NATURE.

Dorothy Wordsworth’s poem “Floating Island” is a good example of Romanticism for several different reasons. The entire poem is filled with references of nature. In the first stanza it talks about the different elements including the “sky, earth, river”. The poem discusses the fact that “Sunshine and storm, whirlwind and breeze / All in one duteous task agree”, this emphasizes the “awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature” because sunshine and storm, and whirlwind and breeze or opposites and great aspects of nature.

The second stanza uses more imagination because it talks about “how no one knew / But all might see it float, obedient to the wind.” This provides the reader with something to think about and the image that one comes up with is left to the imagination. What exactly is “a slip of earth”? Maybe some dust? Or something else? It’s really left up to the reader to decide that.

Stanza three shows a devotion to nature because it so well describes the mossy shore and how the birds use this area for their pastime. The poem says “Might see it” because not everyone can. Again it’s left up to the imagination. Possibly only a nature lover would recognize and appreciate this beauty.

The fourth stanza talks about living plants and insects and about how they live and die. This shows the awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature because normally we don’t think about insects and plants having life and eventually dying because they are not humans. This poem sheds some light onto this and shows us the experiences that take place every day.

The Fifth stanza talks about how nature may refuse to give anymore. This provides a sort of terror because without nature we would be nothing. Humans cannot survive without the oxygen we get from trees or without the food that we need from which nature provides. It’s a scary thought to think that one day nature might “cease to give”.

The end of the poem is thought provoking because it leaves the reader thinking about nature and about what could possibly happen. “Without an object, hope, or fear” implies that without nature we would have nothing, no hope, no fear, just nothing.

Huntly and the woods

On page 94 the first paragraph talks about how he reached the mouth of the cave. He had forgotten to bring a lamp or a torch. This brings fear to the reader because this man is about to enter the cave with no acceptable lighting. He may or may not run into obstacles that he cannot see because of the lack of light. There might be animals or other dangerous objects that would hinder his path and that could have been avoided if he was able to see them. Even though the reader cannot see exactly what the mouth of this cave looked like because the author does not give it a good description; we can imagine it because of the sensation that is produced from the text. The text talks about how using a lamp or something else to give light would be a more cautious thing to do, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He goes ahead and enters the cave bringing the reader even more fear because of the unknown. Someone more oriented toward the picturesque might have described the cave in full detail giving the reader an inch by inch description of exactly what everything looked like. This might have taken away from the interpreted sensation that we get from not fully knowing what the scene looked like and only being able to draw on the text that we do have and the character’s reaction to it. Being able to interpret this scene in our own way produces more fear because of the lack of knowledge. If it were written by an author more oriented with picturesque it would have possibly produced a different kind of fear.

On page 122 in the fourth paragraph it talks about how the bridge that he wanted to use had been destroyed. He thought about how he could repair it, but he knew that he would not have enough strength to get a fallen tree to mend it. Not only did he have to now think about another path to which he might be able to take but he was exhausted as well. For the reader this brings upon feelings of fear for the character because we think that this exhaustion is going to hinder him from going further down his journey and also may ultimately be detrimental to his life. He is tired and so he probably wasn’t thinking with a clear head. In this passage in particular Brown definitely succeeds in making the wilderness a threat for the reader. Because we don’t know exactly what the different paths look like we can only interpret the fear that Huntly has to feel because of not knowing which path to take. The only path that he recognizes is out of the question and he is forced to go a different way in which he has never been. The text produces the sensation of his exhaustion by setting us up for what has just happened. He has been on this long journey through the woods and not only is he tired and disoriented but now he has to figure out what he is going to do next when clearly he not able to think straight. If another author who was oriented in picturesque had written this passage we would have clearly been able to see each possible way that Huntly could have gone therefore losing the interpretation that we as the reader have to make about Huntly and his state of mind and the difficulty of choosing the correct path. Without knowing exactly how the woods look we are able to imagine things we would have been unable to otherwise.

Terror vs Horror

There are MANY different movies to choose from, but for my example I decided to use one that I have recently seen. Orphan is a perfect example of terror, because the entire time the viewer is feeling dreadful and anticipating what the little orphan girl is going to do next. In one scene in particular there is a little girl whom the orphan (Esther) doesn’t get along with. The little girl is walking up through a jungle gym type thing at the park and the eerie music sets the tone that something bad is about to happen. The viewer is forced to be anxious and waits for what we know that Esther is going to do. Sure enough, Esther pushes the girl off the jungle gym, and the little girl breaks one of her bones.



In another instance one of the nuns from the orphanage that Esther came from came down to talk to the parents. As she leaves we see Esther forcing her little sister Max to come along with her up the road. Esther tricks Max into helping her with her scheme. We know something bad is about to happen, and the dread and the anxiety gets out hearts racing. Then of course Esther pushes Max out into the road and the nun swerves off and wrecks. Esther then kills her and forces Max to help drag her off the road. The anticipation that comes before both of these horrible actions makes this movie a movie of terror and not horror.



The Saw movies on the other hand are completely different because of the blood and goriness from the beginning. The viewer is repulsed after seeing time after time limbs getting cut off and bodies being torn apart. One scene in particular has a man who has a chain cuffed to his ankle and he figures that the only way he is going to be able to escape and save his life is if he saws his own leg off. The viewer is appalled and shocked to see that he does indeed saw off his leg! Another instance is when this guy (pictures below) finds that his entire head is trapped in some kind of giant claw and his eye is gauged out! There is no denying that all of these Saw films would fit nicely into the horror category.

Introduction number 2!

Hi everyone! This is my second intro post so everything is pretty much the same!

My name is Amy Hatch, and this is my second semester at WSU Tri-Cities. I'm an English major, and I love it! I work at the IHOP in Kennewick, and I am usually busy ALL THE TIME with work and school.

Uhhh...yep that's pretty much it! :-)