The two poems I have selected from the Fireside poets are “Flower de Luce” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “Old Ironsides” by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
“Old Ironsides” is a very compelling poem about saving an old war ship. It talks about the ship in its former glory days. “That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon’s roar;- The meteor of the ocean air”(Holmes 211). The ship was supposed to be scraped to make a new ship and Holmes was writing this poem to make people aware of what was going to happen if they did not take action. I think that the meaning of the poem was just that, to raise awareness about the ship and what an important image it was for the United States.
I think that it qualifies for the romanticism writing style because it is a captivating story that utilizes imagery to help us imagine what the ship was like. In lines nine and ten Holmes writes, “Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood, Where knelt the vanquished foe,” (Holmes 211). Given this image it is easy for you to imagine that this ship was once a great war ship. Another to tell that it is romanticism writing is by the author. Oliver Wendell Holmes is a Fireside poet and Fireside poets were known for their romanticism writing style. The romanticism writing style also used metaphors to make the story more interesting. In line sixteen the author, Holmes, refers to the ship as, “The eagle of the sea!” (Holmes 211). This is a metaphor as well as a way for the reader to realize how majestic the ship really was.
The other poem “Flower de Luce” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is another excellent poem. In the poem Longfellow talks about a funeral, and the death of his friend and fellow fireside poet Nathanial Hawthorn. In the poem he tells us that he could not escape the pain of his death. In line three and four Longfellow writes, “Though all its splendor could not chase away The omnipresent pain.”(Longfellow) . Longfellow gives the pain an almost foggy or mist feel when he calls it omnipresent. It was as if you could fell the sadness hanging in the air. The pain was inexscapable. Longfellow writes that in his grief everything he knew seemed strange. In lines 13 through 17 he writes, "The faces of familiar friends seemed strange; Their voices I could hear, And yet the words they uttered seemed to change Their meaning in my ear." (Longfellow) The hurt of losing his friend was making everything he knew feel foreign. With him gone the world would be a much different place. Longfellow writes, "Ah! Who shall lift that magic wand of power, And lost clew regained? The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower Unfinished must remain." (Longfellow) Longfellow says this because he believes that no one else can write like Hawthorn did, and no one ever will. Longfellow writes that his work will remain unfinished because nobody could ever take his place.
"Flower de Luce" is a good example of romanticism writings in many ways. Longfellow has references to nature such as, "The lovely town was white with apple-blooms, And the great elms o'erhead." (Longfellow) Longfellow also has an allusion in line thirty five when he references Aladdin's tower from the book "Aladdin and the King of Theives". In line thirty Longfellow uses imagery by writing, "The wizard hand lies cold." (Longfellow) In saying this we can see the body of Hawthorn lying there cold and absent of life.
Holmes W. Oliver "Old Ironsides." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.
Longfellow, Henry W. "Hawthorne. Flower-de-Luce. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.
