The Metaphor of The Prairie in Nineteenth-Century American Poetry
Olson, Steven Douglas
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69456
Description
Title
The Metaphor of The Prairie in Nineteenth-Century American Poetry
Author(s)
Olson, Steven Douglas
Issue Date
1986
Department of Study
English
Discipline
English
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Literature, American
Abstract
The metaphor of the prairie reveals the paradoxical characteristics of a burgeoning democracy. In the metaphor the conventional ideals of freedom, hope, equality, future prosperity, and a leading place in world history are juxtaposed with destructive tendencies. As the white civilization encroaches on the natural order of the wilderness, the new political and social order overruns the natural order. The values of the wilderness are threatened by overpopulation and cultivation. In short, the idea of a democracy threatens man's idea of self-worth, as self-worth is defined by man's place in and relationship to nature. Democracy threatens man's idea, that is, of his natural, essential self.
This opposition between democracy and the individual becomes manifest in two distinct poetic voices that are associated with the metaphor. The overwhelming, popular enthusiasm for Manifest Destiny asserts itself in the popular voice. The ideals of the incipient democracy--freedom, equality, hope, etc.--reverberate in the prairie poems of William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the lesser poets of the West who wrote chiefly for magazine publication. Dickinson and Melville, however, in their individual versions of the private voice of the American poet, question this oversimplification of the prairie metaphor. Melville challenges the optimistic version of the metaphor and ironically offers its inverse. To him the prairies represent the moral and spiritual degeneration of America. Whitman then reconciles these opposing poetic voices as he combines the popular with the individual artistic voice and uses the prairie metaphor to promulgate and celebrate the unity of America. The prairie metaphor, therefore, as it is developed collectively by these poets, tells of an ambiguous America and an incipient American poetry.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
