UNIT FOUR: Close Read and Compare and Contrast Paper Direct Teach with guided practice on exercises and quizzes (80% or better) and MLA Citation Lesson

Learning Promises:

-Direct Teach with guided practice on exercises and quizzes

-Default Analysis Paragraphs: Transitional Topic Sentences, Linking Sentences, Introductions to the Passage, Citing, (30-36); Default Analysis Paragraph Components: Context, Condense, Connect (37-39);

-and Co-Commentary Analysis and Cause and Effect Analysis and

-Writing Process (80-82): Prewriting, Outlining

Analysis Paragraph Components: Close Reading (40-48) and Compare and Contrast Rhetorical Moves (52-53)

The Short Prose Reader Assignments: Chapter 7: Compare and Contrast and Model Student Papers on Writing Course Site: Poetry Analysis and Compare and Contrast Papers. Read Rachel Carson "A Fable for Tomorrow" (255-260) and Dave Barry "Punch and Judy" (267-272)

Short Papers: (Mixing Patterns) COMPARE AND CONTRAST 1 (1 personal/real world, 1 historical and 1 literary) …. History / English Close Read and Compare and Contrast Paragraphs with a poetic device

Rubric: 1-48, 52-53, 57-59 (+1 for semicolons, varied sentence structure, active voice )

Quiz: 40-48, 52-53

MID TERM EXAM ON WRITING GUIDE PRINCIPLES 1-48; 52-53, 57-59 Writing Process, Academic Integrity, Glossary (80% or better to pass course for Mid Term and Finals)

COMPARISON STARTERS:

(X AND Y ARE CHARACTERS OR AUTHORS...):

-Similar to the way in which X ________________, Y ________________.

-As X concludes that ______________________, Y concludes that________________________.

-Along the same lines __________________________________________.

-Similarly, __________________________________________.

-In the same way that X ________________________, Y ___________________.

-Both X and Y believe that __________________________________.

CONTRASTING STARTERS:

(X AND Y ARE CHARACTERS OR AUTHORS)

-Despite the fact that X believes __________________, Y believes __________________________________.

-Even though X and Y believe that __________________, Y qualifies this belief by _________________________________________.

-Whereas X contends that ___________________, Y contends that __________________________.

-Unlike X, Y concludes that ______________________________.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST WRITING INVITATION:

Definition of Compare-Contrast (excerpted from the Short Prose Reader):

“When we compare two things, we look for similarities. When we contrast, we look for

differences. The comparison-contrast writing strategy, then, is a way of analyzing

likenesses and differences between two or more subjects. Usually, the purpose is to

evaluate or judge which is superior” (255).

Review #’s 52-53 in the W.A.C. Writing Guide

Assignment: Write an 800 word page Compare/Contrast paper that compares and contrasts one of the following subjects of comparison:

1 Olympics vs. X-Games

2 Hailey vs. Ketchum/Sun-Valley

3 Liberal vs. Conservative (Democrat v Republican)

4 East vs. West mindsets or landscapes

5 Figure Skating vs. Hockey Skating

6 XC Skiing v. Slalom Skiing

7 Freestyle Skiing v. Downhill Ski Racing

8 Community School v Wood River

9 Soccer v Football

10 Apple vs. Google Smartphones

11 Apple vs. Microsoft

12 Reading in a book v Reading Online

13 Coffee v Tea

14 A real vacation and a dream vacation

15 Creationism vs. Evolutionism

16 President Trump v President Obama

17 Intagram v Snapchat

18 Racism and sexism

19 Boys v Girls

20 Racial Profiling and Affirmative Action

21 Digital Photos and Printed Photos

22 The influence of peers and the influence of parents

23 Digital Music v Vynl music

24 The life of a dog to the life of a cat

25 Wood River Valley in winter v Wood River Valley in Summer

26 Christianity v Judaism / Buddhism / Hunduism / Islam / Animism / Mormonism...

27 Netflix series v reading a novel

28 Classroom learning v Outdoor Education

29 Powder skiing v groomer skiing

30 Whitewater kayaking v skiing moguls

31 Poetry v Prose

32 American English v British English

33 English v Spanish / French

34 Childhood vs. young Adulthood

Your own? (*Must be approved by your instructor!)

SAMPLE COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER:

COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER

WRITER OF THE WEEK: Joe Hall ’19

Alpine v Nordic Skiing

If you live in Sun Valley, odds are you’ve skied at some point in time. Skiing is the lifeblood of our town. It powers the economy, enriches our student athletes, and serves as the most common pastime in the Valley. There are many disciplines of skiing; primarily, they are divided into downhill and cross-country. Downhill skiing usually is classified as either alpine or backcountry. Cross country or Nordic skiing is usually divided into the skate and classic disciplines. Both main styles of skiing are practiced for recreation as well as fitness. While many athletes enjoy both kinds of skiing, they are quite different sports unto themselves. For all their similarities, the two sports harbor enough differences that people become passionate about defending one or the other as “the best.” While Downhill skiing is more commonly practiced in our country and allows people incredible access to the backcountry, Nordic skiing is a superior sport for it provides better exercise, is cheaper, and is less impactful on the environment than its counterpart.

Downhill skiing gives people the ability to carve turns down mountains at exhilarating speed and glide through fine powder snow on beautiful wilderness peaks. Recreational skiing is a great way to get outside and put yourself in the mountains, whether at a resort or in the backcountry. In 2015, over 13 million people skied in the U.S alone. (www.statista.com). The most popular form of skiing is alpine skiing. Alpine skiing involves sliding downhill on fixed-heel skis within an area that is usually groomed and has a dedicated ski patrol. Usually, this means a ski resort. Alpine skiing also is characterized by the use of mechanical help to get to the tops of mountains, usually by chairlift or tow rope. Alpine skis take many forms, but they tend to be between four and six inches wide, and are slightly shorter than the skier who uses them. Online, the price for a new pair of downhill skis ranges from slightly over $100 to over $1000, with the mean being around $400. Including boots, poles, and skis, one could spend up to 700$ on all the gear needed; this does not mean you could acquire all the gear for less by buying it used, however. Downhill skiers who ski at resorts must also buy tickets to use chairlifts; backcountry skiers also must buy skins and special avalanche safety equipment. As far as exercise is concerned, downhill skiing is strenuous on leg muscles but does not require aerobic fitness or upper body strength beyond that of an average adult. An hour of downhill skiing burns between 275 and 475 calories an hour, on average. (www.calorielab.com). Backcountry skiing is harder to measure, but burns more calories on average because the skier normally has to climb up the mountain.

While downhill skiing has only really become popular since the invention of the chairlift, cross country, or nordic, skiing has been in use for thousands of years, first used by Vikings to hunt and travel in the winter. (good contrast starter) Adept nordic skiers can glide across the landscape at speeds upwards of 10-20 mph across varied terrain. Nordic skiing relies on the skier to propel themselves, sometimes uphill, with nothing but the power of their own muscles. Nordic skiing has become a popular activity in the U.S, because it is much slower and can be gentler on legs and joints than downhill skiing. Generally, there are two types of cross-country skiing. Classic skiing refers to the use of skis that somehow can grip the snow, letting an athlete stride but still glide over the snow. Classic skiing can also involve propelling yourself with just your poles. Skate skiing was introduced in the 1980’s. It involves going from one ski to another, resembling ice skating. Nordic skis tend to be about 2 inches in width, with a binding that keeps the heel free. Unlike downhill skis, a pair of nordic skis can be bought for less than $100, though models for serious competitors can reach over $600. (good contrast) Not including clothing, the average cost for gear would run about $450, although buying expensive, carbon-fiber boots and poles could easily make that cost more than $1000. The upside is that nordic trails typically have a very small cost to use, or none at all. Nordic skiing is widely believed to be one of the best cardio exercises in the world (www.mensfitness.com). The combination of striding or skating along with pushing with the upper body causes almost every major muscle group to be used in nordic skiing. Particularly, poling is especially effective at working out core and lower back muscles along with triceps and pectorals. An hour of nordic skiing can burn anywhere from 400 to over 1200 calories. Being primarily a cardio activity, nordic skiing also can improve aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

Having evolved from the same common sport and involving essentially the same thing, there are many similarities between these two styles of skiing. Both sports depend on snow to glide smoothly across the landscape. Both sports are a popular way to get outside and enjoy nature during the winter. Similar to the way backcountry downhill skiers ascend mountains, nordic skiers propel themselves forward on trails. Nordic and Alpine skiing both enjoy a large competitive scene and are both popular winter olympic events. (good comparisons) This being said, the two styles of skiing contrast each other greatly. While downhill skiing is centered on using gravity, nordic skiing relies primarily on the athlete’s own body. While it is true backcountry downhill skiers may walk up slopes using skins, for nordic skiers going up hills is not just a way to get to the top of the slope; rather, it is just as much a part of the sport as flats and downhills. Alpine skis have fixed heel bindings, whereas nordic skis only attach at the toe, making it easier to stride. Unlike alpine skiing, nordic skiing features no mechanical help. On top of that, nordic skis are generally cheaper and lighter than their downhill counterparts. The average price for a pair of nordic skis online is between $100 and $300, while downhill skis cost more like 300-700$. The fact that nordic skiers typically do not have to pay for expensive lift tickets of backcountry safety gear also lowers costs. Unlike downhill skiing, nordic skiing is very much a cardio exercise. Nordic skiing also involves much more use of the core and upper body muscles. An hour of nordic skiing can burn almost twice as many calories as a similar amount of alpine skiing. Finally, there is the little-discussed factor of environmental impact. Many ski resorts rely on fossil fuels to run groomers or provide the electricity to run their chairlifts ; snowmaking is also a big factor: the snow guns at Sun Valley use 28 gallons of water per minute, each, over the course of an entire season (www.mensjournal.com), resulting in the use of millions upon millions of gallons of water being used. While nordic ski trails may use diesel-powered groomers too, they rarely use snowmaking and, without needing to run chairlifts, use a fraction of the electricity. Looking at the facts, nordic skiing is better for the human body as well as being more sustainable of the environment. (great contrast starters)

After comparing downhill and nordic skiing, it is apparent that nordic skiing is not only cheaper, but is better exercise and has a fraction of the environmental impact of its counterpart. It is important for people to look at both sports equally, since downhill skiing is much more popular at this point in time; if people don’t consider nordic skiing, they may think of skiing as a whole as overly expensive and less desirable than other forms of exercise. In the end, however, both disciplines of skiing have equal value in the hearts of those who love them. Whether you love the adrenaline rush of rocketing down a slope, the meditative rhythm of powder skiing, or the challenge of powering up a steep hill, skiing will always continue to capture people’s hearts and inspire them to play outside.

JOE-

THIS WAS AN EXCELLENT COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER. INSTEAD OF DIVING INTO DESCRIPTION AND NARRATION, YOU EMPLOY TESTIMONIALS AND STATISTICS TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SKI DISCIPLINES.

THIS WAS VERY WELL DONE, INFORMATIVE, AND FLUID.

YOUR PREFERENCE FOR NORDIC SKIING WAS APT AND WELL SUPPORTED.

Prewriting:

Create a Venn diagram.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST OUTLINE GUIDE:

I. TITLE

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Opener: directive, narrative, or quote

2. Bridge

3. Embedded Plan and Thesis: make a claim for the superior member of the comparison

B. FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH

1. Develop subject 1 : description, narration, illustrative examples, testimonies / quotes

C. SECOND BODY PARAGRAPH

1. Develop subject 2: description, narration, illustrative examples, testimonies / quotes

D. THIRD BODY PARAGRAPH / OR PART OF SECOND PARAGRAPH

1. Compare:

-Similar to the way in which X ________________, Y ________________.

-As X concludes that ______________________, Y concludes

that________________________.

-Similarly, __________________________________________.

-In the same way that X ________________________, Y ___________________.

-Both X and Y agree that __________________________________.

2. Contrast

-Despite the fact that X believes __________________, Y believes ____________________.

-Even though X and Y believe that __________________, Y qualifies this belief by ____________.

-Whereas X's central feature is ___________________, Y's central feature is ____________________.

-Unlike X, Y ______________________________.

H. CONCLUSION

1. Transition from last paragraph to thesis (preference of the pairing)

2. React to why this preference matters

3. Return the language or idea in the opener

53.Create Contrasts (compare and contrast papers):

As with comparison starters, contrasting starters are used in each compare and contrast essay, but they can also add a more nuanced argument to your claims in a single text analysis. Contrasting starters allow your analysis to go against a strain of thought or anticipate future action in a text that contradicts the immediate conclusion you are making.

Below are two analysis paragraphs on the negative psychological effects of war upon Nick Adams in Our Time and Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. The comparison and contrasting sentences are in bold:

The novel In Our Time displays many examples of unnecessary cruelty towards innocent people and animals. During the war Nick witnesses many horrifying deaths. In one of these situations a helpless minister is shot to death; describing this situation Hemingway writes:

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six

in the morning against the wall of a hospital.

All of the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of

the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried

him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to

hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of

water... finally the officer told the soldiers it was no

good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first

volley he was sitting down in the water with his

head on his knees.

(Hemingway 52)

At this point in the novel, the reader has seen Nick help his father perform a c-section on a Native woman, break up with his girlfriend, and lose his first fight. He is now a soldier in W.W.I. These ministers are put to death for a reason which isn’t told. In the above excerpt, the narrator emphasizes that the religious ministers or high ranking soldiers are being shot outside of a hospital that has its shutters are “nailed shut.” The closed windows suggest that there is no help for them and a place of healing and altruism would rather not see outside. Even though the ministers may be guilty of some unknown crime, it is still inhumane to kill someone who doesn’t even have the strength to stand. Although this analysis is primarily concerned with an isolated firing squad, it also develops the larger concept of the inhumanity of soldiers during war. This debilitating effect of violence in and out of war is present all throughout the novel.

Similar to the way in which Nick was repeatedly reminded of the unwarranted cruelty of war, this unjustified brutality continues in W.W.II and finds expression in the novel Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse - Five. All throughout the war, Vonnegut’s protagonist Billy experiences difficult and violent situations. He-like Vonnegut himself- is captured and made a prisoner of war in Dresden. Billy and other Americans are kept in a slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden, Germany. In an attack on Dresden U.S. bombers kill 135,000 people, 63,621 more people than were killed from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Describing a disturbing situation which takes place after being bombed by his own army, Vonnegut states:

American fighter planes came in under the smoke to see if anything was moving. They saw Billy and the rest moving down there. The planes sprayed them

with machine-gun bullets, but the bullets missed. Then

they saw some other people moving down by the riverside

and they shot at them. They hit some of them. So it goes.

The idea was to hasten the end of the war.

(Vonnegut 180)

It is important to remember that Billy has fought nobly in the war and has been captured by the Germans at this point in the novel. This excerpt reveals that after the bombing Billy and other survivors are walking in the barren wasteland which was once the beautiful city of Dresden. Everything they see is dead, and they see no other survivors beside themselves. The fact that American planes came in and shot at the few living people they could find after they had already bombed the city is merciless and cruel. Both Billy and Nick observe unjustifiable cruelty towards humans during the war. As Nick concludes that humans have no limit to their cruelty, Billy concludes that his own Army was willing to kill American prisoners-of-war in order to “hasten the end of the war.” The sarcastic tone of that last line of the passage captures Vonnegut’s anger. Unlike Billy, Nick doesn’t have a firsthand encounter with this violence. Whereas Nick witnesses the handicapped minister being shot, Billy’s own country tries to kill him. In the end, both Billy and Nick are affected by post traumatic stress syndrome (P.T.S.D.). Even though neither Hemingway nor Vonnegut had access to this clinical term, they both knew and wrote powerfully about its effects. By developing the significance of psychological stress on soldiers at war, both novels reveal how important it is understand the psychological cost of war.

Close Read and Compare and Contrast Writing Invitation:

Definition: The purpose of an analytical body paragraph is to use a specific example, quote or evidence to topically support a thesis statement. These body paragraphs have specific parts as outlined in the Writing Guide #’s 30-39:

• 1. Transitional Topic Sentence (#30)

  2. Linking Sentence (#31)

  3. Introduce Quotation/Example/Evidence (#32)

  4. 4.) Block or Embed Quotation (#33)5.) Using Ellipses, Italics and Parentheses (#34 - if applicable)

  5. Citation of Quotation (#35)

  6. Contextualize and Condense Quotation: (#36-37)

  7. CLOSE READ the passage by identifying a poetic device and analyzing its effect on the meaning of the poem

  8. Connect/Explain Quotation in relation to thesis and topic sentence (#39)

Assignment:

Read each of the following lyrical poems by Wiliam Blake in “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”. While reading annotate for how he uses either IMAGERY or TONE or WORD CHOICE to show how the theme innocence can be seen in different ways. Next, WRITE ONE BODY PARAGRAPH for EACH POEM, using a specific quote/line, as well as all of the above parts and pieces, based on your chosen quote.

72. English Compare and Contrast Paper:

Compare and Contrast Essay Excerpt

(starter sentences are in bold)

“GOD GRANT ME

THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT

THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE,

COURAGE

TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,

AND WISDOM ALWAYS

TO TELL THE

DIFFERENCE.”

(Vonnegut 60)

This excerpt comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter - House - Five and embodies a faith in one’s self, the world and God that quickly fades for the protagonist Billy Pilgrim. In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughter - House - Five, and Ernest Hemingway’s novel, In Our Time, the protagonists struggle with both their lurid memories of W.W.I, as well as their personal ambivalent recollections of their childhood. They both seek to return to innocence to escape despair and their bleak outlook on life. They can’t seem to understand the excessive, random violence in the world, and want people to realize that fighting wars, and having unnecessary violence and racism will only amplify the animosity of the world. Written in the early and mid 20th century both Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughter - House - Five, and Ernest Hemingway’s novel, In Our Time exemplify the tenets of Modernism by creating unchronological narratives that shows the fatalism of despair. In order to better understand the meaning of both novels associative cycling needs to be defined. Associative cycling means that an idea, emotion, image, or dialogue established in a text cycles through other moments in the same text and creates a sense of simultaneity, ubiquity, and inevitability of experience. Both Billy Pilgrim of Slaughter - House - Five and Nick Adams of In Our Time feel that the despair caused by war ruins all past, present, and future experiences. By comparing and contrasting the distressed minds of Billy Pilgrim, the main character in Slaughter - House - Five, and Nick Adams, the protagonist in In Our Time, we come to realize that neither character will be saved from the despair they desperately desire to escape. By analyzing their views on unwarranted cruelty towards innocent people, and their desire to return to innocence we come to realize the inevitability of their hopeless situations.

The novel In Our Time displays many examples of unnecessary cruelty towards innocent people and animals. During the war Nick witnesses many horrifying deaths. In one of these situations a helpless minister is shot to death; describing this situation Hemingway writes:

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six

in the morning against the wall of a hospital.

All of the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of

the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried

him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to

hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of

water... finally the officer told the soldiers it was no

good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first

volley he was sitting down in the water with his

head on his knees.

(Hemingway 52)

At this point in the novel, the reader has seen Nick help his father perform a c-section on a Native woman, break up with his girlfriend, and lose his first fight. He is now a soldier in W.W.I. These ministers are put to death for a reason which isn’t told. In the above excerpt, the narrator emphasizes that the religious ministers or high ranking soldiers are being shot outside of a hospital that has its shutters are “nailed shut.” The closed windows suggest that there is no help for them and a place of healing and altruism would rather not see outside. Even though the ministers may be guilty of some unknown crime, it is still inhumane to kill someone who doesn’t even have the strength to stand. Although this analysis is primarily concerned with an isolated firing squad, it also develops the larger concept of the inhumanity of soldiers during war. This debilitating effect of violence in and out of war is present all throughout the novel.

Similar to the way in which Nick was repeatedly reminded of the unwarranted cruelty of war, this unjustified brutality continues in W.W.II and finds expression in the novel Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse - Five. All throughout the war, Vonnegut’s protagonist Billy experiences difficult and violent situations. He-like Vonnegut himself- is captured and made a prisoner of war in Dresden. Billy and other Americans are kept in a slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden, Germany. In an attack on Dresden U.S. bombers kill 135,000 people, 63,621 more people than were killed from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Describing a disturbing situation which takes place after being bombed by his own army, Vonnegut states:

American fighter planes came in under the smoke to see if anything was moving. They saw Billy and the rest moving down there. The planes sprayed them

with machine-gun bullets, but the bullets missed.

Then they saw some other people moving down by

the riverside and they shot at them. They hit some

of them. So it goes. The idea was to hasten the end

of the war.

(Vonnegut 180).

It is important to remember that Billy has fought nobly in the war and has been captured by the Germans at this point in the novel. This excerpt reveals that after the bombing Billy and other survivors are walking in the barren wasteland which was once the beautiful city of Dresden. Everything they see is dead, and they see no other survivors besides themselves. The fact that American planes came in and shot at the few living people they could find after they had already bombed the city is merciless and cruel. Both Billy and Nick observe unjustifiable cruelty towards humans during the war. As Nick concludes that humans have no limit to their cruelty, Billy concludes that his own Army was willing to kill American prisoners-of-war in order to “hasten the end of the war.” The sarcastic tone of that last line of the passage captures Vonnegut’s anger. Unlike Billy, Nick doesn’t have a firsthand encounter with this violence. Whereas Nick witnesses the handicapped minister being shot, Billy’s own country tries to kill him. In the end, both Billy and Nick are affected by post traumatic stress syndrome (P.T.S.D.). Even though neither Hemingway nor Vonnegut had access to this clinical term, they both knew and wrote powerfully about its effects. By developing the significance of psychological stress on soldiers at war, both novels reveal how important it is understand the psychological cost of war....

#2 HISTORICAL COMPARE AND CONTRAST ANALYSIS PAPER

Historical Analysis Writing Prompt:

Han China and Imperial Rome were two of the greatest empires of the Ancient World. They were at their peaks at roughly the same time, so it is interesting to compare and contrast these two empires. Choose one element of society that you wish to look at in each society. How does this element teach us about the overall similarities and differences in the two empires?

The Role of Education in Two Ancient Societies

Education: an elitist privilege or a gateway to a better life? Throughout many ancient societies the outcomes and reasons why people were educated varied dramatically. In Ancient Rome only those who could afford to be educated enjoyed this privilege. During the Han Dynasty in China, this society changed, from one that also only offered education to the elite to one where merit also mattered. Throughout China and Rome, education was approached very differently. The Han Dynasty focused on education as a means to secure a stable job, whereas the Romans thought of education as more of a status symbol. The ways both societies viewed education provides a mirror into their divergent value systems.

Throughout Ancient Rome, in both the Republic and Empire eras, education was important. Although formal education pertained more to the wealthy and powerful, education had a specific role for Romans. When Rome was just beginning to form, a public educational system had not been established, so people were educated from within their households, from family members. The education that was received from within the households varied because it all depended on the educational level of the elders, the gender of the child, and the wealth of the family. If you were not a very wealthy family, but had an elder who could read or write, that knowledge was what would be taught and passed down in that household. If you were wealthier family at this time, you could afford private tutors, usually educated household slaves, to teach the children . In both cases, male children were taught to read and write but were also taught basic laws, social behaviors, and military instruction. The female children usually received less than a basic education. The female children were taught basic household and caretaking skills, usually by the female authority in the house . If one were educated by a private tutor, it showed that you had the money and resources to pay for a private education and revealed that your family was more elite than others. If you could not provide a private tutor, it did not mean you were not educated, but your status was not as high.

The way education was approached changed dramatically in the beginning of the Roman Republic. In Greece at this time, public means of education had formed and people would send their children to school, outside of their homes . Rome saw this change, and adopted it for themselves around 200 B.C Private teachers were hired for these schools and outside schooling became a very regular thing for some segments of society. The only problem was that the teachers had to be paid to teach the children; therefore, only the children wealthy enough could attend . Very few girls attended these newfound public schools. As was tradition, the boys went to school and the girls stayed home to be educated by their mothers.

As a more formal school system was being established, two different schools emerged. One school, was strictly for boys ages seven to twelve years old where they would learn the basics such as reading and writing and doing math on an abacus. After the age of twelve, when their quintessential education was completed, they could leave school or, move on to a more advanced option that included things like public speaking. There was a lot of corporal punishment at these schools. This form of schooling lasted throughout the Empire era in Rome. Again these schools were only available to the families that could afford it. So although almost everyone in Rome at this time was somewhat educated, the true status in education was decided by whether the education was outside the home. This made who had the status very obvious and visible.

They way education was viewed in Rome is very interesting. The people who were well educated were very privileged and elite, and could pay for the education they received. For the wealthy people in this time, the education they received was not a gateway to a better, more powerful future, but just a tool to develop their social status further. They did not necessarily need education to secure a better future, or get a job, they wanted education as a way to show off their wealth and status. The children who were not as privileged, who might have needed an education to have a better life or get a better job in the future could not afford it. Therefore, the early Roman education system was a flawed one, and through the way education was presented we really start to understand Rome's main priorities. Education was made for the wealthy in ancient Rome, and in an article it states that, “A good education was seen as a status symbol, not a way to get a job.” Education was valued in and of itself but not as a way to better your family. Education showed who really had the power.

In China, however, the reasons why people became educated were completely different than in Rome. Confucianism played an extremely large role in education in China, and his work was the main focus in all of early Chinese education. In China, especially in the time of the Han Dynasty, education was available to more of the population than it was in Rome. In early China, like in Rome, education was only available to wealthy powerful people. This was true during the Xia Dynasty in 1523-1027 B.C . During the Warring States period (475 to 221 B.C.), however, the teachings of Confucius became a pinnacle in education and it became important for society that more people knew about it. Confucius’ work became the main focus in early education in China with his Four Books, and The Five Classics. These works would later be the main focus of the Civil Exam that would be a primary focus of Chinese Education. The Four Books were: The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects, and Mencius. The Five Classics were a series of books: Book of documents, Book of Odes, Book of Rites, Book of Changes, and The Spring and Autumn Annals.

In the later Han Dynasty, education was more of a public affair. It was no longer only offered to the elites, and public schools were founded. This made it so that anyone could become educated, and the desirable outcome of education was the promise of a job for students at the end of their studies. For the less wealthy people education, and studying Confucian classics was a gateway to the upper class. The Civil Exam played a large role in this. The Civil Exam was first introduced in the Han Dynasty in 207 B.C . This exam was extremely difficult, and extremely long. It was comprised Confucian philosophy, and the Four Books and the Five Classics. It involved a lot of memorization, and included subjects such as, Geography, mathematics, calligraphy, and important military information. Anyone could take this exam. You did not need to be from a certain class to take it. But it required a lot of studying and time to pass, and people would spend a majority of their young adult lives studying for this exam. The outcome of doing well on this test meant that you would secure a good job, and become a civil servant. This meant there were highly educated people for the state bureaucracy and that gave status. Civil Servants were people who had different jobs helping the government run smoothly. This exam did provide people with stable jobs, and ultimately change people’s lives.

In China education, including the Civil Exam, was used as a pathway to give anyone the chance of a better life. Education had a true purpose in later China, and the inclusivity of it all shows us what they truly valued as a society. They valued education as way to work hard, and change their lives. No matter if their family was wealthy, they gave everyone an equal chance to succeed. As Confucius once said, “ He who excels in study can follow an official career. Therefore the harder one works, when it comes to education or otherwise, the more promising and rewarding their future will be”

Throughout both Ancient Rome, and Ancient China, education played a large and important role in their societies.These were very different roles, though. Studying the system of early education in these cultures gives us an very convincing idea about what these specific cultures valued and how they viewed the social structure. We see in early, and later Roman education that people became educated to further their social standing, and did not become educated as a means to secure a stable job. Comprehensive education was only offered to the elite, and the hierarchy stayed the same. In early China, education was really only offered to the privileged as well, but in later China, especially during the Han Dynasty, education became more inclusive and accessible for different people of that time. When we compare both of these societies by the way education was approached, and structured, you see a clear set of social, and cultural values. One used education as tool to further demonstrate and solidify social order, and the other used education as a tool to potentially create a better life for people, and to inspire them to work hard. The way these societies viewed education was a huge indicator of what they valued and how they saw their citizens.

#3 STUDENT MODEL CLOSE READ AND COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER (AMERICAN POETRY)

Hannah Conn

5/21/15

Compare and Contrast Paper

American Poetry

The Romantic to the Modern: A Dramatic Shift in Perspective

Art rarely transcends temporal restrictions. As the world changes, and with it the human race, art forms are constantly being modified and invented. And with the passage of time, many art forms become insignificant or obsolete. Poetry is no exception: though it could be argued that many individual poems are “timeless”, poetry is bound to the ever-shifting poetic styles, concepts, subjects, and mannerisms meant to please a constantly changing population. Poetry is limited to the bounds of the evolution of time. Therefore, it is easy to look back on the past few hundred years and see vast differences in what was considered “real” poetry. The Romantic poets, who wrote during the Romantic Period, from the late 1700’s through the mid-1800’s, had a specific style and very similar concepts in their poetry, which was influenced by 18th- and 19th-Century life. At the close of the Romantic Era came Modernism. The accepted manners of writing poetry and the conditions that qualified a piece of writing as a poem were deeply ingrained, and it was astonishing how quickly and totally the perceptions of what poetry was changed in such a short period. The Modern poets changed the definition of what poetry was and could be, and pushed the creative boundaries set by the Romantics. They shifted the entire art form in less than 100 years. Today, looking at Romantic poems compared to Modern ones shows the reader how total the metamorphosis of poetry from Romantic to Modern was and emphasizes the rapidity of the psychological evolution of the human race. The reader can clearly see the major differences between Romantic and Modern poetry, particularly the differing perceptions of God, by comparing and contrasting two sets of poems: “To a Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant with “Skunk Hour” by Robert Lowell, and “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman with “Design” by Robert Frost. These Romantic and Modern poems represent the poets’ utilization of the observation of nature to understand the world and themselves. SIMPLIFY: POETS DESCRIBE NATURAL PHENOMENA TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD AND THEMSELVES. Though the poems share some similarities, the perceptions of the Romantic and Modern poets differ to the point of total opposition. While Bryant and Whitman, the Romantics, were positively inspired to have faith in a divine providence, the Modernists were united by rejection of an optimistic perception of faith, and inspired less positively: Frost with an evil deity and Lowell with a lack of any faith at all.

“To a Waterfowl”, by William Cullen Bryant, is a Romantic poem in which the speaker uses nature as a tool to develop perceptions of the rest of the world and himself. This poem centers on the discovery of divinity in nature. In the poem, the speaker sees a bird flying across the sky on its migratory path and uses it as a vehicle for his renewed, intense faith in a divine providence. The fourth and fifth stanzas are, on the whole, the most noteworthy in terms of poetic devices. Bryant writes:

There is a Power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,--

The desert and illimitable air,--

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fann'd

At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere:

Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,

Though the dark night is near.

(lines 13-20)

The speaker, looking up at the lone bird in the sky, analyzes the waterfowl’s flight very closely, and connects it to a divine providence that could be guiding its lonesome journey. There are details within the poem that help the reader understand the most noteworthy parts of the poem. The first is the connotation of the word “Power”, in line 13 of the poem. The connotations of the word “power” (lowercase p) are strength, mightiness, ability, authority, dominion, mastery, and influence. These connotations all apply to the word “Power”, but capitalizing the P is also significant, as it adds some connotations of God, divinity, celestiality, holiness, otherworldliness, and sublimity. When the speaker says “Power”, he is literally speaking of a God, and this God who guides him through life is one and the same with the one who guides the waterfowl’s flight. This speaker thinks that the governing force in the world is a singular God who presides over everything and treats it as one, rather than separate beings and deities who each have their own dominion. VERY GOOD CONCLUSION ABOUT THIS PANTHEISM THROUGH THE CONNOTATIONS OF POWER. The idea of having an ever-present spirit watching our every move is discovered in this poem through Bryant’s use of alliteration and assonance in the phrase, “lone wandering, but not lost”, on line 16. The alliteration OF THE “L” SOUND IN is in the words “lone” and “lost”, and the assonance OF THE SHORT A SOUND is in the similar vowel sounds of “wandering”, “not”, and “lost”. These few words, which Bryant has chosen to string together, draw the reader’s attention for a reason: they fit right in with the speaker’s belief that though we may think we are alone and aimless in our lives, we are never really alone or lost: God is always there watching us. This is the reinforcement of the idea that the same God who guides our own course through life guides the bird’s course through the sky. The sky may seem empty, vast, and a place where it is easy to get lost. However, as lonely and purposeless as it might seem, it is necessary to keep moving forward and retain faith that you will arrive where you need to be with God’s help. Another alliteration adds to the pile of evidence of Bryant’s thesis in “yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land”, on line 19. The alliteration is in the words “weary” and “welcome”, and it gives the reader the impression that there is closure on the bird’s flight: though the speaker only sees the bird in flight, this alliteration assures the reader that the bird landed safely with God’s aid, exactly where it needed to be. The bird’s flight may have seemed endless, but with God behind it the entire way, it was not tired when it finally landed in the “welcome land”. Through looking at each of these different methods of drawing the reader’s ear and attention in both poems, we can come to the conclusion that Bryant wrote “To a Waterfowl” with a specific thesis in mind: when we stumble upon pieces of the natural world and have chance encounters with them, these are the times when we should be certain of a God or Godlike presence guiding us and bringing us together with the utmost care and precision. The poem ends with the lines “ He, who, from zone to zone \ Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, \ In the long way that I must tread alone, \ Will lead my steps aright.” This final affirmation of faith re-emphasizes the speaker’s restored faith in a Power, the idea of which he has arrived at by observing nature. YES, THERE IS A HOPEFUL OPTIMISM FOR FUTURE DIVINE GUIDANCE IN HIS LIFE.

Bryant, who wrote “To a Waterfowl” in 1815, was writing in the thick of the Romantic era. As such, his poems embody many Romantic concepts. The most prominent of these concepts is the idea of using wild nature as a source of inspiration. Connecting the natural world to spirituality is a pantheistic outlook: the belief that there is a potential for divine faith in every part of nature is a pantheistic way of viewing the world. Discovering divinity in the natural world, the definition of pantheism, can be applied to most Romantic poems. The Romantic poets were nearly all extremely pantheistic and reverent of the natural world: one would be hard-pressed to find a Romantic who did not appreciate the beauty and splendor of the Earth. When creating their poetry, they all looked to nature to be influenced and awed by its sheer grandeur. Though they had slightly different perceptions of its beauty, most of the Romantic poets concluded that the allure of the natural world came from a divine presence. The belief that God and his perfection were present in everything was a governing idea in the majority of Romantic poetry. It was a common opinion that God had created the beautiful balance of nature as an indication of His existence, and that spirituality could be found just by looking at the perfection of nature. The Romantics thought that the key to understanding the rest of the world, and even their inner selves, lay in nature. Thus, they used their observations of the natural world to guide their opinions about everything. Bryant was clearly inspired by the natural world, and allowed the simplest perceptions of things like flying birds define his entire faith. “To a Waterfowl” also embodies a different concept created by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the same 19th-Century era. Emerson said that faith in a higher power can be most strongly achieved through “involuntary perceptions” of the natural world. VERY GOOD… “FROM OUR INVOLUNTARY PERCEPTIONS A PERFECT FAITH IS DUE” He believed that should we allow ourselves to be inspired by seemingly arbitrary sightings of small beings like birds and flowers, we could arrive at an intense and immutable faith in an omnipotent Divinity, one who was guiding all of us. “To a Waterfowl” illustrates this concept perfectly: though many would see a flying bird as a random and insignificant occurrence, Bryant embraced the idea that even though it seemed random, that chance encounter with the bird was actually an opportunity for a reaffirmation of faith, and, arguably, a sign sent directly from God to show the speaker that He was there. But Bryant didn’t only use these spontaneous interactions with nature as an inspiration, but took it a level deeper by also perceiving the effect nature had on man’s consciousness as a whole. He seemed to anticipate and understand the influence the natural world had on his mind, and rather than simply seeing nature, he wrote with A FOCUS UPON apperception: the mental process by which a person makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she already possesses. He let his own head perceive nature, and then took it a step further by perceiving the impact nature had on the mind of man as a whole. This allowed Bryant to take an even broader view of the power of the natural world, and consider how strong its influence was on all the Romantic poets and their faith.

EXCELLENT REVIEW OF PANTHEISM, INVOLUNTARY PERCEPTIONS AND FAITH, AND APPERCEPTION. THESE DEFINE THE POEM IN STARK CONTRAST TO THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD.

With the positive tone and reverent appreciation of “To a Waterfowl”, it is a difficult 180-degree turn to make to Robert Lowell’s 1958 poem “Skunk Hour”. This Modern poem, like “To a Waterfowl”, includes the poet’s observations of the natural world, though in a very different way. It illustrates many Modern techniques that were not developed until after the Romantic Era. Lowell writes:

One dark night,

my Tudor Ford climbed the hill’s skull...

I myself am hell,

nobody’s here--

only skunks, that search

in the moonlight for a bite to eat.

They march on their soles up Main Street:

white stripes, moonstruck eyes’ red fire

under the chalk-dry and spar spire

of the Trinitarian Church.

(lines 25-26, 35-36, 37-42)

The speaker, alone in his small village late at night, considers the nature of the town and observes a mother skunk and her kittens rummaging through his garbage can. Like Bryant in “To a Waterfowl”, Lowell employs poetic devices that are meant to catch the attention of the reader and emphasize the important themes of the poem. The three most important devices are in stanzas 5-7. One pair of words in stanza 5 that draws the reader’s ear is “hill’s skull”. The consonance, or repeated “l” sound in the end of these two words, which also makes them half-rhymes, allows the prudent reader to gain important insight into how the speaker views the world. Instead of looking at the hill and trying to see divinity and perfection within it, the speaker sees death, despair, and destruction in the form of a skeleton’s skull. His outlook on the world is not one of faith; in fact, at the moment, he has no faith at all. Everything he sees correlates to sadness and depression. The speaker is unable to be sustained by an unwavering faith in this dark world, and sees no “light at the end of the tunnel”: instead of turning to spirituality to improve his perspective, he turns away from the idea of religious dogma and rejects reliance on an elusive Deity. It is clear that his thoughts are dark and morbid, as he looks at nature as a huge graveyard without any sign of life or deliberate construction.

This FAITHLESSNESS IN THE WORLD is furthered with a powerful allusion made in stanza 6. The speaker says, “I myself am hell”. What the poet is alluding to in this line is the famous tale of Adam and Eve, specifically John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In Book 6, Satan sneaks into Eden and watches Adam and Eve going about their business, noting their relationship and making conclusions about their feelings towards God and towards each other. The strength of the allusion comes in the sense Lowell gives the reader of observation rather than direct action. The speaker, like Satan, is able to contemplate the world around him and see others’ happy emotions, but he is unable to participate in them himself. OK. HERE YOU SHOULD BRING IN THE “LOVE CARS” AND THE SONG “LOVE O CARELSS LOVE…”There is a sense of detachment in the way the speaker looks around him and sees positive emotions like contentment and love, but is powerless to feel them. This speaker, rather than interacting on his environment on any level, has removed himself from physical or emotional connections and is entirely secluded. He does not attempt to discover faith from his environment, but allows his negative perceptions of the world around him to govern his lack of faith and rejection of spirituality. The reader can really comprehend the magnitude of this dismissal in one last poetic device in stanza 7, when Lowell pairs the words “spar” and “spire”, pertaining to the Trinitarian Church. The repetition of the “sp” sounds, and Lowell’s utilization of alliteration and consonance, emphatically point out how devoid of faith the speaker’s world is. For many, the Church is a sign of hope and devotion, a place where anyone can go to feel an intimate connection with a Divine Providence. But the speaker in “Skunk Hour” does not see it this way at all. To spar is to argue or be at odds. To describe the church with the word “spar” plants the idea that the speaker does not agree with the ideas of the church, and spurns the notion of “blind faith”. AND SPAR IS A POLE LIKE A MAST TO HELP GUIDE THE SHIP. NO GUIDANCE FOR THE SPEAKER, HOWEVER. THE SKUNKS DOMINATE! He stubbornly refuses to believe in any Power of which he is not certain, and does not look to the church to find enlightenment in his gloomy world. “Spar” also sounds a lot like “spare”, which means thin, meager, or not enough. The speaker views the portrayal of God this way: there is not enough there for him to be convinced by it. And the way he sees the Church allows the reader to draw these important conclusions. GOOD!

Lowell’s poetry has already proven massively different than Bryant’s, but it is made even more so by the Modern tactics he uses in “Skunk Hour”. One concept that should be acknowledged is the way Lowell uses imagism. Imagism is a movement that focuses on strong imagery and clear, sharp language IN ORDER TO CONVEY AND INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY IN AN INSTANT OF TIME. “Skunk Hour” is a poem replete with intense images, mostly visual. The Modern poets favored giving extremely direct and concrete facts rather than obscure expressions that would be far more difficult to comprehend. This idea of repetitive images ties in precisely with another Modern concept, known as the Objective Correlative. This was a strategy applied by Modern poets in which they would use a series of visual, auditory, tactile, and occasionally gustatory and olfactory images to convey a meaning AND AN EMOTION!!!! to the reader. Lowell uses the Objective Correlative by giving image after image and overwhelming the senses with an accurate depiction of exactly what the speaker was experiencing. Through analyzing those images, the reader can get a good sense of how the speaker viewed the world and what the intended message of the poem is. A conclusion should be drawn through the poet’s choice of imagery and how he or she decides to portray the speaker’s personal world and perspective. Lowell uses LOWELL’S imagism and the Objective Correlative extensively in his poem, which makes it an extremely good example of what a modernist poem is.

A reader can get a good sense of how the Romantic and Modern periods differ and how rapidly the art of poetry changed by studying these two poems in relation to each other. There are some similarities between “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”, though it takes some careful thought to arrive at them. The biggest similarity is that both poems are about how observing the world around us, particularly the natural world can greatly influence our perception of spirituality and our decisions regarding faith in a divinity, God, or Divine Providence. YES! ONE CAN SEE THE SEA, THE HILL AND THE SKUNKS AS AFFIRMING GOD’S PRESENCE. IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR PERCEPTION OF NATURE. Both poets use small, apparently insignificant animals as vehicles for their faith (or lack thereof): Bryant chooses the migratory bird in “To a Waterfowl” and Lowell the skunk family in “Skunk Hour”. The speakers in both poems look at the natural world with an elevated sense of importance, and base their opinions about spirituality off of nature. Both poems focus on a central idea of the search for faith in an uncertain universe where it may sometimes feel like we are entirely alone. GREAT COMPARISONS!

However, the poets’ interpretations of this theme is where the poems diverge completely. Though there are certain similarities between them, it is clear when looking at “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour” side by side that they are extremely differing poems. Whereas Bryant reveres a firm and resolute faith in a Power, found through the observation of nature, Lowell goes the opposite direction in favor of a complete rejection of that Power. The speaker in “To a Waterfowl” is heartened by the sighting of the bird in the sky and uses it as an excuse to place his faith in the Power he believes will guide him throughout his life. He concludes that the bird is a sign of that Power’s existence: they were there at the same time for a reason, and just as the bird is not afraid of getting lost on its long flight, he will not be afraid of getting lost or going off-course during his life. This speaker is confident that even when he feels alone, he never really is. Conversely, the speaker in “Skunk Hour” regards the skunks with their red eyes and inability to be frightened and uses that as a reason not to believe in anything. It could even be interpreted that the skunks’ refusal to scare when they rummage in his garbage pail is an embodiment of his own negative emotions: they are so overpowering and permanent that they will not leave. And instead of trying to ward them off with faith that there is a Power there to help him even when he can’t see it, this speaker fully shuns faith. YES. THE DUCKS AND GEESE SUGGEST A BENEFICENT GOD, WHILE THE SKUNKS SUGGEST AN INEXORABLE FORCE OF DESTRUCTION. He is unable to allow faith to pull him out of his dark and cynical emotions, and does not allow his observations of the natural world as a way to arrive at it. Clearly, these poems were written in very different time periods: Bryant’s style is exact and employs more of the speaker’s actual thoughts and fewer concrete images, while Lowell’s is more to the point and uses a lot more specific images to convey the poem’s meaning. However, considering that the Romantic and Modern periods were about as different as two art movements could be, their close proximity in time shows how quickly and completely art evolves in a matter of years. And seeing the two poems up close and personal, paired together, emphasizes the enormity of this evolution.

The subtle similarities and overt differences between Bryant and Lowell have been proven through analysis of “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”, as well as the dissimilarities between the Romantic and Modern periods. However, there is another poem pair that can help the reader solidify these distinctions: “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, by Walt Whitman, and “Design”, by Robert Frost. EXCELLENT TRANSITIONAL TOPIC SENTENCE BETWEEN THE POEM PAIRS. Whitman’s poem is very like Bryant’s, and centers on involuntary perceptions and the small realizations pertaining to faith and the natural world. Whitman writes:

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

(lines 1-10)

The speaker regards a tiny spider, watching it create its web and throw it to the winds, to be picked up and carried through the air until landing. This short poem might seem simple and insubstantial, but it actually has a meaning very similar to that of “To a Waterfowl”. And just like in the other, this meaning can be discovered through the examination of the key poetic devices Whitman uses. The first of these devices is in his word choice and the mental connotations that arise when the reader sees these words. I believe the most important connotative word is “isolated”. The connotations of “isolated” are “solitary”, “companionless”, and “secluded”. In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker has not yet connected the actions of the spider to his own life (though he soon will). As he watches the small spider, he considers how alone it seems to be. It sits by itself, spinning its web, with nothing around it but “vacant vast surrounding” around it. It is so tiny, and there is so much around it, that it seems to be utterly cut off from anything else that it might be familiar with. It is living in a world of massive things, and we don’t often consider how treacherous and difficult the life of a spider is. The speaker really gets down on the spider’s level and thinks about how reclusive it is. AND SEES HOW MUCH FAITH THE SPIDER HAS IN THE WORLD THAT HIS SPIDERY FILAMENT WILL FIND A ANCHOR AND THIS WILL BE A HOME. It would be personification to call it “friendless” or “lonely”, but it is rare to see two spiders together. The way that the speaker attempts to ponder the feelings of this easily-overlooked piece of nature shows that he, like the speakers in both “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”, is using a pantheistic point of view. Another important poetic device that Whitman uses to draw the reader’s attention is WHITMAN’S cataloguing, or the listing of words to stress their meaning. He does this twice in IS EVIDENT IN lines 7-8, when he says “surrounded, detached” and “musing, venturing, throwing, seeking”. When Whitman uses these verbs, it seems at first glance that he is referring exclusively to the spider. However, upon closer inspection, the reader can see that he is actually also talking about his own soul. He develops the idea, in concise language, that his soul is a lot like the spider alone in the “measureless oceans of space”: throwing out lifelines, exploring, and always searching for something to hold onto. As the spider is always floating on the wind in the seemingly endless measures of space in search of a safe place to land, the speaker’s soul is searching for a place to anchor concretely. For him, that place to anchor can be found through having faith in the Power, one and the same with the one that is guiding the spider through the air to safety. This is where the third poetic device comes in: the subtle tone shift between stanzas one and two. The tone of the first stanza is pondering, contemplative, and somewhat detached. The speaker, as of yet, does not feel a personal connection to the spider. But in the second stanza, the speaker makes a sudden and personal connection between the spider and himself. The tone becomes reverent, awestruck, and jubilant. EXCELLENT ANALYSIS OF TONE SHIFT. It might seem, the speaker muses, that we are all alone in this world, solitary in vast oceans of nothingness, with nothing to hold onto and nothing to be sure about. However, with his faithful view, this meaningless solitude becomes a guided journey, and the immeasurably empty space is not an obstacle. Very similarly to the way the speaker in “To a Waterfowl” comes to the conclusion that there is a Power guiding both the bird in its flight and him in his life, the speaker in “A Noiseless Patient Spider” realizes that there is a Power showing the spider the way, and that same Power is also showing his soul the way. As long as he believes strongly, and has no doubt that it is there, he will not ever be alone. Even when it seems that we are as alone as alone can be, we need not fear losing our way; there is always someone there, accompanying us and leading us to exactly where we need to be. The way the reader can arrive at this conclusion is by taking a closer look at the poetic devices Whitman employs and using them to arrive at the intended message.

Just like Bryant, Whitman utilizes Romantic concepts in his poetry, which was inspired by life in the 19th Century and the poems of other Romantic poets. Using wild nature as a source of inspiration was a massively prominent idea in the Romantic Period, and Whitman was no exception. In order to find and uphold faith in a divine power or deity, the speaker in “A Noiseless Patient Spider” uses nature as a tool to develop his faith in an otherworldly presence, and keep that faith strong even though there is no definitive proof of its existence. Clearly, Whitman was a pantheist: he uses the spider as a vehicle for his own religious beliefs, and strengthens his faith by comparing it to the spider. By looking at nature, Whitman is energized and positively affected to the point where he bases his faith in a divine providence off of these “involuntary perceptions”, just as Bryant does. YES!!! And not only is nature perfect, with the right attitudes about God and appropriate reverence, man could be perfect too. This idea is another romantic concept: man is not perfect, but perfectible. It was the tendency of the Romantics to be positive and hopeful about life and faith, so even when their faith wasn’t perfectly strong or solid, they were optimistic that with the right tools, it could be made perfect. Though the speaker’s faith at the beginning of the poem is arguably not perfect, he recognizes it in the spider and allows the sighting on the spider to reinforce and reaffirm it. The Romantics believed that man is on a trajectory of betterment: we can always become better and more perfect. This was a very positive and heartening perspective on the world, one that was extremely optimistic for the future, and Whitman does a brilliant job blending these Romantic concepts in “A Noiseless Patient Spider”. YES: THIS WHITMAN POEM, AND MANY WHITMAN POEMS, FOCUS ON THE NOTION THAT MAN IS NOT PERFECT, BUT PERFECTIBLE.

Similarly to the transition between “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”, the shift from “A Noiseless Patient Spider” to “Design”, a 1936 poem written by Robert Frost, is abrupt and absolute. Though the material within the poems is surprisingly similar, Frost clearly perceives the sighting of a spider in a very different way than Whitman. He writes:

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,

On a white heal-all, holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--…

What brought the kindred spider to that height,

Then steered the white moth thither in the night?

What but design of darkness to appall?--

If design govern in a thing so small.

(lines 1-3, 11-14)

The speaker in the poem watches a spider sitting on the flower, holding a dead moth. He laments the spider’s power to kill and muses on whether the scene in front of him was designed by a divinity. It comes as no surprise that Frost uses extensive poetic devices to guide the reader to the message of the poem. One of the most important is the simile frost makes of the dead moth, the tenor, to a “white piece of rigid satin cloth”, the vehicle. Seeing the moth as a stiff piece of unflexing fabric makes the reader think of oldness and death. “Rigid” in particular brings to mind a strong image of rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body after death. This moth is clearly dead, as it has blundered into the spiderweb and become the spider’s dinner. Now, the spider is holding it like a kite or a flag. However, there is a sinister quality to the simile, something more than just a description of the moth in death- it is clear that the speaker does not simply think of this cycle as part of the chain of life. He is not content with the idea that this moth deserved to die, especially if the scene he is witnessing was pre-ordained and set up by a divine providence. The focus Frost places on death and the threatening, ominous feeling this simile gives the reader clarifies the idea that Frost ultimately does not believe a divine providence was a positive entity. Rather, it seems, he thinks that though a deity does exist, it is not a positive one. Instead, it is disturbing and evil- otherwise, it would not have made the natural world so cruel, even on the tiniest level. The idea of a malignant God is explored through another poetic device Frost uses at the end of the poem. The alliteration of the “d” sound in the words “design” and “darkness” is deliberately conspicuous so that the reader will stop and consider the meaning of these words. The speaker asks himself why the flower is blue, why the spider happened to be sitting on it, and why the moth flew right into its web. He concludes that it could be nothing else but a divine providence. However, this providence is nothing like the ones the Romantics so revered. The “design” is not a benevolent existence who is always there to guide each of us through life, but a “design of darkness”, which “appalls” the speaker rather than reassuring him. This speaker is not impressed or comforted by the idea of a divine presence in the world, but rather horrified and disgusted that if there is such a presence, why it would choose to make even a small spider so capable of cold-blooded killing. RIGHT. IF NATURE IS AMORAL, HOW CAN IT LEAD US TO FAITH IN GOD? What kind of deity governs a world designed like this? the speaker asks himself. The answer is in a fiendish, ruinous God who delights in death and destruction. And not only is the divine providence in “Design” nefarious and malevolent, but this pure evil is masked by innocence and purity. This can be found in one last poetic device Frost employs. The connotations of the words “dimpled, fat and white”, in the first stanza, are “pure”, “clean”, “holy”, “benevolent”, “portly”, “round”, “bright”, and “innocent”. These are usually not qualities one would attribute to spiders, which are usually seen as dark, spindly, and evil. This is an interesting choice, as the speaker describes the spider exactly the opposite way the reader would expect him to. It takes some consideration as to why Frost would make this choice, but it is necessary to realize that this sinister deity would not overtly contrive the entire world in an overtly malicious manner, but rather mask it with visions of false morality and purity. This is what Frost is getting at by using the adjectives “dimpled, fat, and white” to describe the normally-perceived somber and shadowy spider. Though God’s intentions, according to Frost, are nothing but diabolical, these intentions will be disguised with a façade of innocence and gentleness. This God is not warmhearted and charitable: he is omnipotence, but he chooses to use his power for cruelty and brutality. GOOD, BUT I WOULD LEAD WITH THE DIMPLED, FAT SPIDER AND IMMEDIATELY REVEAL THE MESSAGE THAT NATURE / GOD MASK HIS / ITS EVIL INTENTIONS.

The Modern concepts Frost uses are much like those that Lowell employs in “Skunk Hour”, though his poem leans a little toward the romantic side in terms of styling: it has a rhyme scheme and more meter than many Modern poems. However, the content is still quite Modern. Frost makes strong use of the Objective Correlative in this poem; he gives image after image, particularly in the first stanza, and the reader needs to inspect these images both individually and as a whole to make sense of the meaning of the poem. The bombardment of imagery, in this poem almost exclusively visual, was a common Modern tactic, and the Modernists seemed to enjoy leaving the themes and messages of the poem completely up to the reader. “Design” is a slight exception, as the speaker has some personal thoughts towards the end and gives the reader a pretty clear idea of what is to be thought of the entire scene, but Frost still seems to favor the use of images to get his point across. This could also be seen as imagism, because of the definitive imagery and the specific and explicit language used. The succinctness of this poem is also an example of the Modernists’ tendency to omit needless words. They are far less “chatty” than the Romantics, and are inclined to write much quicker and less verbose poetry. What could be extended to ten words, they keep to two; what could be five lines, they fit to one. The Modernists prized the idea of brevity, which is clear in “Design”.

Similarly to “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”, comparing and contrasting “A Noiseless Patient Spider” to “Design” is an excellent way to really understand the differences between the Romantic and Modern eras, in particular the contrasting perceptions of divine providence. The two poems are similar in that the speakers both look at the natural world on a very small level to draw conclusions about faith- it just so happens that they both look at the same animal, a spider. Each one analyzes how the spider goes about its business, and then connects it back to how that moment could have been orchestrated or influenced by a deity. Their “involuntary perceptions” of the spiders have led them to judgement on spirituality. Both speakers find faith in a deity within the spiders, though in dissimilar ways- this faith is not necessarily positive, but both spiders help the speakers have a concrete awareness of a presence. However, though the two poems seem extremely similar at a glance (as they are both, generally, about a spider going about its business and an observer’s reflections), they are very different, and the two speakers come to disparate conclusions about the existence of a divine providence. The speaker in “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, in true romantic fashion, proves the existence of a benevolent, kind God who guides us through life. Just as the little spider can rest assured that it will land safely, even in this treacherous world, the speaker is confident that he, too, will be lead in the right direction and always end up exactly where he is supposed to be. The God this speaker settles on is not only omnipotent, but extremely magnanimous and considerate. EXCELLENT WRITING HERE. Conversely, the speaker in “Design” concludes that the deity who created the scene in front of him could only be evil and cruel. There is no explanation for the barbarity he sees the spider exhibiting in front of him, he thinks, except that the deity takes pleasure in organizing scenes of death, sadness, and despair. He has no faith that this presence will help him throughout his life, because his belief is that the deity is more of a vindictive, negative force in the world than a positive one. THIS IS SO GOOD! THE DIFFERING GODS REFLECT VASTLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. NATURE IS THE SAME. Instead of creating scenes of delight to affirm its existence, the deity has chosen to show the speaker a moment of collapse and destruction. This negatively affects the speaker’s conception of a divine presence, and he completely rejects the idea that there could be a good presence governing from afar. Instead, “design of darkness” reigns in the world and appalls the speaker’s mind. These two poems have ideas of God that are about as different as they could be, and the deities the two speakers believe in are extremely different. These notions help the reader really understand how huge the transition from Romantic to Modern was: not only did styles change, but ideas and opinions changed vastly as well.

Not only is it useful to compare and contrast these two sets of poems, but it is also interesting to put the two pairs together and consider the four as a whole. The two Romantic Poems, “To a Waterfowl” and “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, are extremely similar. Both William Cullen Bryant and Walt Whitman use an elevated, pantheistic viewpoint of nature to help arrive at faith in a divine providence. Each of the speakers has a positive experience, and their involuntary perceptions of apparently insignificant parts of the natural world lead them to a reinforced and powerful sense of spirituality. These two poems outline a textbook example of pantheism: the ability to discover divinity in even the tiniest beings and appreciate the divine providence within the world and the cosmos is highlighted in these two speakers’ ability to find it so readily and so intensely even in two little animals. They illustrate how the Romantic Era was all about looking to nature to solidify one’s faith, and how though faith was still a very important tenet of Romantic poetry, it was moving farther away from churches and more into the wild. Organized faith remained a prominent aspect of 19th-Century life, but the methods in which the Romantics pursued it were revolutionary and unheard-of at that time. The result they arrived at was a spirituality and connection with God that was far stronger than that they could have received solely from church, and this is what the Romantic Era was all about: a new discovery of reverence through the amazing spiritual potential of the wild. And “To a Waterfowl” and “Skunk Hour”-------? YOU MEAN “A NOISELESS, PATIENT SPIDER” are quintessential examples of Romantic poems, extremely similar in their styles, language, themes, and meanings.

The Romantic poems are clearly very alike. The Modern poems, too, share some important aspects, but they are more different and arrive at somewhat clashing conclusions. Lowell and Frost agree on one important detail: there is no such thing as a benevolent presence, one that guides us and helps us end up exactly where we should be. However, whereas Frost accepts its existence and criticizes it as evil, Lowell rejects the idea that any deity exists, good or bad. His opinion was typical of many Modernists: in their world, God is dead. There is less religious and spiritual influence on the Modernists than on the Romantics, and their poetry is far less dependent on a divine providence. Of course, “Skunk Hour” and “Design” do explore the possibility of a deity through looking at nature, but the verdicts the two speakers arrive at are both different from each other and extremely different from those of the Romantics. It seems to me that “Design” is the poem that stands out from the others here: The two Romantic poems are very similar and very typical of their time with their adoration of God, and so is “Skunk Hour” with its utter rejection. However, “Design” creates an interesting hybrid between the two. Though it was written in 1922, a full 50-80 years after the Romantic poems and less than 20 years before “Skunk Hour”, it could be said that Frost adopts both Romantic and Modern techniques in both his styling and his content. For one, the poem is written with a strong, clear rhyme scheme and a very lilting style; there is no free verse or “prose poetry” popular with post-Modernists. Rather, Frost favored a much more Romantic styling for this particular poem. However, he also makes use of the Objective Correlative and vast amounts of imagery, which is a very Modern concept. Frost’s actual message, too, seems to blur the lines between Romantic and Modern: the speaker in “Design” concretely accepts the presence of an otherworldly being, and is certain that it is what has created the scene of the spider and moth on the dead flower. In fact, he says, what else could have created this incident but “design”? This outlook is very Romantic and not at all Modern: it would have been much more typical of Modernists to let the scene be what it was and not implant ideas of insubstantial spirituality within them. But though he is not happy about it, the speaker in “Design” has no doubt that there is a deity at work here. This part of the poem’s message is very Romantic, but also Modern. The Modernism comes in with the speaker’s perception of what the deity might actually be: where a Romantic poet would never see God as being evil and malevolent, this is exactly what Frost chooses to implant in his poem. The idea of a sinister God was one that was never explored in the Romantic Era, because the Romantics were nearly all extremely devout and embracing of faith. The Modernists, however, took a much darker approach to divine providence (if they acknowledged it at all), and this idea also comes into play in “Design”. It is interesting to look at first the Romantic poems, and then the Modern ones, and discover that “Design”, though technically Modern, actually manages to blend characteristics of both periods. As different as they seem, there had to be some overlap, and it was Frost who found it.

It does not take much analysis to see that the Romantic and Modern eras, as close together time-wise as they were, were extremely different in styles, language, concepts, and overall meanings. However, being able to see Romantic and Modern poems side by side and searching actively for their differences, even in two poems that at first glance seem very similar, helps the reader internalize how opposing these two periods were and how quickly the entire art of poetry shifted from one to the other. There is no earthly thing that can last indefinitely, and the shift from the Romantic Period to the Modern Period shows just how quickly the world changes, and how fast art forms are modified and restyled to keep up. It provides an interesting concept, and, personally, makes me want to slow it all down. Both the Romantic and Modern periods were brilliant times for poetry, and each has given us some brilliant poetry and poets. It can be difficult to fully value them, since the two movements were jammed into such a short time, but it is important to appreciate them, perhaps even more because of their brevity: the time periods, the poets who wrote during them, and the works they produced are deserving of the utmost reverence, admiration, and respect. Though it sometimes takes a much closer look to realize exactly how much has changed and been lost in such a short time, it certainly provides some perspective on the details of our lives that we are constantly leaving behind. And while it’s all well and good to accept change and continue progressing all the time, it would do us good, sometimes, to go back a few years, slow down, and recognize how much we have already lost.

HANNAH-

WHEW! THIS WAS A THOROUGH, INSIGHTFUL, AND EXHAUSTING ANALYSIS!

I AM SO PLEASED WITH HOW MUCH YOU HAVE DISCERNED AND RETAINED ABOUT THE AMERICAN ROMANTIC POETS AND THE MODERN AMERICAN POETS.

OBSERVING NATURE. CONTEMPLATING GOD’S ROLE IN NATURE. REFLECTING UPON THESE OBSERVATIONS AND CONTEMPLATIONS AND ONE’S FAITH UNITE THE POEMS ACROSS THE ERAS.

BUT, AS YOU STATE, THE MODERNS EITHER REJECT GOD AS MENACING OR UNHELPFUL OR NONEXISTENT, WHILE THE ROMANTICS FIND GOD THROUGH” INVOLUNTARY PERCEPTIONS” THAT KINDLE, REINFORCE, AND FURTHER THEIR FAITH IN GOD.

WITH SOME EDITS ON THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS, THIS WILL BE MORE EFFICIENT AND WHILE HIGHLIGHT YOUR OUTSTANDING CLOSE READING AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS SKILLS.

A

GREAT WRITING!