9. INFLUENCE

Influence can be a powerful tool for anyone. No matter what your profession is as a student you learn about the leaders before you. And who better to learn from than the masters of your passion. The writers we’ve been reading have all probably known of the greats before them. As we have read before the themes that have been the strong continue to be used. Nature and human feelings are two of the most popular themes poets will frequently use.

There were multiple poems we read this week that used the theme of nature commonly embraced by poets of the Romantic period. Most of Robert Frost’s readings included many aspects of nature. Apples were mentioned in “Mending Wall” “He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across” (Front 24-25). Frost also writes “After Apple-Picking,” about all the human feelings (another Romantic period poet trait), the surrounding land, nature, actions he reflects about apple harvesting. In his “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Come In” both mention the woods as well as the land and earth are brought up in both “After Apple-Picking” and “The Gift Outright.” Some of the nature speaking Romantic’s we’ve read which influence writers such as Frost are William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I feel that Carl Sandburg was influenced by Emily Dickinson. In Sandburg’s poem “Grass” has a similar Dickinson style. “Grass” is a very abstract poem. Sandburg has made the author of the poem nonhuman, a trait that would be familiar to Dickinson. This poem is very similar to the abstract form Dickinson uses, creating that individual spin to the style of wording and meaning of the poem. This poem is also slightly morbid, another common trait of Dickinson’s poems. After I read “Grass” I saw a very familiar connection to Emily Dickinson.

Poets can be influenced by all the authors before them. They can be influenced by a time period or by identifying with the popular common themes. Poets can also be influenced by another particular poet. Regardless of the source, writers will forever be influenced by the authors before them.