American Poetry Fınal

1 - Song Of Myself

- Whitman says that grass is "the flag of my disposition". So Whitmen likens grass to a flag made of
hopefull green stuff. Grass symbolizes cosmic optimism.

- Whitman likens grass to "the handkerchief of the lord". Grass symbolizes the divinity inherent in all
creation. It symbolizes manifestation of God in every living beign.

- In every part of nature, there is a sign of God. God reveals himself through nature. For Whitman, God
isn't a mystery, he can be known through his signs in nature.

- Whitman Likens grass to a baby. Thus he stresses that grass has endless possiblities for development.
Grass symbolizes purposive evolution.

- Whitman likens grass to a kind of coded writing that talks about equally. Grass symbolizes democracy. It
symbolizes the equality of every living being. Because grass grows everywhere among whites, blacks and
Native Americans. For him, all races are equal.

- Whitman likens grass to "the uncut hair of graves". He is maybe talking about grass that growing on the
graves of dead people. The soil itself is a "grave" that everyone eventually returns to.

- Grass is the sign of lifeemerging from death. Grass symbolizes "immortality".

- Grass symbolizes "the cycle of life and death". Because the rebirth of grass every spring shows that
death isn't an end, it is a new beggining.

2 - Poe's ideas on Poetry

- According to Poe, poetry is a progress of creation and revision. So, poetry is a product of careful
organization and planning.

- A poet must consider the effect he wants to create on the reader. The poem must be aimed at creating
a single effect on the reader.

- Poetry elevates the reader by giving him a "concentrated emotion". In order to achive thşs effect the
poem shouldn't be too long or too short.

- The subject of poetry should be beauty. For Poe beauty is the pleasurable elevation of the soul. Beauty
isn't a quality, it is an effect. So beauty is diffrent from truth.

- The poet shouldn't be interested in turuth but imagination. The poet leaves the world of reality behind
and takes the reader on a journey of imagination.

- Poe prefers the melancholic tone in his poetry becausehe think the melancholic tone best suits beauty

- There should be refrain in poetry. The refrains in Poe's poems produce a hypnotic effect on the reader.
- Poe is against didactic poetry. His poems do not aim to teach moral lessons.

- Poetry aim to give pleasure to reader. Poetry is an aesthetic experience.

- Music is essential to poetry because the sound is our most indefinite sensation. When musc is
combined with a pleasurable idea, the outcome is poetry. Music without the idea is simply music. The
idea without music is prase.

Dream-Land by Poe

- The speaker begins by describing a mysterious route. He calls it "obscure" and "lonely" path. By using
these words, the speaker sets the melancholic tone of the poem.

- Sublime objects both attract and repel with their vastness and obscurity. By using sublime, Poe is trying
to create a intense emotion in the reader. The first lines describe the speakers journey from one strange
place to another, but more importently, these lines try to convey the feeling of the sublime. The speaker
wants us to accompany him in his journey to a dream-like place.

- In "Dream-Land", the speaker describes the geography of this strange new land. This land has a huge
landspace. There are also cliffs. These descriptions that give us a sense of vastnes and infinite space aim
to create the feeling of sublime.

- This placeis very difrent from the ordinary world of reality. The mountains are losing their balance and
falling into oceans, the sky is on fire. This place cannot be understood by common sense or reason
because it is created by imagination.

- Lily is a flower that is associated with death because it frows in cemeteries. The image of lily adds to the
melancholic mood of the poem.

-The Whiteness of the snow is associated with the whiteness of the lily. It creates sad and beautiful
image.

- Poe repeats certain words and phrases to create a rythm.

- Music is very important element in this poem. Poe's use of language in the poem has a hypnotic effect.
He hypnotizes the reader by repetition of certain sound. Bling, Lilly, Chilly

- The speaker says that for the person whose heart full of sarrows, this place appears beatiful and
peaceful. Because it is mean of escaping from the real world which is more depressing.

- Last lines of the poem are repetition of the first lines with a slight diffrence. This time is describes the
speaker's journey back home. The speaker returns home from the strange land.

- In "Dream-Land", Peo takes the reader on a journey to the mysterious land of dreams and brings him
back to reality.

Ulalume by Poe
- Ulalume is a beatiful woman who is dead. Accordng to Poe, the death of a beatiful woman is the most
poetic subject in the world. It's a subject that enables him to combine the themes of beauty, sadness,
love and loneliness.

- Thespeaker isn't alone, his soul and psyche is walking with him. So we can say that the speaker's soul is
also a woman rather than a man.

- In "Ulalume", he says that the skies are ashen, which means it is the color of ashes and sober which
means serious. These words create a gloomy atmosphere.

- Lines 2 and 3 are almost exactly the same. Poe uses repetitions in his poems to create a hypnotic effect.

- In the 4th line, it is night and its october. Poe's use of "lonesome" adds gloominess to the scene.

- In the poem, the speaker gives us information about theplace. He is near a lake called Auber. Auber is
an imaginary lake. The lake is in a region called weir. Weir is also an imaginary place. The word "weir"
sounds a bit like "weird".

- The poem is aimed at creating a single effect on the reader. Poe aims to give the reader a intense
emotion perticulerly melancholy and sadness.

- The poem has a melancholic tone.

- It is not didactic. The subject of the poem isn't truth but beauty.

- There are refrains, repetition in the poem. These repetitions create hypnotic effect. They also give the
poem a musical quality.

- By using "ashen", "lonesome", "dim", "dark", and "ghoul" he creates a gloomy and melancholic tone.
Because he thinks that the melancholic tone best suits beauty.

- The name of speakers soul is Psyche means soul in Greek. In Greek mythology theme was a women
called Psyche.

- In one of the stanzas, the sound s is repeated. Soul, Psyche, Cypress. By using these words, Poe creates
a rhythm.

- Music is very important element in this poem. Poe's use of languagein this poem has hypnotic effect.

- The poem doesn't contain ideas, it creates emotion and mood.