Poetry Museum- War

Poetry and Politics:

Poetry often acts as a catalyst for civil action. The poet hopes to  use the condensed wording to punch the hearer with a message full of  impact.  Abolitionist Thinkers of the 1850's utilized poetic forms to communicate their platform.  The enlightened poets of the 1850's felt that the Judges and great men and utilized poetry to move their stoney hearts.
 Herman Melville also used the impact of poetry to communicate his belief in the evil of slavery:

The Portent

By Herman Melville

Hanging from the beam,

      Slowly swaying (such the law),

Gaunt the shadow on your green,

      Shenandoah!

The cut is on the crown

      (Lo, John Brown),

And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap

      Is the anguish none can draw;

So your future veils its face,

      Shenandoah!

But the streaming beard is shown

      (Weird John Brown),

The meteor of the war.

Interest of the Saturday Afternoon Club

A Picture of the Three Sister Fates holding our fates in their hands.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison actually said, "The United States constitution is a covenant with death and an agreement with the devil.  If the American union cannot be maintained except by immolating human freedom on the altar of tyranny, than let the American Union be consumed  by a living thunderbolt, and no tear be shed over its ashes."*pg 14.

1820 Johnson proved that the Tomato was not a poisonous food. The debate still lingers whether Tomatoes are a fruit or a vegetable.  I say a fruit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Let him not quit his belief that a popgun is a popgun, though the ancient and honorable of the earth affirm it to be the crack of doom." pg 22*

1837 Elijah Lovejoy was shot and killed by a Unionist Mob.  He was an abolitionist, while the majority of Northern Men felt Slavery a necessary tool to use in the the expansion of Northern Industry. *pg 15

*Menand, Louis The Metaphsical Club (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2001)