Rest of Class

Now, for the rest of class, use this post and the space on your handout to do the following:

• Complete a comparison of Transcendentalism and Gothicism using the chart on your handout.
• Read the poems below and complete the "Poem Identification" section of your handout.
• Look at the artwork below the poems and complete the "Art Identification" section of your handout.

POEM A:

I LEFT my low and humble home,

Far from my Father's fields to roam.

My peaceful cot no more had charms,

My only joy was War's alarms.

I panted for the field of fight,

I gaz'd upon the deathless light,

Which o'er the Hero's grave is shed,

The glorious memory of the dead.

Ambition show'd a distant star,

That shed its radiance bright and far,

And pointed to a path which led

O'er heaps of dying and of dead;

Onward I press'd with eager feet,

And War's dread thunder still would greet

My reckless ears. Where'er I trod,

I saw the green and verdant sod,

Turn red with blood of slaughter'd foes,

And Fury veil'd in smoke arose.

I gain'd the envied height; and there,

I sigh'd for that lone cottage, where

The early hours of life flew by,

On wings of youthful ecstasy.

Too late I found that Glory's ray,

Could never bring one happy day.

POEM B:

O gift of God! O perfect day:
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!

Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much.

I hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.

And over me unrolls on high
The splendid scenery of the sky,
Where though a sapphire sea the sun
Sails like a golden galleon,

Towards yonder cloud-land in the West,
Towards yonder Islands of the Blest,
Whose steep sierra far uplifts
Its craggy summits white with drifts.

Blow, winds! and waft through all the rooms
The snow-flakes of the cherry-blooms!
Blow, winds! and bend within my reach
The fiery blossoms of the peach!

O Life and Love! O happy throng
Of thoughts, whose only speech is song!
O heart of man! canst thou not be
Blithe as the air is, and as free?

Artwork A:

Artwork B: