Adonais By Will Wallace Harvey: Poem Analysis

610 Words2 Pages

The October 1878 edition of Harper’s Magazine included a mix of numerous short stories, articles about travel, articles about the homestead and a couple of poems. The general theme of this magazine seemed to be knowledge. The pieces about America were farm-based, as one article titled “New England Dairy Farming” and even included a chart on how to judge the “perfect” cow. The majority of the articles, however, were about landmarks and an assortment of information about different places around the world. From information about the St. Gothard tunnel in Switzerland to observations made about a Japanese school, it seems as though most Americans were interested in learning about the workings of other countries. The countries in this edition included …show more content…

The poem, “Adonais,” was written by Will Wallace Harvey. A google search of Harvey turned up with no results, so it is to be assumed that he was not a well-known writer. However, his poem “Adonais,” was an interesting poem about a loved one who had passed, and he makes the point that life still goes on. The language in this poem is predominantly nature-based, as every stanza mentions an aspect of the land. The majority of the authors of the short stories in this edition of Harper’s were not well-known outside authors, but instead authors that wrote articles specifically for Harper’s. Lizzie W. Champney, the author of the article, “Three Thunderbolts,” a short story about a racing horse that is based around life after the war, wrote a total of 87 articles for Harper’s. Another short story, “Little Miss Mouse and her Marvelous Scholar,” did not even include an author’s name in the index, but instead listed another one of his/her works that were not included in the index. While many of the authors were not particularly well-known, their works represented the theme of life after the civil war and the desire for knowledge that Americans had at this

Open Document