Two Fireside Poems

The two fireside poems that I read were “The Cross of Snow” by Henry Longfellow Wadsworth, and “The Future Life” by William Cullen Bryant.

“The Cross of Snow” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a poem that was about him seeing his wife’s ghost in the night time. In the literary criticism that I read written by Randall Huff, he explains how Longfellow’s wife died and how it relates to the poem, “Her dress caught fire as she was sealing a locket of her daughter's hair (a far more popular keepsake in the 19th century than later), and Longfellow was severely burned as he put out the flames but failed to save her life.” (Huff Par. 2). This proves that the poem was probably about his wife because in line six the poem says, “Never through martyrdom of fire was led To its repose” (Longfellow line 6). The “martyrdom of fire” refers to the fire that caused his wife to pass away. In the poem, He says that she lived a benedight life which means that she lived a very blessed life. He also says that his wife has not changed since the day that she died which I think means that even though Longfellow’s wife had been dead for eighteen years, he still remembers her how she was when she was alive.

The other poem that I read, “The Future Life”, by William Cullen Bryant is a poem about love and if love still exists after life. I think that this poem is about someone that Bryant loved that had died. I think that Bryant is wondering whether that person still loves him even though she is in heaven and he is still on Earth. In one line of the poem, he asks:

“The love that lived through all the stormy past,
And meekly with my harsher nature bore,
And deeper grew, and tenderer to the last,
Shall it expire with life, and be no more?”

In these lines, the author writes about how him and this person that he loved had been through a lot of bad times together and they made it through it together and still loved each other after it all, but now that she has died, he does not know if she will still love him.

Both of these poems were written during the romanticism time period and exemplify characteristics of romanticism writing. In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Cross of Snow”, there are many characteristics of romanticism writing that I found. One theme of this poem that is common in romanticism writing is love. I found this theme in the poem because he writes about his wife who even though she passed away, she still cared about her husband because she watched over him as he was sleeping. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also used religion and nature in his poem when he wrote about the cross of snow that he saw on the mountains. Religion and nature are two common subjects written about in many pieces of romanticism writing. In the poem, “The Future Life” by William Cullen Bryant, the characteristics of the romanticism time period are love and religion. These two themes are used a lot in this poem because it is all about Bryant wondering if the person that he loved still loves him even though she is not alive any more. He talks about her being in heaven and wondering if she stopped loving him when her life ended.

Bibliography:

"The Cross of Snow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .

"The Future Life by William Cullen Bryant." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "'The Cross of Snow'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0091&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 11, 2011).