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kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off. Their instinctive dread caused him to feel more strongly than aught else, that a preternatural honor was interwoven with the threads of the black crape. In truth, his own antipathy to the veil was known to be so great, that he never willingly passed before a mirror, nor stooped to drink at s still fountain, lest, in its peaceful bosom, he should be affrighted by himself. This was what gave plausibility to the whispers, that Mr. Hooper‘s conscience tortures him for some great crime too horrible to be entirely concealed, or otherwise than so obscurely intimated. Thus, from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him. It was said that ghost and fiend consorted with him there. With self-shudderings and outward terrors, he walked continually in its shadow, groping darkly within his own soul or gazing through a medium that saddened the whole world. Even the lawless wind, it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil. But still good Mr. Hooper sadly smiled at the pale visages of the worldly throng as he passed by.
Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem---for there was no other apparent cause---he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin. His converts always regarded him with a dread peculiar to themselves, affirming, though but figuratively, that, before he brought them to celestial light, they had been with him behind the black veil. Its gloom, indeed, enabled him to sympathize with all dark affections. Dying sinners cried aloud for Mr. Hooper, and would not yield their breath till he appeared; though ever, as he stooped to whisper consolation, they shuddered at the veiled face so near their own. Such were the terrors of the black veil, even when Death had bared his visage! Strangers came long distances to attend service at his church, with the mere idle purpose of gazing at his figure, because it was forbidden them to behold his face. But many were made to quake ere they departed! Once, during Governor Belcher‘s administration, Mr. Hooper was appointed to preach the election sermon. Covered with his black veil, he stood before the chief magistrate, the council. And the representatives, and wrought so deep an impression, that the legislative measures of that year were characterized by all the gloom and piety of our earliest ancestral sway. Questions:
11. Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s vocabulary is wide and well controlled. He chooses his words with a sharp sense of precise meaning, in this story he uses ―ghost-like‖, ―cloud‖, ―awful‖, ―horrible‖ and so one to achieve the atmosphere of mystery. Try to find more similar words to show his skill in choosing words.
12. For Nathaniel Hawthorne, everyone seems to cover up his innermost ―evil‖ in the way the minister tries to convince his people with his black veil. Illustrate his belief by some examples from the reading
13. In this story Mr. Hooper‘s antipathy to the veil is known to be so great that he never willingly passed before a mirror, nor stoops to drink at a still fountain. Then why does he persist in wearing it? What does the black veil symbolize?
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14. As a contemporary writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s vie of the world is contrary to that of Emerson. Make comparison between the two writers.
15. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life, thinks all people are sinners. Argue whether you are for or against this notion. The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
― ‘Tis some visitor,‖ I muttered, ―tapping at my chamber door; Only this, and nothing more.‖
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore, For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore, Nameless here forevermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, ― ‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door, Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door. This it is, and nothing more.‖
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, ―Sir,‖ said I, ―or madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping. And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you.‖ Here I opened wide the door; --- Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word,
Lenore?, This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, ―Lenore!‖ Merely this, and nothing more. …
―Prophet!‖ said I, ―thing of evil---prophet still, if bird or devil! By that heaven that bends above us ---by that God we both adore--- Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore--- Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore? Quoth the raven, ―Nevermore.‖
―Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!‖ I shrieked, upstarting ---‖ Get thee back into the tempest and the Night‘s Plutonian shore!
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Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!---quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!‖ Quoth the raven, ―Nevermore.‖
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon‘s that is dreaming.
And the lamplight o‘er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted---nevermore! Questions:
16. Edgar Allan Poe likes to use some sound devices to produce a musical effect. For instance, he uses onomatopoeia in Line 4 by writing ―As of some one gently rapping, rapping at may chamber door.‖ Find out the other sound devices Poe sues in the poem.
17. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is pondering over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore and is very sad, Then his mood change with the development of the poem, evaluate the speaker‘s emotional state in the next-to-the-last stanza, and in the last stanza.
18. In this poem the raven steadily repeats one word- ―nevermore‖. What do you think of the purpose of the poet to let the raven repeat such a word?
19. Edgar Allan Poe‘s poetry embodies his conviction that the function of poetry is not to summarize and interpret earthly experience, but to create a mood in which the soul soars toward supernal beauty. Describe the mood of this poem.
Keys
I. Fill in the blanks.
1. Washington Irving 14.Charles the Second
2. Nature 15. The Leatherstocking Tales 3. The Sketch Book 16. The Sketch Book 4. Noah Webster 17. Washington Irving
5. Samuel Johnson 18. Herman Melville, Moby Dick 6. Edgar Allan Poe 19.The History of New York 7. Slavery 20.Life of Washington 8. the Transcendental Club 22. Washington Irving 9. Ralph Waldo Emerson 23.The Spy 10. Romanticism to Realism; free verse 24.The Pilot
11. Washington Irving 25. Natty Bumppo
12. Washington Irving 26.William Cullen Bryant 13. The Sketch Book 27. Rip Van Winkle 28. William Cullen Bryant 29. Odyssey
30. The Bells 31.Edgar Allan Poe; Murders in the Rue Morgue 32. The Raven 33. Waldo
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34. David 35.Walden 36. Walden 37.Civil Disobedience 38. The Scarlet Letter 39. Ralph Waldo Emerson 40. The Scarlet Letter 41. Moby Dick 42. Walt Whitman 43.Voices of the Night 44. Divine Comedy 45. Michael Angelo 46. Amy Lowell 47. Emily Dickinson 48. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 49. Civil War 50. Sir Walter Scott 51. The Pioneers
52. Natty Bumppo 53. Ralph Waldo Emerson 54. The American Scholar 55. Henry David Thoreau 56. Nathaniel Hawthorne 57. Nathaniel Hawthorne 58. Clarele 59. Moby Dick II. Multiple Choice
1. C 2. E 3. D 4. B 5. E 6. A 7. B 8. A 9. B 10.D 11. A 12. C 13. D 14. A 15. B 16. E 17. D 18. D 19. C 20. A 21. C 22. B 23. D 24. E 25. D 26. A 27. C 28. A 29. A 30. A 31. E 32. A 33. C 34. B 35. C 36. F 37. A 38. D 39. C 40. B 41. A. 42. D 43. A 44. A 45. B 46. B 47. A 48. B Part II Literary Terms
1. Romanticism: The literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century in Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote of the mysteries of life, love, birth, and death. The romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials: poetry, essays, plays, fiction, history, works of travel, and biography.
2. Fireside Poets: William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group sometimes called the Fireside poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth as an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories. These tremendously popular poets also were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families. The consensus of American critics was that the Fireside Poets first put American poetry on an equal footing with British poetry.
3. Transcendentalism: In New England, an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts, and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Like romanticism,
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