Realism and Modernism are two different kinds of writing. In Realism, the author tries to depict the story as it really is. They choose certain details to make things seem real and like every day life. We have looked at many Realist authors and poets for homework. Some of these authors and poets include Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, and Rebecca Harding Davis.
As an author, Mark Twain is a great example of the Realism writing style. Some of Mark Twain's most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn depict the lives of young boys and their adventures. Twain does a great job of depicting life by the Mississippi River which he loved so dearly. He has many great details to make the stories seem so real and easy to relate to, which is what a Realist writer does.
"Realism is the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past. A realist carefully chooses details that illustrate this vision, unlike the naturalist who tries to include all possible details. The difference between realism and naturalism is compared often to that between a painting as opposed to a photograph, assuming that the photographer also does not choose which details to include in the frame of the picture. The difference between romanticism and realism was a philosophical difference over the purpose and function of literature, adherents of the former believing that it should idealize life by empathizing desirable features, those of the latter that it should be a faithful representative of facts as they appear to the senses" (Werlock).
Modernism, on the other hand, is more about what is happening now. The start of the Modernism period was around World War I. People started writing more about what was happening during that time period, and how it affected the people and themselves. They started to describe things and uncover places as they really were instead of leaving off small details.
"Modernism as a movement was shaped by discoveries in science and advancements in technology and various fields of thought that began to develop in the nineteenth century—including Sir James Frazer's writings on cultural anthropology and Sigmund Freud's work in psychology—that transformed the way human beings regarded themselves, their world, and their place in the world. William R. Everdale finds its origins "in an often profound rethinking of the whole mind set of the nineteenth century." Modern thought "gave up the stubborn old belief that things could be seen 'steadily and whole' from some privileged viewpoint at a particular moment" and embraced a "nonlogical, nonobjective, and essentially causeless mental universe." The catalytic event that created the modern world for many American writers was the catastrophe of World War I, a conflict that revealed the bankruptcy of many nineteenth-century ideals.
In discussions of literature the term modernism is frequently used carelessly and imprecisely. The word modern is sometimes used as an adjective to broadly suggest when a writer was writing or a work was written. If one is told that a poem or a novel is modern but not given its date of composition or publication, then it is safe to assume only that it was written sometime after the Great War and sometime before right now" (Anderson).
Works Cited:
Anderson, George Parker. "modernism." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1234&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 18, 2011).
Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0575&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 18, 2011).
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Job Shadowing
My job shadowing experience was surprisingly awesome. I went to UIS to job shadow a music professor there. Our day started at 8:30 am, and I met the professor at his office. He showed me all the stuff he does to prepare for the day, which is basically to just check his email. We talked for a little bit about why I decided to job shadow a music professor, then we went to a class that he had at 9:00 am. He told me that I could bring my clarinet to play along in the class. It was pretty fun playing with his students, although they actually were not very good. A lot of his students were musicians who have not played in a while, so they were basically learning all over again. After the class we walked across the campus to a cafe to get a muffin and talk more about music education. The professor explained to me that at this particular college it is sometimes hard for him to have classes like the one that I attended because his students are at very different levels of playing ability. They do not have private lessons at UIS, and many different instruments are in the same class at the same time, so he has to make a lesson plan that will accommodate everyone. He says he has to push the less experienced musicians more to make them keep up with everyone else. One thing that I really liked about his class was that at the beginning of the class he had everyone pull a scale name from a hat, and then they had to play that scale in front of everyone and they were graded on it. I think it is important for people to know their scales, so I thought that was a good exercise.
Once we went to the cafe we talked a lot about how the man that I was job shadowing got to be where he was. He is from Louisiana, so he went to the University of Louisiana, and he received two majors: one in music and one in music education. He then went to the University of Arkansas to get his masters degree in music education. He landed a job as a high school music teacher, and one summer he applied to go to a music festival during the summer in Italy. (He is a tuba player by the way). He did not get to go that summer, but the next summer he was chosen to go. He got to go play in Italy for a whole summer which is one of the coolest things I have ever heard of. I totally want to do something like that. Then he found a flier from a world renowned tuba teacher to take a two week lesson from him for 600 euros. He decided he wanted to do that, so he got to go to Greece to study with this teacher. He then went back to the United States after becoming great friends with his music teacher. His music teacher then invited him to take lessons from him in Canada and then in England. He lived in England for a year until his music teacher decided to take a job in Japan. He then went back to the United States and got a job as the music professor at UIS.
Music professors have to have a doctorate in music, but he got this job because UIS is not really big on music I guess. He is getting his doctorate now at the University of Illinois.
After talking for awhile, he showed me the behind the scenes stuff of the UIS auditorium which is a really great auditorium. Then we went back to his office, and he showed me some music that he will be playing this summer at another music festival. He said another part of his job is to play music so that he can stay musical and help his students. He says he studies every piece of music before he plays it, and the piece that he is playing this summer is about three different piazzas in Italy, so we went of google and were able to look at each of the piazzas to see why the Italian composer wrote what he did about each one. It was pretty sweet.
From this job shadowing experience I think I would definitely consider being a music teacher. I like all the stuff that this music professor does, and I think being a regular music teacher would be great too. He gave me a lot of advice as to what to do in college and what majors would be good for what I am interested in. From this job shadowing experience I really think I have a better idea of what path I want to take in college. I definitely do want to do something with music, so this job shadowing definitely helped me to see that.
Once we went to the cafe we talked a lot about how the man that I was job shadowing got to be where he was. He is from Louisiana, so he went to the University of Louisiana, and he received two majors: one in music and one in music education. He then went to the University of Arkansas to get his masters degree in music education. He landed a job as a high school music teacher, and one summer he applied to go to a music festival during the summer in Italy. (He is a tuba player by the way). He did not get to go that summer, but the next summer he was chosen to go. He got to go play in Italy for a whole summer which is one of the coolest things I have ever heard of. I totally want to do something like that. Then he found a flier from a world renowned tuba teacher to take a two week lesson from him for 600 euros. He decided he wanted to do that, so he got to go to Greece to study with this teacher. He then went back to the United States after becoming great friends with his music teacher. His music teacher then invited him to take lessons from him in Canada and then in England. He lived in England for a year until his music teacher decided to take a job in Japan. He then went back to the United States and got a job as the music professor at UIS.
Music professors have to have a doctorate in music, but he got this job because UIS is not really big on music I guess. He is getting his doctorate now at the University of Illinois.
After talking for awhile, he showed me the behind the scenes stuff of the UIS auditorium which is a really great auditorium. Then we went back to his office, and he showed me some music that he will be playing this summer at another music festival. He said another part of his job is to play music so that he can stay musical and help his students. He says he studies every piece of music before he plays it, and the piece that he is playing this summer is about three different piazzas in Italy, so we went of google and were able to look at each of the piazzas to see why the Italian composer wrote what he did about each one. It was pretty sweet.
From this job shadowing experience I think I would definitely consider being a music teacher. I like all the stuff that this music professor does, and I think being a regular music teacher would be great too. He gave me a lot of advice as to what to do in college and what majors would be good for what I am interested in. From this job shadowing experience I really think I have a better idea of what path I want to take in college. I definitely do want to do something with music, so this job shadowing definitely helped me to see that.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Journal #42: Go Dickinson!
So if I lived in Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman's time period and I had to choose between the two to say which one I would like better it would be Emily Dickinson all the way. Walt Whitman is straight weird. I do not like him at all. I really dislike every idea he has. I think his "everyman" or whatever it is called is soooo dumb, and I really dislike how he tries to incorporate God in all of his poems. I just really dislike it. Every poem that we have read of his in class I have not liked, therefore, Emily Dickinson is a better choice for me.
All of Walt Whitman's poems are supposed to be so spiritual and absolutely inspiring. His poems do not inspire me at all. A lot of his poems make him sound like a self absorbed jerk. A lot of his poems seem very egotistical and narcissistic. He is so annoying. I really do not like him at all. I really really really really really really really do not.
Emily Dickinson is not much better than Walt Whitman, but she is not annoying and ego-centric like Whitman appears to be at times. A lot of her poems are more easy to read and understand. They do not have a billion meanings like most of Whitman's poems do. She tends to write with a more literal meaning which is more entertaining because then the reader does not have to try to think of what the writer is saying. I think that is what poetry should be like. Who wants to read something FOR ENTERTAINMENT and have to actually think about it? I guess people in that time period were more philosophical then we are today.
So far there is like one poem that I like of Emily Dickinson's. I do not remember what it is called, but it is about a girl who has a crush on a boy and she gets all fumbly with her speech and stuff and she cannot do anything right and then across the room the boy is the same way. I thought it was funny, and I actually understood it the first time I read it so that was awesome.
All of Walt Whitman's poems are supposed to be so spiritual and absolutely inspiring. His poems do not inspire me at all. A lot of his poems make him sound like a self absorbed jerk. A lot of his poems seem very egotistical and narcissistic. He is so annoying. I really do not like him at all. I really really really really really really really do not.
Emily Dickinson is not much better than Walt Whitman, but she is not annoying and ego-centric like Whitman appears to be at times. A lot of her poems are more easy to read and understand. They do not have a billion meanings like most of Whitman's poems do. She tends to write with a more literal meaning which is more entertaining because then the reader does not have to try to think of what the writer is saying. I think that is what poetry should be like. Who wants to read something FOR ENTERTAINMENT and have to actually think about it? I guess people in that time period were more philosophical then we are today.
So far there is like one poem that I like of Emily Dickinson's. I do not remember what it is called, but it is about a girl who has a crush on a boy and she gets all fumbly with her speech and stuff and she cannot do anything right and then across the room the boy is the same way. I thought it was funny, and I actually understood it the first time I read it so that was awesome.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Emily Dickinson: There Came A Day At Summer's Full
"XIII
THERE came a day at summer’s full
Entirely for me;
I thought that such were for the saints,
Where revelations be.
The sun, as common, went abroad, 5
The flowers, accustomed, blew,
As if no sail the solstice passed
That maketh all things new.
The time was scarce profaned by speech;
The symbol of a word 10
Was needless, as at sacrament
The wardrobe of our Lord.
Each was to each the sealed church,
Permitted to commune this time,
Lest we too awkward show 15
At supper of the Lamb.
The hours slid fast, as hours will,
Clutched tight by greedy hands;
So faces on two decks look back,
Bound to opposing lands. 20
And so, when all the time had failed,
Without external sound,
Each bound the other’s crucifix,
We gave no other bond.
Sufficient troth that we shall rise— 25
deposed, at length, the grave—
To that new marriage, justified
Through Calvaries of Love!" (Dickinson).
After reading this poem by Dickinson I think that it is about two lovers during an afternoon. They are not really supposed to be together, but they like each other a lot, so they make time to see one another. The first two stanzas of the poem describe the setting. Dickinson says that it is summer, and during this particular day she feels that it is a day for her and no one else. During the second stanza we can conclude that it is a the summer solstice, and although she feels the day is different, nature goes on like any other day. The third stanza says that she does not need to speak, because the meaning of why she is where she is, is already known by herself, so she does not need to say it. She says this feeling is like when you are at sacrament at mass and God knows what you are thinking, so you do not need to explain.
I think the fourth stanza is saying that the author and her lover both belong to different churches, so they are not allowing to see each other or get married. The fifth stanza is saying that the time is passing by fast while they are together, and they soon have to look back to their different lives and leave one another again. I think the sixth stanza is saying that when they have to leave, they take the others crucifix, so they will have something to hold on to from their lover.
As for the last stanza, I think it means that they have decided that they want to get married, and they will keep that promise to each other no matter what anyone says. The last line, "Through Calvaries of Love"(Dickinson) basically means through sufferings of love, so they are suffering because they love each other so much but are not allowed to get married.
This excerpt from Bloom's Literary Reference Online can help one conclude that this poem is about two lovers who cannot be together. This quote says that the poem is about a love that is formed and then taken away within the same day because the lovers cannot be together. It says that they can only be together after death, so they must wait until their life is over to be together.
"Unlike the great majority of Dickinson's poems, this famous and much-debated narrative appears to contain a specific "scene" from the poet's life: a day within the summer solstice, June 21 and 22, when a love is consummated and virtually simultaneously renounced. Appropriately, within this season of weddings, a "marriage" takes place, yet its only "future" is in the life to come. The poem is Dickinson's most complete expression of this central theme of a reunion with the lost beloved in God's heaven, a vision evoked in other poems of this period" (Leiter).
Works Cited:
Dickinson, Emily. "XII: There came a day at summer’s full". Part Three: Love. Complete Poems. 1924. http://www.bartleby.com/113/3013.html
Leiter, Sharon. "'There came a Day—at Summer's full—'." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCED126&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 22, 2011).
THERE came a day at summer’s full
Entirely for me;
I thought that such were for the saints,
Where revelations be.
The sun, as common, went abroad, 5
The flowers, accustomed, blew,
As if no sail the solstice passed
That maketh all things new.
The time was scarce profaned by speech;
The symbol of a word 10
Was needless, as at sacrament
The wardrobe of our Lord.
Each was to each the sealed church,
Permitted to commune this time,
Lest we too awkward show 15
At supper of the Lamb.
The hours slid fast, as hours will,
Clutched tight by greedy hands;
So faces on two decks look back,
Bound to opposing lands. 20
And so, when all the time had failed,
Without external sound,
Each bound the other’s crucifix,
We gave no other bond.
Sufficient troth that we shall rise— 25
deposed, at length, the grave—
To that new marriage, justified
Through Calvaries of Love!" (Dickinson).
After reading this poem by Dickinson I think that it is about two lovers during an afternoon. They are not really supposed to be together, but they like each other a lot, so they make time to see one another. The first two stanzas of the poem describe the setting. Dickinson says that it is summer, and during this particular day she feels that it is a day for her and no one else. During the second stanza we can conclude that it is a the summer solstice, and although she feels the day is different, nature goes on like any other day. The third stanza says that she does not need to speak, because the meaning of why she is where she is, is already known by herself, so she does not need to say it. She says this feeling is like when you are at sacrament at mass and God knows what you are thinking, so you do not need to explain.
I think the fourth stanza is saying that the author and her lover both belong to different churches, so they are not allowing to see each other or get married. The fifth stanza is saying that the time is passing by fast while they are together, and they soon have to look back to their different lives and leave one another again. I think the sixth stanza is saying that when they have to leave, they take the others crucifix, so they will have something to hold on to from their lover.
As for the last stanza, I think it means that they have decided that they want to get married, and they will keep that promise to each other no matter what anyone says. The last line, "Through Calvaries of Love"(Dickinson) basically means through sufferings of love, so they are suffering because they love each other so much but are not allowed to get married.
This excerpt from Bloom's Literary Reference Online can help one conclude that this poem is about two lovers who cannot be together. This quote says that the poem is about a love that is formed and then taken away within the same day because the lovers cannot be together. It says that they can only be together after death, so they must wait until their life is over to be together.
"Unlike the great majority of Dickinson's poems, this famous and much-debated narrative appears to contain a specific "scene" from the poet's life: a day within the summer solstice, June 21 and 22, when a love is consummated and virtually simultaneously renounced. Appropriately, within this season of weddings, a "marriage" takes place, yet its only "future" is in the life to come. The poem is Dickinson's most complete expression of this central theme of a reunion with the lost beloved in God's heaven, a vision evoked in other poems of this period" (Leiter).
Works Cited:
Dickinson, Emily. "XII: There came a day at summer’s full". Part Three: Love. Complete Poems. 1924. http://www.bartleby.com/113/3013.html
Leiter, Sharon. "'There came a Day—at Summer's full—'." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCED126&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 22, 2011).
Journal #41: If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
"IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain" (Dickinson).
"If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson did not name many of her poems, so the first line of her poems are often taken as the names.
This short poem is Dickinson saying that if she can make one person happy in life, then she will be happy (Dickinson). She is saying that she will not live in vain if she can make at least one person's life seem happy and good. In the fifth line Dickinson is saying that it does not have to be a person that she helps, she can also help an animal like a robin (Dickinson).
A lot of people can relate to Dickinson's poem. A lot of people want to feel like they have made a difference in someone's life. I think that is one of the main meanings of life: to help others. That is, at least, a very highly emphasized point in my life. Some people do not care to help others though, which I think is kind of sad. I think people should help each other to succeed and live a great life. I think that is what human nature is for. People should help others, so that everyone can feel better about themselves and we can all live in harmony.
Like Dickinson's poem says, if she can help one person, make one person feel good about themselves and live a great life, she will be happy and not live such a horrible, sad life. I think all people feel this feeling of needing to help people and needing to be helped by people. Everyone loves to be loved and to love others, so everyone likes to help the people that they love. One thing that can make someone feel even better and not live their life in "vain" is if they help someone that they do not really know.
Works Cited:
Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking". Part One: Life. 1924. Accessed 22 March 2011. http://www.bartleby.com/113/1006.html.
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain" (Dickinson).
"If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson did not name many of her poems, so the first line of her poems are often taken as the names.
This short poem is Dickinson saying that if she can make one person happy in life, then she will be happy (Dickinson). She is saying that she will not live in vain if she can make at least one person's life seem happy and good. In the fifth line Dickinson is saying that it does not have to be a person that she helps, she can also help an animal like a robin (Dickinson).
A lot of people can relate to Dickinson's poem. A lot of people want to feel like they have made a difference in someone's life. I think that is one of the main meanings of life: to help others. That is, at least, a very highly emphasized point in my life. Some people do not care to help others though, which I think is kind of sad. I think people should help each other to succeed and live a great life. I think that is what human nature is for. People should help others, so that everyone can feel better about themselves and we can all live in harmony.
Like Dickinson's poem says, if she can help one person, make one person feel good about themselves and live a great life, she will be happy and not live such a horrible, sad life. I think all people feel this feeling of needing to help people and needing to be helped by people. Everyone loves to be loved and to love others, so everyone likes to help the people that they love. One thing that can make someone feel even better and not live their life in "vain" is if they help someone that they do not really know.
Works Cited:
Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking". Part One: Life. 1924. Accessed 22 March 2011. http://www.bartleby.com/113/1006.html.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Journal #40 My Self
Walt Whitman portrays his "self" in all of his poems. Or, it is said that he portrays his "self" in all of his poems, sometimes it is kind of hard to see it. Walt Whitman's "self" is like the everyman. He is religious, and someone that can relate to everyone.
If I had to make up my own "self", which I do because that is what this assignment says to do, I guess I would describe my "self" as follows...
My "self" would include a lot things. I guess I would be somewhat religious, but not as weird crazy so called religious that Whitman is. Whitman is just a very strange man. I do not really like him. My kind of religious would be just to follow the Then Commandments and go to church and do good things for others. I am not really a die hard Christian, and I do not ever want to be a die hard Christian. I believe you should have a religion and believe in something and have faith in God, but I think it is a little inappropriate to go all crazy about it. I especially do not like people who insult other religions and other people's beliefs. People can believe whatever they want. No one has the right to tell other's what they can and cannot believe. I think that is soooo annoying. And yeah, that one "religion" that is all about science is pretty dumb, but I am not going to go tell the people who are apart of that religion that what they believe in is stupid. I, honestly, believe in the scientific formation of the Earth because there is an extremely high possibility that it is true. Maybe God made the certain particles and stuff that all smashed together for the Big Bang Theory. You never know.
My "self" would also include honesty, perseverance, a good attitude, and all of that other good stuff. I really just do not like Whitman or his idea of finding one's "self". I think it is dumb, and I really do not like his "everyman".
If I had to make up my own "self", which I do because that is what this assignment says to do, I guess I would describe my "self" as follows...
My "self" would include a lot things. I guess I would be somewhat religious, but not as weird crazy so called religious that Whitman is. Whitman is just a very strange man. I do not really like him. My kind of religious would be just to follow the Then Commandments and go to church and do good things for others. I am not really a die hard Christian, and I do not ever want to be a die hard Christian. I believe you should have a religion and believe in something and have faith in God, but I think it is a little inappropriate to go all crazy about it. I especially do not like people who insult other religions and other people's beliefs. People can believe whatever they want. No one has the right to tell other's what they can and cannot believe. I think that is soooo annoying. And yeah, that one "religion" that is all about science is pretty dumb, but I am not going to go tell the people who are apart of that religion that what they believe in is stupid. I, honestly, believe in the scientific formation of the Earth because there is an extremely high possibility that it is true. Maybe God made the certain particles and stuff that all smashed together for the Big Bang Theory. You never know.
My "self" would also include honesty, perseverance, a good attitude, and all of that other good stuff. I really just do not like Whitman or his idea of finding one's "self". I think it is dumb, and I really do not like his "everyman".
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Journal #39 Bardic Symbols
Walt Whitman's poem, "Bardic Symbols" is pretty much about a main character who is going back and forth between his mother (ocean) and his father (land). The main character is drift wood.
"As I wend the shores I know not,
As I listen to the dirge, the voices of men and women wrecked,
As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer,
At once I find, the least thing that belongs to me, or that I see or touch, I
know not;
I, too, but signify a little washed-up drift,—a few sands and dead leaves to
gather,
Gather, and merge myself as part of the leaves and drift" (Bardic).
As this quote shows, the narrator (main character) is drifting between his mother and father like children do. During the course of a person's life, they drift back and forth between their mother and father seeking advice from either of them. This portrays the Everyman because in everyone's life they go back and forth between their parents. They not only do it in their childhood, being the mommy or daddy's girl or boy, but they also do it within their whole lives.
In William Dean Howell's review of the Bardic Symbols he is very confused. William Dean Howell pretty much says that the reader cannot interpret the Bardic Symbols, but you pretty much can because in class we said that the symbols could represent a father, mother, and child. His opinion is said below:
"No one, even after the fourth or fifth reading, can pretend to say what the "Bardic Symbols" symbolize. The poet walks by the sea, and addressing the drift, the foam, the billows and the wind, attempts to force from them, by his frantic outcry, the the [sic] true solution of the mystery of Existence, always most heavily and darkly felt in the august ocean presence. All is confusion, waste and sound. It is in vain that you attempt to gather the poet's full meaning from what he says or what he hints. You can only take refuge in occasional passages like this, in which he wildly laments the feebleness and inefficiency of that art which above all others seeks to make the soul visible and audible" (Howell).
Works Cited:
"Bardic Symbols." Atlantic Monthly 5 (April 1860): 445-447. Revised as "Leaves of Grass. 1" in Leaves of Grass (1860) and reprinted as "Elemental Drifts," Leaves of Grass (1867). The final version of the poem, "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life," was published in Leaves of Grass (1881–82).
[Howells, William Dean]. ""Bardic Symbols"." The Daily Ohio State Journal (28 March 1860): 2.
"As I wend the shores I know not,
As I listen to the dirge, the voices of men and women wrecked,
As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer,
At once I find, the least thing that belongs to me, or that I see or touch, I
know not;
I, too, but signify a little washed-up drift,—a few sands and dead leaves to
gather,
Gather, and merge myself as part of the leaves and drift" (Bardic).
As this quote shows, the narrator (main character) is drifting between his mother and father like children do. During the course of a person's life, they drift back and forth between their mother and father seeking advice from either of them. This portrays the Everyman because in everyone's life they go back and forth between their parents. They not only do it in their childhood, being the mommy or daddy's girl or boy, but they also do it within their whole lives.
In William Dean Howell's review of the Bardic Symbols he is very confused. William Dean Howell pretty much says that the reader cannot interpret the Bardic Symbols, but you pretty much can because in class we said that the symbols could represent a father, mother, and child. His opinion is said below:
"No one, even after the fourth or fifth reading, can pretend to say what the "Bardic Symbols" symbolize. The poet walks by the sea, and addressing the drift, the foam, the billows and the wind, attempts to force from them, by his frantic outcry, the the [sic] true solution of the mystery of Existence, always most heavily and darkly felt in the august ocean presence. All is confusion, waste and sound. It is in vain that you attempt to gather the poet's full meaning from what he says or what he hints. You can only take refuge in occasional passages like this, in which he wildly laments the feebleness and inefficiency of that art which above all others seeks to make the soul visible and audible" (Howell).
Works Cited:
"Bardic Symbols." Atlantic Monthly 5 (April 1860): 445-447. Revised as "Leaves of Grass. 1" in Leaves of Grass (1860) and reprinted as "Elemental Drifts," Leaves of Grass (1867). The final version of the poem, "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life," was published in Leaves of Grass (1881–82).
[Howells, William Dean]. ""Bardic Symbols"." The Daily Ohio State Journal (28 March 1860): 2.
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