Nesha79
Look up, look down to see nature’s wonders. Walt Whitman’s…
Look up, look down to see nature’s wonders.
Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learne’d Astronomer”
When I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Emily Dickinson’s “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass”
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides –
You may have met him? Did you not
His notice instant is –
The Grass divides as with a Comb,
A spotted Shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your Feet
And opens further on –
He likes a Boggy Acre –
A Floor too cool for Corn –
But when a Boy and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon
Have passed I thought a Whip Lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled And was gone –
Several of Nature’s People* wildlife*
I know, and they know me
I feel for them a transport
Of Cordiality* most other wildlife are cordial to her presence, welcoming
But never met this Fellow
Attended or alone
Without a tighter Breathing
And Zero at the Bone.
QUESTION 1. The speaker in Whitman’s poem feels sick during an astronomy lecture and has to leave the classroom to go outside for some fresh air. What makes him feel so ill? Be specific and quote from the poem itself to support your ideas. He looks up and feels better once he sees the stars. How do the stars make him feel that is different from how the lecture made him feel? Why? The speaker in Dickinson’s poem describes the surprise she feels when she sees a snake slither past her feet, an encounter which leaves her feeling thrilled. Instead of the way snakes are usually described (like the snake in the garden of Eden which represented evil and temptation to sin), this snake is a “narrow fellow in the grass.” What does the poet want us to see about this snake that is different from the way many (most?) people feel about snakes? Explain the feeling described in the final stanza. What do Whitman and Dickinson’s poems paired together say to their readers about the natural world’s effects on human beings?
Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice”
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Emily Dickinson’s “To Make a Prairie”
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery* alone will do, *revery=daydream/reverence=deep respect
If bees are few.
QUESTION 2. The speaker in Frost’s poem explains how different people image how the world will end, either by fire (fueled by the heat of human desire) or by ice (frozen by the coldness of human hatred). In fact, the speaker says that there is so much desire and hate in this world, it could end the world twice over. What is the purpose of this poem’s message to humans about the world they live in? How does it imply that people need to do something to prevent this disasterous end? On the other hand, in Dickinson’s poem, the speaker gives a recipe of sorts for creating a prairie (a lush meadow with growing grasses, teeming with wildlife from insects to birds and more) started by just getting a bee to pollinate a clover, along with a splash of revery. What is Dickinson saying about the power of nature to regenerate itself? About the necessity for humans to respect nature? About the power of the imagination with which humans can design a whole prairie, entire worlds, even, only with their thoughts? If humans change their thoughts, can they make a better world? Again, what do Frost and Dickinson’s poems paired together say to their readers about the natural world’s effects on human beings? What about the effect of human beings on the natural world?
