Reflection: Two Poems

The Poems that I have chosen and decided to do my blog on is April, by John Greenleaf Whittier, and Autumnn, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Both poems are similar right away just by their titles.  Autumn and April both describe a time of year.  When you think of autumn you think of maybe the leaves falling, different pretty colors, and the harvesting of crops.  Harvesting of crops is really what Autumn is about. "Upon they  bridge of gold; they royal hand outstretched with benedictions o'er the land, Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain! Thy shield is the red harvest moon" (Longfellow 6-9).  They are hoping for a blessing that their crops turn out to be healthy and numerous.  They pray for rain and they hope for the best when it comes to the season and time to harvest their crops (Longfellow).  It exemplifies they romanistic style of writing by when it is descriptive in some of the things that they poem talks about.  The golden bridge, red harvest moon, golden leaves, etc. all describe the object to a further extent (Longfellow).  Instead of saying something like different colored leaves, which is boring, Longfellow says "golden" which everybody likes gold, and it adds life to the story.
The other poem, April is a very good poem that I fully understood and I enjoyed reading it.  It is similar to Autumn, but it is about the waiting for spring and the warm weather, kind of like when they are waiting to harvest their crops in "Autumn".  It starts by them opening up and describing the cold weather.

" 'T is the noon of the spring-time, yet never a bird
In the wind-shaken elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white,
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O'er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice-crystal shoots;" (Whittier 3-10).

It goes on, but you get the understanding of it.  It is cold and is still winter, and everybody is hoping for the spring to come, where, the buds sprout into flowers.  Also, when the warm weather comes,  when it brings life to death is something that comes out of this story.  When spring comes, the weather goes up and makes nature and all of life happier.

"The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole,
And, as sun to the sleeping earth, love to the soul!" (Whittier 34-35).

I found this quote very true, because when winter leaves, everybody is excited.  They are excited for the warm weather, and the cold weather to be gone.  It is a very pretty season when it comes too.  It is not too hot and not too cold. It is very comfortable.
"The chief inconvenience of the isolation imposed by blizzards like the one made famous by his poem Snow-Bound was that it kept his parents from their 16 mile round ride to the meetinghouse in Amesbury and back on Sundays" (Huff).  He may have wrote about the nice weather, because he wanted the snow to leave and the warm weather to come in.

Greenleaf, John. "April by John Greenleaf Whittier." Poem Hunter.Com-Thousands of Poems and Poets. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

Longfellow, Henry. "Sonnets. Autumn. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "Whittier, John Greenleaf." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven’s o’erhanging eaves

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven’s o’erhanging eaves

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended