--Bryant's poem "The Prairies" narrates the poet's reverie at the sublime prospect of the midwestern prairies described in Cole's "Essay." In what ways does it represent the experience of the sublime? How does it fit or not fit with our characterization of the sublime in class?
--"The Prairies" is a depiction of Native American civilization. What is Bryant's attitude toward the Native Americans? How does he represent their culture/s and their disappearance? What is the depiction of European settlement of the prairies?
Cole's series "The Course of Empire" represents a single location over time, telling a story and presenting a vision of history. Compare it to Bryant's poetic vision of the prairie landscape and itse history.
I think that Bryant's view of the prairie is very similar to Cole's depiction of history in his essay on the American landscape. Bryant, however, goes one step further when he a) states that the mound-builders go even back further in history than the Greeks in Europe and b) that the American landscape offers something that the English language doesn't even have a name for, i.e. the prairie.
ReplyDeleteFundamentally, however, the idea behind the description of the new lands is the same as Cole's. He compares the American landscape to Europe but at the same he idealizes it to an almost biblical extent. The prairie is the boundless and beautiful gardens of the desert, magnificent temple of the sky. In the latter fourth of the poem, he gives an outlook into the future just like Cole does in his essay and he imagines the presence of European settlers who will soon arrive in multitudes and fill the air with the sounds of children's laughter and sabbath worshippers that blend with the landscape.
in this description, Bryant also touches on the sublime, which is mostly referred to by stating the vastness and boundlessness of the prairie. It's a place surrounded by mighty mounds and the Rocky Mountains and offers a wide array of animals and plants and even rivals the sky in its beauty. Bryant compares the prairie to a seemingly motionless ocean but it is not motionless (anymore), it is unchained and when he closes the poem with the line"and I am in the wilderness alone" it almost evokes a feeling of eeriness and the reader becomes aware of the power of nature.
Cole's series "The Course of Empire" shows a single location over time and the history as it is happening. Compared to Bryant's poem of the prairie landscape and it's history we as a reader see/read the immense amount of change that occurs in a place over a time. Through the viewing of the paintings and poem I get a sense of heartbreak, especially considering the last line of the poem;
ReplyDelete"All at once
A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream,
And I am in the wilderness alone."
This line proves to me that the poet was simply "dreaming" of the way the prairie used to be at one point in the history of its existence. The paintings show the same sort of "dream" considering as each of the paintings progress with time the more the area becomes industrialized, though throughout the progress of time it seems as though the areas become industrialized and then slowly, over time, fade back to its "natural" setting. Though the poem ends on a more "sublime" sad note than that of the paintings often do, both aspects experience the sadness of history becoming history and the beautiful, picturesque scenery changes over time.
Another comparison between the poem and the paintings is, of course, one of the main things that stand out and that is the depiction of nature seen in both pieces of art. The nature is so innocent in each piece and slowly the innocence is altered over time. The descriptions in the poem are just as well described as they are seen in the paintings. Both are just as strongly felt, just in different ways with different senses but the message is the same...just conveyed in a different form of art.
-Jessica Lipp
The interpretation of Bryant’s depiction of Native Americans is not entirely clear to me because it seems to depend on one single word. In the middle of the poem when the lyrical I introduces the red man, it says: “The red man came- The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, And the mound-builders vanished from the earth. The solitude of centuries untold Has settled where they dwelt.” The interpretation of the following passage depends on who the word “they” refers to. If “they” refers to the mound-builders, the depiction of Native Americans is a negative one and it can almost be compared to European history when antiquity (symbolized by the mound-builders in America and the Greeks in Europe) was superseded by the Middle Ages (here: Indians), which are often referred to as the dark ages. Now, with the advent of European settlement, the Natives have to give way and “The sound of that advancing multitude Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn Of Sabbath worshippers.”
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Romantics (or at least German Romantics) usually refer to the Middle Ages more benevolently and romanticize it. Therefore, Native American life style with its closeness to nature and its coexistence with it should appeal to the Romantic artist as well.
Nonetheless, the line “the rude conquerors Seated the captive with their chiefs” seems to imply the former. The Indians, in this depiction, are not as we see them today the rightful owners (or at least users) of the land, but in fact heathen intruders who violently drove out the civilized mount-builders. This perception also justifies the settlement of Europeans in the Midwest and the USA in general. If the Natives do not rightfully own the land, the whites have every right to take it and to continue the reign of the civilized people over the land.
-Astrid Wagner
Cole and Bryant differ in their handling of time in the landscapes they are interpreting. This aids in their differing views on the history of the land.
ReplyDeleteCole depicts changes in his landscape with fluidity with the gradual introduction and destruction of civilization. Granted, the rise and fall of the empire takes place in five paintings, each with a changing horizon that suggests the whole episode takes place in one day. There's something cyclical about Cole's portrayal, the way by the end of the empire's day nature has already started to claim back its space whereas just two paintings before it had zero presence. There is also the assumption that with the end of the day (represented in the last painting with the moon), there will be a new day to come after and the process of building and destroying will happen again. Cole's painting suggest the land is untouched and uninhibited before the Greek-esque empire rises and that after its fall, the land will remain and grow again.
Bryant's lapse of time in “The Prairies” is one that stops completely at the beginning of the poem as he admires its sublime state and remembers the history of the land, including one civilization destroyed by another. Time doesn’t move again until the end of the poem with the last two lines (A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream,/And I am in the wilderness alone). Bryant’s motionless state makes the history of the inhabitants a permanent memory with no suggestion of a new day arising for them. Similar to Cole, Bryant recognizes that although civilization has impacted life on this land (In these plains/The bison feeds no more), nature ultimately triumphed (Still this gret solitude is quick with life) even when civilization could not.
Molly Biven
The first parallel I noticed between Cole's series of paintings and Bryant's poem comes from the end of both- where the perspective offered is quite alone. I am not confident enough in my analysis of either to suggest that this solitude is remorseful or painful, but both the 'desolation' scene and the last lines ("A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream, And I am in the wilderness alone") both leave me with a sense of what I can only describe as tragic beauty.
ReplyDeleteNext I notice that Bryant talks about nature's beauty unaided by man at length in the beginning (starting with "Man hath no power in all this glorious work") and I think that in many respects the scenes in Cole's paintings in which man has only added a few touches possess a more beautiful, idealized quality to them. For instance the forest dancers in the pastoral scene and the running animals in the savage scene. Of course these animals are running, disturbed by men, but still these scenes starkly contrast the consummation scene which in my mind is decadent, busy, and full of itself. If the illustrators of "Where's Waldo?" were more gifted with a brush this is the kind of scene I would expect from those books, it could take hours to study and then relay everything that seems to be taking place in this scene, and even though the buildings are grand and elaborate, they are overflowing with a sea of people who for some reason I can't articulate, I wouldn't want to be around at all. The consummation scene certainly contrasts Bryant's idea of colonists coming to the prairie: "The low of herds Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain Over dark-brown furrows" this line suggests a seamless blend of man and nature rather than the juxtaposition of Cole's shining white structure and the dark earthy landscape.
The very next of Cole's paintings is quite similar to Bryant's lines about the red man overtaking the mound builders "The strongholds of the plain were forced, and heaped With corpses." The imagery in both the poem and the painting here are riddled with death and suggest chaotic, fiery people doing chaotic, fiery things to one another.
All in all there are certainly several parallels that can be easily drawn, and in fact both artists seem to suggest that under certain circumstances the relationship between man and nature can be harmonious, and under other circumstances it is pretty much awful for both parties.
I wonder about the inclusion of the "Solitary fugitive, Lurking in marsh and forest". This character is spared by the red men and goes on to lead a somewhat happy life it seems. I see the character as a link between one group of inhabitants and the next, but I wonder about the significance of that link are, it puzzles me.
-Evan Wood
The second section of Bryant’s “The Prairies” seems to show the development of a landscape, and the shifting attitudes of the inhabitants of those developments. Immediately following the section of the poem where the “great heavens” lovingly nuzzle the prairies, the narrative of the land begins. The first group of inhabitants was the “mound-builders”. Bryant shows 2 sides to the life of a “mound-builder”, the days are filled with toil and the nights are for merriment and song. While I can’t figure out if this sort of pastoral life is a good thing to Bryant, it is clear that the toll that their presence is taking on the land is much less than the next two groups if only by the presence of the bison.
ReplyDeleteThe “red man came- The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, and the mound-builders vanished from the earth.” This is not a very endearing image of that encounter which is followed by “the solitude of centuries”. Whether this means that the conquering invaders merely came and went with what they wanted, or that they conquered, settled and were not further disturbed for centuries I am not sure. Either way, it would have to be a very compelling argument that put a positive spin on any event that resulted in an area being “heaped with corpses”.
Things are further confused with the “solitary figure” being welcomed by the “rude conquers”. The solitary figure would likely be one of the “mound-builders” but the “rude conquers” could be the “red man” or even a third, so far unmentioned, group the “white man”. There seems to be evidence either way since the encounter will “change the forms of being”. Furthermore, the poem goes on to say that “The red man too has left the wilds he ranged so long”. Ranged, not settled. By this point however, the whole neighborhood has moved out. “Mound-builder”, “red man”, “beaver” and “bison” have all gone further west.
The end of the poem is told from the same matter-of-fact point of view as the rest of the poem. While Bryant is assured of an impending European-American settlement of the Prairies, he seems unperturbed. If anything, he creates images of a calmer, quieter settlement than in times past. The “laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens and the sweet and solemn hymn of Sabbath worshippers” would have to be a welcome change to the heaps of corpses that last group left. From the point of view of the land, every group left its mark (mounds, corpses or desolation) on the landscape. I get the feeling that none of that matters though, just like the feeling I get when looking at Cole’s Empire progression. Things happen in a given space, and while it may be unpleasant while it is going on, at some point something else will happen. This seems to echo the Buddhist concept anicca or the impermanence of life.
“The Prairies” by William Cullen Bryant is very close to what I define as the experience of the sublime, but in poem form. Bryant is in a beautiful part of nature and he is experiencing so many things in the “boundless and beautiful” land. I think this poem really elaborates our discussion of the sublime in class, also.
ReplyDeleteBryant explains his surroundings so vividly that it feels like we could be there with him if we just closed our eyes and imagined the “golden and flame-like flowers”. His descriptions for this land are so overwhelming and intense that he must be looking at something so picturesque that is causing him to have a moment within the sublime.
Obviously, the end of the poem makes us realize that he was daydreaming about this perfect scene all while on a wild horse taking him through perfect fields, looking at endless sky and feeling the breeze from the sunny ridges. He is so in sync with himself during this so-called daydream/sublime moment that even the pounding of his steed is making him feel sinful because he is in this perfect place, and the noise could be shaking it up.
Bryant’s “The Prairies” definitely expands the discussion we had in class on the sublime. In class, we mentioned that the sublime is fear, awe, unsettling, a legitimizing experience… All of those definitions really attach to this poem. The beauty that was created by “the hand that built the firmament” amazes Bryant. He mentions that there is no place that is more beautiful than what he is seeing, and that is awe, it is being impressed by the natural and he is having a connection that there is something that is greater than his being.
I think this poem is a great example of the sublime because Bryant is explaining a sort-of out of body experience. He snaps out of his moment in the end and realizes he is just alone. However, that does not take away from the fact that he felt completely immersed in something that was greater, more powerful, more inspiring than himself, which was nature, or anything he had experienced before. That, to me, is the sublime.
Although "The Prairies" by W.C. Bryant seems to be most notable for it's description of the "sublime" landscape of the Great Plains, I think the most interesting aspect of the poem is its cyclical narrative (with regards to the themes of agrarian to urbanized to destroyed societies) and misconceptions of indigenous Americans. Considering that Bryant was a wide-read and influential journalist and poet of his time (Muller 2008), his depictions of indigenous people and the landscape of the undeveloped regions of the US are of particular importance.
ReplyDeleteHistorical background regarding the Midwestern mound building groups suggests that around the 13th Century, there was a large centralized civilization (Cahokia region) where modern day St. Louis is. The civilization fell into decline (for unexplained reasons) and the resultant decentralized groups were essentially erased by epidemic from European contact.
Bryant leaves out this information (unavailable to him at the time) and instead adopts the view that the Native Americans (for whatever reason were different from the Mississippian cultures) killed off the mound builders. This notion allows Bryant to fetishize and idealize the original mound builders, and suggest that the new European colonizers will once again bring civilization to the region. Bryant fetishizes the “other” that is the Mississippian cultures by comparing them to the ancient Greeks, and as having an agrarian society (which Bryant seems to admire considerably). Comparatively, the “red man” that Bryan identifies as “rude conquerors” of the mound builders in a much more negative light.
One could argue, considering the theme of this poem is a cycle between “primitive,” agrarian, urbanized, and destroyed societies, that Bryant is using the “red man” as a symbol for the urbanization and growth of the original mound builders, and because of their increasing progress, the symbolic “red man” destroyed their civilization. However, it is difficult to see evidence of that symbolism in “The Prairies.” In order for that symbol to work, the following lines “the beaver builds no longer by these streams… he rears his little Venice” would have to refer back to the “red man” going westward to the Rockies. However, it does not quite work out to make effective symbolism. Bryant does, interestingly, make a good case for animism toward the “red man” or rather the indigenous people of the Americas. They are “warlike and fierce” who “butchered, amid their shrieks” the women and children of the original mound builders.
This is convenient in building up to the latter part of the poem, which describes the dawning age of European colonization. Not only, in Bryant’s apparent opinion, would it be good to colonize the geography, but also the flora and fauna with old world stock. His choice of words, instead of invoking a sense of idealization, reverence, and otherness that he used to describe the non-Europeans earlier in his poem, contrasts with the “sweets… laugh of children, soft voice of maidens, Sabbath worshipers” he uses to describe the impending European colonizers.
Additionally, as already noted in the posts above, Astrid Wagner notes that his denial of the indigenous people’s rights (based off his misconceptions) to the land may provide better justification for European colonization.
Although the overall sense of the sublime that Bryant creates in his poem is worthy in terms of style and aesthetic, he creates particular problems and questions surrounding the perceptions of indigenous American in the 19th Century, as I’m sure this poem influenced some or many of the people who read at the time it was written/published.
- Adam Khalil
I know this is late but I figured since I had written it (but could not, until just recently, figure out how to post), I might as well post it now:
ReplyDeleteThe prairies exude an awe-inspiring mysticism by which the narrator of Bryant’s poem is greatly affected. He is not just standing in some field. He is standing in a place that was the setting for a people’s lives, their love, and their language. He is standing on the soil that has taken these individuals’ bodies into itself, continuing the symbiotic relationship that the land and this race of men had shared since they first inhabited these fields. The narrator says that “Man hath no power in all this glorious work” and that the flowers “Rival the constellations”, hinting that the land has something truly sacred about it. This touches on the idea that “sublime” images/experiences elicit an awareness of religion, as such magnificent visions could only be made possible through the aid of God. He becomes intensely aware of himself and of the horse he is riding on, and believes that the sound they make is almost intrusive, specifically labeling it “sacrilegious”. He is not only stepping on the soil, but on the dust of the bodies of the men who have claimed this land as their home. He personifies the land in an almost frightening manner, and observes that the animals do not fear man (perhaps insinuating a possibly dangerous wildness that would prohibit man from reigning supreme in this territory that is so clearly savage and for the beasts). Vultures feed on the carcasses of men in the fashion of a reverse food chain and all laws of nature seem to be forgotten in this frighteningly beautiful place. There is a grandiose quality in the solitude of the area, though this solitude is in its own wild fashion “quick with life”, and the narrator is excluded from this relationship (an exclusion that enhances his self-consciousness). He realizes at the end that he is “in the wilderness alone” and is overwhelmed by the history around him. I think the underlying threat of not belonging to this place is what gives this land the element of fear that the sublime often includes. The land around him was touched and worked by men and animals who have long since vanished, and he is faced with the gravity of two situations: a) he is not a part of this history that he has just pondered, and b) he must, in recognizing the disappearance of this race of men, face the reality of his own mortality. I believe that all of these thoughts and the environment and history that provoke them serve as the catalysts for a truly sublime experience of the prairies.
If anyone is interested, another good poem that has a similar vibe to “The Prairies” is Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard”. This poem is a part of British Literature and so is not entirely relevant to this class, but it touches on some of the same elements as Bryant’s poem: thinking of the lives of the men who lie buried at your feet, personification of nature, etc…
Here is a link:
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Elegy.htm