Unit Three: Individual 5/31

A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
This narrative is about the importance of preserving parts of nature that may not be replaceable. I think that the sportsman represents industrialization, and Mrs. Tilley represents American society. Sylvia initially hides from the stranger in the woods, and then she is reluctant to welcome him into her grandmother's home. After about a day, Sylvia has grown somewhat fond of the sportsman, but the narrator says "Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without his gun; she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much." Here, the gun symbolizes the destruction that industry is capable of causing, and the birds symbolize nature in general.

Sylvia's trip to the top of the pine tree to find the white heron's nest makes her appreciate her natural surroundings even more, leading to her to keep the location of the nest hidden from the hunter. Her decision to save the life of the bird is the author's message of praising nature and celebrating individual will. I don't view this as romantic or feminist, I think it's just an individual decision, free from peer pressure, to preserve the natural world.


After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
I found this poem hard to interpret in the context of nature. Literally, the poem is about picking apples and the narrator's report of what happens after. But I don't think this poem is just about picking apples. If apple-picking is symbolic of life, as suggested on blackboard, then it seems like the narrator is reflecting on things he could have done differently before he feels death coming on. Overall, the narrator seems content with his life. He only talks about not filling one barrel, leaving two or three apples unpicked, which could mean there are only a handful of regrets in his life. In this interpretation, I think that Frost is cleverly relating life to the nature in a way most people wouldn't have initially thought. It seems that he embraces nature, and he is almost nostalgic about it. The narrator compares his oncoming sleep (death) to the hibernation of a woodchuck in a hopeful light. I think the narrator is hoping that after his death he will be reborn into nature again in some way. I could be wrong here, does anyone else have another interpretation of this?


Emily Dickinson

Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church
I liked this poem a lot. Dickinson contrasts the fulfillment she gets from organized religion and nature, strongly favoring nature. She almost comically compares figures and icons of the Church to the beauty she finds in nature. For example, she compares a bird to the chorister, an orchard to the "dome" of a church, wings to a surplice, and so on. I think the most interesting part of the poem is the last two lines: "So instead of going to heaven at last,/I'm going all along!" I think this means that instead of abiding by the laws of organized religion in hope of reaching heaven in the after life, she's in her own "heaven" just by living in the natural world and enjoying it.

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed
Essentially, this poem is about how the author is getting "drunk" off of nature. It is a celebration of the beauty of nature and how the author cannot get enough of it. I don't know what else is left to say about this poem except that it confirms that Dickinson is a great supporter of nature about everything else.

There's a Certain Slant of Light
I think this poem is about relating "a certain slant of [winter] light" to the oncoming of death. The last verse of the poem reads: "When it comes, the landscape listens,/Shadows hold their breath;/When it goes, 't is like the distance/On the look of death." The natural world revolves around the seasons and winter often represents death and spring represents new life. The author discusses the inevitability of death (the light), not in a bad way, but a natural way. It is as much a part of the life cycle as birth/new growth. Dickinson says the light is as oppressive as Cathedral Tunes. I think Dickinson is suggesting that the laws and judgments of the church can hinder the natural life cycle in the same way that death appears to.