Romanticism

The writing style of the romanticism period is very different from the writing styles of the other periods. The writing style used in the romanticism period and in the writing of the fireside poets is very detailed. They use a lot of colorful words that add a lot to their writing. When you read these poems you have to read them a lot slower than you would read the writing of the puritan time period or of the rationalism writing. You have to think about what you are reading a lot more and you have to really analyze everything. A lot of the poetry could be analyzed differently by different people and mean different things to everyone. There were five different fireside poets. They are called fireside poets because families would sit around a fire and recite their poems. These poets told stories with their poetry and used very descriptive language to describe the New England countryside in their poetry.

One poem that I found by the fireside poet James Russell Lowell is called "The Captive". It was kind of hard for me to understand the poem and what was happening in it because it used a lot of words that I am not familiar with. The writing style of this poem was completely different than that of the rational time periods. When you compare the two, the fireside poetry of the romanticism time period uses a lot more descriptive words than the writings that we read from the rational time period. In the rational time period, a lot of thought and logic and science were used and reflected into their writings, in the poetry from the romanticism period, they did not talk about science and logic, they talked more about nature and religion. Nature was mentioned in the poem that I read more than anything. James Russell Lowell talked about and described nature a lot in his poem, "The Captive". For example, in one part of his poem, he uses an entire verse to describe how the moon was glowing on the woods and the hilltop. He uses so much descriptions that it takes up a whole verse.

"Then the great moon on a suddenOminous, and red as blood, Startling as a new creation, O'er the eastern hilltop stood, Casting deep and deeper shadows Through the mystery of the wood."

You can tell that they valued nature during the romanticism period because they talk about it a lot in their poetry. In the writings that we read from the Puritan time, you can tell that unlike the logical writings style of the rational time period and the importance of nature in the romanticism time period, they valued religion a lot. Everything that happened to them, they would bring it back to God and say how he had something to do with it. For example, in Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House", her house burns down and she relates it back to God. She could have complained and mourned the loss of all of her earthly belongings and her home, but she does not. Instead, she says that it is not important because the things she lost were all just earthly things that did not really matter. She said that they were not her own things, but God's so it was fair that God took them away from her.

"And when I could no longer look,
I blest His name that gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust.
Yea, so it was and so 'twas just.
It was His own, it was not mine,
Far be it that I should repine"

This poem is a very religious poem, which is very different from the writing of the romanticism style and the fireside poets.

"James Russell Lowell's Poem: The Captive." Read Book Online: Literature Books,novels,short Stories,fiction,non-fiction, Poems,essays,plays,Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize. 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. .

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Co, 2009. 91. Print.

Benjamin Franklin's Apprentice

I think that being Benjamin Franklin's apprentice would be a very interesting job. Benjamin Franklin was obviously very smart and he came up with a lot of good ideas, and so I think that it would be pretty cool to be his apprentice. I would probably wake up early in the morning, because I would not want to waste any time. Then, I would shower and clean my room, because cleanliness was very important to Mr. Franklin. After that I would eat breakfast with Mr. Franklin and discuss sciency, rational type things. We would not eat too much food or more than we need because we would want to be practicing his first virtue, temperance, meaning we would not want to eat ourselves to dullness. While we are having our morning conversation over breakfast, we would have to be careful not to speak trifling conversation, because according to his second virtue, silence, we would not want to speak of anything that would not benefit ourselves or others. During breakfast, if one of us were to spill our drink, or drop a utensil on the floor or something, we would not freak out or get upset because as Franklin said in his eleventh virtue, tranquility, we would not want to become upset or disturbed at trifles or accidents common and unavoidable. We would be careful while we are eating that we do not waste any food because Franklin was all about frugality and not wasting anything as his fifth virtue would suggest. For the rest of the day we would do whatever experiment or activity that Franklin wanted to do. It would probably include a lot of logical and rational things but I am sure that it would all be very interesting. I think Franklin would be a really cool guy to work with because his virtues make him a good person in my opinion. He seems like a pretty chill guy who does not sweat the small stuff and I would enjoy being his apprentice.

Overcoming The Challenge of Long Distance

It is going to be very difficult to finish the Franklin's Virtues project with people who are not in the same area as us because it is going to be very difficult to communicate with these people. For example, it is already a challenge for me to talk to my partners just to see what part of the project each person wants to do. I have 6 people in my group. Out of the six people who are in my group, one of them gave an email address that is not valid, and out of the five others, only one emailed me back. The emails that I have received have also not been very helpful. The project is due tomorrow and none of my group members seem too concerned that we have not even started on the video. I do not want to end up doing this whole project by myself, because that is not the point of the project and also because that would be a lot of work for me to do all by myself and that is unfair to me. If my group members do not step up, I really do not know what I am going to do. So, so far the biggest challenge of this project and having partners who are a long distance away from here is being able to communicate with my partners not only their assignments and what each person needs to do in order to complete this project, but also being able to communicate to my partners that this project is important and that we need to get started on it. I am going to email my partners tonight and hope that they all realize that we really need to get to working on this project. I knew from the beginning when this project was first assigned that working with long distance partners was going to be a new and interesting challenge, but I had no idea of how frustrating and annoying it would actually end up being. I don't blame my partners that they really are not doing anything because I know that they do not have computers in their everyday classroom so that makes it a bit more difficult for them to do, but on the other hand, I know that most people have access to the internet either at home on a computer or even on their cell phones and I do not think that it is that big of a deal to just email me back and give me some ideas instead of making me come up with the whole project by myself.