Journal #8

Journal 8 - Emerson’s Aphorisms

Write a one paragraph personal response based on three of the following aphorisms.  Your responses should address the point Emerson is making as well as your thoughts/feelings about what he is saying.    

5. To be great is to be misunderstood.

            Emerson is saying here that to be different and to not be understood is someone who is great. If everyone was normal and easily understood than no one would great or different. People who do great things are the ones who are different from the norm and are misunderstood. If everyone always stuck to the norm where would we be today? There would not be discoveries and other great accomplishments. To be a great person is to be someone who does things differently than everyone else and is misunderstood by those who disagree. I completely agree with this statement because I believe that those who are different from everyday people will do great things with their life and make a difference.

11. What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
            I believe that Emerson is saying here that we shouldn’t worry about things that have happened in the past or what lies for us in the future, it is about the person that is inside of you overcoming the past and future and living in the present. He is saying that worrying about the past and future is only the smallest of importance and what we should worry about is who we are on the inside. What kind of person we are and who we are made to be is the most important. I completely agree with Emerson because we do need to worry more about what lies within us than what we have done in the past and will do in the future. If one does worry more about their past and future than they can’t think about whom they are in the present and get lost in who they really are. It is important for people to live in the present and know who they are and what lies within them.
14. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
            Emerson is saying here that if you do moral excellence and have virtue that the reward is virtue because having that is the only reward you need. It’s also true that the only way to have a friend is to be one because no one wants to be friends with someone who betrays them. If one is loyal to his or her friend than that friend will always be there for you in return. If someone was bad talking their friend than their friend will not want anything to do with them. I agree with this statement because I believe friendship is important and what you do with your friendship is up to you but if you are a good friend you will always a friend there by your side. 

Journal #7

                                                                                   

Journal Assignment #7

William Cullen Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl” (p.151) and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (p.181)

Read the selections and write a detailed response to the following:

1. Compare/contrast the different views of nature that are being presented in the poems.  Refer to the list of classical and romantic characteristics and provide specific examples from the poems to support your analysis.    

There are two different views of nature in the two poems. In Romanticism it is more concentrated on emotion and feelings towards everything. It is about the individual. Neo-Classical is more about logical feelings on ideas and it more universal.

                        The tone of The Raven is dark, gloomy, depressing, and dreary while the tone of the Waterfall is calm, peaceful, and optimistic. The Waterfall makes the reader feel good about them and the Raven makes the reader feel depressed. In the Raven nature is indifferent, torturing, and hostile. In the Waterfall when he sees the duck he thinks it stands for God knowing what will happen to him and allows him to think about his life in a good way.

            The Raven is ornate in that it is very descriptive and the Waterfall is plain. The Raven is unclear and confusing as to what the meaning of the poem is. The Waterfall is straight forward and readers know exactly what is going on. There is a clear cut answer where in the Raven it is unclear and there is no real answer.

            The settings are different because in the Raven it takes place during winter where it is cold and dreary and at midnight. The bird flies into his house and he isn’t even looking at the nature of it. The Waterfall is during sunset where it is pretty and happy. He is outside watching the bird in nature.

            The speaker of the Raven is grief stricken, depressed and possibly crazy. If the speaker of the Raven were to be watching the sunset he would probably find something bad and gloomy about it. The speaker in the Waterfall is thoughtful, open-minded, and content.

           

The speaker in the Raven has a definite conflict because he is grieving over Lenore. He is aggravated and upset over the death of his wife and can’t seem to move on from it. He is having an internal conflict and in the end only feels worse. The speaker of the Waterfall doesn’t really have a personal problem. His biggest problem is his curiosity towards how the birds migrate and how they know where to go. He starts with a question and ends with an answer involving God leading you to where you want to be.

The imagery in the Raven is all dark, ghastly, dreary, weak, and fire. It all depicts sadness. In the Waterfall it is a rosy day and all leads to happiness. Each speaker makes his own symbolism. The Waterfall symbolizes God and God’s power and guidance. In life we will guided in life by him and he will tell us where to go. In the Raven it is all negative when he constantly says “nevermore.” He tried to finds answers but is only told he will never be re-united, he will never go to heaven.

The purposes are completely different in that in the Waterfall he ends happy and there is always going to be someone there to guide him to where he needs to be. The Raven’s purpose is that his spirit will never be lifted and things will never be better.

They also have some things that are the same because they are both about a bird and a person. The bird in both has a sign for the person. The both have direct interaction with the bird. The two poems have a similar purpose in that they both are having an interaction with the bird and uses it towards a meaning in his life.