Personal Philosophy

WHat is my personal philosophy? Well i don't really know. I guess i could say that it is the phrase, Live, Laugh and love. Because i really like this phrase. I believe that in life, in order to live, one has to laught a lot and love a lot. THis is one thing that you have to do in order to live a happy life in my opinion. I personally belive taht laughter is the best medicine in life. If a person is mentally happy, then phisically they'll be happy as well. It is just like if a person is always in a bad negative mood in thier head, if they continue to be like this for their whole life, then the physical appearance on their face will also be that of unhappy and they;ll start having wrinkles on their face. Just like Emerson speaks of his personal philosophies in both Nature and in Self REliance, my personal philosophy is live, laugth and love.

Poetry

THere are four fireside poets that we read poems from. THey are Henry Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russel Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier. They are all considered fireside poets because their poems were read by families by the fireside in the evenings as a social hour. All four of these poets lived and wrote their poems during the 19th century. One theme that is found in common in their poems is the use of Romantic elements. All four of the poems read by these men include some aspect of relation towards nature. In "A Psalm of Life", Longfellow refers to nature by saying "Footprints on the sands..." In THe First Snowfalll, thre is a lot of references made to the nature, especially the snow. In the poem by Holmes, entitled, "the CHambered Nautilus", he makes a comparison to the nautilus, an animal found in nature, to a ship on the sea. In the final poem, "the worship of nature", uses a lot of romanticism in it. In tshis poem, Whittier compares how nature worships itself and that man doesn't have any care for mother nature.

Irving

Irving was a Romantic, yet he was also a satirist. One element in his story that he is satrical is women. He is very satirical and against women. In both The Devil and TOm Walker and in Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows that he is against women. In The Devil and TOm Walker, Irving describes Tom's wife as termagant. SHe is constatntly nagging at Tom. Tom want's to get away from her; and he doesn't even care about her death. Instead, he cares more about the silverware and the money he can get. In Rip Van Winkle, Rip's wife is also termagant. Rip doesn't like being near her. Instead, he is seen more with other children and helping other people. In both the tales, there is a wish fulfillment. Both Tom and Rip are able to have theire wives go away and they are free from them. Tom and Rip are similar in both stories, as they both have termagant wives. And in the end, both their wives end up dying. Irving probably had something against women during his life. That's probably why he made both women in his stories termagant.

Poe

Poe's stories include a lot of gothic stuff in it. So far from what we've read, both the Raven and the fall of the house of usher both include gothic concepts in it. Both these stories include mystery, ghosts, haunted houses, and darkness. Another factor included in gothic are doubles. In the Fall of the House of Usher, one can see the use of doubles. I think that Madeline and Roderick are used as doubles here. Becuase they are twins, is why i think that they can be seen as being doubles. Maybe cause they're twins, Roderick thinks that Madeline is just a ghost and not a real person. That's why when he goes to bury her, he's lost his mind, and he thinks that she's dead. But i know that the fact that they are twins has to be important. Maybe since they're twins, they have telepathic communications. Thus, after Roderick has burried Madeline, he starts feeling different and wired taht following week. Maybe Madeline was communicating to Roderick and getting mad at him for burying him in the tomb while she was really alive.
I also think that Madeline and Roderick represent both Poe and his cousin? that he married. The description of Roderick that is given in the novel, describes Poe in my opinion. And Poe was an ill man as well. I don't know if he had any kids or not, which i don't think he did. It would mean that he was the last person of his family as well becuase he was adopted by another family. So this is also another similarity between him and Roderick.