repents-and Fleming does not. It assumes a hero who chooses and acts, who does things knowingly and consciously--but Fleming does not choose, and when he acts it is only half consciously. He is a man divided, his conscious and reflective mind operating only occasionally and at a distance from the rest of him. Instead of choosing, he drifts. Only at the end does he begin to look back at himself and have self-knowledge. 
A search for a second interpretation. Examination of a series of passages demonstrates the invalidity of the interpretation described above and opens the way to a new interpretation. 
Chapter V, the first battle. Henry fights automatically, as if in sleep. His rage is that of a driven beast. 
Chapter VI, the flight. Henry's flight from battle, like his fighting, seems without purpose. He acts like an unreasoning beast, not a rational human being. 
Chapter IX, Conklin's death. Henry learns nothing from Conklin's death; he engages in no meditation or comparison of his life with Conklin's. R~ther, the chapter ends with the image of the sun "pasted 
 
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on the sky like a wafer" ("wafer" in the nineteenth century commonly meaning a paste combination used to seal letters), suggesting the close of the letter of conklin's life, not the communication of its influence 0 
Chapter X, the tattered man's actions. Henry learns nothing from the tattered man's capacity for human admiration, courage, and generosity--except that he cannot protect himself from the tattered man's devastating questionso Fearing these questions as well as the horror of the tattered man's impending death, he deserts him, not caring to help another human being. 
Chapter XII, the accident and return. Henry receives a wound from a cowardly soldier he is trying to question. Unknowingly, he is led back to his regiment by a friendly soldier, who comes upon him as he is seeking a secluded spot to escape in his misery. Thus, neither his wound nor his return is purposeful or a movement toward redemption. His actions are still automatic, animallike, the result of chance acting upon him. 
Chapter XV, the next morning. Henry's patronizing air in returning the packet of letters to the loud soldier, who was kind to him, shows he has learnai nothing--except that the punishment one ought to receive comes slowly and blindly. Here he is farther from grace than he was in his moment of panic and flight. 
Chapter XVII, heroism. Henry acts heroically in battle, but it is not the heroism of a rational human being, only the hate, the rage, the unconscious and automatic action of a fighting animal. 
Chapter XIX, the heroism of the regiment, and the flag. The regiment, like Henry, fights with mac enthusiasm, in a kind of delirium that is heedless of leath. Henry succeeds in getting the flag, which he regards as if it were a woman or goddess who could protect him from harm. Like a delirious savage, he rushes forward carrying it without a weapon. 
 
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Chapter XIII, the victory. Again, Henry and the regiment exhibit wild enthusiasm and sublime recklessness as they make a blind and despairing rush toward a fence, which they succeed in capturing. 
~us we see no growth from failure to success. Instead we see only an animal growth, the growth of the human beast in its ability to fight--the same growth expected of a dog or race-horse that learns to do its tasks efficiently and function well. 
A ~ satisfactory interpretation. In Chapter XXIV, however, the last chapter in the novel, we seem to see something else--a human growth. Henry looks back and examines his deeds, his failures and his achievement. And he seems to discover certain things ("seems" because it may be questioned whether Crane makes the discovery convincing). He discovers that he must see himself as he truly is, not through the trappings of the romantic imagination. He discovers that individual heroism is relatively unimportant: only in group or communal action is there value and meaningo He discovers that between man and man moral obligation exists--and so he sees that his real crime was not flight but his desertion of the tattered man in his hour of need. These understandings are adult understandings. To arrive at them is what Crane seems to mean ultimately when he speaks of becoming a man. 
FOLLOW-UP 
From what Crane tells you directly and from your own inferences from the novel, write a description of Henry's actions during his panic and flight on the second day of battle--as seen through the eyes of the following persons: Henry, the lieutenant of.the regiment, the tattered man, Jim Conklin, and the loud soldier. Imagine they were somehow able to witness the event. Then discuss the way their descriptions differ. What are the differences in the values and attitudes of these men? 
 
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CHAPTER XII~, DRAMA 
Session 27. The play Seen 
WORKS 
- - - - - Our Town by Thornton Wilder 
(professor William Halstead of the Department of Speech of the University of Michigan joins in discussing the question of how the play seen differs from the play read and from other forms of literature. Actors present portions of three scenes from Our Town: the conversation between George Gibbs and his father about chopping wood in Act I, the conversation between Emily Webb and her mother while they are shelling beans in Act I, and the drugstore conversation between George and Emily in Act II.) 
DISCUSSION 
The impact of the ~~. The play seen has greater impact than literature that is merely read. It has greater power to move us. In acted drama we see real people doing real things in surroundings that have visual reality. The play lodges in our minds as an actual happening, even if it is badly acted. Hence the drama is often used for propaganda purposes--by the Soviet Union today, by the Abolitionists in America in the nineteenth century (who dramatized Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin). 
Sources of impact. 
Interpretation. Other literature interprets itself (so far as it does) in words, in the narrator's commentaries and analyses. The written play contains no such interpretation: it offers only dialogue and action. But the acted play comes to its audience with an interpretation built in--by the tones and gestures of the actors, by their pacing and movement, by their placement and grouping. The acting is interpretation. This interpretation, by actors and directors, is the result of two steps. 
 
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rmpressiono Theywork to arrive at an over-all impression of the play's idea or point. They determine, for example, whether Our Town is meant to offer an escape into the romantic pastoralism of the nineteenth century or whether it is meant to engage its audience in values relevant and meaningful to life today. They work, too, to arrive at valid impressions of individual scenes, episodes, and speeches--to determine, for example, whether Dr. Gibbs, talking to George about the wood chopping, is aware or unaware of the effect of his words on his son, whether he ends the discussion in embarrassment or merely pretends embarrassment, etc. 
Expression. Having arrived at an over-all impression of the play's meaning, and at a series of particular impressions of the sense of individual scenes, the actors and director turn themselves to the problem of expressing or communicating these impressions to the audience-through facial expression, gesture, movement, costume, etc. 
particularizing. The written play is like other literature in its generality. The things it names are classes of things, not individual things. The heroine, for example, may be young, brunette, bright--but a thousand or a million different girls could fit the description: it is a description of a class, not an individual. But the play acted gives us the particular. The girl we see as Emily is an individual, not a class. Her peculiar combination of physical features, expressions, gestures, postures stamps her as unique. So for all the other characters. So for the clothing, the scenery, the properties 0 They are not general but particular. 
Specifyingo The acted play, moreover, specifies much that is not in the written play. It 
 
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fills in the facial expressions, the gestures, the whole physical interplay of persons engaged in dialogue. When Emily and her mother shell beans, for example, the actors now look at each other, now turn apart. Their hands move or stop moving 0 One turns up her nose. The other looks off into the starry distance, etc. These things are not in the written play, but they are in the acted play. 
Live action. Literature communicates through the written word--black marks on white paper. It gives nothing to our eyes or ears directly. But the acted play communicates through sight and sound, through flesh and blood speaking and moving on the stage. So we ~ George looking at Emily; so we hear her replies to him. 
A final compliment to the play acted: whenever people want to praise a piece of literature for its power, they call it "dramatic." 
FOLLOW-UP 
Read or perform a scene in class from Qur Town or any other play you have been studying. Compare your performance or reading with that of other students or professional actors (heard on records or on the radio, seen in the theater or on television). Discuss the differences in impression and expression of the two readings. How do these differences affect the interpretation of the scene or, perhaps, even of the playas a whole? 
Imagine you are directing a particular scene from Our Town. Explain your interpretation of the scene~ Discuss your general impression, the actors you would cast in the dif~ ferent parts (picking actual actors from the theater, radio, or television, or people you know who would fit the parts), and some of the ways you would have your actors express the meaning--through their manner of speech, movement, dress, makeup, etc. 
 
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Session 28. The play Read 
WORKS 
lIe by Eugene O'Neill 
DISCUSSION 
The resemblance of plays read to narrative fiction. The critical or analytical categories we use for plays are the same as those we use for stories--as an examination of lIe makes clear 0 ("Ile" 'is a New England way of pronouncing " oi1. II) 
The exposition gives the settinq and situation--a compartment of the whaling steamer, The Atlantic Queen, ice-bound in the northern seas for almost a year. The men are half-starved, the food is dwindling, the captain's wife is losing her mind, and the ship has taken in no "ile." An over-all mood of somber oppressiveness derives from the separate moods of the different individuals--the sullen exhaustion of the men, the dull terror and incipient madness of the wife, the grim determination of the captain. The theme is the obsessive and destructive pow~r qf pride. It is realized in the characters and plot--more particularly, in Captain Keeny and his major choices. 
In Captain Keeny's conflict with the men about returning home, he chooses to stay. In the same conflict with his wife, he decides to go, to return home. The crisis occurs when "ile" is discovered (a school of whales is sighted) and he chooses, finall~ to .stay. "'Ile" becomes a symbol of his pride--which he chooses to satisfy at the expense of humanity for his men and love for his wife. 
Drama, like narrative fiction, gives a structured presentation of characters in action--a presentation which works toward or reveals a meaning. So it is that in most high school and college literature classes, plays are treated as if they were simply another kind of story. 
 
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Differences between plays read and narrative fiction. The main differences between plays and stories derive from the single fact that a play is written to be performed. 
Form. For the sake of the director and stage manager, a play always opens with a list of characters and a series of visual descriptions of the stage setting-cf. recipes for cooking or instructions for performing an experiment in chemistry or physics. A story may open in various ways--with dialogue or action or des.:cription. 
Tense. A play is written in the present tense o The action is happening now. The speeches are being spoken now. We have, consequently, a sense of immediacy lacking in narrative fiction, which is customarily in the past tense. 
=p~o~i~n~t~_o_f _v_i_ew_. The point of view of a play is dramatic-that is, there is no intermediary between the audience and what it witnesses; there is no explicit interpretation of what is going on in the characters' lives and minds. The point of view of a story may be dramatic, but it is customarily something else--third person omniscient, first person limited--and so permits the explicit interpretation that plays exclude. 
Mode. A play's content is expressed in dialogue and action. Fiction may use description and analysis as well. 
Reference 0 Though a play imitates life, it gives us life rendered through the medium of the theater, and our minds are constantly referred to the fact of the stage as we read. We are aware of the concentration of place that the stage makes necessary, the careful motivating of the various actLons to bring them to the place that has been selected for the stage setting, and we are aware, ultimately, that it is the stage we are contemplating and not life direct when we come to the final description: liThe Curtain Falls." 
 
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FOLLOW-UP 
The theme of IIIle"--the obsessive and destructive power of pride--occurs often throughout literature. Compare O'Neill's treatment of this theme with its treatment in other plays, novels, or stories. 
pick a vivid passage from a short story or novel and rewrite it as a scene from a play. Choose your words carefully to convey as much as you can of the content of the narrative passage through only dialogue and action. Follow the form of the written drama in putting your scene on paper--beginning with the cast of characters, description of setting, and then the dialogue (including stage directions). 
CHAPTER XIII-ERNEST HEMINGWAY 
Session 29. Focus on Death 
WORKS 
"A Day's wait, II 
liThe Killers," 
"Old Man at the Bridge." 
DISCUSSION 
Life and Art. There is a close correspondence between Hemingway's life and writing. In his youth Hemingway went hunting, fishing, and camping up in Michigan, as does the boy Nick in his short stories; Hemingway drove an ambulance in World War I, as does the hero of his novel Farewell to Arms; etc. This close correspondence invites us to read his stories as an interpretation of his life, but we are not yet ready for this. Our concern will be with his work alone. 
 
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"A Day's Wait" 
Style. Hemingway's style here is not like Poe's--melodramatic and highly evocative, inviting emotional response in the reader, as in "The Fall of the House of Usher." It is not like Crane's--impressionistic, as in "The Blue Hotel" and The Red Badge of Courage. It is not like Hawthorne's--superficially clich6d, as in "The Ambitious Guest." 
Hemingway's style is laconic. (This word derives from the ancient Laconians, who, when beseiged by their enemies and threatened, if conquered, with destruction, replied with one word: "ifo") The laconic style is understated, unadorned, ironic: it gives the facts without emotional interpretation. Its power depends on its precision or accuracy and on its arrangement or placement of facts so that they comment on each other, creating irony or contradiction. Ironically, the father plays, he goes hunting, at the same time the son lies abed thinking he is dying. 
Contento This story focuses on death, on the agony of facing one's own death. Hemingway shows the boy's pathetic heroism, his stoic determination to take death with dignity, with self-discipline. The boy not only holds onto an ideal of manly fortitude but lives up to it until the threat of death is past. 
"Old ~ at the Bridge" 
Style. The style is again laconic. The details are given with great precision, and are arranged so that irony emerges-as in the old man's futile concern with life in the midst of death. 
Content. The \story concerns the nothingness of defeat, the uncomprehended emptiness of life, the loss cf all meaning. The old man's response, in the face of death and destruction, is not the stoic fortitude of the boy in "A Day's Wait," but sheer vacuous weariness. He retreats into the trivialities of the past because he has no present, no future. Hemingway invites pity toward his old man as he did toward the boy in itA Day's wait": both are confronted by something too big for them. 
 
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"The Killers" 
style. As in the other stories, Hemingway gives the details here without emotional interpretation. Everything is understated. The ironies are pronounced and multiplied by the wit of Max and AI, the two killers, and by the series of reversals or unexpected changes in the story: the killers expect their victim, Ole Andreson, to come to the diner, but he does not come; it is Mrs. Hirsch's rooming house, but Mrs. Bell runs it. Yet, there is a deeper irony here--one deriving from the resemblance of this story to ancient Greek tragedy. In that tragedy the furies, the destructive agents of the god~ are sent to punish the hero, who has vio~ated the divine laws; the hero is given the opportunity to speak, to confront his agony verbally. In this story, however, the furies are without classic dignity. They are only a pair of hired killers, ugly vaudeville twins--aggressive, self-assertive, and sadistic. The hero, Ole Andreson, has no magnificent verbal agony; his voice is muted, his energies exhausted. Thus we see the ironic shrinking of the gre~t pattern of classic tragedy to something that is half-comic and entirely mean. 
Content. The little world of this story, like that of the world of war in "Old Man at the Bridge," is one in which the human community is broken down. people are known less by their human characteristics than by group or racial characteristics. Thus Andreson is the '!Swede," Sam is the "Nigger, It Max and Al joke about a "kosher convent." This is a world of alienation, of human separation--where death stalks in the form of two killers. The story concerns Ole Andreson and the way he confronts death. He is "like the old man of "Old Man at the Bridge" in his weariness and like the boy of "A Day's Wai t" in his fear. But he lacks the old man's escape into trivality and the boy's stoic fortitude. The story is even more concerned, however, with Nick's confrontation of death. To Nick the experience is shattering. He cannot accommodate his mind and feeling to it. His only defense is to escape, to run away--a gesture which we realize is fruitless. The characters in Hemingway's fiction, like the people in the real world, discover that death cannot be escaped. 
 
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FOLLOW-UP 
Present an analysis of a Hemingway short story in front of your class. In arriving at the meaning of the story, concentrate on Hemingway's precision and arrangement of detail. Ask yourself why those particular details occur in the story and why they are arranged as they are. Examine the ironies or contradictions created by the arrangemept of details to see what light they shed on the meaning. Compare the results of your analysis with that of your fellow students. 
Write a description of an event or action using Hemingway's laconic style. Try to express, without stating it directly, the meaning of the event or its tone or feeling--just by your selection and arrangement of detail; or take an objective report of an event from the newspaper and rewrite it. Keep the same basic subject, but select and arrange the details to express your opinion or feeling about the event without-stating it directly. 
Session 30G The Old Man and the Sea: Part 1 
DISCUSSION 
Resemblances to "Big Two-Hearted River." The Old Man and the Sea, a simple, linear account of a fishing trip, inevitably invites comparison with "Big Two-Hearted River." Both are fish stories with the central figure alone in nature, trying to make a catch. Both carefully itemize the events of the fishing, the appearance of nature, and the feelings of the hero toward nature. Both show a special heightened quality of self-discipline in the hero as well as some failing. some disease or inadequacy (Nick's spiritual illness from which he is trying to recover, Santiago's cramping and traitorous left hand). Finally, both are written in a style that is laconic and vivid, that gives us the things themselves for whatever power of feeling and meaning they have within them--as in the sharp details of color and form at the moment of the marlin's death. 
 
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Differences. 
 
Length. The novel is three times as long as the short story. 
 
Setting. The story is set on a small river; the novel, on the great ocean. 
 
Goal. Nick fishes for the small brook trout; santiago for the giant marlin. 
 
Nature _o_f _t_h_e ~A~c~t~l~'o~n (Relevance). Nick's fishing is sport; santiago's is livelihood--it is his calling. 
 
Simplicity. 
 
As Nick lives on the shore of the river, his simplicity is artificial, a kind of play--not his normal way of living; Santiago's simplicity is of the essence-part of his everyday experience. 
 
Maturity. 
 
Nick, a young man, has just entered on the experiences of maturity; he has been bruised and repelled by them, and has retreated to find his way back to health again. Santiago, a very old man, has repeatedly met the conflicts and strains of life, come to terms with, and gone past them--he is maturity matured. 
 
These differences reveal that the novel presents its experience directly, in depth and breadth; it is more central and more comprehensive than the story. This greater centra~ity and comprehensiveness show up in further differences between the novel and the short story. 
 
Spe~cll. Nick speaks ra~ely# Santiago talks repeatedly-to the warbler, to the marlin, to himself--so that we get to know his mind, his attitudes and values, with a richness and detailed depth denied us as we look at Nick. 
 
Thought. Nick tries not to think; Santiago thinks all the time. His mind reaches out in all directions-musing, inquiring, assessing, analyzing--so that, again, we get to know his mind, values, and attitudes in a Nay 
 
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denied us as we look at Nick. 
 
S~andards. 
 
Nick's one memory, the summer on the Black River with Hopkins, serves as a standard, an image of perfection against which he measures himself and the present moment, but it is obscure and vague in definition. santiago has several standards, which.are clearly developed so that their values are sharply defined. 
 
The memory of his victory over the Negro dock worker clearly defines his values of courage, endurance, and perseverance. His image of Joe Dimaggio playing baseball with a bone spur in his heel defines his admiration of heroic selflessness and serves to strengthen and console him as he fights the marlin. 
 
His dream of the lions is another standard 
the me~rt}ng of which is less clear and pre- 
cise. ~he lions emerge from beyond the worl~ of conflict and endeavor, of sex and death, to suggest some central mystery 
of vaLue in which grace, power, love, and joy cb~bine to inspire the old man and affirm his worth and that of his world. 
 
Precision. Nick's actions are exceedingly precise, but 
his precision is in part a matter of sickness, of convalescent insecurity. santiago's actions are exceedingly precise, but his precision is a matter of his craftsman's excellence, of health, not sickness--as we see when he meditates on the exact depth of his fishing lines. 
 
Raine Because he is convalescing, Nick avoids pain. santiago does not. He takes it--enduring the pain of the rope across his back for three days, the pain of his cramped hand, of his exhausted body, etc. 
 
Adventure. Because he is convalescing, Nick avoids the "tragic'; adventure of fishing in the swamp. santiago, 
 
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instead of avoiding the adventure, goes out to meet it in the "swamp" of the oceano In full health he enters into his experience and realizes its meaning-in its victory, in its defeat. 
Mode 0 "The Big Two-Hearted River" is, in a sense, a comedy--a happy interlude ending happily (though with overtones of trouble ahead) 0 The Old Man and the Sea is a tragedy--the direct confrontation of a great challenge, the achivement of the fullest human potential, the enduring of the fullest defeat, and the fullest confrontation of the meaning of that defeat so that its end is not defeat but affirmation. 
Allusion. Nick's story ripples outward with shadowy suggestions of a blasted world and man's alienation therein. Santiago's story ripples outward more clearly and sharply. The imagery alludes to Christ and the crucifixion. The old man, seeing the shovel-nosed sharks converging on his boat, says " I Ay I "--a noise a man "might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood." The old man, returned from his defeat, struggling up the hill with the mast on his back, suggests the picture of Christ struggling up the hill of Calvary with His cross on His back. Thus the novel implies some sort of kinship with the greatest of western tragedies--the crucifixion of Christ for the redemption of the world. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Discuss the explanation of tragedy given in the outline under Mode--the ideas of the challenge, the achievement, the defeat, the confrontation of meaning, and the affirmation. Explain these ideas as they are embodied in Hemingway's novel. How is it possible to have affirmation after defeat? Does this same pattern occur in any other tragedy you have read? If so, compare and contrast it with the tragic pattern Hemingway uses here. 
 
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CHAPTER XIV. ROBERT FROST 
Session 31. A Sampling 
WORKS 
"Acquainted with the Night," "Choose Something Like a Star," "Forgive, 0 Lord, My Little Jokes on Thee," "It Takes All Sorts of In and Outdoor Schooling," "Lines Written in Dejection on the Eve of Great Success," "Mending Wall," "Never Again Would Bird's Song Be the Same," "The Objection to Being Stepped On," "The Pasture." 
(On April 2, 1962, Robert Frost delivered an address and read some of his poems at the University of Michigan, where some forty years before he had served as poet-inresidence 0 The Midwest program on Airborne Television Instruction received exclusive right to make a videotape of this performance, portions of which are used in this and the following telecasts. The other readings of Fros~s poems are by professor Donald Hall of the English Department of the University of Michigan, a poet, a friend and former student of Frosto) 
DISCUSSION 
"The Pasture" 
This delicate poem, the first in Frost's Collected Poems, is an invitation to share in the meaning and delight of simple, natural things in their springtime freshness. These things are caught in the images of tmpasture spring (stanza #1) and the little, calf (stanza #2). The images are literal and symbolic--they stand for Frost's world of poetry as well as his world of nature, both of which we are invited to enter by his "You come too." The language is simple, conversational. It uses colloquial contractions--"I'm," "That's," "It's" and "shan't"--and the words are predominantly monosyllables. The verse form is a slightly unusual quatrain which rhymes abbc o The fo~th line is short but with a long caesural pause that sets up the "You come too." 
 
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"It Takes All Sorts of In and Outdoor Schooling" 
This couplet tells us that we need for Frost's poetry, not book learning alone but all of our experience. It suggests the kind of good humor, play, or fooling we shall see in other Frost poems. 
"Forgive, 0 Lord, My Little Jokes .2!! Thee" 
This couplet mentions Frost's jokes on God, which we find occasionally in his poetry, but does not explain God's "great big joke' on Frost--perhaps because it is obvious. 
"Lines written in Dejection .2!! the Eve of Great Success" 
This title is humorous since it is unusual to experience dejection before success. The two quantrains of this poem combine the idea of the old nursery rhyme ("Hey diddle diddle / The Cat and the fiddle / The Cow jumped over the moon") with the idea of the technological triumphs of the space age, the moon shots, etc. Is there a hint of deeper meaning beneath the light and absurd surface of this poem? Is the dejection mere whimsey or something more? 
'''Mending Wall" 
Like "The pasture," this ils a spring poem about simple things which become symbolic, written in easy, conversational language. It is different in form, however, since it is in blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter  In the opening two lines Frost suggests there is a hostile force at work breaking down walls. This idea presents a logical question since all man-made and natural works are destroyed in time. Certainly Frost is aware of this. What, then, is he doing here?  Frost goes on to define the kind of breaking down of walls he means--it is not the kind done by hunters. We shall see repeatedly in Frost this quality of separating one thing from another, of rational discrimination     The poem progressively questions the activity of mending walls or of making them at all. The poem ends with the images of the neighbor, who believes that "Good fences make good neighbors," carrying stones to mend the wall, "like an old-stone savage armed," moving "in darkness  0 not of wood only and the shade of trees." This suggests the darkness, the primitiveness and savagery in man1s desire for the walls that separate men. 0  Can 
 
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we refute Frost1s argument by saying that walls are the expression of civilization? Walls separate and discriminate, making order out of chaos. If this is true, does it change the meaning or significance of Frost's poem? 
ItChoose Something Like ~ star" 
In this poem we see Frost's careful interlinking of rhymes. Again there is the device of careful, rational discrimination as the speaker asks the star to speak in the precise language of science--in degrees of Centigrade and Fahrenheit. But the star says something to the human spirit instead. Frost alludes to "Keats' Eremitel' (cf. Keats1s sonnet, IIBright star," line 4) to suggest the holiness and stability of the star. He moves outward in meaning so that the star becomes symbolic of any high, noble, steadfast standard of conduct or value that can speak to the human spirit. 
ItAcquainted with the Night" 
The mood of isolation or loneliness in this poem is developed with cumulative force by a series of images-the night, walking in the rain, passing the furthest city light, etco--and by a series of unobtrusive technical devices: parallel grammatical structure introducing items in a series (It I have been," "I have walked," III have outwalkedll--stanza #l,lines l-3)r echoing and varying of words to develop tension between them ("walked out and back out-walkedlt)r making the last line the same as the first so that the poem comes full circler rhyming in the pattern known as terza rima--aba bcb cdc dedr and bringing this form to a close with a couplet-ee--so that the whole poem becomes a sonnet. 
"The Objection to Being Stepped Onll 
This light, humorous poem is one of Frost1s little jokes on God. In it he alludes to Isaiah 2:4, which says that at the coming of the kingdom of God the people IIshall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks .. II 
 
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ltNever Again Would Bird's Song Be the Same" 
This sonnet of delicate praise is traditional in'form and subject. Its power derives not only from the lyric quality of the praise of the woman's voice but from the reversal of the traditional way of regarding Evels importance in the Garden of Eden. In this poem, Eve lives in the song of the birds and thus is the source of manls joy and happiness, not his pain and death. 
Generalizations about Frost's poetry. In technique Frost is exceedingly various and skillful and at the same time quiet and unobtrusiveo He writes in many different forms of verse--couplets, quatrains, blank verse, terza rima, sonnets.. He uses a conversational, even colloquial language--tending toward the simple, but not the simpleminded. His images are things, first of all--pasture, calf, wall, etc.--but these things are invested with larger meanings so that they become symbolic. He has a wide range of tones and moods--simple meditation, quiet irony, humor, melancholy, reverence, etc o He counters or balances the strong moods in his poetry with a suggestion of careful rational discrimination--defining, distinguishing, articulating. He is repeatedly concerned with human values cl as we see in "Choose Something Like a star," "Mending wall," liThe Pasture. 1I putting these qualities together, we get the character of the speaker in these poems--the unpretentious man of good sense and good humor, who has no side, puts on no airs, and claims no special authority, who comments on what we see but fail to observeo 
FOLLOW-UP 
Look at some Frost poems that you have not studied. Make a list of words Frost uses in these poems which, out of context or standing by themselves, suggest larger meanings or symbolize many different ideas or qualities. For example, out of context the word darkness (from "Mending Wall," line 41) may suggest ignorance, fear, confusion, 
 
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suffering, death, superstition, etc. with each word on your list explain what you think it suggests and why. Then go back to the individual poems. Looking at each word in context, which of the possible symbolic meanings of the words does Frost seem to be.-cal1.ing- upon and why? Or is there another symbolic meaning you had not considered? Are you justified to interpret the symbolic meaning of words in a poem or of the poem as a whole any way you want? What makes one interpretation more valid than another? 
Session 32. Simplicity and Complexity 
WORKS 
"Birches," "Neither Out Far Nor In Deep," "Feril of Hope," "The Road Not Taken~1 "stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost o "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by Eo E. cummings, "The Waste Land" by T. s.,. Eliot, "Botanist on Alp (no.l)" by Wallace Stevens. 
DISCUSSION 
Style. 
Contrasted with the styles of cummings, Eliot, and Stevens, which are complex, difficult and obscure on the surface, Frost's style on the surface is simple and clear. Beneath the surface, however, it is richly complex--as the following poems illustrate. 
"The Road ~ Taken." The poem develops from the common experience of having to choose, at a fork in the road, which way to take. In stanza #1 the choice seems a small one. Stanza #2 gives us the values underlying the dhoice, which are clear though a bit odd--the speaker chooses the road that is off the beaten track. In stanza #3, line 5, the choice is invested with larger significance by the 
 
 99 
words "I doubted if I should ever ~ back,it which suggest the finality of the choice: it begins to be important--unalterable, irredeemable. By the last stanza the choice has become the single most important choice in the life of the speaker. The woodland roads have become the roads of life, and the choice, now regarded with melancholy, has been for a kind of life that is off the beaten track, wild, and lonely. 
It Nei ther Out ~ Nor In Deep. n This poem is based on the common experience of people at the seashore ~ooking out at the sea. stanza #1 seems simple and literal enough, but its language of superlatives--the people all turn one waY.o.all day--is odd and suggests larger meaning. This meaning begins to emerge in stanza #3 with the abstraction It truth. It The land-sea contrast has something to do with the truth, but Frost leaves in doubt the question of where the truth lies. There is a suggestion, however, of the old metaphor of the ocean of life toward which man instinctively turns. In the last stanza the literal mean~ ing is obvious, even banal--the people are unable to It look out far lt or "in deep. It Yet the language may be taken figuratively as an assertion of the limitation of human vision, of the finiteness of man's finding of truth, of the infinity of his yearning. 
"Peril ~ Hope." Thi s poem focuses on the moment in spring when the full bloom of an orchard is threatened by a possible frost. The poem gives only the literal moment, the direct experience. Its larger meaning carnes from its title, which invites us to see the poem as a metaphor for the common human fear--that our fondest wishes may be destroyed at the crucial moment of their realization. 
"stopping .'EY Woods .2!! ~ Snowy Evening,," This poem develops 
from a familiar experience of stopping along a country road and watching the snow fall. Stanza #1 is simple and literal enough, but there is some suggestion of value and feeling playing below the surface--a faint suggestion that the ItI" or speaker is violating the woods, trespassing, doing what is forbiddeno stanza #2 develops the suggestion of eerie, moral darkness in the isolated setting--the speaker is framed between It the woods and frozen lake / The darkest 
 
 100 
 
i 
 
~ 
 
~ 
 
~ 
 
"~i 
 
~ 
 
~ 
 
evening of the year." The word "darkest" reaches out to suggest moral or spiritual as well as physical 
 
I 
i 
 
darkness. stanza #3 explores the contrasts already 
 
! 
 
developed--between horse and man, between nor.mal ways 
 
i 
 
and odd ways, between correctness and error. The 
 
contrasts are caught up in sound--the jingle of the 
 
harness bells opposed to the hypnotic cadences "Of 
 
easy wind and downy flake." The first line of stanza 
 
#4 sums up the temptation of the woods in words that 
 
have moral and spiritual as well as literal meaning: 
 
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep." But countering 
 
the temptation are the speaker's promises--engagements 
 
I 
 
with other men--"And miles to go before (he) sleep(s)." The repetition of the last line invites us to sense 
 
,,~ 
i~ 
 
more than literal miles, more than literal sleep. The 
 
I 
 
miles, we suspect, are those of life and the sleep, the 
 
sleep of death. The woods have suggested one kind of 
 
death--release, escape, isolation--which the speaker 
 
has renounced for a life among men until death comes in 
 
its natural course. 
 
In all these poems, Frost is simple in language, simple in his naming of things, simple in the experiences he relates or to which he appeals. But he also explores the metaphoric or symbolic potential of words and things. He invests experiences with larger, symbolic meanings. His style, therefore, though simple on the surface, is rich and complex beneath. 
 
Nature. 
 
There are two familiar kinds of nature poetry. One is in the Wordsworthian or Emersonian tradition, in which some kind of over-~oul or inner spirit sanctifies and speaks through the objects of nature to man--as in Emerson's "The Rhodora" and "The Snow-Storm." The other is in the pastoral tradition, in wh~ch civilization and the city are rejected for the pursuit of the pure, idylliq perfection of nature and the country--as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finno Yet Frost's poetry fits neither tradition, as we see in the following poem. 
 
 101 
"Birches." This poem is based on the common visual experience of seeing birch trees bent over, curved, arched, not standing up straight like the conifers. At first Frost gives us simply the literal fact, the vivid description of the ice weighing down the branches of the birches. When Frost does invite enlarged awareness--as in the comparison of the fallen ice to broken glass from the inner dome of heaven, Bnd in the comparison of the trees to girls--it is his mind that makes the suggestion, not some force within nature. When he begins to explore the meaning of birches, it is again his mind, his will that works, not something else. He prefers to think some boy bent the birches by swinging on them, who thus learned about "not launching out too soon / And so not carrying the tree away/ Clear to the ground." This language is richly metaphoric, fitting all forms of human endeavor, but again, the enlarged meaning comes from the poet, not from an inspiring nature. The speaker turns the experience back to himself. He longs for escape, but not in the pastoral tradition, since what he wants to escape from ("life  like a pathless wood") and what he wants to escape to are both in nature and described in the imagery of nature. In the final lines the basic idea is elaborated. We live on earth and "Earth's the right place for love," but even love has its weariness from which we need to escape at times, staying here but turning "Toward heaven." If one could have both this release toward heaven and the returning to earth, "that would be good both going and corning back." Once again, the idea derives from the peet, not from some spirit speaking to him through nature. 
For Frost nature is where human experience is to be explored. It provides simple and complex images of human states of fee.ling and value. Hence, though Frost I s language is of nature and his images are from nature, his subject is always man. 
FOLLOW-UP 
write a poem, trying to use Frost's technique of surface simplicity and richly complex depth. Like Frost, pick a simple subject, one experience you have had in nature, 
 
 102 
and describe it simply in easy, conversational language. Choose your diction and imagery carefully so that the poem not only presents the literal experience but suggests some larger meaning or significance as well. 
CONCLUSION 
Session 33. Retrospect 
WORKS 
"AS An Egg, When Broken, Never" by Thomas Holly Chivers 
"It'Was Not Death, For I Stood Up" by Emily Dickinson 
"Blight" by Ralph Waldo Emerson 
"Come In" by Robert Frost 
"Soldier's Home" by Ernest Hemingway 
Moby Dick (passage from Ch. 35) by Herman Melville 
"chicago" by Carl sandburg 
"Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion," Atlantic Monthly, October, 1877, by Mark Twain 
"After walt, Whitmanlt by Richard Grant White 
DISCUSSION 
Further exploration. In our study of American literature we are like people who have climbed a mountain range. Long ago our first peak was Franklin. Since then we have came along other peakst Hawthorne, Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Twain, Dickinson, Crane, Robinson, O'Neill, Miller, Hemingway, Frost o The pleasure we may feel at what we have accomplished should not blind us, however, to how much we have not doneo Of Hawthorne's dozens of stories, for example, we have studied only two. Of Dickinson's total poetic output of 1775 poems, we have examined scarcely more than one percent 0 Of Hemingway~s many novels, we have worked on only one, the shortest o There remains, in the authors we have 
 
 103 
studied, much more to explore. 
Preparation. But our work has prepared us for this further exploration. It has given us a sense of the characteristic style and content of the individual authors. We can see this by examining passages from works we have not read but by authors we have read. We can identify the authors. 
We can look, for example, at a passage dealing with the garrulity and attention to minor detail of an old whaling captain, ~om Bowling. The style of the passage is less formal than that of Hawthorne or Emersono It has none of Crane's vivid rendering of mental impressions. It is easy, conversational, colloquial. The dead-pan narrator gets lost in the inconsequential and the trivial as he tells his yarn~ The yarn itself presents a crescendo of irrelevance that produces comic frustration in the listeners. We detect in the mind and style of the narratorqualities we have seen in Simon Wheeler and Jim Baker. Who wrote the passage? Mark Twain. (" Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion," Atlantic Monthly, October, 1877.) 
(Further passages for identification of author: "It Was Not Death, For I Stood up'; by Dickinson. "Come In," by Frost. A paragraph from ItSoldier's Home," by Hemingway. A parody, "After Walt, Whitman,'" by Richard Grant White. An unconscious parody of Poe, "As An Egg, When Broken, Never,lt by Thomas Holly Chivers.) 
Yet further exploration. The gratification we may feel at our present accomplishment should not blind us to the autiors we have not read at allt Melville, James, Faulkner, for example, or Bryant, Longfellow, Holmes, Whittier, Masters, sandburg, Cummings. These, too, await our exploration. 
preparatioRo Once again, however, our work has prepared us. It has given us relevant knowledge and understanding. Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter# with its pervasive puritanism, its insistent focus on human guilt, can help us understand Ahab in Moby Dick. And so can Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, with its presentation of the individual, alone and far out on the ocean of life, testing himself and the 
 
 104 
meaning of his universe in the single obsessive pursuit of a monster of the deep. Similarly, Whitman can help us appreciate the free verse, the IIbarbaric yawping,lI the crude exuberance of Sandburg's "Chicago. 1I 
General observations. Looking back over the range of American literature we are now in a position to make certain general observations not available to us as we worked closely with individual authorso We can see, for example, that most of America's major authors have been strongly critical of American society. They have not seen it with the indulgent smile of patriotism, with the easy optimism of natives p with the show-off egotism for which Americans have been known abroad for decades. 
Hawthorne, in liThe Minister's Black Veil,lI presents a society every member of which bears on his face the sign of guilt and sorrow. And in The Scarlet Letter, he stresses the cold inhumanity of the villagers toward Hester, the viciousness of their children toward Pearl, the pervasive spirit of negation, fault-finding, and denial of the entire community. 
Emerson denounces us, in "Blight," for having lost loving unity with nature. 
Twain provides a dual satiric view of man, American man, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: as noble, stupid, and destructive; as ignoble, mean, and destructive. 
O'Neill suggests that the lessons the Emperor Jones can learn from white society in America are the merits of big stealing, of bluff, of religious expediency, and of the almighty dol~ar. 
Miller shows, in Death _o_f ~ ~s_a_l_e_s_m_a_n~, a warm rural world turned urban and cold, with tlecorrupt and ruthless Ben as one of its images of greatness. 
Hemingway presents, in "'rhe Killers, U an ugly society wherein the tentacles of crime reach out anonymously to smite down helpless individuals. 
 
 105 
We need to see these things, as we look back, and we need to meditate upon them. We need to see that American authors generally have placed little faith in manls reason, in his capacity to confront and solve problems by brain power, and we need to meditate on this. We should begin to ask ourselves questions. Is there any consistent pattern of thought and feeling about God, democracy, justice, or manls potential in American authors? Is our literature provincial, or does it express ideas and feelings relevant to all humanity? If we ask these questions and others, if we pursue and reflect upon what we discover, our reward will be a new, larger understanding and appreciation of our literature, our nation, and ourselves. 
FOLLOW-UP 
Make a list of your own general observations about American literature. Support one of these observations with illustrations from the works you have studied this year. In what ways are these general observations relevant to your own life and thinking? 
Choose an American author you have not studied and analyze one of his w0rks by comparing it, in style and content, to other authors works you have studied. 
 
 106 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
An Index ~ Major Author Selections in High School Textbooks 
 
Key 
 
Bibliography 
 
A Horn, Gunnar, eds., A Cavalcade of American Writing, Chicago, Allyn and Bacon! Inc., 1961. 
 
C Carver! Charles H.r Sliker, Harold G.r Ball, Morris H., eds., America Today, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, Inc., 1959. 
 
G Foster, Mildredr Hook, J.N.1 Robinson, Nell, M.r Thompson, Miriam H.r and Webb, Charles F., eds., Literature of America, New York, Ginn and Company, 1961. 
 
H Dolkey, Matthewr Kobler, Donald G.r and Wagenheim, Harold H., eds., This ~ America, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1956. 
 
L Abney, Louiser Brewton, John E.r Lemon, Babetter and Sharp, Russell A., eds., Literature of the Americas, Dallas! Laidlaw Brothers, Inc., 1950. 
 
M Bowman, Mary Rivesr Gehlmann, Johnr Inglis, Rewey Beller and Schraroro, Wilbur, eds., Adventures in American Literature, Mercury Edition, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952. 
 
MA Williams, Oscarr and Honig, Edwin, The Mentor Book of Major American Poets! New York, The New American Library, 1962. 
 
o Bowman, Mary Rives, and Gehlroann, John, eds., Adventures in American Literature, Olympic Edition, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958. 
 
P Fuller, Edmundr Kinnick, B.Jo, Adventures in American Literature, Laureate Edition, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1963. 
 
 107 
 
~ 
 
Bibliography 
 
PL sister Ann Carol, a.p., and others, American Literature, New York, Macmillan, 1961. 
 
S-F Blair, Walterr Farmer, Paulr Hornberger, Theodorer and Wasson, Margaret, eds., The united S~ates in Literature, Chicago, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1963. 
 
Si McCarthy, Agnes L., and Rodabaugh, Delmer, eds., Prose and Poetry of America, Syracuse, New York, The L. W. Singer Company, Inc., 1963. 
 
st. Maline, ulian L., and Manion, Frederick P., eds., Prose and Poetry of America, st. Thomas More Edition, Syracuse, New York, The L. Wo Singer Company, Inc., 1955. 
 
poetry 
 
CRANE 
 
The Book of Wisdom    (> <>  
 
0 
 
<> 0 
 
 
 
(> 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
<>. 
 
P 
 
Fable     o. 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
Q 
 
0 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
H 
 
I Saw a Man   (> 
 
G, P, MA        
 
(> 
 
 
 
(> 
 
(> 
 
0 
 
Little Ink More or Less, A   (>   0  (> G,   P, MA 
 
Man Said to the Universe, A 
 
~ 
 
(> 
 
 
 
 
 
(> 
 
 
 
<>  
 
 
 
 
 
G 
 
Man Saw a Ball of Gold in the Sky, A  0    G 
 
Tell Brave Deeds      (>             p 
 
There Were Many Who Went in Huddled Procession   G, P 
 
Think As I Think        0      0   (>. P 
 
Wayfarer, The 
 
(> 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
G, C, P, MA 
 
Short Stories 
 
Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, The. (> (>  
 
(> 
 
 
 
. . c, P 
 
Episode of War, An     (> 0 
 
Gray Sleeve, A (> 
 
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Mystery of Heroism, A      (>    (> 
 
S-F, si 
 
 108 
 
CRANE 
 
Novel 
 
Red Badge of Courage, The  A, st., S-F, pL 
 
DICKINSON 
 
Poetry 
 
. . . . A Narrow Fellow in the Grass (The Snake) . . . . . . Altered Look About the Hills, An   
 
  MA 
M 
 
Assurance (I Never Saw a Moor)   ..   .st. 
 
Book, A' (He Ate and Drank the Precious Words)G, Si, st. 
 
Bustle in a House, The  0  0, Si, P 
 
Chartless                C 
 
Faith Is a Fine Invention           MA, 0, P 
 
He Ate and Drank the Precious Words (A book) G, si, st. 
 
How Happy Is the Little Stone     0   
 
0, M, P 
 
I Don't Like Paradise.         L 
 
I Like to See It Lap the Miles (The Railway Train)  
 
BF, G, L, si 
 
I Never Saw a Moor (Assurance)  MA, A, G, 0, M, st., P 
 
If I Can stop One Heart from Breaking.  A, G, 0, P 
 
I ' l l Tell You How the Sun Rose       H, S-F, C 
1 1m Nobody           MA, G, 0, M, si, st., P 
 
In the Garden              L 
 
It1s Such a Little Thing to Weep (Lifels Trades)  G 
 
Life1s Trades (It1s Such a Little Thing to Weep)  G 
 
My Life Closed Twice ~       MA, A, 0, M, Si, P 
 
Much Madness is Divinest Sense       S-F, H, MA 
 
Railway Train, The (I Like to See It Lap the Miles) G,L 
 
Sky Is Low, The.               MA, 0, P 
 
Snake, The (A Narrow Fellow in the Grass)   0   Si 
 
Some Keep the Sabbath            A, 0, M, P 
 
Soul Selects Her own Society, The 
 
MA, M, Si 
 
Storm, The   M 
 
Success Is Counted Sweetest.     S-F, 0, H, MA, P 
 
There Is No Frigate Like a Book        A, 0, P 
 
0 . . . . They Dropped Like Flakes      o.      st. 
 
'Tis An Honorable Thought       
 
st. 
 
To Fight Aloud Is Very Brave 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
C 
 
To Make a Prairie             G, M, S-F 
 
We Never Know How High               M 
 
 109 
 
Poetry 
 
DICKIlSI'SON 
 
.       . . When They Come Back 
Why Do I Love Thee? 
 . . Word, A  " . .. . 
 
. 
 
 
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.". 
 
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.. . " " " "   L 
 
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A, 
 
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a, 
 
" H, M" 
 
L P 
 
EMERSON 
 
Poetry 
 
    .. .. Compensation " " 
 
Concord Hymn I The 
.  . Days ~, .. .. .. 
 
     . Each and All 
 
.. 
 
       . .  . Fable  ..  . . Forbearance 
 
.. 
 
 
.. 
0 
 
. 
 
   Give All to Love 
 
      . .. Good-bye 0 
 
" 
 
.. . Hamatreya   <> 
 
     .. Humble-Bee, The 
 
       . Music .. .. .. . 
 
       Nature (4 lines) ..         .  . . . Ode .. .. .. . ..         . Rhodora, The .. . 
 
     . Snow-Storm, The             . Uriel .  .. " 
 
.. .. . 
 
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a, H, M 
 
L, M, st. 
 
 G, PL  G, L, M 
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PL 
.. L 
 
. .. MA 
 
. " A 
 
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PL 
 
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" M, PL H, L 
 
" 
 
PL 
 
Voluntaries 
 
               Stanzas II II 
 
. 
 
Stanza III 
 
" 
 
. 
 
.. .. 
 
.. 
 
.. 
 
 
.. 
. 
 
. 
 
" " 
 
 .G 
A, 0, M 
 
Prose 
 
         Abraham Lincoln 
 
. . . . 
 
.. . 
 
.. . .PL 
 
American Scholar, The 
 
.. Passage on the signs of the times (conclusion) G 
 
Character 
 
Passage including "There is this eternal advantage 
 
Compensation 
 
   to morals. " ..  .. P 
 
Passage including "The same dualism underlies the 
 
   nature and condition of man. "   
 
0, M, P 
 
Passage including "polarity, or action and reactioI\ 
 
     we meet in every part of nature." 
 
.0 
 
H 
 
 110 
 
Friendship 
 
Passage including "A friend is a person with whom 
 
I may be sincere."    o       .0, M, P 
 
Gifts    0      
 
 
 
 0 0 1 L, M, P 
 
Lecture on James Russell Lowell           PL 
 
Manners 
 
Passage including "The gentleman is a man of truth 
 
"       a, M, P 
 
Nature 
 
Passage inc Iud ing "It seems as if the day was not 
 
wholly profane  "        .  . a, M, P 
 
Sayings from Emerson '0  '. 
 
       0, M 
 
Self-Reliance 
 
Passage including "There is a time in every man's 
 
education    " .A , G~cO, M, S-F, Si, C, P, PL 
 
FRANKLIN 
 
Autobiography 
 
Building a wharf 
 
 0 
 
0 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
st. 
 
Entrance into Philadelphia 
 
a,  0 
 
 
 
P, PL 
 
Literary training     0 0       G, L, Si 
Project of arriving at moral perfection A, a, M, P 
 
Ephemera, The 
 
    L, S-F 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Letters 
 
Button Mine, The (to a Quaker friend)      PL 
 
First Aerial Voyage by Man (to Sir Joseph Banks, 
 
Nov. 21, 1783)       0        .S-F Whistle, The (to Madame Brillon, Nov. 10, 1779) 
 
S-F, H, PL   
 
0 
 
 
 
Poor Richard's Almanack 
 
Introduction to Almanack_of 1757 (containing 
 
maxims)         
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
.L 
 
a, Maxims 0 
 
 
 
H, M, si, st., P, PL 
 
Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to s Small 
 
One  
 
0 
 
Speech in the Convention, at the conclusion of Its De- 
 
liberations               0  S-F 
 
Poetry 
 
FROST 
 
Acceptance 
 
 
 
0 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PL 
 
Birches.   A, G, L, S-F, Si, PL 
 
Death of the Hired Man, The 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A, a, M, S-F, si, st., P, PL 
 
 III 
 
Departmental    0 
 
 
 
.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Si 
 
Fire and Ice  0  0  0    G, 0, M, Si, s t . , P, S-F 
 
Freedom of the Moon, The               L 
 
Gift outright, The               G, H, MA 
 
Good-by and Keep Cold         H 
 
Hannibal      0 
 
0 
 
0 
 
..  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
..  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
H 
 
I Have Been One Acquainted with the Night  H 
 
It Bids Pretty Fair              0, M, P 
 
Leaf Treader, A  H 
 
Mending Wall.    S-F, C, A, G, 0, L, M, Si, st., P 
 
Minor Bird, A 
 
..    L, M 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
..  
 
 
 
 
 
Nothing Gold Can stay  0  S-F, 0, PL 
 
Onset, The    ..   ..     ..          G 
 
"Out,Ou,t-" 
 
"  P, S-F, Si 
 
0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastn1r~, The        ..       G, 0, L, M, P 
 
putting in the Seed 
 
0, P 
 
Range-Finding 
 
P, L 
 
Road Not Taken, The 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A, G, 0, M, P, PL 
 
Runaway, The 
 
"      st., PL 
 
Spring Pools  .. L 0  
 
 
 
..  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 ..  
 
 
 
 
 
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening P, G, 0, M, S-F,Si 
 
Tuft of Flowers, The    ..  "  .. 0 0     G, MA 
 
Two Tramps i n Mud Time 0 ..    .. .. 0  0    0  PL 
 
White-tailed Hornet 
 
      PL 0 
 
0 
 
 
 
Winter Eden, A  L 0 
 
 
 
HAWTHORNE 
 
Short Stories 
 
 Ambitious Guest, The          .. .. 
 
American Notebooks, selections from 
 
o  
 
 0, P 
  PL 
 
 . . Birthmark, The  .. ..    ..   0  
 
 
 
Browne's Wooden Image  
 
o 0 H, PL    S-F 
 
Dr o Heidegger's Experiment . . . . A, 0, L, M, Si, st., P 
 
Feathertop   ..       
Maypole of Merry Mount, The   .. 
 
 
 
G, Si 
 
     S-F 
 
Minister1s Black Veil, The  
 
   G, PL 
 
Wakefield          
 
  L 
 
Young Goodman Brown        PL 
 
 112 
 
HEMINGWAY 
 
Short Stories 
 
In Another Country       '" Old Man at the Bridge           
MILLER 
 
 S-F# PL 
 0# P # Si 
 
There are no selections from Miller in any of the texts 
 
O'NEILL 
 
One-Act Plays 
 
lIe  
 
 
 
Where the Cross Is Made 
 
  
POE 
 
  
 
S-F 
 
   '"     G# L 
 
poetry 
 
Alone < > . . .               ..    PL Annabel Lee            A, G, L, M, S-F, MA 
 
Bells, The  o   
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
MA, G, 0, M, st., P# PL 
 
Eldorado  &         ..     ..     H, MA 
 
Haunted Palace# The (from ~e Fall of the House of  
 
Usher) 
 
  Si <>  0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Israfel 
 
   MA, S-F, Si, PL  
 
 0 
 
Raven, The '" <>  0        MA, G, 0, L# M, P, PL 
 
Romance 
 
 0  
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
..  
 
 
 
 
 
 PL 
 
To Helen  '" 0  S-F, A, G, 0, L, M, Si, st., MA, P# PL 
 
To My Mother                 ..    PL 
 
To Science             ..   .. ..   L, PL 
 
Ulalume               ..   ..   M, MA 
 
Short Stories 
 
Cask of Amontillado, The       
 
Si, st., PL 
 
Fall of the House of Usher# The   
 
..  ..   p 
 
Masque of the Red Death, The       G, Si, S-F 
 
pit and the pendulum, The       A, 0, M, PL 
 
Purloined Letter, The           '" G, L, S-F 
 
Tell-Tale Heart, The     
 
  
 
 
 
 0, H 
 
 113 
 
ROBINSON 
 
Poetry 
 
Bewick Finzer                 G# M, MA 
 
Calvary 
 
M, PL <         0       0      
 
Cliff Klingenhagen            S-F, A, G, MA 
 
Companion, The         L 
 
Credo. 0   a                   
 
MA 
 
Eros Turannos                    MA 
 
Flammonde  0           0       MA, Si 
 
Master, The   0 0, L, P                
 
Miniver Cheevy      ~ G, 0, L, M, S-F, Si, P, PL 
 
Mro Hoodls party 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MA# PL 
 
Octaves                     ..   G 
 
Oh for a Poet                 0, P, PL 
 
Old story, An              A, 0, M, st., P 
 
Richard Cory    A# G, 0, L, M, St., MA, P, PI, S-F 
 
Sheaves, The  H 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
~ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sonnet ("When we can all so excellently givelt)  L 
 
Story of the Ashes and the Flame, The        MA 
 
THOREAU 
 
. . . . . . . walden, selections from        
 
PL 
 
TWAIN 
 
Novel 
 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  PL Selections from Chapters X, XI, XII  G Selections from Chapters X# XI         Si Selections from Chapters XVI, XVII  S-F, Si 
 
Other Writings 
 
Innocents Abroad 
 
Selection from Chapter XXVII (on guides)     M 
 
Life on the Mississippi 
 
Boys Ambition, The Chapter IV  A, S-F, st., PL 
 
Brown and I Exchange Compliments Chapter XIX  st. 
 
Continued Perplexities 
 
Chapter 
 
IX 
 
  H 0  
 
 
 
 
 
Cub pilot's Experience. A Chapter VI  0  G 
 
 114 
 
Daring Deed, A Chapter VII   0   0  H, 0, PL 
 
I Take A Few Extra Lessons Chapter XVIII  st. 
 
Petition to the Queen of England, A    L 
 
Roughing It 
 
Selections from Volume I, Chapters II, III, IV, 
 
VIlI-dealing with journeying by stage coach, 
 
the pony express,.   ~  '0 0 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
M 
 
Selections from Volume I, Chapters II, III, IV, 
 
VIII, XXVIlI--dealing with journeying by stage 
 
coach, the pony express, finding fool gold 0 0 
 
Selections from Volume II, Chapters II, III--deal- 
 
ing with "Flush Times in Silverland"     PL 
 
Sketches New and Old 
 
Science vs. Luck.  Q            st. 
 
Weather, The       0     0 0 PL        
 
Short Stories 
 
. . Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The 
 
A 
 
Jim Baker's Blue-Jay Yarn   G, L 
 
WHITMAN 
 
poetry 
 
As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods G, H, Si, S-F 
 
Beat~ Beat~ Drums~   0 0 0, L, M, S-F, Si, s t o , P, PL 
 
Carol of Death, The (from When Lilacs Lasts in the 
 
Dooryard Bloomed)     0, M, P, PL 
 
Cavalry Crossing a Ford       0    S-F, G, PL 
 
Corne Up from the Fields Father   0     G, Si, PL 
 
crossing Brooklyn Ferry 
 
      PL 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Darest Thou Now, 0 Soul              G 
 
For You 0 Democracy 
 
  0 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
L, Si, PL 
 
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun      0  0  0 H 
 
Good-by, My Fancy~      0    0     G, H, MA 
 
I Hear America Singing.      A, 0, Mt Si, st., P 
 
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing 
 
 G, L 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Joy, Shipmate, Joy              L, S-F, MA 
 
Mannahatta 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
0, M, P, PL 
 
 115 
 
Miracles               C, G, 0, M, Si, P 
 
Noiseless Patient Spider, A     G, 0, L, M, P, PL 
a captain~ My captain~        A, L, Si, st., MA 
 
On the Beach at Night           0     M 
 
One's-Self I Sing               L, H, M 
 
out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking         PL 
 
Ox-Tamer, The  G 
 
passage to India 
 
Selections from sections 1-6, 9       S-F 
 
a Pioneers~ 
 
pioneers~ 
 
             Si, PL 
 
Poets to Come 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
L 
 
Prayer of Columbus      0            PL 
 
Shut Not Your Doors  M 
 
Song of Myself                    MA 
 
Selections from sections 1, 2, 16, 31, 40, 47, 48, 
 
52, totaling 48 lines, strung together and pre- 
 
sented as if this were Whitman's entire poem .A 
 
Selections from sections 1, 2, 16, 21, 33, 44, 46, 
 
52                     0, P 
 
Selections from sections 1, 31, 46, 52  PL 
 
There Was a Child Went Forth  .    '    0 Si     
 
Thick Sprinkled Bunting 
 
    Si 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood. Section #4  0, P 
 
To a Certain Civilian    L 
 
To a Locomotive in Winter 
 
  Si 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer O,H, L, M, Si,p, PL 
 
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed      S-F 
 
carol of Death, The              0, M, PL 
 
When the Full-Grown Poet Came            G 
 
with Husky-Haughty Lips, 0 Sea~ 
 
 0 
 
 
 
0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
M 
 
Wood Odors                      PL 
 
Young Grimes                    S-F 
 
 116 
APPENDIX II 
~ Index of Major Author Selections Available in paperbound Editions 
This list of paperbound books was prepared by one of the 1963-64 revision editors to provide examples of paperbound books which contain selections discussed on the telecasts. A fairly complete listing of available paperbound books can be found in: paperbound Books in Print, New York, 1963. 
CHAPTER I. BENJAMIN F~N 
Autobiography ~ Other Writings. Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Edition, A 32. 
AutobiographY and Selected Writings. Modern Library College Edition, T 18. 
Autobiography and Selected Writings. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Doubleday Dolphin, C 87. 
The Autobiography. Washington Square Press Book, W.218. The Autobi2q'raphy and Other Writings. Signet, CD 74. The Autobiography and Selections from His Other Writings. 
Bobbs-Merrill: American Heritage Series, AHS 2. The Autobiography of Benjamin -:Franklin. Collier, HS 5. 
CHAPTER III. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 
The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. Signet, CP 153. Hawthorne's Short Stories. Vintage, K-15. The portable Hawthorne, Viking portable, P 38. The Scarlet Letter. Bobbs-Merrill: Library of Literature, 
LL 1. The Scarlet Letter. collier, HS 19. The Scarlet Letter. Dell Laurel, 7640. 
The Scarlet Lettero Houghton Mifflin Riverside Edition, A 45. 
The Scarlet Lettero Modern Library College Edition, T 21. The Scarlet Letter. Norton critical Edition, N 303. 
- - - The Scarlet Letter. Rinehart Edition, No.1. 
The Scarlet Letter. Washington Square Press Book, W.226. 
 
 117 
The Scarlet Letter and Other Tales of the puritans. Houghton Mifflin Riverside Edition, A 56. 
The Scarlet Letter: Text, Sources, Criticism. Harcourt, Brace. 
Selected Tales and Sketches. Rinehart Edition, No. 33. Twice-Told Tales and Other Short Stories. Washington 
S"quare Press Book, W.580. 
CHAPTER IV. EDGAR ALLAN POE 
Complete Poems. Laurel Poetry Series, Dell 6962. The Portable Poe. Viking Portable, P 12. The Selected Poetry and Pros~ of Edgar Allan ~. 
Modern Library College Edition, T 58. Selected Prose and Poetry. Rinehart Edition, No. 42. Selected Writings of Edgar Allan~. Houghton Mifflin 
Riverside Edition, All. Tales and Poems of Poe. Washington Square Press Book. W.246o Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Everyman Paperback 1336. 
CHAPTER VI. RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
Emerson: A Modern Antholoqy~ Dell 2290. Five Essays on ~ and Nature. Crofts Classics. Nature. Bobbs-Merrill: Library of Liberal Arts, LLA 2. The Portable Emerson. Viking Portable, P 25. Selected Prose ~ Poetry. Rinehart Edition, No. 30. Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Houghton Mifflin 
Riverside Edition, A 13. 
HENRY DAVID THOREAU 
The Portable Thoreau. Viking Porable, P 31. Selected Writings. Crofts Classics. Selected writings ~ Nature and Liberty. Bobbs-Merrill: 
American Heritage Series, ARS 3. Walden. Signet, CD 32. Walden and Civil DisobedienceQ Houghton Mifflin Riverside 
Edition, A 14. Walden and civil Disobedience. Holt, Rinehart, Winston. Walden/ On the Duty of Civil Disobedience o Collier, HS 4. 
 
 118 
CHAPTER VII,. WALT WHITMAN 
complete Poetry and Selected Prose. Houghton Mifflin Riverside Edition, A 34. 
Leaves of Grass. Cornell university Press. Leaves of Grass. Signet, CT 23. Leaves of Grass and Selected Prose. Modern Library college 
Edition, T 40. Leaves of Grass ~ Selected Prose. Rinehart Edition, No. 280 Leaves .Q. Grass, ~ original Edition. Viking, Compass Book, 
C 98. Leaves of Grass, Selected prose. Hiss and Wang, American 
Cen~ury Series, ACW 42. 
- The - Poet - and - the President: Whitman's Lincoln Poems, Odysse.y. 
The portable Walt Whitman. Viking portable, P 11. Walt Whitman's Poems. Grove, Evergreen, E-16l. Whitman.. Laurel Poetry Series, Dell 95240 
CHAPTER IX. MARK TWAIN 
The Adventures .Q1. Huckleberry Finn. Bobbs-Merrill: Library of Literature, LL 4. 
Adventures .Q. Huckleberry Finn. Chandler Publishing Co. Adventures .Q1. Huckleberry Finn. Collier, HS 9. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Dell 0028. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Houghton Mifflin Riverside 
Edition, A 15. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Norton Critical Edition, N 3040 Adventures of Huckleberry~. Penguin, PS 80. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Holt, Rinehart, Winston 0 
The Adventures .2. Huckleberry Finn.. Signet, CD 5. 
The Adventures of ~uckleberry Finn., Washington Square Press Book, Wo242. 
~ ~ of Huckleberry Finn. Chandler PUblishing Co. Huck Finn and His Critics. Macmillan. Huckleberry Finn: Text, Sources, and criticism. Harcourt, 
Brace., Mark Twain: A Laurel Reader. Dell 5374. The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories~ Signet, CD 68. 
 
 119 
The Portable Mark Twain. Viking Press, P 20. Selected Shorter writings of Mark Twain. Houghton 
Mifflin Riverside Edition, A 58. 
CHAPTER X. EMILY DICKINSON 
Emily Dickinson. Laurel Poetry Series, Dell 2304. 
CHAPTER XI. STEPHEN CRANE 
Maggie and Other Stories. Washington Square Press Book, W.133. 
The Red Badge of Courage., Bobbs-Merrill: Library of Literature, LL6. 
The Red Badge of Courage. Doubleday Dolphin, C 61. The Red Badge of Couraqe. Houghton Mifflin Riverside 
Edition, A 51. The Red Badge of Courage., Modern Library Collese Edition, 
T 45. The Red Badge of Courage. Norton critical Edition, N 305. The Red Badge of Courage., Washington Square Press Book, 
W.220. The Red Badge of Couraqe and ~ Great Stories. Dell- 
Laurel Edition 7284~ The Red Badge of courage and Other writings. Houghton 
Mifflin Riverside Edition, A 46. The Red Badge of courage and Selected Prose and Poetry. 
Holt, Rinehart .. Winston. The Red Badge of Courage and Selected stories, Signet, CD 16. stories and Tales. Vintager V 10. The Red Badge of Courage: Text and criticism. Harcourt, 
Brace. 
CHAPTER XII. EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON 
Selected Early Poems and Letters. Rinehart Edition, No. 107. 
 
 120 
CHAPTER XIV. EUGENE 0 tNEILL AND ARTHUR MILLER Death of ~ Salesman. Bantam 952. Death of ~ Salesman. Viking-Compass, C 32 0 The Emperor Jones. Appleton-Century-Crofts. 
CHAPTER XV. ERNEST HEMINGWAY In Our Time. Scribner Library, 56. The Snows of Kilimanjoaro and Other Stories. Scribner 
Library, 32. CHAPTER XVI. ROBERT FROST 
The Pocketbook of Robert Frostts Poems. The Pocket Library, PL 47; Washington Square Press Book, W.556. 
Selected Poems of Robert Frost~ Rinehart Edition, No o 1200