Reflection Blog- Comparing Fireside Poems

I chose to compare Autumn and Flower-de-Luce for my reflection blog. I chose to compare these two poems because we did a journal about Autumn and we went through Flower-de-Luce in class and I thought it would be easier to compare two poems that I was already familiar with rather than picking two random poems. First of all, the poem Autumn is about a a man who is talking about how he is ready for autumn to come and also about all of the things that come along with this season. One of the key things that shows that this poem was written in the Romanticism period was how descriptive the author was throughout this poem. Many authors during the Romanticism were very descriptive in their writing, which I think is really cool because I like to imagine what the author is writing about as I am reading. For example, in Autumn the author says many descriptive things, such as "upon thy bridge of gold" and "brighter than the brightest silks of Samarcand" (Longfellow 6, 3). Also, in Flower-de-Luce the author is very descriptive when he says "the lovely town was white with apple-blooms" and "across the meadows, by the old gray manse" (Longfellow 5, 9). On the other hand, Flower-de-Luce is about how a man feels about the death of his friend. One thing that I do see as similar between these two poems is that each poem seems to be about how the author feels about something. In Autumn, the feelings the author writes about are his feelings towards autumn, and in Flower-de-Luce the author is writing about his feelings of sadness over the death of his friend. I think that because both of these poems incorporate quite a bit of feeling into them, it shows yet another characteristic of the Romanticism period. When I hear the word "Romanticism" I think of love and emotions, so I think that it makes sense if these poems are written about an authors feelings towards something. One difference I noticed in regards to the feelings in these two poems is that one is more of a positive feeling and the other is more negative. In Autumn, the author is talking about his excitement for autumn to come and how much joy the season brings to everyone. To me, that seems to come off as a positive feeling. For example, in lines 7-8 the author is talking about the joy autumn brings to all the farmers:

Blessing the farmers through all thy vast domain! Thy shield is the red harvest moon... (Longfellow 7-8).

In contrast, I see the poem Flower-de-Luce as a negative poem because it is about death. For example, in lines 1-4 the author is talking about the pain he feels for the loss of his friend:

How beautiful it was, the one bright day in the long week of rain! Though all its splendor could not chase away the omnipresent pain (Longfellow 1-4).

I think that both of these poems have many differences, but also if you look closely you can find many similarities in them as well.

Bibliography

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. 12 Dec. 2011.

Longfellow, Henry W. "Sonnets. Autumn. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.