Bacchus Analysis

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Interpret "Bacchus." What mythical inspiration is the basis for the poem?
For one to consider the mythical inspiration behind the poem Bacchus in The Norton Anthology of American literature, one must first get to know of the mythical God called Bacchus (Krupat and Levine 343). Bacchus is the Roman god of wine, merriment, ecstasy and theatrics. He was the son of Zeus, the king of the Roman gods and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus. Bacchus was the personification of the blessings of nature in general (Encyclopedia Britannica). It reads as an ode to Bacchus, of life, wine, nature, and of more wine. However, throughout the poem if you read it slowly, death, the initial reference to death is in the second stanza, “Which feels the acrid juice Of …show more content…

This movement gave descriptions of our emotions, it was intended to look inside the souls and speak a language of torment, truth, and combining a personification of nature, almost an explosion of emotion onto paper. Ralph Waldo Emerson, creates a visual landscape that develops in your mind, a beautiful example is his poem The Snow-Storm. Emerson sets the stage like an opening scene of a movie right off in the first 4 …show more content…

I deliberately did not look for an inspiration of this poem or a critique on it, simply because I wanted it to read in my eyes and imagination what. Good analysis of the mythological landscape he wrote in.

Word Count 144

Works Cited
"Bacchus." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2015. Web. 1 July 2015.
Emerson, Waldo Ralph "Bacchus." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. Robert S. Levine and Arnold Krupat. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 343-344. Print.
Emerson, Waldo Ralph "The Snow-Storm." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. Robert S. Levine and Arnold Krupat. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 342 Print.
"I Hear America Singing." Prod. Thomas Hampton. RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882). PBS. n.d. Web. 5 July

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