Literature, Poets and Abolitionists: Whitman & Dickinson and Douglass

Literature, Poets and Abolitionists: Whitman & Dickinson and Douglass

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an important American writer and contemporary of the writers in this Module, called for a new kind of uniquely American Literature and a new kind of poet. He wrote: “The poet has a new thought: he has a whole new experience to unfold; he will tell us how it was with him, and all men will be the richer in his fortune. For, the experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet.” This module we read Whitman, Dickinson, and Douglass, two poets and one brilliant writer of prose.

Find three passages from at least two of the above writers that you think would make most students “richer” in after reading them. Set up the quotation. Then, explain what you think the writer is saying in the quotation. Then explain what it means to you. Explain what lessons or value you think a reader might find in that quotation. Then, do that 2 more times.

A Guidelines (100-90 points):

An “A” answer will discuss at least 2 different Module 2 readings and will quote from 3 times total from assigned readings.
Quotations will be introduced and explained, using the Oreo Cookie method as discussed here: Quoting Effectively When Writing about Literature.
A full credit answer will be grammatically sound
Answers that look like text messages (no capital letters, missing punctuation, etc.) will receive no credit.
Answers should be a minimum of 350 words.

READINGS;
Whitman’s “One’s Self I Sing”
Whitman’s “Shut Not Your Door
Whitman’s “Facing West from California’s Shore’s”
Whitman’s “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry”

Emily Dickinson
“I never lost but twice –
Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The White Heron”
Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper
Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”
Kate Chopin’s “At the Cadian Ball
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour