Death Of Innocence Research Articles

Melvin Isaacs

MELVIN ISAACS by Loyal Jones 1 Mountain boy, he knew as much through senses as intellect, could tell at an instant chinquapin, mountain tea, boneset or elusive ginseng. He roamed the hills exploring each cove and hollow over aggregations of leaves that kept the secret of his and all passings. Though he was scarcely remembered in that place, each contour and substance was ever a part of him. 2 Once he heard geese in the night and saw them black against full moon, going far beyond the world he knew. Once another year, he woke to honking in a far cornfield, and with fluttering chest he stalked them on knees and belly, saw them rise all in an instant, felt his own trembling as he fired, saw one spiral to earth, a lesser thing. At once he mourned the fowl and the death of innocence and tried to imagine the place of the goose's going. 65 3 The gifts from generations before bore down on him, ballad and tale and adage, fact and myth inextricably woven into blood and character. He was heir to it all, his mind heavy, holding at once Jesus and Jack the Giant Killer, Lord Lovell and the haughty Barbry Allen. Truth and myth converged attesting to poetic and religious necessities, without which he knew he would flounder as with glandular imbalance. He lived in two worlds, a foot in each, walking as if in buckets at once too broad and too short, a bad fit he was aware. He hoped he was in one of those dreams of cumbersome and inadequate locomotion in the face of imminent peril and that he would wake up in hushpuppies—of two different styles perhaps but comfortable and swift. He knew though that it would take longer than a dream. Note: Melvin Isaacs is a fictional mountain man, who, like many of us, has gone forth to do what he does. These poems reflect his notions and ideas about himself and the two worlds in which he lives. 66 5 One talent he had was a defense against fads. It was really just his annoyance with change. He liked most of life as it was, even liked himself and he silently detested those who styled and invented, was furious to be told by shopkeepers that what he sought was out of fashion. He sneered and set his mind against those bearing good news of breakthroughs in human potential and efficiency. It was these meddlers with his comfortable feelings about human nature that he abhorred. He didn't count himself a Calvinist but careful observation had brought no hope of perfection that the faddists proclaimed. He just didn't have time for it all. 6 His companion is the child of himself who gambols, darts and lingers, while he walks sedately, thinking of dignity. Or perhaps he is ever the child and his comrade the stranger. He covertly studies others his age who appear mature and sensible, not given to foolishness like skipping and gleeful song or pranks at solemn moments. Yet once he saw such a model gentleman leap from sidewalk to rock wall in childish compulsion although quickly dismounting with sheepish composure. Now and then he vows to put behind him these juvenile ways and rivet himself to maturity, but eventually he is overcome by boredom. 67 7 "The house my grandfather built was by those parked cars," he said, "And the meadow sloped there to a pond. Woolworth's does business over the barn's foundations. I plowed the garden under Rexall's and horses ran where that department store squats. Progress had to come, they all said. We must be served with transistors and doubleknits. They're dearer to us now, you know, than dew on a meadow, wind through a horse's mane or green things sprouting from tended earth. Progress is a fickle bitch," he said toward the blue mountains. 8 Women's liberation sneaked up on him while he was enjoying a somewhat remote affair with them. He was partial to women over men and admitted his longings were a factor. He resisted, not always successfully, furtive glances over bosom and loin...

The Death of Innocence in Marvell's "Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Faun"

INTERPRETATIONS of this poem run a very wide range from literal to allegorical, classical to Christian, pastoral to historical; large numbers of classical, medieval, and Renaissance writers have been adduced for sources and analogues.' With all this learning, critical analysis, and even common sense brought into play, it might be thought that the poem had become sufficiently clear. Of course the opposite is true; so various are the types of interpretation that it is necessary to choose from all the proffered help. Moreover, it appears to me that the poem deals with a theme insufficiently discussed, the death of innocence, which I hope to discuss with the evidence provided by the poem and to set into the context of earlier studies. If

Marvell's "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn": A Reply

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussionMarvell's "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn": A ReplyKarina WilliamsonKarina Williamson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 51, Number 4May, 1954 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/389016 Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1954 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Earl Miner The Death of Innocence in Marvell’s ‘Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun’ (1967), (Jan 1969): 273–284.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15328-2_16 Earl Miner The Death of Innocence in Marvell's "Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Faun", Modern Philology 65, no.11 (Oct 2015): 9–16.https://doi.org/10.1086/389914

Marvell's "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn"

Previous articleNext article No AccessMarvell's "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn"Edward S. Le ComteEdward S. Le Comte Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 50, Number 2Nov., 1952 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/388946 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Earl Miner The Death of Innocence in Marvell’s ‘Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun’ (1967), (Jan 1969): 273–284.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15328-2_16 Earl Miner The Death of Innocence in Marvell's "Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Faun", Modern Philology 65, no.11 (Oct 2015): 9–16.https://doi.org/10.1086/389914

St. Cecilia's Garlands and Their Roman Origin

In Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea and its derivative, Chaucer's Second Nun's Tale, crowns of lilies and roses are brought by an angel to the future martyrs Cecilia and her husband after she has converted him to Christianity and continence. The usual symbolism of the flowers has been settled by Messrs. Holthausen and Lowes as being chastity and martyrdom; and Mr. Emerson found the earliest occurrence, so far, of them and their symbolism in an authentic work of St. Ambrose. But there was no ground for asserting the original source to be here. Nor is it the Proper Preface for St. Cecilia's day in the Ambrosian missal, from which both legends make a long quotation; the Proper Preface merely reflects some earlier version of the legend, and its date can hardly be determined. Nor in the gospel of pseudo-Matthew (or “Liber de ortu B. Mariae et infantia Salvatoris”), which has been suggested as “probably the source of the whole medieval conception of the symbolism of the two crowns of martyrdom and virginity.” The righteous Abel is here said (cap. vii) to have received two crowns. But not to mention the fact that they are not of flowers, while one crown is for his virginity, the other is not for his own innocent death (though later so misunderstood) but for his acceptable offering to God. Further, this pseudo-gospel seems to be not older than the eighth or ninth century, and this detail is not found in its main source, the “Protevangelium of James.” The early metaphorical examples collected from Sts. Cyprian and Jerome by Miss R. D. Cornelius are mentioned later.