longfellow & holmes
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
FIRESIDE POETS
1850 NEW ENGLAND Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Harvard professor, very popular poet John Greenleaf Whittier
Quaker farm family James Russell Lowell
Aristocracy Oliver Wendell Holmes
Poet-physician, highly honored
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 1807-1882 1st American poet to create a
national interest in poetryVERY popular…75th birthday treated like
holiday Adapted traditional European
forms/themes to American subjects Romanticized view of America’s history
and democratic ideals Poetry = optimistic, sentimental
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
1809-1894 Descendant of Anne Bradstreet Studied law for a bit, changed to
medicine Doctor, poet, professor
Essays = exaggeration, quotable
“Old Ironsides” protesting destruction of battleship Constitution (War of 1812) Poem saved ship, made Holmes
nationally recognized poet
ELEMENTS OF POETRY Meter : systematic arrangement of
stressed and unstressed syllables Foot : basic unit of meter Iamb : most common foot in American
poetry; unstressed syllable, stressed syllable
˘ = breve (unstressed) ‘ = ictus (stressed)
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Example : Iambic Tetrameter four iambs per line
The sun that brief December dayRose cheerless over hills of gray
Mood : atmosphere; the feeling created in a reader by a literary work Influenced by setting, tone, subject, word choice