“Shiloh,” “The Gettysburg Address,” and “The Gift in Wartime” Herman Melville, Abraham Lincoln, and Tran Mong Tu

Unity in Death Who are “Foemen at morn, but friends at eve”? Why? “Fame or country least their care: / (What like a bullet can undeceive!)” Soldiers may go into battle motivated by patriotism and the hope of glory, but experiencing war can reveal how foolish these motives can be. Opposing attitudes and loyalties that separate the living seem unimportant in the face of death.

Powerful Images “Over the field where April rain / Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain” What feelings does this stir up within you, the reader? Any contrasting images? If so, what purpose do they serve? “But now they lie low, / While over them the swallows skim” Who are “they,” and why are the swallows there?

Alliteration Lines 3-5 make use of the f sound. Soft sound of the f enhances the somber and soft qualities of the poem. Lines 6-7 COMBINE to have a repetition of the p sound. The hard sound of the p could reinforce the contrasting harsh images. OR (as I believe) the sound serves to echo the falling rain.

“The Gettysburg Address” The battlefield is deemed “hallow” by Lincoln because of the soldiers who fought and died to preserve the Union. Lincoln tries to influence people to respond to these men’s deaths by dedicating themselves to the Union’s cause. The dead must be remembered through the completion of their “unfinished work,” not ceremonies or dedications or any nonsense as this.

“The Gettysburg Address” (cont.) The Civil War is a test of our nation’s endurance. Can this nation last through the turmoil and dissension of a war with our brothers and sisters? Lincoln states that the American people have a duty to make sure that the nation does last and that democracy does not “perish from the earth.”

“The Gettysburg Address” (cont.) Note the use of parallelism in the speech. Ex. The middle three sentences of the first paragraph (“we are. . .”; “we are. . .”; “we have. . .”) and the first sentence of the second paragraph (“we can not. . .”) This parallelism functions to reinforce the points of the speech. How?

“The Gift in Wartime” How would you describe the tone of this poem? Tran Mong Tu uses apostrophe in her poem. Apostrophe – (p. 390) figure of speech in which a writer addresses an absent person, inanimate object, or idea as if it were present and capable of understanding Who is the speaker addressing in the poem?

“The Gift in Wartime” Does this poem use parallelism? If so, where is it used? The speaker offers her dead husband something, and the speaker tells what she gets in return. Examples?

Wartime Death - Compare/Contrast “Gettysburg…” and “The Gift…” Similarities War and death are tragic. War requires huge sacrifices. The dead should, and will be, remembered. Differences Speech suggests that soldiers’ deaths can be a noble and worthwhile sacrifice; poem does not. Speech is general; poem is specific. Speech takes a political approach to war and death; poem takes a very personal approach.