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William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

CHILDHOOD

William Somerset Maugham was a popular novelist, playwright and short story writer. Was born on December 25^th in 1874 at the British Embassy in Paris, William Somerset Maugham speak French as his mother language. William is the son of Robert Ormond Maugham and Edith Mary and stands as the forth son. As the youngest child who survived to keep himself alive, he was treated by his parents as the one and only child because his elder brothers were already enrolled in boarding school in England. When his mother died in her 41, William was just reached the age of 8 and when he was 10 his father also took the chance to follow his mother. William never had a single chance to healed his pain of his mother’s death which followed by his father’s and he had the hard time in his life ever since by the trauma. After his parents died and being the orphan in age ten, he lives with his Aunt Sophia and Uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham in England. He found his tormented moment while in England, beside he had to face his temperament uncle, he also had to face the hard time in school where he was bullied by his classmates for his bad English. In his buried life, he found his sexual disorder. William himself actually is a homosexual and he had his first love affair with John Ellingham Brooks, his senior when he was a student of literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, German.

CAREER

When he went back to England, we worked in accountant’s office which found by his uncle. But William felt no sense of working as the accountant and he also rejected his uncle suggestion to work as the lawyer just like his father and brothers. As the final, he studied medicine in St Thomas’s Hospital in London and by the brain he accepted as the member of the Royal College of Surgeon and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in London, 1897. William actually already realized his passion in writing since he was 15 and never thought to get rid of his passion. When he was studied medicine, in spite of stop writing and focus on his study, William could merge his hobby and study all together. His experiences as the student of medicine gave him the chance to saw the world wide like the low class, how he felt to saw the men died and all the pity life of another turned into the great writing of him in his second work, Liza of Lambeth. By the success of Liza of Lambeth, William found his self-confidence in writing and continue to wrote another story, even another few works did not even close to Liza of Lambeth achievement. He also got the critics from another writer, Crowly who said that William’s The Magician (1908) is a plagiarism practice. But with all the critics, William kept moving his hands and produce another works instead of took care of the critics. Besides, all critics did not impact him well.

As the famous writer who already produced twenties works and qualified physician, in 1914 William accepted as the volunteer of the Motor Ambulance Corps when the World War I broke out and kept working on his Of Human Bondage. After the successfulness Of Human Bondage in 1915, William kept moving from one country to another to find inspiration. He travelled in India, Spain and another reachable place and obviously produced so many works such novels, plays and short stories which published in periodicals.

When he went back to England in 1915, his wife introduced him to one of the British Intelligence’s high rank agent and started to work in Switzerland as the network agent to against the British Committee. In 1916 he travelled to India, China, Pacific, and Southeast Asia and produced the famous novel The Moon and Sixpence. By his good record as the network agent, in 1917 he was recruited as the British Secret Intelligent Agent (MI6) and sent to Russia as the spy. As always, William could turn his experienced into the good writing in Ashenden: Or the British Agent. William states as the most productive writer of 20^th century which so many of his writings played in Broadway and also adapted into the movie like The Letter and The Constant Wife.

Being popular as the famous writer of the time did not make William to stay in England, he moved to French Riviera in 1928. William had no single capacity to hold his popularity, when World War II broke out he spent his time in United States to worked together with the film director. Most of his works were adapted in movie while he was in United States and gained a very pleasant life until the death of his companion, Gerald Haxton in 1944. Later he went back to England and spent about two years and went back again to his villa in French Riviera. In his career, he got so many honors in the world’s sake such Queen’s Companion of Honour in 1954, Fellow of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Toulouse, France, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In his villa, he spent his full day to write and produce many works until he died in France, Nice in 1965.

LOVE

Know as a homosexual writer, William actually never had a brave to write about his sexual orientation in one of his book or publicly show the world about his sexual orientation. John Ellingham Brooks was his first love affair when he was sixteen and studied literature and philosophy in Heidelberg, German. After he went back to England and studied medicine and later qualified as a member of the Motor Ambulance Corps when the World War I broke out, he met his second love affair who became his secretary, Gerald Haxton. They spent their life together as a writer and a secretary until Gerald Haxton died in 1944.

Even know as a homosexual, it did not make William cut off his relationship with women. He also accounted as the womanizer and had lots of affair with women. The remarkable woman who ever had a relationship with him is the wife of Sir Henry Wellcome, Gwendolyn Maude Syrie Barnado who later being his wife. In his marriage with Syrie then he had a daughter Elizabeth Mary Maugham but still it did not could bear the family. Syrie could not bear to live with a homosexual husband, they were divorced in 1929. After he was divorced by his wife, he continued his life his Haxton and when Haxton died in 1944, he went back to England and met Alan Searle and in 1946 they went back to his villa and started his relationship together as the lovers and also the writer and secretary until William died nine years later.

WORKS

As long as he live, William already worked on 16 books, 20 novels, 189 articles, 16 collections, 25 plays, 19 book edited, 11 unpublished plays, and 22 collected editions. He accounted as one of the most productive writer in his lifetime. Few of his works also noted as the masterpiece like Liza of Lambeth, the story about a girl from the slum area who struggles to find her true love and ended with the desperation. Liza of Lambeth also put beside the Emil Zola’s Nana, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Another masterpiece of William is Of Human Bondage. As the realist writer, in his Of Human Bondage William vividly showed the life the main character that has to face the cruel world without any one to hold. This novel also stated as the semiautobiographical novel which showed the buried life of William in his childhood and also his sexual orientation in blur way. Another remarkable works after Of Human Bondage are The Moon and Sixpence and Cake and Ale that also talked about historical people; Paul Gauguin and Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole.

As the writer who also gains the successfulness in film, William listed as the first success writer who most of his works were adapted in movie and serial, and his plays were showed in around the world. The success film that adapted from his works is The Letter (Nominee of Oscar) and The Constant Wife.

References

Abrams, M. H, et, al. 1968. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Norton & Company, Inc. United States of America.

McDonnell, Hellen, et, al.  1979. England in Literature. United States of America.

Samekto. 1974. Ikhtisar: Sejarah Kesusasteraan Inggris. PT. Gramedia: Jakarta.

Wikipedia. William Somerset Maugham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Accessed on October 10th 2014.

Brief Introduction of the Ideology in Literary Work of English, American and Australian.

England

Rationalism

History: Former period known as the Age of Reason or so called Rationalism period with the time range about 130 years from 1650-1780. This era is the starting point of leaving the supernatural beliefs behind. People in this era started to think and act against the old assumption that everything happened is the act of the God. People started to formulate the reason of natural phenomena such earthquakes, flood, and hurricane. The scientist at this era started to formulate the former explanation as the act of God to be mathematically and tested by the experiment. This era began by the emerge of Isaac Newton’s theory of Principia Mathematica. In this era, people became very reasonable in doing everything and it influenced the sphere of literary work at that time.  As people leaved the values of Puritanism in this era, they became secular in life and started to fully use their own power and effort, and started to criticize everything.

Writers: John Dryden, Samuel Pepys, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson.

Characteristics: In this era, literary works use the simple and precise word to describe the thing.  People stop using the long series of words and follow the rule of writing process but still kept the value of aesthetic itself.  In this era, people no longer talked about knights in their literary works, neither the Puritanism essence. People started to talk about their daily life which full of political sphere and let their mind talked with the beautiful simple words.  As said in the history above that this era filled by the secular people, the literary work also shown the daily life of the writer with their struggle using their own power and effort to achieve the better life. It clearly shows in John Dryden and Samuel Pepys works where in The Hind and the Panther, Dryden showed his doubts about his religious sincerity and described precisely what to do to the life and be cautious in life to be save.  Also we can see in The Diary of Samuel Pepys which contains the daily activity of Pepys and his struggle with his wife, near penniless, faced the cold winter of London. Not only had the two great men above, we have Alexander Pope who also showed the mind of rational mind of man in his work.  In his life, Pope with his rational mind tried to manage himself to be educated to achieve the better condition of life, and he did successfully.  In his work, pope also known as the writer with his expertise to insert the critic between the beautiful words such the phenomenal words by him “A little learning is a dangerous thing”.

Romanticism

History: The romantic period started to emerge from 1780-1830. At this time, people started to look for the fresh ideas in terms of literary works which could handle their developing sensibility. People in this era kept respect the reasonableness of the Age of Reason era, but they thought that the former period is limited in the vision. People in this age contain the great sensibility, the further glimpse of vision, and with the ability to transcend the facts of real world.  The rise of the romantic period began by the French Revolution in 1789. At that time, most British writer with the great sensibility, responded the cry of revolution’s victim in French, then famous line of this age was “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity”.

Writers: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon, Lord Byron, John Keats.

Characteristics: as mentioned above that people in this ages have the great sensibility in life, easily touched by the beautiful of earth, the humanity issues, and even the sensibility of the myth and the supernatural things. People who stand for this era determined the former era as the highly serious era and for that time they need some freshmen in idea of literature. They also thought that the writer in Age of Reason period use the evil as the basic part of human nature, based on the secular life they held, and writer in romantic period use the good as the basic part of the human nature but corrupted by the society and another social institution. Romanticism shows the frankness of what the writers felt towards the things they concerned to, the individualism, the respects to the nature and supernatural things.

Realism

History: The next period that emerged after the romantic period is realism period that happened in the period of Victorian age from 1830-1880. This was the time where England came to the highest position in the world with the large expanse and wide colony around the world and the much influenced moment was the revolution of industry in England. Those conditions lead the increasing of the prosperity and the intellectual activity in society. The intellectual activity in further lead the people of England at the time started to demand the literary work with full of useful information or knowledge and later made the writer of this era, direct or indirect, became the realism writer.

Writers: Charles Dickens, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Characteristics: based on the explanation above that, the characteristics of this era in literary works are different with the characteristics of romanticism where in romanticism era writer could write anything they want regarded to their respect to the nature, in Victorian ages the kind of such literary works  were not the interesting topics. The reader at this time pushed the need of relevance in what they read. The topic of the literary works at this time most contained the reality that happened in such society in real life.

Romanticism

History: in America, the romantic period started from 1820-1860 as the effect of the first emerges of romanticism in Germany. Romanticism touched the land of America after the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge as stated as the revolution of the poet’s sphere. In America, the romanticism spread in the same time with the nationalist that strengthen the national identity.

Writers: Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Alan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Characteristics: the general characteristic of romanticism is correlated with the nature itself, the landscape of earth, the great sensibility of human to the surrounding. The special characteristic of romanticism in America is because the spread of this ideology came at the same time with the spread of the nationalist, so the characteristics of romanticism in America also filled by the emotional and symbolic features. The spirit of romanticism is in line with the American democracy which pushed the individualism and the important of the self-esteem, and mostly not about love but more serious to showed the complexity of the story.  The romanticism in America shows the universal truth which is not include as the science.

Realism

History: the begging of the realism in America started by the civil war among the North America and South America. The idealism of America was changed before the war and after the war. The human rights and anti-slavery issue was no longer talked after the war, they started to talk about the progress of life. The materialism talked in this era, the corruption, the suppression is no longer to the black people but to the near penniless people (proletarian) by the brogues. This time lead the writers to show the fact that happened in the reality through the literary works.

Writers: Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser.

Characteristics: the characteristic of realism in America is not different with the England’s. It shows the real thing, the real moment that happened in the society. Mostly shows some group of society that banned or stressed by the other stronger society.

 

Romanticism

History: the timeframe of romanticism in Australia noted from the first year the land became the British Colony, 1788 to 1860 and also the part of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s influence in poet’s revolution. The literary works at this time much to engage the reader of Victorian poetry. Romanticism in this age was influenced by the Victorian era in England filled by the ideology of imperialist. Romantic Movement fully based on the expansiveness where the literary works at this time indirectly portrayed the searching of freedom, self evident-truth, and equality.

Writers: Charles Harpur, Henry Kendall, Adam Lindsay Gordon.

Characteristics: The characteristic of Australian Romanticism are filled by the searching of freedom. It said that romanticism loved freedom, but it loved truth more. Two romantic ideas in particular in Australia were the landscape and the inhabitants. From the earliest day in Australia, they provided the romantic sensation as well as neoclassical.

Romantic Period of English Literature

Romanticism in Australia

What is Romantic? For the writer in romantic period who embodied the romanticism in their literary work, romanticism uses nature as the main idea. Nature here does not only mean merely earth and the plants and animals, but complete with the substantial things include in the nature such the human itself with the characteristics, emotions, and feelings. In romanticism, the general ideas divided into six; love of nature, transcendentalism, individualism, self-consciousness, frankness, and admiration to the humble village people. These six ideas cover all around the world’s product of literary work which uses romanticism as the ideology. England romanticism tendency is more about the nature and the admiration of humble village people and the frankness, where the American is more about the individualism, self-consciousness,  and transcendentalism, and the youngest nations of the three, Australian romanticism tendency is most about the love of the nature and frankness. All the ideas explained above basically tend to make literary work as the description of spontaneity and originality both of nature and human itself.

How the story and idea of Romanticism in Australia? Romanticism in Australian literature emerges as the first ideology in Australia. It caused by the time period of England when the land of Australia found in 1788 and when the literary work took the points of departure in Australia. It came along with the romanticism period in England, where the phenomenal writer such Wordsworth and Coleridge influenced the writer all along the world, include Australia. Another strong reason that romanticism is the first idea that lives in Australian people is based on the condition of the land of Australia itself. They found the new kind of plants and animals which they never seen before. Their amazement to the strange land, plants, animals, even the climate are turn to the strong idea in writing a literary work. They just cannot afford their mind to not write down about the new fantastic awkward world that they found. These two conditions make the earlier writer in full of consciousness became the romantic writer in Australia. The characteristic of Australian romanticism which take place as the different between other nations is fully based on the expansiveness, where the literary works at this time indirectly portray the searching of freedom, self evident-truth, and equality. Even said that Australian literary work showed the love of freedom in early time, but it also showed the truth at most of it. The love of freedom and truth showed trough the depiction of the landscape and the inhabitants. The freedom showed through the inhabitants of Australia that looking for freedom in their new land as the new citizen. It shows their strong willing to detach from the England Empire. As said before that the early literary work in Australia also showed the truth of the landscape that they found, the unbelievable strange of animal and plants, plus with the seasons.

Who are the writers of this age? Early poets in Australia were Charles Harpur with his strong Emersonian, Thomas Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon with their magnificent poems. Another novelist also covers the early time of Australian literature such Alexander Harris and James Tucker with his famous Ralph Rashleigh. Other famous names are Catherine Helen Spence and Henry Kingsley also the historical novelist of Australia. All the early writers mentioned above were the romantic writers in Australian literature that filled their work with the strong tendency of Australian nature.

 

Romanticism in Kendall’s Selected Poems

As listed above the names of the early writers in Australia who embodied the romanticism in their works, here the one of the writers who all of his works shows the romanticism tendency to the nature of the land of Australia. Kendall is one of the history man in Australian literature, so-called the ‘Native Australian Poet’. In his book of Cambridge History of Australian Literature, Peter Pierce clearly said “He is more impressionistic and weaves a more cunningly emotional music, centered on effects of light and an atmospheric play of green and gold” (2009:81).

STANZAS

THE sunsets fall and the sunsets fade,

But still I walk this shadowy land;

And grapple the dark and only the dark

In my search for a loving hand.

For it’s here a still, deep woodland lies,

With spurs of pine and sheaves of fern;

But I wander wild, and wail like a child

For a face that will never return!

And it’s here a mighty water flows,

With drifts of wind and wimpled waves;

But the darling head of a dear one dead

Is hidden beneath its caves.

From the poem above, it clearly shows the atomic words which identify the romanticism by the wording noun. The entire noun that Kendall uses in the Stanzas is related to the nature itself. From the very first line, he started his poem with ‘THE sunsets fall and the sunsets fade, But still I walk this shadowy land’.  This line and the next lines clearly show the landscape of Australia. As explained above that romanticism tendency is to show what the writer feels in spontaneous and truthful, in this Stanza, Kendall depict the landscape of Australia, frankness about ‘the shadowy land’, ‘the woodland’, and  the plants like ‘Spurs of pine and sheaves of fern’ even about the ‘water flows’. This poem strongly proved what Pierce said about Kendall in his love to the green and gold. The green depiction in this poem is welcoming the reader to imagine the bush of Australia with its beautiful green land covered by the pines and ferns. These wording noun of nature clearly identify that this Stanzas is a romantic poems shows the land of Australia.

 

THE MUSE OF AUSTRALIA

WHERE the pines with the eagles are nestled in rifts,

And the torrent leaps down to the surges,

I have followed her, clambering over the clifts,

By the chasms and moon-haunted verges.

I know she is fair as the angels are fair,

For have I not caught a faint glimpse of her there;

A glimpse of her face and her glittering hair,

And a hand with the Harp of Australia?

I never can reach you, to hear the sweet voice

So full with the music of fountains!

Oh! when will you meet with that soul of your choice,

Who will lead you down here from the mountains?

A lyre-bird lit on a shimmering space;

It dazzled mine eyes and I turned from the place,

And wept in the dark for a glorious face,

And a hand with the Harp of Australia!

The next poem from Kendall that will be explaining here to come to the strong conclusion of Kendall’s poem as romantic is The Muse of Australia. In this poem, still, Kendall uses the noun of nature like ‘the pines with the eagles are nestled in rifts,’ again identify the romanticism. In this poem, Kendall again shows the beautiful Australia filled by the sounds of fountains everywhere by the words ‘I never can reach you, to hear the sweet voice | So full with the music of fountains!’ In this chance Kendall assume Australia as the pretty woman with her sweet voice, he also using the personification to shows the fountains, the mountains, the glorious surface to shows the landscape of Australia. This poem with its sharpness shows Kendall’s mind according his self and the beautiful Australia. As said before that Kendall and Australia is something that would never be separate each other. Kendall successfully attracts people to feel the land of Australia by his great beautiful poems with the detail of the natural condition.

He wrote to J. Brunton Stephens on 5 June 1880, ‘I was born in the forests and mountains were my sponsors. Hence I am saturated with the peculiar spirit of Australia scenery’ (Pierce, 2009:85)

As the native Australian Poet, Kendall is the greatest descriptive poems who know exactly the peculiar things, the beautiful part that will never be found in another land, the strange waves and seas, the grotesque animals and the scentless plants. It all turned into the beautiful poems through his cunning hands. No wonder, he simply the Australian-born poet.

HARPS WE LOVE

THE harp we love hath a royal burst!

Its strings are mighty forest trees;

And branches, swaying to and fro,

Are fingers sounding symphonies.

The harp we love hath a solemn sound!

And rocks amongst the shallow seas

Are strings from which the rolling waves

Draw forth their stirring harmonies.

The harp we love hath a low sweet voice!

Its strings are in the bosom deep,

And Love will press those hidden chords

When all the baser passions sleep.

 

In this poem, Harps We Love, Kendall still uses the words such ‘forest tree’ to show the bush of Australia, the typical of Australia. Different with the former poems explained above, this poem shows the other part of the Australia but still, Kendall kept his focus on the nature of Australia. As stated in view article about the beautiful sea of Australia with the amazing waves, Kendall cannot afford himself to avoid this characteristic of Australia. He tried to depict the sound of the seas and the waves as the ‘solemn sounds!’ in this poem, Kendall also used the specific words to show the detail about Australian nature. In the first couplet he talked about the ‘forest trees’ and then added the words ‘branches, swaying to and fro’, and then in the next couplet he talked about the sea of Australia and added the detail depiction through the word ‘rocks’. In this last poem, what Pierce said about Kendall in his book is clearly proved, the way Kendall describe the nature by his own way, the way Kendall shows his love to the land of Australia and Kendall’s haunted vision about the word beyond this world.

In most of his poem, Kendall successfully reflects his Australia as the part of him that cannot be separate like forever. In his poems, he cunningly describes his Australia’s past, and then the developing country with its beautiful nature.

Kendall was haunted by a vision of a world beyond this world, a virgin world of ‘unknown shores’, ‘undiscovered skies’ and ‘cliffs and coast by man untrodden’, ‘the land where man hath never been, the country where ethereal glory shines’ (Pierce, 2009:81)

From the three selected poems served above, it all clearly shows and proved the romanticism in Kendall’s where it is like the love of his life. Everything he saw in his daily moment turned into the beautiful lines of words in the form of poem. His amazement of his Australia cannot help him to avoid the use of the beautiful new thing he found in the nature of Australia such its fountains, shores, forests, trees, mountains, even its rocks, into his works.

 

Bibliography

Goodwin, Ken. 1986. A History of Australian Literature. Macmillan Publishers. Hong Kong.

Kendall, Henry. 1998. The Poems of Henry Kendall. University of Sydney Library. Sydney.

Pierce, Peter. 2009. The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. Cambridge University Press. Australia.

Narasimhaiah, C. D. 1982. An Introduction to Australian Literature. John Wiley & Sons Melbourne.

 

Sociology of the Author (Henry James)

Sociology of Literature

Literature itself exists to make the nuance in our life by the unique and beautiful ways, the social institution that using the language as its medium to deliver the sense. Literature shows the depiction of life as it rises from the material of life, human. Sociology stands as the discipline in social context, the relation among human to human, human to community, community to community, and also the creation of its relation. Sociology of literature is one of the approaches in study of literature which consider the whole shape of social aspect of human being related to the literary work. As Burns said in his book of Sociology of Literature & Drama, ‘sociology defines itself as a critical activity. The purpose of sociology is to achieve an understanding of social behavior and social institutions which is different from that current’.

Back to the many existing ways and theories of how literature related with the sociological aspect, basically literary work will never be separated by its author as the creator and the creator is the main point, the one that stands as the main cause of the literary work exist. This subject lead the experts in literary such Wellek and Warren to divided the sociology of literature into three aspects and determined the sociology of the author as one of the aspects, the first aspect. Darmono in his book of Sosiologi Sastra pretty clear said that by getting know the social background which built the author-like the author’s pedigree, the type of economic stage where the author lives, the social group related direct or indirect to the author, even the psychological condition of the author-will definitely help us to know better about the essential meaning of the literary work itself. The main aim of sociology of literature is to attributing the relation among the character’s experience and the story itself with the history of reality as its origin. The sociology of the author emerged and remained as the oldest method in study of literature. This study claimed could indicate the real and unique process of the creation of art.

This sociology of literature’s analysis will talk especially for the first aspect, sociology of the author, Henry James. The whole things that consider influenced his creation will be put in; both the things that influenced the content of its literary work and Henry James himself in personal. The selected stories of this analysis that will be attributing with Jame’s background are Daisy Miller and Lady Barbarina.

Henry James himself was born in New York City, on April 15, 1843. Came from the wealthy and intellectual family, his father, Henry James Sr,. was a theologian and happen to be a most wealthy intellectuals of the time. His father had the acquaintance with many famous philosophers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorn, the people that gave the big influence and effect to the young Henry James. Was born from the wealthy family, James’ work also filled by the situation where most of the characters were a noble and wealthy man, include the characters in Daisy Miller and Lady Barbarina. In Daisy Miller we know that Mr. Winterbourne and Daisy Miller herself also came from the wealth family. State in the story that Daisy Miller and her family were in a trip and her father was some kind of very busy rich man, it showed in the quotation below:

“She gave Winterbourne a history of her movements and intentions, and those of her mother and brother, in Europe, and enumerated, in particular, the various hotels at which they had stopped … I told her I ever been in so many hotels in my life as since I came to Europe” (James, 1994:13)

In James’ family, education was the very important thing that should be put on top, and that is the reason his father took the family in tour to spend the years in England, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, and America to put his children being tutored in language and literature. We could make the red line here into the chosen stories. In Daisy Miller, obviously that Daisy Miller’s parents were very concern about the study of their children as quoted; “Mother’s going to get a teacher from him as soon as we get to Italy. Can you get good teacher in Italy? … Or else she’s going to find some school. He ought to learn some more. He’s only nine. He’s going to college” (James, 1994:13)

The fact that happened at that time was England still under the glory of Queen Victoria and by 1870, England became the most industrialized country where you can find what you need, the good education and high quality goods. That moment so called The Age of Mass Migration (1870-1930) where people from worldwide moved from one country to another, some of them to achieved the good education and some of them to gained the business network, some of them to have a better condition of life, some of them to collect the high quality goods and some of them moved by the marriage matter. At the age of 27, James faced the moment of the mass migration and he published Daisy Miller which still in sphere of that moment, in 1878. The story that filled by the travels of Daisy Miller and her family not only influenced by James’s own experience of life but also the situation he faced.

Even was born in New York City and had a long settle in Paris, James moved permanently to England in 1876 but still took a vacation to America in many times. So James himself was one of the actors of the mass migration that happen in USA and UK. James moved to England in case to gain the better condition of life where he felt better when he settled in England than America. Besides, the migration of James was to support his career in writing. Ten years after he published Daisy Miller, the other story which also filled by the migration sphere published, that was Lady Barbarina (1888). As stated in story that Daisy Miller and her family were the Americans who had a trip around the Europe to get the education, Lady Barbarina also showed the migration of Americans to England as quoted below:

“Dexter Freer and his wife belonged in fine to that great company of Americans who are constantly passing through London … They found it much more possible to economise … the saving was greater and the strain was less … They came to London to buy their portmanteaus, their toothbrush, their writing-paper, … their interest were mainly personal … The pair were just back from America, where they had spent three months … They had found their native land quite ruinous” (James, 1994:138-9)

If in Daisy Miller, the migration was based on the education need, the vary reasons of the mass migration that happened in USA and UK, as stated in previous page, showed by James in his Lady Barbarina. In the story, the migration of the characters based on the need to gain the better condition of life-from Dexter Freer and his wife, as quoted above,-the need of business network, and also the marriage matter. The quotation below shows the migration of Dr Feeder in Lady Barbarina for the business network;

“They had lately made a voyage from New York in his company … After he had stood in front of them … sat there telling her what he thought of the park and how he liked London … He had come over to London to attend a medical congress which met this year in the British capital” (James, 1994:144-5)

In story of Lady Barbarina, the third reason of migration showed by Lady Barbarina as the English woman and his husband as the American, Jackson Lemon who took his wife moved to New York. But the migration of Lady Barbarina to New York did not work well. Lady Barbarina could not get used to the situation in New York which she determined as and at the end of the story, she pushed her husband to sailed from New York to London with never decided when she will return to New York as quoted;

“Lady Barb, before sailing, definitely refused to mention any week or month as the date of their prearranged to return to New York … and she gives no sign of coming back” (James, 1994:219)

James himself never married and that emerges the assumption that he never experienced a sexual relationship. But in his works, most of them, filled with the expression of affection of the couple. As the man who never experienced the marriage and there is no written document which ever said that James ever run the sexual relationship, besides there also no supporting document which stated that among 1877 until 1901 exist the great symptom of the unmarried man or woman.  On the contrary, the rate of the marriage for male between 1877 until 1901 increased from 16.5 to 18.3. By this situation of his life, James seems failed in exploring the sexual relationship in his works, Daisy Miller and Lady Barbarina.

In Daisy Miller, the love story between Daisy and Winterbourne ended tragically. Winterbourne was never had a chance to propose Daisy and Daisy found herself difficult to showed Winterbourne her true feeling.  The story ended by the death of Daisy Miller because the terrible case of the fever and left Mr. Winterbourne felt sore and angry.

“Half of the time she doesn’t know what she’s saying, but that time I think she did. She gave a message; she told me to tell you. She told me to tell you that she never was engage to that handsome Italian… I don’t know why she wanted you to know; but she said to me three times… And then she told me to ask if you remembered the time you went to that castle, in Switzerland… But, as Winterbourne had said, it mattered very little. A week after this the poor girl died” (James, 1994:55)

For the Lady Barbarina, James also showed the unhappy marriage among Lady Barbarina and her husband, Jackson Lemon, caused by the different country and culture. The story ended by the migration of Jackson Lemon to London but found him restless and met his wife occasionally.

“Jackson Lemon has a house in London and he rides in the park with his wife … He has occasional scene with Lady Barb during which the look of race is very clear in her own countenance; … He’s exceedingly restless and is constantly crossing to the Continent; but he returns with a certain abruptness” (James, 1994:219)

As the one with the high rates of trip to around the continents, James also known as the trans-Atlantic literature because of his works where most of them shows the characters from different country and explore the characters’ clash of personalities and cultures influences the worlds. James found no trouble in describing the characters and the situation of different country-London and America-in his works simply because he ever experienced and settled in both countries not in a short range of time.

References

Biblio. 2000. Henry James. (http://www.biblio.com/henry-james/author/599) viewed on 10 April, 2014.

Damono, Sapardi Djoko. 2013. Sosiologi Sastra, Pengantar Ringkas. Editium. Indonesia.

Elizabeth and Burns, Tom. 1973. Sociology of Literature and Drama. Penguin Books Ltd. England.

Gottlieb, Manuel. 1976. Appendix J: Rates of Migration and Marriage, 1870-1910: U.S., U.K. National Bureau of Economic Research.

Howells, W. D. 1999. Biography of Henry James. (http://www.online-literature.com/henry_james/) viewed on 10 April, 2014.

James, Henry. 1994. Daisy Miller and Other Stories. Wordsworth Edition Limited. England.

Junus, Umar. 1986. Sosiologi sastera, Persoalan Teori dan Metode. Dewan Bahasa Pustaka. Kuala Lumpur.

Murtin, Fabrice and Viarengo, Martina. 2009. American Education in the Age of Mass Migrations 1870-1930. IZA. Germany.

Allusion

Sociology of Literature

 

1. Read the following sonnet by Edna St Vincent Millay (1930):

I dreamed I moved along the Elysian Fields,

In converse with sweet women long since dead:

And out of blossoms which that meadow yields

I wove a garland for your living head.

Danae, that was the vessel for a day

Of golden Jove, I saw, and at her side,

Whom Jove the bull desires and bore away,

Europa stood, and the Swan’s featherless bride.

All these were mortal women, yet all these

Above the ground had had a good for guest;

Freely I walk beside them and at ease,

Addressing them, by them again addressed,

And marveling nothing, for remembering you,

Wherefore I was among them well I knew.

 

2. Assuming that the speaker of the poem is a woman addressing her male lover, try to work out what she is saying about him (one of the clue is that in the final couplet she seems to compare him to Jove)

In this poem, if we assuming that the narrator is the woman and this poem is dedicated to his man, it clearly shows the love of the woman to his man. She describe the man as the good guest her and the other women. What she is trying to say through this poem is no matter with the other such Danae and Europa, and also the Swan’s featherless bride stand beside the man, she also would stand beside the man and they will be stand side by side, walk together in happiness.

3. Identify as many cases of allusion as you can by:

(a)    Circling all the words and phrases (including names) which you think may be allusions? Elysian Fields, Danae, Europa, Swan’s featherless bride, and Jove.

(b)   Finding out what they are allusions to by looking them up in appropriate sources (see below or see Unit 2; Using information sources).

In this poem, Edna St Vincent Millay clearly made the allusion of the characters in Greek Mythology. The presence of the name such Jove, Elysian Fields, Danae, Swan’s featherless bride, and Europa are identifying the relation between the story told by this poem and the story of the Greek Mythology.

Elysian Fields, or Elysium, is the place in Greek mythology describe as the place which look and feel like heaven. It such a wonderful place and everything inside the fields is delightful. The place covers by the green meadows, lovely groves, a delicious life-giving air, sunlight that is glows a soft purple, and everyone in the fields is happy and peaceful.  This place is the place of the great and good after their deaths. The good and great here mean the heroes, priest, poets, and people who helped another through the favor of gods. This place is also the place of The Titan Cronus, father of Zeus.

Zeus in Greek mythology actually has many names of him. Zeus name in traditional Roman or in Latin language is Jupiter. For the Anglican name, Zeus also called Jove. Jove is the other name of Zeus used in old-English language. The next name is Europa. Europa was the daughter of the king Agenor of Sidon and she is the other unofficial wife of Zeus. The next is Danae, danae was the beautiful daughter of King Acrisius and she also is the other unofficial wife of Zeus that abducted by him and raped. Swan’s featherless bride is the words that identify Leda, the queen of Sparta, the wife of King Tyndareus who seduced by Zeus in the guise of a Swan.

 

4. Having done 3, you should now have discovered what the “Elysian fields’ are and have found about Jove’s relationship with three ‘mortal women’. Using this information, try answering question 2 again. Is your answer any different from what you gave earlier?

Having done the question number 3 was made my answer about the essence of this poem changed. In general, about what the woman who stands as the narrator tries to say to the man in the poem is same. It is about the love from the woman to the man, the strong and loyal, even if she knows that the man has many women. She stands with that condition and she even stands together with the other women of the man. But after done the question number three, it gave the wider vision about the story and also what the story is allusion to. It specifies the story to the Greek Mythology story and it clearly shows that this poem is made by the story of the Gods from the Greek Mythology, especially about Zeus and his women.

5. Is the poem making a compliment to the man or is it doing something else? How do the allusions support your answer?

If we read this poem in once, the first essence that we get wail be the story of the strong love and loyal from the woman to the man who has many women. But if we read over and over again, and intertwine this poem with the writer’s background, we will find that this poem actually contains the humiliating to the creature called ‘men’ that has many women in his life, such wife, mistress, and affair. This poem has the allusion with the Greek Mythology, especially the life of Zeus. As we know that Zeus is the god in Greek Mythology who has one official wife named Hera, but he also has so many unofficial wife and bear so many kids from each wife he has. In this poem, the word ‘Jove’ is actually in certain way identifies Zeus. In this poem, the description of Jove with his women is so much alike the life of Zeus. The appearance of the name such Danae, Europa, and the Swan’s featherless bride who stand beside the Jove is the allusion of the Zeus unofficial wife who has the same name in the poem, they are Danae, Europa, and the Swan’s featherless bride here means Leda, the queen of Sparta who seduced by Zeus in the guise of Swan.

The reason why this poem is actually the kind of satire poem based on the writer’s background. Edna is actually a feminist who stand for the women rights and strongly against any kind of suppression to the women by the men and also against the existence of the men who has many women in his life. It simply because Edna sees this condition is dropping the dignity of women as a human being who has to be respect. This argument supported by the journal of Michilidou that reveals the works of Millay and her status in society.

Millay may be much less famous, but a detailed analysis of her work reveals her importance within the contexts of radicalism, sexuality and feminist consciousness. (Michailidou. 2006: 40)

 

So by knowing the writer’s social life as the background of this poem, we will see the substantial essence that Millay, as the writer, tried to reveals through this poem.  It strongly consolidate the assumption that this poem is written in order to protest the unbalance social life in the case of sexuality matter, where women put as the one who cannot choose to be free from the stress which caused by the men and also protest the inequality of rights among men and women.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Klemans, Patricia, A. 1979. ‘Being Born a Woman’: A New Look at Edna St. Vincent Millay. Colby Library Quarterly.

Montgomery, Martin, et.al. Ways of Reading. Advance reading skills for students of English literature. Routledge. London and New York.

Michailidou, Artemis. 2006. Love Poetry, Women’s Bonding and Feminist Consciousness. Open Access Repository.

 

 

 

Ventriloquation

Theory of Culture

1. Buat ringkasan ½ halaman, interpretasi mengenai teori Geertz.

Geertz melihat kebudayaan sebagai susunan teks. Sebagai antopolog, Geertz melihat bahwa bentuk kebudayaan dapat ditelusuri sebagaimana menulusuri sebuah teks. Hal ini menekankan bahwa untuk dapat memahami sebuah kebudayaan, kita harus mengetahui bagaimana cara membaca kebudayaan itu sendiri, bagaimana kebudayaan itu berporses, dan bagaimana menerjemahkan kebudayaan tersebut. Dalam arti lain, bahwa kebudayaan dapat diketahui, dipelajari, dan dipahami melalui kumpulan teks dari apa yang dikatakan oleh sipenutur atau orang yang terlibat langsung dengan proses kebudayaan.

Berdiri sebagai suatu kebudayaan dengan kompleksitasnya, kita tidak dapat hanya dengan sekilas melihat kebudayaan itu kemudian menyimpulkan bagaimana kebudayaan tersebut berproses. Hal ini coba ditunjukkan oleh Geertz melalui tulisannya Balinese Cockfight, dimana Geertz mencoba mengungkap segala keistimewaan sabung ayam yang telah menjadi satu kebudayaan di Bali. Geertz memperlihatkan keistimewaan sabung ayam itu sendiri dimana penggunaan emosi atau bahasa perasaan digunakan sebagai kata-katanya dalam sebuah teks, seperti kebahagiaan saat menang, kekecewaan saat kalah dan sensasi dari resiko-resiko yang dipertaruhkan.

2. Bandingkan pandangan pendekatan oleh Geertz dan yang diajukan oleh Sandarupa (The Poetry of Taking in Toraja Indonesia) dalam ½ halaman.

Pandangan Geertz pada tulisannya Balinese Cockfight melihat kebudayaan sebagai kumpulan teks pada tataran denotasional (What is being said). Menurut Sandarupa, pandangan Geertz masih memiliki kekurangan karena hanya berbicara pada tataran denotasi, dimana Geertz hanya berdasar pada apa yang dikatakan oleh masyarakat Bali mengenai sabung ayam itu sendiri. Melihat bagaimana sabung ayam memiliki arti pada kebudayaan di Bali. Geertz melalukan penelitian dan mengeluarkan pendapatnya mengenai kebudayaan sabung ayam berdasarkan interview terhadap masyarakat Bali kemudian mengolah apa yang diakatakan tanpa melihat teks pada tataran interaksionalnya. Sedangkan Sandarupa menegaskan bahwa apa yang dikatakan terkadang berbeda dengan apa yang sebenarnya terjadi.

Sandarupa sendiri menyempurnakan pandangan Geertz yang melihat kebudayaan sebagai kumpulan teks dalam tataran denotasi dengan mengikutsertakan tataran interaksional (What is happening) dalam melihat kebudayaan sebagai teks. Teks interaksional sendiri adalah teks yang membahas relasi sosial antar orang yang sedang bertutur. Hal ini ditunjukkan oleh Sandarupa dalam penelitiannya The Poetry of Taking Power in Toraja Indonesia yang mengambil contoh badong untuk kemudian menganalisis kebudayaan sebagai kumpulan teks pada tataran interaksional. Sandarupa melihat nyanyian badong sebagai suatu proses yang sedang berlangsung melalui interaksi verbal dimana aktor-aktornya saling membangun hubungan sosialnya melalui bagian-bagian dari nyanyian badong, dalam hal ini Sandarupa dapat melihat dua tataran teks mengenai apa yang mereka katakan dan apa yang sebenarnya terjadi. Sandarupa menggabungkan analisis teks pada kedua tataran tersebut baik dalam denotasi dan interaksi,  melihat bagaimana kebudayaan terbangun melalui relasi sosial antar orang yang bertutur tanpa meninggalkan pandangan teks dalam tataran denotasionalnya.

3. Bandingakan ventriloquasi Geertz dan Fadli Zon dalam 1 halaman.

 

Dalam tulisannya, Balinese Cockfight, Geertz sebagai seorang antropolog seolah berusaha menyalurkan suaranya mengenai kebudayaann melalui kegiatan sabung ayam di Bali. Bagaimana dia menggambarkan sabung ayam di Bali sebagai suatu gaya hidup masyarakat Bali yang mencerminkan situasi primitif, keterbelakangan dan bahkan mencerminkan sebagai tindakan atau gaya hidup sebuah bangsa yang tidak berkembang yang hanya memfokuskan kehidupan mereka pada seekor ayam dan sebuah kegiatan sabung ayam.

Sebagai seorang ilmuwan antropolog, Geertz melakukan penelitian kebudayannya dengan menganut kepercayaan bahwa kebudayaan adalah kumpulan teks kemudian menganalisisnya dalam tataran denotasional. Keluaran dari hasil penelitian Geertz inilah yang kemudian dianggap oleh Sandarupa kurang sempurna karena tidak melibatkan teks pada tataran interaksionalnya. Di sisi lain, menurut saya Geertz bisa saja dengan sengaja hanya menggunakan analisis kebudayaan sebagai teks hanya pada tataran denotasional untuk mendukung asumsinya mengenai kebudayaan sabung ayam di Bali yang dilihat sebagai gaya hidup sebuah Negara yang tidak memiliki ambisi atau pesimis, dimana masyarakat hanya bertumpu pada nasib menang atau kalah dalam pertaruhan ayam.

Dalam Balinese Cockfight, Geertz memang dengan indah menggambarkan keistimewaan dan keunikan sabung ayam, bagaimana sabung ayam telah melekat khususnya pada jiwa laki-laki pada masa itu, namun di balik itu semua, Geertz juga menampilkan penggambaran bagaimana sabung ayam dilakukan, bagaimana masyarakat berlarian jika tiba-tiba polisi mengadakan razia, dan bagaimana masyarakat miskin malah mempertaruhkan sebagian atau seluruh uangnya pada aktifitas sabung ayam tanpa berpikir lebih panjang. Hal tersebut menegaskan bahwa Geertz mencoba memperlihatkan kebudayaan sebuah Negara yang tidak berkembang dengan kegiatan-kegiatan masyarakat yang primitif yang senang melakukan perkelahian.

Sedang dalam puisi Sajak Seekor Ikan, Fadli Zon yang merupakan seorang penulis berusaha menyalurkan suaranya (voicing) mengenai sosok Joko Widodo, yang merupakan Gubernur DKI Jakarta yang saat ini mencalonkan diri sebagai Presiden Indonesia, dalam bentuk puisi yang dimana Joko Widodo digambarkan sebagai seeokor ikan merah yang kerempeng dan lincah. Dalam puisi ini, kalimat ‘Seekor ikan di akuarium’ berdiri sebagai tema, subjek, dan aktor sekaligus sehingga dapat dikatakan bahwa topic dari puisi ini adalah ‘seekor ikan di akuarium’ yang merepresentasikan Joko Widodo.

Dari analisis puisi Sajak Seekor Ikan,ditemukan dua bentuk ventriloquasi oleh fadli Zon. Jika menggunakan pendekatan kontekstualitas, Fadli Zon berusaha menggambarkan kondisi dari Joko Widodo sebagai seekor ikan merah yang kerempeng yang dengan berani melompat ke sungai kemudian terbawa hingga ke laut lepas adalah perumpaan Joko Widodo yang pada awalnya hanya seorang Walikota kemudian mencalonkan dan terpilih menjadi Gubernur DKI Jakarta dan sekarang kembali mencalonkan diri menjadi Presiden Indonesia. Sedangkan sosok ikan hiu di puisi ini dapat dikatakan adalah penggamaran dari Megawati yang saat ini memegang kendali terhadap Joko Widodo.

Jika menggunakan pendekatan entekstualitas pada puisi ini, di sisi lain Fadli Zon berusaha menggambarkan seeokor ikan kerempeng sebagai masyarakat Indonesia yang kurus dan sekarat karena kemiskinan. Dalam puisi tersebut ikan hiu, paus dan gurita berdiri sebagai para penguasa koruptor di Indonesia yang tanpa beban menyantap uang Negara yang seharusnya digunakan untuk kesejahteraan masyarakat Indonesia.

Culture, Language and Literature

Culture, language and literary work are three masterpieces of human being, the product of relation between man and nature. Culture itself embodies in the whole life of people; language used by people to communicate each other; and literary work emerges to describe the people’s culture via language using the imagination. Once we were born the culture would definitely welcoming and cover us in our move, act and thought. As culture is the collective category, it pushed men to build the relationship with another member of the group and based on that need men started to use codes to communicate, and the conventional codes late known as language. Then, via language men started to institute their own culture in encouraged people to be brave more by told the story of their heroic ancestor orally and when the knowledge improved, they started to write down the literary work. Culture builds language and literary work as well, but now days we could claim that the three items set in unstoppable circle. Take the example from the Fifty Shades of Grey (E L James, 2011), product of author’s imagination upon the sadist and masochist in sex issue with very clear description and direct diction. As the result, the novel influenced and lead people to be masochist and sadist in sexual treatment just like the characters on the novel. From the example, it is hard to at last answer the simple question which one builds and influence the other since they are interwoven each other.

Early Century of Literature

Early Century of Literature

This paper contains the answers of three following questions;

1)             Explain the interwoven among the beginning of literature in England, America, and Australia. The form of literature that produced in early period of each nations and the idea that presented at that time.

2)             The reason of the statement that the form of literature in America and Australia at the very beginning called far away from the form of literature but still regarded as a literary form.

3)             Try to find the concept of individualism and cooperation, show it in the literary work of England or America or Australia.

 

Talk about the literature from the beginning would take place from the Anglo-Saxon period in England (450 – 1100). After the Roman Empire had failed to defend the land of England, Celtic people were attacked by the German Empire.  Germans were migrated to the land of England with their family, included their cultures, social values, and traditions such the oral literature which talked about their beliefs, rituals of some kind of religion ceremony, and also their knights.

Their famous oral literature in the land of England later known as epos, talked about the bravely knights.  This symptoms influenced by the beginning of social condition at that time noted by the war among the villages in ordered to occupied the other villages to enlarge one village. The groups of people appointed to attacked other villages so-called the knights and started from that very moment the name of knights exalted as the hero and their story maintained to be retold over and over again in the form of oral literature, performed by the bards or scops.

From this very moment, the literary work spread and soon faced the substantial development in the case of form and genre. The development going on along the time, the invasion by the England Empire, and development of human mind itself.

The Interwoven Among the Beginning of Literature in England, America, and Australia

When the Germans settled and the educated clergyman started to come to the land of England, the oral literature started to be written by the clergyman using the old English language, and the phenomenal epos that remains until now is Beowulf. From that moment, people started to be educated by the church and people who interested to write the literary work emerged such Chaucer with his Canterbury Tales, and then the sphere of literature continue to be developed in form of poetry, prose and play precisely at the age of Elizabethan or so-called The Renaissance of England (1500 – 1650). The famous writer at this time was William Shakespeare with his Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, which his name still uttered until now.

Off from the age of Elizabethan, England continued their period with the Puritanism where the atmosphere of play had the extreme decreasing by the consideration as the place for the fornication. The famous poet whom exists at this age was John Milton with his Paradise Lost.

The next period in England range of time for literature atmosphere was The Age of Reason where people of England at that time found they self bored by the strict rule of Christian. This era was the starting point of leaving the supernatural beliefs behind. People in this era started to think and act against the old assumption that everything that happens was the act of the God. People started to formulate in the mathematical way, the reason of natural phenomena such earthquakes, flood, and hurricane. The writers of this year were John Dryden with his Absalom and Architophel and Jonathan Swift with his Gulliver’s Travel.

The next period also called as the rebirth of the spirit of literature, Romanticism. This era was the turning point of the former era, where people at this era started to exaggerate the nature surround them and showed most of the beautifulness of the living substance. This period noted by the published book of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

As said before that the atmosphere of literature developed along with the time period, either the nation of England. As the biggest nation at that time, England was still kept the custom to enlarge her colony to the cross ocean. The invention of America in 1607 by Smith, as we know was the age of Elizabethan in England where most of everyone already literate and literary work developed in form of poet, play and prose and it caused the literature such oral epos was no longer the interesting thing to society. Smith’s amazement of the land that he landed off made him kept informing the people in England with the exaggerate lines of words in form of correspondence which considered as the early form of literature in America – The Description of New England (1616)– and he also wrote a map to reach the plenty land of New England.

By his map, under the crown of James Stuart in England who became a firm of Anglican made his puritan citizen flew by the Mayflower ship headed to the New England. Mayflower that landed in 1620 contained the man that soon became the governor and the early writer, William Bradford with his history book, The History of Plymouth Plantation (1651). Bradford wrote the book that contained the history of the land that they found plus with their individual experiences. He became the second colony of England in the New Land and along with his colony raised the first American poet, Anne Bradstreet with her first printed book titled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650).

As they settled in, the form of literary work in America also developed in their own way. In America we found the form of literary work such diary of Captain John Smith as stated above and Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1675. Another kind of literary work form that ever existed in America was The Autobiography by the American revolutionist, Benjamin Franklin. Then the form of fiction prose developed in age of neoclassic which the existed writers at that time were Washington Irving with his famous Rip Van Winkle and James Fenimore Cooper with his The Pioneers.

Few writers in America were still influenced by the writer in England simply because they all came from the land of England, the book they read was England’s writer’s product, and the mindset patterned based on England’s mainstream at that moment. It also happened in Australia, where the first settler was came from England.

Australia found by James Cook in 1772 and soon spread the rumor about Australia, the land that covers the gold below. As the respond from England, in 1788 first fleet voyaged around the ocean to find the land of Australia. The first fleet as we know attached by 11 ships – 2 was the war ships, 3 was the cargo ships, and the rest was the ships that contained the convicts from England. When they were first landed in the land of Australia, they found the peculiar things which different with their home. They found the weird bush, weird animal that they never saw before, the scentless flowers, and the extreme weather.

Quite same with what happened to captain Smith when he first landed in America, people in Australia also wrote the letter to their relatives in England in order to ask some utilities such books and to told about the continent that they landed off such letter from the educated convict John Grant in his letter to his mother and sister in 1805, and also the letter of George Allen to his brother in 1820. Because the Australia was the very youngest continent that invented by the England and moreover the Australia found in the age of Romanticism in England, Australia did not take a long range of time to developed their form of literary work. Literary work such play already demonstrated by the convicts in 1789, a year after the First Fleet landed. The official poetry was given to the Australia by the freed convict, Michael Massey Robinson in 1809. Later when the phenomenal poets existed such Charles Harpur, Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon in Victorian era, they were known as the poets whom strongly influenced by the revolutionist poets, Wordsworth and Coleridge from the Romantic period.

In addition, the poetry contained the idea of romanticism with the tendency to the nature, the convicts itself, and the uncivilized indigene people so called the Aborigine. The form of fiction emerged in the 19^th century influenced by the Victorian era in England and strongly influenced by the English writer, Charles Dickens.

The similarity of three nations in their beginning literary work is that the form was not straight off the literary work that we already know now days such novel, poetry and play. Everything took time to be developed, include the literary form itself. England started their literary work in the form of epos with oral literature concept. America started their literary work in the form of letter, travel account or diary, and autobiography, and Australia started in the form travel account and letter as the way to inform their relatives in England about the new land that they found.

The idea presented on the literary work of every nation in the very beginning period was influenced by the social condition. England at the very first time faced the village’s war in ordered to enlarge one village by occupied another.  Based on the condition of the illiterate people at that time and the center intention at that time were the knights, so the form of literary work was oral literature in the genre of epos which the idea filled by the bravely knights.

In America, the first settler such Smith faced the different social condition with his home that made him kept inform the English people about the plenty land that he found in the New Land in the form of travel account in the concept of correspondence or epistolary form. Later when the second mass colony landed in the New Land which the most influence small group filled by the Puritanism that looked for the new land, the idea of the literary work contained the Puritanism ideology.

And for Australia, as the first fleet landed and brought the groups of convicts from England, they found the peculiar typical of land which filled by the bush and strange animals plus with its extreme climate; the idea that contained in Australian literature at the beginning was all about Australian nature and the life of convicts in expressed their dumped for liberty both in the form of letter and three general genres of literary works.

The Form and the Proprietary of Literary Work in America and Australia at the Very Beginning

As England announced as the one that found the land of America and Australia, it really gave the strong influences to the two nations in shape of culture, language, and the literary works as well. Came from the same ancestor, it is hard to finally defined the different between the three nations in general. In the case of literary work in early time of invasion, the literary work of the two invented continents regarded as non-literary work and yet nor the literary work of America or Australia. This glimpse based on the form of its literary work in early time of invasion in America and Australia such diary, letter, and autobiography, and the last statement based on the fact that all writer were the citizen of England.

The last two sentences above were totally mistaken. Every nation deserved to has their own history and as the new developed nations in early invasion, it was so right to have the imperfect products such language, cloths, utilities, and the literary work. It was just the same with the first kind of literary work that emerged in England, the oral literature. It was not in sudden to be the poetry, novel and play. Everything takes time to be developed and literary work from the beginning era also took time to be developed. It happened to the literary work in America and Australia; they took time to be developed into the three general genres in literature. In America and Australia, the form such travel account, diary, letter and autobiography stated as the embryo of the literary work. This statement bravely announced because the lines of words that the writers used were full of beautiful exaggerate ungrammatical poetic words seasoned with the imaginative depiction, and the most important thing was, because it came from the contemplation, it was filled by the message. Take the example of Smith’s The New Land which filled by the exaggerate lines of words below.

Here nature and liberty affords us that freely, which in England we want, or it costeth us dearly. What pleasure can be more, than (being tired with any occasion ashore, in planting Vines, Fruits, or Herb … and other works, etc.) to recreate themselves before their own doors in their own boats upon the sea; Where man, woman and child, with a small hook and line, by angling, may take divers sorts of excellent fish, at their pleasure? (Miller. Jr., et, al. 1979: 112)

Another example provided in this paper, the Franklin’s The Autobiography especially in the Moral Perfection’s part which filled by the ungrammatical lines of words and moral message as follows:

It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might led me into… I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent of slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken … (Miller. Jr., et, al. 1979: 130)

The next example is taken from the letter of Australian new comer, George Allen to his brother in England, 1820. Allen used the beautiful polite lines of sentences and showed the depiction of social condition in Australia as follows:

… If you can’t spare the Money for all and can for some, do the best you can for me as this place is not like London in amusements, here we have neither the society nor places for amusement, there is not [a] library here to spend a few hours in; my only employment after the business of the day is to retire to my own room (for I am the only of the family now left in Sidney) and read my books of which I am sorry to say I have but a slender stock … (Pierce, 2009:36)

From the few examples above we could clearly see the form of early literary work both in America and Australia; they were the diary or travel account of Smith, the autobiography of Franklin and the letter of Allen. But what the most interest thing here are if we scrutinize the lines of words used by the three writers as the examples above, what we found is the poetic words full of message. What else we could claim this product if it is not the literary work.

Talking about the citizenship of the early writer in America and Australia, if it tracked back into the origin of these writers, yet they were the citizen of England who travelled along the oceans to find the new land to live in. In the case of America, it clearly defined that the people that put themselves into the Mayflower ship were the people that want to release their life from the rule of Anglican England at that time. They voyaged in order to find the freedom and soon they found their destination continent, America. Came along the Mayflower were the trades and the Puritanism whom wholeheartedly leaved England behind to find and built their new life. By that reason, it could strongly stated that they first time they stood in the land of America, they already being the American.

It also happened to the people in Australia. Basically, they were the convicts, in other way a dumped for free people. For the statement we could clearly indicate that they were not the citizen of England anymore. And when the Australia got their freedom as the independent nation, they had the rights to claimed that the convicts who produced the literary work in early invasion as Australian. Far from the convicts, the other people who came to Australia and decided both to live in and make their new life in the land of Australia in early invasion also the Australians.

This occurrence actually happened either in England where the first literary work was not the England’s. As we know that the first literary work, which is the oral literature was brought by the Germans colony that came to the land of England. But what we believe here that when one group of people decided to came and live in one place or nations and stay for long time until they made their generation of generation, plus they obey the prevail rule, and have the same vision they belong to that nation’s citizen. It is the fallacy if there are group of people who still debating this concept of the citizen of the early writers, moreover about the claiming of the early literary works in America and Australia were not theirs in officially.

The Idea of Individualism and Cooperation in Australian Literature

Considered as the visions of early literary work in America, individualism and cooperation were also portrayed in the early literary work in Australia. In America these ideas became the very essence things in society and culture, as Arafah strongly stated in his book Cooperation versus Individualism in American literature:

From the whole discussion of this book, it may be understood that the ideas of cooperation and individualism become very important values in American society. They always frame any discussion of American society and culture. They are sometimes seen as in conflict, and sometimes as complementary. Each of these ideas has had its defenders in the course of American history. Critics have emphasized first one, and then the other, as the most marked characteristic of the new society and polity that arose in America. (Arafah, 2005:67-8)

Back to the earlier part of this paper which said the England announced as the one that found the land of America and Australia. This fact makes the very wide possibility that the culture and the value that embodied in American and Australian people are the same in the depiction of early literature of each. In this part we will see the two important ideas in America, individualism and cooperation that portrayed in the early literature that also portrayed in the early literature of Australia.

Individualism ideology is the idea where people put themselves as the centre of their life supported by their mind and physical condition. The focus of this idea is to stand for the individual rights, the freedom from any extreme restriction and it support the self-interest, personal achievement, and self-reliance. People who use this term as the ideology of life in certain way thought they should make their own history of life where the prime cause of their successful life is themselves. The individualism sees the society as some kind of threat that could ruin individual’s natural rights and in some way the economic matter and the dependence of the society could make any human being to be weak and lack of spirit and creativity.  Mennell in his essay explain the term of individual.

The term ‘individual’, just like ‘civilization’, has acquired a whole complex of evaluative connotations. Today, Elias points out, ‘the primary function of the term ‘individual’ is to express the idea that every human being in the world is or should be an autonomous entity, and at the same time that each human being is in certain respect different from all others”(Mennell, 2007:2)

In other side, cooperation stresses the human interdependence and the importance of the group of society is put at first rather than the individual. This ideology believes that the group goal is important and it would bring the advantage for every member and also believes that the life would be easily by working together as a group. The main idea of cooperation is that by working together, people would achieve the best thing. It based on the assumption that by working together, the idea that would be produced is the totality of few people’s mind and the spirit they have is absolutely bigger that one stand alone. Cooperation sees the sense of collective responsibility where the members of one group should help each other to release the burden and achieve the better condition of life, here the respect the other people emerge to build the harmony in social life.

In that respect they define a ‘group-scheme’. This is how it should be, because an ideology in a sense is a form of self-(and Other) representation, and summarizes the collective beliefs and hence the criteria for identification fro group members. That is, an ideology is one of the basic forms of social cognition that at the same time define the identity of a group and hence the subjective feelings of social identity (belonging) of its members. (van Dijk, 2000:18)

In Australia the two major poets that stated as the most influence poets are Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall. Harpur is known as ‘founder of the country’s poetic heritage’ and Kendall as the ‘Native Australian Poet’. Exist in the same decade did not make Harpur and Kendall hold on to the same idea that embodied their literary works.

Was born as the son of Irish ex-convict, Harpur growth as the social disability man so that he choose to built the god relation only with the nature surround him. “Harpur was considered arrogant and abrasively self-assertive, his radical republicanism and fiercely independent spirit not designed to ingratiate him with local conservative establishment” (Pierce, 2009:77).

Harpur also known as the one that stands for the Emersonian, which we know that Emerson is American writer who embodied the ideology of individualism in his work. Raised as the social disability man and became intimate with the product of Emerson, strongly built the young Harpur to be the greatest writer in Australia who embodied the ideology of individualism in his work. Instead of having the good relation with people and community, Harpur chose to build the powerful connection to the supernatural elements. Here we will see the few poems from Harpur that shows the depiction of the world and he himself and how he struggle alone by his self to face the life. In his poem ‘A Storm in the Mountains’ Harpur distinctly describe the relation between human and the supernatural elements and the human mind, without any relation with another human being. In this poem Hapur uses the word ‘I’ and ‘My’ to affirm the individualism ideology so it makes the poem as the story of one human being who stand alone to face the wide world.

Strange darings seize me, witnessing this strife

Of Nature; while, as heedless of my life,

I stand expose. And does some destined charm

Hold me secure from elemental harm,

 That in the mighty riot I may find

How through all being works the light of Mind?

Yea, though the strikingly eternal see

My novel Souls’s divulging energy!

Spirit transmuting into forms of thought

What but for its cognition were as nought! (A Storm in the Mountains)

 

 

In another poem of Harpur, the sense of alone also depicted very well in lines of wonderful words. In his ‘A Cost View’ he describes the story of one man all alone facing the great beautiful nature created by God. The nature serves the calm and gently sense by its storm and this condition in the poem greatly felt by one man who sits alone. Again, in this poem Harpur uses the word ‘I’ to identify the sense of individualism just like what he did in the former poem above.

High ‘mid the shelves of a grey cliff, that yet

Riseth in Babylonian mass above,

In a benched cleft, as in the mouldered chair

Of grey-beard Time himself, I sit alone,

And gaze with a keen wondering happiness

Out o’er the sea. Unto the circling bend

That verges Heaven, a vast luminous plain

It stretches, changeful as a lover’s dream-

Into great spaces mapped by light and shade

In constant interchange – either ‘neath clouds

The billows darken, or they shimmer bright

In sunny scopes of measureless expanse. (A Cost View)

 

In the next poem titled ‘A Dream of the Orient’ Harpur even shows more the sense of individualism of his work. In this poem, he tries to separate his self and the other human around him. He strongly depicts that he and the nature is unit and the other human is just the spectator of the beauty of nature in Australia. The great substantial essence of his individualism ideology lies in this poem, the radical individualism of him who looks for the independent life, detached by the England Empire. Through this poem, Harpur seduce the people of Australia to feel the sense of belonging to the Australia in order to detach them from authority of England. It all simply and clearly showed by him through this poem.

With a resplendent Eastern bride,

Like a houri at my side,

And music round us swelling,

‘Mid odours of so rare a steam

That like a breath of live they seem,

Dwell I through a radiant dream

In an orient dwelling .

Near a fair fountain flashing high

In the pleasure court we lie,

Each on gorgeous pillow;

The columned water mounting breaks

In outward curves and falling flakes,

Till the whole a picture makes

Of a crystal willow. (A Dream of the Orient)

 

The next generation of Australian poet after Harpur is Kendall. Different with Harpur who embodied the sense of individualism, Kendall stands for the sense of cooperation in most of his poems. Just like Harpur who embodied the sense of individualism by his life background, Kendall cooperation also influenced by his life background.

Kendall frequently lamented ‘the lot austere / that waits upon the writer here’, but whatever the difficulties of his life, his poetry gives a strong sense of context, of being embedded in the life and society of his time. (Pierce, 2009:85)

Kendall is indeed known as the poet who fell into the chronic debt, bankruptcy and addicted to drugs until he was left by his wife. This worst condition of his life is getting better by the helping hand from his friends until he could re-manage his life once again and re-unite with his wife again. This part of his story he depicted in his poem title ‘Bob’.

Few were the pennies he got —

Seldom could hide them away,

Watched by the ravenous sot

Ever at wait for his prey.

Poor little man! He would weep

Oft for a morsel of bread;

Coppers he wanted to keep

Went to the tavern instead.

This was his history, friend —

Ragged, unhoused, and alone;

How could the child comprehend

Love that he never had known?

Hunted about in the world,

Crouching in crevices dim,

Crust with a curse at him hurled

Stood for a kindness with him. (Bob)

In that poem above, the use of the words such ‘friends’, ‘kindness’, and ‘love’ are clearly identify the sense of cooperation that Kendall embodied in his work. This poem tells us about the story of the poor penniless man who got the help by his kind friend; it simply shows the cooperation among human being in term of respect and collective responsibility in the relation of friendship.

Many of Kendall’s poems use the word ‘friends’, it implies the sense of the cooperation that he stands for and the need of the presence of friends through the life. Another poem by him title ‘Araluen’ also shows the need of friends in the life of story. In this poem Kendall tells that in life, everywhere you go, any place you visit, you will always nee the appearance of friend and even a couple of friends has to go in the different way, they will soon find other friend to support each other in life.

You that sit and sob beside me — you, upon whose golden head

Many rains of many sorrows have from day to day been shed;

Who because your love was noble, faced with me the lot austere

Ever pressing with its hardship on the man of letters here —

Let me feel that you are near me, lay your hand within mine own;

You are all I have to live for, now that we are left alone.

Three there were, but one has vanished. Sins of mine have made you weep;

But forgive your baby’s father now that baby is asleep.

Let us go, for night is falling; leave the darling with her flowers;

Other hands will come and tend them — other friends in other hours. (Araluen)

Kendall with fully conscious admit that in this life, any kind of human would need another support in life that none of any living human being could stand alone in this wide world. With the faith that human would face the happy and sad moment of life, the rich and the poor condition, and also the great and the worst part of life is something inevitably things. In ‘At Long Bay’ again, Kendall shows the importance of having a friend, the relation of friendship.

Here grebe and gull and heavy glede

Passed eastward far away,

The while the wind, with slackened speed,

Drooped with the dying Day.

And here our friendship, like a tree,

Perennial grew and grew,

Till you were glad to live for me,

And I to live for you. (At Long Bay)

At the poem above, Kendall even show the shape of his extreme tendency to the meaning of friendship. He clearly says that friendship is like a tree, grow together, support each other’s life and the substantial essence is when a friend feels the pleasure to live for other friend and vice versa, that is the highest essence of the cooperation ideology.

Through the explanation above among Harpur ideology in his works and Kendall’s, it proved the different ideology among them where Harpur stands for the individualism and Kendall stands for the cooperation. It clearly shoe either that the value of individualism and cooperation is not only portrayed in American literature, but it effects through the literary work to the other continent, include Australia.

The value of each ideology shows through the direct wording in lines. Harpur in most of the time uses the words such ‘I’ and ‘My’ to identify the sense of the individualism in directly. Besides, Kendall uses the words such ‘friend’ and ‘friendship’ also to identify his sense of cooperation in his works. In indirectly way, it also shows the depiction of self individualism in Harpur’s works through the beautiful wording that shows that he is all alone with the nature of Australia and other people is stands as the spectator. Besides, Kendall also in indirectly way shows the need of the existence of friends and even depict the friendship relation like a tree, it relates in every inch of its shape. Thus, these two values indeed is embodied in any kind of nation or society as a culture, all around the world and it could seen through the product of the literary work in any country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M. H, et, al. 1968. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Norton & Company, Inc. United States of America.

Arafah, Burhanuddin. 2005. Cooperation versus Individualism in American Literature. Gora Pustaka Indonesia. Indonesia.

Baym, Nina, et, al. 1989. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Norton & Company, Inc. United States of America.

Curry. 1985. Highlights of American Literature. Washington, D.C.

Goodwin, Ken. 1986. A History of Australian Literature. Macmillan Publishers. Hong Kong.

Harpur, Charles. 1998.  The Poems of Henry Kendall. University of Sydney Library. Sydney.

Kendall, Henry. 1998. The Poems of Henry Kendall. University of Sydney Library. Sydney.

Mannell, Stephen. 2007. American Habitus: Individualism and its Consequences. University College Dublin. Dublin.

McDonnell, Hellen, et, al.  1979. England in Literature. United States of America.

Miller Jr., James. E, et, al. 1979. United States in Literature. United States of America.

Pierce, Peter. 2009. The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. Cambridge University Press. Australia.

Samekto. 1974. Ikhtisar: Sejarah Kesusasteraan Inggris. PT. Gramedia: Jakarta.

VanSpankeren, Kathryn. Gris Besar Kesusasteraan Amerika. Lembaga Penerangan Amerika Serikat: Jakarta.

Van Dijk, Teun A. 2000. Ideology and Discourse, A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open Univerity). Cataluña.

Narasimhaiah, C. D. 1982. An Introduction to Australian Literature. John Wiley & Sons Melbourne.

 

 

Abraham Lincoln

Early 19^th of English Literature

Abraham Lincoln

(1809-1865)           

 

1. Introduction

 

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a backwoods cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. Because his parents are to nearly illiterate people, he attended school only sporadically, no more than a year. Based on that situation, he never failed to pursue his willing and built his self as a self-taught person even his access to books was very limited.

Lincoln spent his impoverished youth in Kentucky and southern Indiana, where his father farmed for a living. His mother died when he was nine and found his father got his second marriage with a mother of other children whom soon he called as his “angel mother”. In 1830 the family moved to Illinois and after helped his family he chose to live his own way and decided to roam the world by living in New Orleans as a flatboat-man. Needed no long time for him to return to settle in the tiny village of New Salem in Illinois and worked as a storekeeper, post-maker, and surveyor. As a good civil man, in 1832 he volunteered for service in the Black Hawk War and was elected as a captain of his company.

In 1830s, after got back from the Black Hawk War, he prepared himself to straight his career in law instead in blacksmith. The preparation contained the study of the law books of the time independently. In 1834 he was elected to the first of four terms in the state legislature, the small influence position, either the salary. After passed the bar examination in 1836, in 1837 he moved to the new state capital in Springfield and started hi successful in law partnership with his beloved friend, William H. Herndon.

As a lawyer, Lincoln active in attended the court from town to town with his buggy and soon earned the reputation as a shrewd, sensible, fair, and honest practitioner. No doubt, his reputation as a honest person well spread since he was a shopkeeper, post-maker and a surveyor.

Talk about his romance, Lincoln once known made a romance with Anne Rutledge, the girl from New Salem, but she died in nineteen years of age and after that the one and only girl he had a romance with is in wife, Mary Todd. Mary Todd herself was a girl from a well-to-do family in Kentucky. The plan to marry the girl was not easy remembered as the member of aristocrat in Springfield, the family adviser of Mary Todd warned her to against marrying Lincoln no matter how good the quality lied in Lincoln. But after the warning, they happened to married in the fall of 1842. This couple just seems filled their balance each other, the wife was a witty and intense girl and Lincoln himself was a moody and sharp-tongued. They certainly seem to have joined in affectionate concern for their four boys, even only one whom survived to adulthood.

His successful lead he elected to the Congress in 1846 and he voted against abolitionist measures but he insisted that the new territories must be kept free as ‘place for poor people to go and better their condition’ and he also joined in the vote of censure against President Polk for engaging in the war against Mexico in 1848. All the things because he believed that the war was both unnecessary and unconstitutional and by those statements he made himself failed to be re-elected at the next term.

In 1854 he joined the one of the big party of the time, the Whigs. In this party, he reached the compromising about the extended of the slavery into the new territories and states. When the new party, the Republican was organized in 1854, Lincoln joined in and to the next year, Lincoln re-entered the political life as the Republican candidate in senatorial election. Eventhough he again lost the election, he already gained the national recognition by his power of thought and expression. The reputation was enhanced and at the Republican convention he won nomination and was elected as the sixteenth president of United States of America in November 1860. Lincoln as the president of the United States of America got his first probationary by the seceded of the seven states from the Confederacy and after one month after his inauguration, the Civil War had begun. At the same time he had to develop popular support for his purposes by using his extraordinary political skills in times of high passion and internal division, and when the war ended, leaving him and the country exhausted and he had immediately to face the mental problems of healing a traumatized nation.

One of Lincoln missions toward his nation is the elimination of slavery throughout the country that leaded him to take the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery everywhere and forever in the United States. Lincoln, again elected for the second time in 1864 but just after one month he has served his new term he killed by the demented actor named John Wilkes Booth in April 15, 1865.

As the president of the United States, Lincoln well known as a great emancipator, unshakable in commitment, responsible and he also succeed himself to build the United States as the model and hope for democratic nation. Lincoln’s successful life could never be parted from the book he consumed, from the law books to the literary work books. His favorite was Shakespeare, John Stuart Mill, Lord Byron, and Robert Burns. His hobby to those people’s work soon built him as master of words proved by his great beautiful speech with the great diction and several small verses and poem that he wrote.

 

1. Finding and Discussion
   1. Finding

The poem of Abraham Lincoln throughout his life:

1. My Childhood-Home I See Again
2. The Bear Hunt
3. The Suicide’s Soliloquy
4. My Name is Abraham
5. To Linnie
6. Abraham Lincoln
7. Verse On Lee’s Invasion of the North
8. To Rosa

“My Childhood-Home I See Again” composed by Lincoln in 1846 and stated as one of his most serious poem which dealt with his emotions upon visiting his childhood home. It is divided into two cantos. The first section was mailed to Lincoln’s friend and fellow politician, Andrew Johnston, on April 18, 1846. The second was mailed on September 6, 1846. On May 5, 1847, Johnston published both cantos in the Quincy Whig and titled it as “The Return.” The first canto was dubbed “Part I – Reflection” and the second, “Part II – The Maniac”.

When Johnston asked permission to publish “My Childhood-Home I See Again,” Lincoln offered to have the third canto published along with it. The third section was included in his February 25, 1847 letter. Johnston did not feel that the final canto fit with the rest of the poem so he did not publish it. The third section is known as a separate piece titled “The Bear Hunt” wrote in 1846.

One of the more interesting poems attributed to Lincoln is “The Suicide’s Soliloquy.” It was found in the August 25, 1838 issue of the Sangamo Journal of Springfield, Illinois by Richard Lawrence Miller in 1997.

His short verses “My Name Is Abraham composed by Lincoln around 1824 when he was fifteenth in his arithmetic book. It proved that Lincoln was a teenager whom knows the poem, the rhythm, and very good in using the word as the diction. This short verse showed the world for his art side of life and he chose to write verses ever since. After his compositions of 1846, Lincoln continued to write poetry. Such poems include the short piece dedicated to Linnie Haggard, daughter of the owner of a hotel where Lincoln stayed in Winchester, Illinois, dated September 30, 1858.

The great speech of Abraham Lincoln:

1. The Presidential Question, Speech in the United States House of Representatives. July 27 1848.
2. A House Divided: Speech Delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the Close of the Republican State Convention. June 16, 1858.
3. Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg. November 19, 1863.
4. Second Inaugural Address. March 4, 1865.

 

2. Discussion

Selected poem: “The Suicide’s Soliloquy”. The following lines were said to have been found near the bones of a man supposed to have committed suicide in a deep forest on the flat branch of the Sangamon some time ago.

 

Here, where the lonely hooting owl
Sends forth his midnight moans,
Fierce wolves shall o’er my carcase growl,
Or buzzards pick my bones.
No fellow-man shall learn my fate,
Or where my ashes lie;
Unless by beasts drawn round their bait,
Or by the ravens’ cry.
Yes! I’ve resolved the deed to do,
And this the place to do it:
This heart I’ll rush a dagger through,
Though I in hell should rue it!
Hell! What is hell to one like me
Who pleasures never know;
By friends consigned to misery,
By hope deserted too?
To ease me of this power to think,
That through my bosom raves,
I’ll headlong leap from hell’s high brink,
And wallow in its waves.
Though devils yell, and burning chains
May waken long regret;
Their frightful screams, and piercing pains,
Will help me to forget.
Yes! I’m prepared, through endless night,
To take that fiery berth!
Think not with tales of hell to fright
Me, who am damn’d on earth!
Sweet steel! come forth from our your sheath,
And glist’ning, speak your powers;
Rip up the organs of my breath,
And draw my blood in showers!
I strike! It quivers in that heart
Which drives me to this end;
I draw and kiss the bloody dart,
My last—my only friend!

 

 

The nature of Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with Anne Rutledge is one of history’s questions that can never be fully answered.  Many historians believe that she was Lincoln’s first love.  Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon, believed that she was his only love.  When Rutledge died from typhoid fever in 1835, Lincoln, who was the postmaster of New Salem, Illinois at the time, was said to be inconsolable, deeply depressed, and — his friends feared — suicidal.

On August 25, 1838, an unsigned poem was published in the Sangamo Journal, a local newspaper in Springfield, Illinois connected with Whig Party politics.  While the poem was submitted anonymously, the writing style, the timing of its publication, and the newspaper of choice leads most historians to believe that it was written by Abraham Lincoln who was now living in Springfield, a Whig member of the Illinois State Legislature, and a contributor to the Sangamo Journal.

Selected speech “A House Divided: Speech Delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the Close of the Republican State Convention”. In this speech, Abraham Lincoln greatly modified most American’s mind about the slavery in the United States, by delivered few great quotations that he made by himself.

“If we could first know where we are, and whiter we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free”

“That if one man, choose to enslave another, no third man should allow to object”

 

1. Conclusion

Abraham Lincoln was a poet long before he became president, and his poetry and prose rank with the best writing in the English language. Through the speech, he soon known as the master of words and people considered him as the most noble and beautiful utterances ever delivered by the lips of the mortal man. People never read them without thinking and it made him as a man with the gift for language was marvelous, even poetic, so much so that he is the only American president other than Thomas Jefferson whose writings can be considered literature.

REFERENCES

Bayrn, Nina, et, al. 1968. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York.

Bergen, Anthony. 2013. Lincoln’s “Suicide Soliloquy”. http://deadpresidents.tumblr.com/post/59461788180/Lincolns-suicide-soliloquy.html.     (Viewed on March 19, 2014)

Burch, Michael R. 2010. Lincoln the Unknown: America’s Most Melancholic Poet.  http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-suicide-s-soliloquy/html. (Viewed on March 19, 2014)

Matteo. 2004. The suicide Soliloquy. http://abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/poetry.htm. (Viewed on March 19, 2014)