Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Biglow Papers
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love satire, American history, and the sound of spoken language set into rhyme. It suits anyone curious about how poets argued about war and slavery.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Biglow Papers is a body of comic and political verse by James Russell Lowell, a Massachusetts poet, teacher and editor. The first series began to appear in 1846 in a Boston newspaper and was gathered into a book in 1848. A second series followed during the Civil War and was collected in 1867. Lowell wrote the poems in the speech of rural New England, and he wrote them to attack slavery and the war with Mexico.
The poems come wrapped in a small comedy of their own. A farmer named Hosea Biglow writes the verses. A fussy country minister, Parson Homer Wilbur, adds letters, introductions and learned footnotes that wander far from the point. Together they let Lowell be angry and funny at once. In this summary you will meet the cast, the two wars, the dialect, and the ways the poems work on the ear. Let us begin with the voice that holds it all together.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A Yankee farmer takes up the penFree
- 2Parson Wilbur frames the joke
- 3The first series attacks the Mexican War
- 4Dialect is both joke and argument
- 5The second series answers the Civil War
- 6How the poems have lasted
Punkt 1 von 6
A Yankee farmer takes up the pen
The first voice you meet belongs to Hosea Biglow, a young farmer from the invented village of Jaalam, in Massachusetts. He is not a trained writer. He thinks in the words of the farm, the meeting house and the village store. Lowell gives him a plain moral sense and a sharp eye for pretence. That mix lets him say things that polished speakers in Boston and Washington would not say.
The choice of a farmer matters. In the 1840s, many people in the northern states felt the country was being pushed into things by men in power. A rural speaker who owes nothing to anyone sounds honest. When Hosea calls a thing foolish or wicked, the reader hears a neighbour, not a politician. Lowell trusts that ordinary common sense can cut through speeches about glory and duty.
Hosea also has a family. His father, Ezekiel Biglow, appears in the setting, and Hosea writes with the weight of old New England habits behind him. He is religious in a plain, working way. He expects his faith to mean something when the country asks him to do wrong. That is why his anger is moral and not only political.
The poems were first printed as letters in a newspaper, so they were written fast, aimed at the news of the week and meant to be read aloud at the kitchen table. This gives them energy. They also have the roughness of a public argument. As you read, keep Hosea in mind as the man who says what the crowd will not say.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Biglow Papers
What is The Biglow Papers about?
It is a collection of satirical poems in New England dialect. The first series opposes the Mexican War and the spread of slavery. The second series responds to the Civil War, with humour, anger and some gentler poems.
Who is Hosea Biglow?
Hosea Biglow is the invented young farmer from Jaalam, Massachusetts, who supposedly writes the poems. Lowell uses his plain speech and common sense to attack war and slavery in a voice that sounds like a neighbour.
Who is Parson Homer Wilbur?
Parson Wilbur is the fictional village minister who edits Hosea's verses. His pompous, learned letters and introductions to each poem are a comic contrast to Hosea's plain poems, and they let Lowell mock public speech and false scholarship.
Why is The Biglow Papers written in dialect?
Lowell wrote in rural Yankee speech to give the poems the sound of ordinary people and to defend that speech as strong and expressive. The dialect also makes the political arguments feel honest and direct.