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Nature in american literature
Nature and American literature
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J.M. Hickman's Grand Style:
An Ordinary Man's Extraordinary Nature
INTRODUCTION
Nature Writing is born out of love, appreciation, and wonder. It discovers its voice in the connection between man and the natural world (Harton). Conceivably the most American style of writing, it rejoices in America’s wilderness while it grieves America’s greed and exploitation of the environment (Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart). Nature Writing beckons us, with the intention of awakening our spirits. It stirs our souls, touches our hearts, and inspires our minds.
In Songs From The Ozarks And Other Poems, J.M. Hickman's lovely use of lyrical meter, regional dialect, vivid imagery, and compelling symbolism strike the senses. Hickman uses metaphors, similes, and analogies to write visually. He uses rhythm, assonance, onomatopoeia, and alliteration to add an aural quality to his prose. The combination of all these elements creates what is known as the "Grand Style" (Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart).
Hickman's masterful use of the Grand Style belies his humble roots. James Melmouth Hickman was born into a common farming family on September 25, 1861, in Wetumpka, Alabama. In adulthood, Hickman became a lawyer, poet, and Mason. He is listed in James B. Lloyd's Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967. Hickman spent his life traveling through, and living in, the beautiful Ozark Mountain regions. His book of poetry about the area and time he lived in, Songs From The Ozarks And Other Poems, was published in 1921. Around 1918, Hickman moved from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Earle, Arkansas, where he remained until the late 1920's. Sometime around 1927, he traveled to the Pigeon Creek area of Butler County, Alabama, to visit his second cousins. He bro...
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...ders to understand, revere, and love the natural world around them. His Grand Style made an emotional connection to the natural world through the written word of man possible.
Works Cited
Harton, Ron. "Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing." 9 August 2009. The Thoreau Reader. Online Document. 17 March 2014. .
Hickman, J.M. "Prologue." Hickman, J.M. Songs From The Ozarks And Other Poems. 6th. Vicksburg: The Mississippi Printing Company, 1921. 5. Hardcover Book.
Hickman, John Wayne. Interview. Donna M. Kilgore. 17 March 2014.
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard and Kristi Stewart. "Composing Nature." Writing and Science September 2007, September 2007 ed. Online Periodical. March 2014. .
Literary Devices. Imagery. 2010. Website. 2014. .
Nature for McCandless was something he knew very well, for he had been since he was small, always wanting to climb higher. When at home, he felt trapped and the wild served as a cleansing power for him. When arriving to alaska, McCandless wrote a declaration of independence, as Krakauer puts it, writing “Ultimate freedom. . . . Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return , ‘cause ‘the west is the best’”(163). McCandless felt like he had no home,so he made nature his own. Similarly, Thoreau explains, “i found myself suddenly neighbors to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them . . . to those smaller and more thrilling songsters of the forest”(9). Thoreau cherished nature and the endless possibilities it contained. Likewise, Thoreau 's house was a place in which he “did not need to go outdoors to take the air for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness”(9) This allowed Thoreau stay in touch with the wilderness without feeling captive in his own home. Both Thoreau and McCandless were attracted by nature and the clarity, freedom can bring to one’s
Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 2107-2141.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1862. Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau. Ed. Joseph Wood Krutch. New York: Bantam, 2001.
In his journal, Thoreau muses upon twenty years of changes in New England’s land and beasts. He lists the differences in plants and animals, comparing them to past accounts and descriptions. He questions if the growing human presence has resulted in “a maimed and imperfect nature.” Cronon believes that this is an important question to consider. He points out that although changes do happen in nature, it is not so easy to determine how they changed. He is also not sure if Thoreau’s description of “a maimed and imperfect nature” is the correct way to refer to ecology, since it is by its essence, a fluid system of changes and reactions. Cronon does not deny the impact of
Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,
Poetry Foundation. Ed. Poetry Foundation. Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
Perspective is important to any genre of writing. Where you come from, how old you are, your religion, your sexuality, and even the color of your skin all shape how you view the world and how you tell your story. In nature writing, perspective is very important because each individual's interactions with nature are all different. Every person has a unique lens through which they see the world. Some are fortunate and gifted enough to be able to tell their story in a way that others can both relate to and be entranced by.
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden, or Life in the Woods. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Gray, Jessica H. . "Creating Nature." English 610- British Romanticism. Professor J. Jennifer Jones, 25 10 2005. Web. 12 Mar 2010. .
As one of the most well-known authors of the nineteenth century, Henry David Thoreau wrote and inspired many poetic works we recognize as “classics”. He lived during the height of transcendentalism and eventually became a major contributor to its cause. Thoreau accomplished this magnificent feat through his short writings and his poetry. As such a significant writer in American literature, Thoreau, like any great writer, explored many topics and ideas in his work such as religion, and nature. Among the most consistent of these topics seems to be that he as an author, appeals to a higher law, or greater power in many of his works. Throughout his poems “Nature,” “Great God I Ask for no Meaner Pelf,” and “On Fields O’re Which the Reaper has Passed” Thoreau blatantly references God or other supernatural forces, giving way to his sense of style, and ideology.
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
Myerson, Joel. The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau. New York: Cambridge UP, 1995. Print.
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
Many poets are inspired by the impressive persona that exists in nature to influence their style of poetry. The awesome power of nature can bring about thought and provoke certain feelings the poet has towards the natural surroundings.