John Greenleaf Whittier's Poem 'Snow-Bound': An Analysis of Romantic Poetry

If an artist were to paint a picture depicting the poem “Oregon Winter” by Jeanne McGahey the colors that would predominate are gray and brown. Some of the visual details are the gray farmhouses with gray smoke coming from the chimneys. There would be soaked green hills in the background and brown “blotches of wet on the dusty road” leading up to the houses and barns. Visible from the windows of the barns are lofts piled high with wet yellow straws. The picture would also capture the sagging plumages of the wild geese flying in the sky next to the bloated gray clouds bursting with rain. Finally, there would be farmers conducting their chores, getting drenched in the slow, heavy rain of winter. It is dreary, and no one is in a rush.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson are both novels about people trying to get their lives in order. In these books there is at least one character that only appears for a short amount of time but has a major effect on the story. If the book is analyzed enough, these characters can be picked out. Ken Fink and Bob Gross both changed Suzanne Walls life, even though they were only in the story for about 2 chapters. Milholland in Snow Falling on Cedars was able to change the complete direction of who was guilty for murder, although he only appeared in one chapter.

John Greenleaf Whittier was born on December 17, 1807 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Being the son to John Whittier and Abigail Hussey Whittier, two devoted Quakers1, he grew up at their countryside homestead given little formal schooling due to the lack of economic stability as their farm was not very profitable. Whittier was however an eager reader, studying his fathers books on Quakerism until he later on got introduced to poetry by his teacher. On June 8, 1826, Whittier's sister sent his very first poem “The Exile's Departure” to William Lloyd Garrison, an editor to the Newburyport Free Press, who published it even though neither he or Whittier's sister had the permission granted by Whittier himself to do so. The year after, Whittier

One of the more beautiful things about nature is that it is constantly changing and hold so many mysteries that we don’t understand. Each day brings new beauties and scenes that weren’t there yesterday. Having grown up on the east coast might have caused me to have a greater appreciation for all of the seasons, but one of my favorite things about season is being able to witness the changing over form one to the next. How each plant knows that the change is coming and they all magically start to prepare themselves for the new setting they’re going to create. The romantics capture the mysteries of nature in some of the most beautiful poetry. They delve deep into the possible meanings of what nature could be attempting to tell us or simple what they find beautiful about what they see in nature. One piece that stuck with me this quarter was The Snow Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Winter has always been one of my favorite season since I was a little girl and have always anxiously awaited that first snow fall, dreaming of a white Christmas that year. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Snow Storm brought back nostalgic memories of snow filled days in my childhood and made me appreciate having actually experienced snow in real life and the beauty

When I was attending my ninth grade, we had an assembly speaker who told us about how a tornado ripped through his town. The day that his school returned to session, his English teacher choose specific romanticism texts that involved tornadoes and weather. He stood before us as “In my own neighborhood, I had something that those writers described as beautiful and pure. The way they described it, I started to enjoy nature’s purest forms. I became so interested. I think I took the writers too literally by their ‘following nature’ talk that I ended up becoming a storm chaser.”

“Don’t look down” the wind whispers tenderly as it blows through my golden trusses. Trifling detailed fragments of snow fall from the skies above, meeting the horizon. They are the calmness in this storm. My storm. The jagged icy glaciers, sharp as a knife, smooth as silk, tower overhead. Every breath I take is a battle, every thought is a war and every step is one closer to the end.

The short story, “Winter Dreams”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald holds lasting impact today, mainly for the author’s ability to weave love, desire, emotion, and the moral fiber of an individual into a story. The underlying theme is centered on how charisma can drives a person to lose sight of their true goal in life, thereby finding pleasure in selfish gain which results in eventual loss. I will develop an analysis of characterization and theme in this famed short story that is as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1922.

“Snow Bound”, a poem describing the joyous day for a boy who experienced snow for the first time. Author, John Greenleaf Whittier uses imagery perfectly. “The blue walls of the firmament, no cloud about, no earth below-a universe of sky and snow.” The author describes the setting of the poem by his use of rich and creative imagery.

A poem is an experience, not a thought. It is an experience both the author and the reader share with one another. Authors of poems use tones, keywords, hidden messages, irony, and diction to create their work. They use these tactics so the reader thinks about what they are reading and try evaluating what the message is that the reader wants to get across. In the poem “Snow” by Louis MacNeice, he uses these same characteristics to get the readers mind active in the words. Let’s examine the poem “Snow” and see what the meaning behind this poem is.

Lastly, the Romantic Era blended human emotions with nature. The interfacing of emotion and nature was emblematic of Romantic poetry, whether it engrossed the idea of bequeathing human emotions to an innate article like a river or connecting the scenery to the temperament of the writer. (James, 491) This kind of beauty that is

Winter-Piece, by Charles Tomlinson, depicts the effects of the wintery season; blinds are drawn, windows are sprayed with hail and possibly rain and snow. The fierce wind closes the gates ‘like gunshot’. Birds, like crows, are coerced to fly away leaving behind them a home which they once loved, due to the cold that deprives them of the provision of food. The spider ends up frozen to death, ‘ death-masked in cold ‘ yet it does not let go f its grip. Through the thick snow, the house peeks out behind ‘its holed and ragged glaze ‘, which highlight sense if destruction and mutilation.

Imagine a candle-lit dinner on a starry night in Paris, the Eiffel Tower just in view with dazzling lights shining into the night. This image is probably what you think of when you hear the word “romantic,” correct. However, this image is a stumbling block when people think of the “Romanticism Period” in literature. Where “romantic” means having a lovely time with the person you love the most, “Romanticism” is a piece of literature written with key themes in mind. Those themes tend to be a strong emotion, imagery or worship of nature, and individuality and subjectivity. The peak of inspiration for these pieces was in the years 1800-1850, and there are famous poems that are well loved today from this period. Many of the poets that you enjoy reading and know are, in actuality, Romanticism writers, and instill the themes above in our minds.

Poets use many ways when they want to communicate something using poems. Poems are used as a means of passing ideas, information and expression of feelings. This has made the poets to use the natural things and images that people can relate with so that they can make these poems understandable. The most common forms of writing that are used by the poets are the figurative language for example imagery and metaphors. In addition, the poets use the natural landscape in their attempt to explore the philosophical questions. Therefore, this essay will explore the forms that have been used by the poets in writing poems using the natural landscape. The essay will be based on poems such as ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by

Romanticism is an intellectual, spiritual, and literary movement that begins at the start of the nineteenth century and concludes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Of the many characteristics that are associated with Romanticism, the characteristics that are most evident in literature from this period are the characteristics of individuality and imagination. The author Edgar Allen Poe exhibits these characteristics in his works “The Black Cat”, and the “The Raven”.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “ The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.