LEC052010. ANNIE V.VERGHESE. Draft 2: A critical study of the poem After a Tempest

After a Tempest: A Transcendental Painting

After a Tempest is a poem written by the 19^th century American poet of nature, William Cullen Bryant. The poem echoes a transcendental spirit that was prevalent in America during that period and the use of strong imagery from nature makes it picturesque, reminding the Hudson River school of painting. Penned in six Spenserian stanzas, the poem blends the notions put forth by the 19^th century New England Transcendentalists.

Bryant, a descendant of early Puritan immigrants, was born in Massachusetts where Transcendentalism originated. His views on religion and politics are evident in his works and seem to have a close connection with his experiences in life. The religious conservatism that was imposed on him as a child and the political affiliations of his father shaped his opinions and these can be traced in his early works like The Embargo and Thanatopsis.

Most of the themes dealt in Bryant’s poems were similar to the ideas of the exponents of Transcendentalism like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, etc. According to the Encyclopaedia of Britannica:

Transcendentalism, 19^th century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.

(“Transcendentalism”)

This transcendental belief can be inferred from the poem After a Tempest, as the poet explores the beauty of nature to describe the innate hope and goodness in humanity even after a war. He draws the parallel between a scene from nature after struck by a storm and humanity trying to cope up after a war. The poem clearly tries to portray the concept that humans are a part of a whole that is nature and inside every human is the soul of the whole which illuminates even in life’s most difficult situation.

The transcendentalists believed in what Emerson called “The Over-Soul” —a spiritual presence that pervades all aspects of man and nature. Emerson referred to it as: “that great nature in which we rest—that Unity, that Over-Soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other— We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.”

(Mclntyre 2)

The Hudson River school was the first native school of painting in America that developed during the period of 1825-1870. Though it was an outgrowth of the Romantic movement, it was nationalistic and so celebrated the natural beauty of the American landscape. Most of the early painters of this art movement like Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand and Thomas Cole, “carefully observed pictures of untouched wilderness in the Hudson River valley and nearby locations in New England” (“Hudson”). The place of origin and time period of both Transcendentalism as well as Hudson River school collide with Bryant’s life. So, the vivid romantic description of nature in the poem, that creates a painting like image in the minds of the readers, could be read as an influence by this school of painting.

A close reading of both these American movements- one a literary movement and the other an art movement- reveals a link with regard to their place of origin, time period and ideas. This link is conspicuous when the poem After a Tempest is analysed. Hence it can be interpreted as a transcendental painting.

Works Consulted

Bryant, William Cullen. “POEMS.” Project Gutenberg, 21 July 2005, www.gutenberg.org/files/16341/16341-h/16341-h.htm.

Cate, Hollis L. “Seeing the World Whole: Parallels Between the Poetry of William Cullen Bryant and Emerson's “Compensation”.” Colby Quarterly 21.4 (1985): 5.

“Hudson River School.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/Hudson-River-school.

McIntyre, Cathryn. “Transcendentalism: A belief in spirit.” The Thoreau Society Bulletin 255 (2006): 2-3.

“Transcendentalism.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/event/Transcendentalism-American-movement.

“William Cullen Bryant.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/William-Cullen-Bryant.