The+Snow-Storm

Ralph Waldo Emerson saw nature as a great subject of his poetry. His writings have an optimistic tone and there is a moral character that is strong. Emerson was part of a group of poets that saw nature as divine, thus having knowledge of nature meant having direct knowledge of the divine. Emerson believed that one needed to read the world symbolically and have intuitive thought.

At first glance, Emerson's poem "The Snow-Storm" may seem like a poem with a bad message. In fact, typical of Emerson, there is an underlying positive message for the reader. In the first two lines, one can argue that a divine act is occuring with the speaker saying, "Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, / Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields," (lines 1-2). It seems that there is a direct connection between the speaker and a divine being becuase the speaker truly believes that this event has to be divine. Emerson provides beautiful imagery in the poem to provide images of the swift storm blanketing the town: "Curves his white bastions with projected roof / Round every windward stake, or tree, or door" (13-14). The storm seems so great that it almost seems like a bad event, especially with the reactions of the villagers: "Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate / A tapering turret overtops the work" (21-22). However, at the end of the poem there is a positive image: "Is all his own, retiring, as he were not, / Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art" (24-25). The storm finally calms down and what is displayed is a beautiful scene with a picturesque sunrise. One can argue that the overall metaphorical message of the poem is to represent bad issues that may occur in a person's life. The strom (issues) will eventually pass and leave a beautiful scene (for example an ultimate goal that is reached).

=**Whitman's Influence on a Contemporary Writer of Nature**=

A contemporary writer that had an impact on modern poetry regarding nature is Allen Ginsberg. He was deeply influenced by Walt Whitman, as is evidenced in his poem "A Supermarket in California". In this poem Ginsberg attempted to write lengthy lines with varied length and breadth between lines, just as Whitman wrote. In the first line of the poem, the speaker, who is Ginsberg himself, describes what he sees on his walk: ". . . for I walked down / the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at / the full moon" (lines 1-3). Here we get the a contrast between the natural and the urbanized area. There is also a depiction of the mass production of food that is common to the modern era with lines such as, "What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at / night!" (6-7). People no longer have to shop in the daytime or pick their peaches, for there is plenty that is mass produces and transported by trucks and industrial machinery. The image of Whitman offers a sense of connection to nature becuase he starts "tasting artichokes, possesing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the / cashier". Whitman is breaking the rules and eating the food as if he picked it himself from a nearby tree. This displays how it is no longer possible for a person to go someplace and start eating the fruit of a tree for free. Towards the end, a memorable line is, "Where are we going, Walt Whitman?". One could argue that the speaker is asking Whitman of the current state of society and if it is ever possible for humanity to have a close relationship to nature again.