《美国文学》教学课件comeupfromthefields.pptVIP

Pre-1914 Poetry Year 10 Come up from the fields, father. This poem was written by Walt Whitman. It is a dramatic poem in which a family receives news that their son has been injured in the American Civil War. Unknown to them, although the letter says that he will soon be better, Pete, the boy, is already dead by the time they receive it. Walt Whitman was an American poet as we can tell by the poem’s setting in Ohio. The poet creates an idyllic, farm setting in Ohio Come up from the Fields Father The following is one of Whitman’s best poems. It is a short, well-written epic that tells a story about one family expecting a letter from their son who is fighting in the battlefields during the Civil War But when his letter comes, the mother finds that “a strange hand writes for our dear son”, “the only son” of the family. The stricken mother grieves deeply for the death of her son and wants “to follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.” We feel a strong affection of the mother, of the family for the son, and the indelible effect of the American Civil War on one of the common families. Come up from the fields, father Come up from the fields father, heres a letter from our Pete,And come to the front door mother, heres a letter from thy dear son.Lo, tis autumn,Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,Cool and sweeten Ohios villages with leaves fluttering in themoderate wind,Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and grapes on the trellisd vines,(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?)Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, andwith wondrous clouds,Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well.Down in the fields all prospers well,But now from the fields come father, come at the daughters call.And come to the entry mother, to the front door come right away. Come up from the fields, father Fast as she can she hurries