Early American Literature discussion

Just a thread for friendly chat. :)

😄Ha ha! I love this folder. Brilliant!

Ruth wrote: "😄Ha ha! I love this folder. Brilliant!"

Thanks Ruth...it was Margaret's idea and I thought it was a good one too! :)

So it looks like The Tales of a Wayside Inn has it. Just curious, are we reading all three parts?

Allyson wrote: "So it looks like The Tales of a Wayside Inn has it. Just curious, are we reading all three parts?"

Yes I think we should read all 3 parts. It's a little longer than I was remembering but I think we can do it! :)

I wanted to wish everyone here a blessed Easter! I find this poem to be very fitting each year as it's never quite spring yet at Easter-time here in Maine!

The Easter sunrise flung a bar of gold
O'er the awakening wold.
What was thine answer, O thou brooding earth,
What token of re-birth,
Of tender vernal mirth,
Thou the long-prisoned in the bonds of cold?

Under the kindling panoply which God
Spreads over tree and clod,
I looked far abroad.
Umber the sodden reaches seemed and sere
As when the dying year,
With rime-white sandals shod,
Faltered and fell upon its frozen bier.

Of some rathe quickening, some divine
Renascence not a sign!
And yet, and yet,
With touch of viol-chord, with mellow fret,
The lyric South amid the bough-tops stirred,
And one lone bird
An unexpected jet
Of song projected through the morning blue,
As though some wondrous hidden thing it knew.

And so I gathered heart, and cried again:
"O earth, make plain,
At this matutinal hour,
The triumph and the power
Of life eternal over death and pain,
Although it be but by some simple flower!"

And then, with sudden light,
Was dowered my veil'd sight,
And I beheld in a sequestered place
A slender crocus show its sun-bright face.
O miracle of Grace,
Earth's Easter answer came,
The revelation of transfiguring Might,
In that small crocus flame!
~Clinton Scollard

Thank you, Meg, and Happy and blessed Easter to all from me as well!

This is a beautiful poem! We do have crocuses here now, as well as daffodils. (I will have to look up one or two words,) The forsythia in our yard is beginning to bloom, as is the magnolia tree. Most times of the year I had rather be in Maine, but not from late November to mid-April! ---

Meg wrote: "Allyson wrote: "So it looks like The Tales of a Wayside Inn has it. Just curious, are we reading all three parts?"

Yes I think we should read all 3 parts. It's a little longer than I was rememberi..."

Thanks. Yes, I totally agree!

Meg wrote: "I wanted to wish everyone here a blessed Easter! I find this poem to be very fitting each year as it's never quite spring yet at Easter-time here in Maine!

The Easter sunrise flung a bar of gold
O..."

Hi Meg,
Thank you for your Easter blessing.
That is a beautiful poem, one I have not read.
☀Happy Easter everyone.🕊

https://www.bluemountain.com/ecards/e...

Happy Easter all!

Margaret wrote: "Thank you, Meg, and Happy and blessed Easter to all from me as well!

This is a beautiful poem! We do have crocuses here now, as well as daffodils. (I will have to look up one or two words,) The f..."

Ahh yes I envy you all those flowers right now! :) We got another 16 inches of snow a couple days ago! But it is melting fast...

Ruth wrote: "Meg wrote: "I wanted to wish everyone here a blessed Easter! ...."

Ruth, the ecard you shared was sooo lovely! :)

Okay so my copy of the book is not divided into 3 parts. Can someone tell me what the 3 parts are so I can contribute to discussion properly?

Hi Doreen,
The three parts are listed on the right hand column of
the link Meg provided : (It has both the poem and the parts)
https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_po...
I am also reading from this site which helps me to keep up.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Have a pleasant night.😊

It doesn't appear that my copy has all these sections but I'll do my best.

Doreen, I hope it doesn't get too confusing this way! If you can't figure out which part you're in, just share your thoughts in whichever thread is being used most at the moment...right now I think we're all still in Part 1.

Doreen wrote: "It doesn't appear that my copy has all these sections but I'll do my best."

Hi Doreen,
What have you read so far?

Yes, I am still in part one. 🐌

Ruth wrote: "Meg wrote: "Ruth wrote: "🙉-Oh Meg! The garden lies somewhere between hard work and a miracle from God.😓😒
Thanks for the The Decameron reference, I will look it up."

The flooding we're having now is from the snow melt and an extra inch of rain on top of that. Now that I've finally got the sump pump set up right it's not so bad, but it will probably be running for at least a couple of weeks!
Your flowers sound so lovely! <3 I adore the fragrance of Jasmine, but of course it would have to be a greenhouse plant up here!
I can't figure out how to post a picture in the thread, so I just uploaded a picture of the emerging tulips in the group photos...this link should take you right to it. :)

http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...

Oh I love tulips! Those are beautiful! ❤️

Ruth wrote: "Doreen wrote: "It doesn't appear that my copy has all these sections but I'll do my best."

I just got up to Paul Revere's Ride. Have to stop reading for a few hours since I'm waiting for a phone visit from one of my doctors. I hate this not being able to go in person but totally understand why it can't happen because of the virus.

Thanks Emma! I'm guessing they are already in bloom where you live? :)

Meg wrote: "Thanks Emma! I'm guessing they are already in bloom where you live? :)"

They probably are, but I haven't seen any. Since we can't go anywhere and we don't have any planted. 🙄😒 I want to plant some this fall though! (That is when you plant them right??)
I was born in Indiana, but I've lived a good bit of my life in Tennessee, and we JUST moved back to IN the end of February. So I still have Tennessee mind in my brain (and probably always will😄), so I really don't know if they're up or not here. I KNOW they would be in TN!! 😂😄

Ah ok! Yes, fall is the time to plant them :)
Wow, it's a small world! I was born in IN too...then we moved when I was about 3 to KY, just north of the TN border! We usually did our shopping in TN and it wasn't until I was in the 2nd grade that I realized TN was a state and not a town! Lol

Oh wow! That's funny! Yeah I lived in TN for the 6 best years of my life! :)
Yes, Tennessee is very much a state! :D

I don't remember much about TN, but I always think of that line in The Ballad of Davy Crockett, "greenest state in the land of the free." Sounds beautiful. :)

Tennessee is beautiful! In Lawrenceburg, one of the places we lived at, they have a "Davy Crockett Days" that was really fun! :)

Wow that would be neat! :)

Yeah it was! :)

Meg wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Meg wrote: "Ruth wrote: "🙉-Oh Meg! The garden lies somewhere between hard work and a miracle from God.😓😒
Thanks for the The Decameron reference, I will look it up."

The f..."

Hi Meg,
The first bulbs of spring! How wonderful!
I have never seen it.
I am vicariously living spring through you, Meg.

"What was thine answer, O thou brooding earth,
What token of re-birth,
Of tender vernal mirth,
Thou the long-prisoned in the bonds of cold?"

I am enjoying this!

In Texas, near Houston, it is always summer or spring,
peppered with autumn and winter.

Hi Ruth! Yes it's so exciting to see them coming up after the long winter (we've had snow on the ground since early November). I love all the seasons but have to admit your almost perpetuals spring and summer sounds good at the moment...it's only in the 30s here today with a raw wind and snow showers. I keep thinking of those lines from Coleridge's 'Christabel' (not one of my favorite poems otherwise): " 'Tis a month before the month of May, And the Spring come slowly up this way."

Meg wrote: "Hi Ruth! Yes it's so exciting to see them coming up after the long winter (we've had snow on the ground since early November). I love all the seasons but have to admit your almost perpetuals spring..."


"And the Spring come slowly up this way."
For me it is autumn. ⏳🍁

Meg,
I just typed in a search for a list of E. N. authors and your
Group came up with the results.

I can imagine how refreshing autumn must be for you after the hot humid TX summer!

Oh nice! Hopefully more interested people will find us that way. :)

Look what I just found coming through the snow in my garden!! These species crocuses amaze me every year by appearing out of the snow all ready to bloom! They will probably open tomorrow if we get enough sunshine. What amazes me most is how they seem to pierce through the snow...this is sharp, icy snow from repeated freezing and thawing. I've cut my hands falling on it before, yet these delicate little buds come up untouched! <3

http://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/9...
http://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/9...

Meg wrote: "Look what I just found coming through the snow in my garden!! These species crocuses amaze me every year by appearing out of the snow all ready to bloom! They will probably open tomorrow if we get ..."

Meg,
They're beautiful!
My first view of crocuses breaking through.
Do you save the threads, saffron?

Beautiful!!!!

Ruth wrote: "Meg wrote: "Look what I just found coming through the snow in my garden!! These species crocuses amaze me every year by appearing out of the snow all ready to bloom! They will probably open tomorro..."

No the saffron crocus is a different species that blooms in the fall and isn't hardy this far north.

Hi Meg,
Ever had one of these days?

https://pin.it/3mbsmHG

Ruth that's hilarious!!

Ruth that's hilarious!!

Ruth wrote: "Hi Meg,
Ever had one of these days?

https://pin.it/3mbsmHG"

Hahaha, oh yes I have!!!

This post from my blog shows some pictures from last winter...
http://yeflowerlovers.blogspot.com/20...

Meg wrote: "This post from my blog shows some pictures from last winter...
http://yeflowerlovers.blogspot.com/20..."


Meg,
I enjoy reading your blog.
Oh my word! Houses and cars buried under snow.
I haven't actual snow since we left New York,
on occasion we get a sugar dusting of snow near Houston. It is funny how curious your pets are watching the snow plow, are they always curious?
Your sweet pets look happy and the cute puppies that kept you busy for weeks. It was considerate of your cat to proffer its paw as a bookmark. 🐈
These are fantastic photos.
You are living the life the N.E. authors write about: surrounded by nature, your beautiful garden,
Maine blueberries and autumn too!
Kate Furbish would be pleased.

Joanna, thank you for sharing your pictures, I love the beauty of what you see. 🤗

Our average snowfall for a winter is somewhere around 110 inches, I believe. In 2008 (the year before we moved here) they got 200 inches!
Oh yes, our kitties are curious about everything! :D Only Nastya wasn't trying to help me bookmark the page, she was trying to stop me from reading! Lol
I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures, Ruth. :)

110 inches?!? THAT'S A LOT!!! :D

Yes it is! Before we moved up here, snow was a big event to us. Now the forecast calls 8-12 inches "snow showers"! Lol

The crocuses opened today!! <3
http://yeflowerlovers.blogspot.com/20...

Yeah in Tennessee we got like maybe 2 inches all winter!!
Those crocuses are beautiful!

And ironically with all the talk we got nothing in Boston thankfully.

Doreen wrote: "And ironically with all the talk we got nothing in Boston thankfully."

That's good! We are supposed to get a couple more inches next week...I'm not looking forward to it, even though I know it will melt fast!