Wildlife in Jewett's essay gave Sylvia a purpose in that particular time of her life. Sylvia spent her days wandering through the woods with her cow until she came across a man who hunted and stuffed birds for a hobby. After she decided that she could trust the man, Sylvia made it her goal to find the white heron in order to please the man. As the story progresses, Sylvia develops admiration for the man, showing her maturity: "She had never seen somebody so charming and delightful; the woman's heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love." I think that Jewett shows that nature gives a person a purpose and a sense of maturity. Along with Jewett, Frost also displays that nature gives ones a purpose in life. In Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" he exhibits the hard work nature can provide for a man. The man's job in the poem is to carefully pick apples, preventing them from dropping and bruising: "For I have had too much/ Of apple-picking: I am overtired..." (27-28). Lastly, Dickinson shows that nature could serve as a religion for some who choose not to attend a church or believe in organized religion: "Some keep the sabbath going to church;/ I keep it staying at home,/ With a bobolink for a chorister,/ And an orchard for a dome" (1-4). In this poem Dickinson states that one does not necessarily have to be in church in order to experience religion. Nature, in this poem, is her form of religion.
Nature is so prominent in these poems because escaping nature is inevitable. Nature is always going to be around you, so why not make it a key part of your life? The three authors show that nature can impact a person greatly. In these works nature serves as a job, a purpose, and a religion.
Question: does Dickinson write about anything else besides nature?
connection: My neighbors across the street are old fashioned "hippies." They don't attend church, but they spend hours and hours everyday beautifying their 7 acres of land.
Yes, Dickenson does write poems about things other than nature. She wrote a large collection of poems, which were combined in a book called The Complete Poems. There is a section in the book that deals with her poems relating to nature, but there are also sections about life, love, time and eternity, and a section titled the single hound. I have not read the book, but a quick glance of the titles of the poems in the single hound section look to be like a collection of random poems that did not fit in the other categories, but since I have not read them, I could be wrong about that analysis.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said that nature is always going to be around you so why not enjoy it. I think this is exactly what the authors are trying to get across so that people will have a more enjoyable time with nature rather than finding ways to hate it.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Anna--Dickinson wrote about almost everything, whatever happened to be on her mind at the moment. I've chosen the nature poems simply because they're some of Dickinson's most famous works and they fit with the theme of the day!
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