The French writer H.A. Thane was born this day in 1828. Author of "An Introduction to English Literature," he was perhaps the first author to come up with a cogent analysis on why English literature is different from its forbearers.
He wanders a bit in this selection, but the gist is that literature "is not a mere play of the imagination, the isolated caprice of an excited brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners and customs and the sign of a particular state of intellect."
Through our reading of the works of the past, Thane writes that we can understand something about the era a poem or novel was written in, as well as understand the person behind the words. It seems sort of obvious, but someone had to be first to come up with this idea.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
April 20: Byron Gave His Life For Freedom (Vol. 41: pp. 801-815)
On this day in Greece in 1824, Lord Byron received a 37-gun salute in honor of the supreme sacrifice he made in aiding the Greeks in battle against the Turks.
"ETERNAL SPIRIT of the chainless Mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art,—
For there thy habitation is the heart—
The heart which love of Thee alone can bind."
Most of Byron's work is soppy romanticism, but in these two poems, "The Prisoner of Chillon" and "The Isles of Greece," he is a freedom fighter willing to lay down his life so that "freedom's fame finds wings on every wind."
"ETERNAL SPIRIT of the chainless Mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art,—
For there thy habitation is the heart—
The heart which love of Thee alone can bind."
Most of Byron's work is soppy romanticism, but in these two poems, "The Prisoner of Chillon" and "The Isles of Greece," he is a freedom fighter willing to lay down his life so that "freedom's fame finds wings on every wind."
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 19: Battle of Concord (Vol. 42, pp. 1245-1246)
A short selection, but one of the most weighty — Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn." He wrote this poem in 1837, for a July 4 dedication of a monument to honor the men who fought on this day in 1775.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee."
Of the first stanza, Dr. Eliot said that "in twenty-eight words here is the whole scene and all the essential circumstances ... what an accurate, moving, immortal description is this!"
Emerson was generally a prolix guy, but in this simple poem, he captured the spirit of 1775, the spirit of the fight against tyranny, the spirit of the men who were outnumbered and outgunned but still managed to defeat the mightiest army in the world.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee."
Of the first stanza, Dr. Eliot said that "in twenty-eight words here is the whole scene and all the essential circumstances ... what an accurate, moving, immortal description is this!"
Emerson was generally a prolix guy, but in this simple poem, he captured the spirit of 1775, the spirit of the fight against tyranny, the spirit of the men who were outnumbered and outgunned but still managed to defeat the mightiest army in the world.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
April 18: Ready for Adventures and Conquests (Vol. 14, pp. 17-28)
To mark this day in 1616, when Cervantes received the last rites of the Catholic Church, we get the introduction to "Don Quixote," where we meet the Man of La Mancha and the mission he launched himself on — to be a knight errant in a age when knights were no longer needed.
Friday, April 17, 2009
April 17: Benjamin Franklin — Book Salesman (Vol. 1, pp. 66-77)
The list of Franklin's accomplishments during his lifetime is long. One of his greatest was his invention of the lending library. On the anniversary of his death this day in 1790, we have this selection from Franklin's "Autobiography" telling how he did it.
In 1730, he convinced his Philadelphia neighbors to pool their books together into a subscription library. There were no bookshops then and books had to be imported from England. He found enough people willing to pay 40 shillings to join and 10 shillings a year thereafter to fund the library and buy more books.
It was a huge success which greatly contributed to the enlightenment of Philadelphia and, eventually, the nation, as other cities copied his idea.
In 1730, he convinced his Philadelphia neighbors to pool their books together into a subscription library. There were no bookshops then and books had to be imported from England. He found enough people willing to pay 40 shillings to join and 10 shillings a year thereafter to fund the library and buy more books.
It was a huge success which greatly contributed to the enlightenment of Philadelphia and, eventually, the nation, as other cities copied his idea.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
April 16: Inside the Gates of Hell (Vol. 20, pp. 32-39)
Unfortunately, after the high of Whitman, we get the lunatic ravings of Dante. Not what I would've have followed with.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
April 15: O Captain! My Captain! (Vol. 42, pp. 1412-1420)
There is no way around it. It is impossible to mark the death of Abraham Lincoln without Walt Whitman's "O Captain My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."
Lincoln's assassination devastated Whitman and inspired him to write these works. Nothing else has the power, the beauty, the sadness of these two poems — works that encompassed all the emotions of a great national trauma.
Lincoln's assassination devastated Whitman and inspired him to write these works. Nothing else has the power, the beauty, the sadness of these two poems — works that encompassed all the emotions of a great national trauma.
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