Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Go Down, Moses, Keep Your Hands on the Plow

First I would like to start out this blog by talking about each and every one of the three poems we had to read. The first one I read was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and the first thing I remember about this song is that we had sung it in first grade. We would always sing it and it would be a very catchy song. The other thing I remember about this song or at least I interpreted from it is that it is about angels coming down to take these people to heaven ("Swing Low" 346). Now on to the next one, Go Down, Moses. This story is about "letting the people go" ("Go Down" 347) and helping the kinds of people they have. The last story is Keep Your Hands on the Plow which is a very repetitive song and all three of these poems have a song with them.

"Emerson called an individual to be a believer in him or herself" (Brugman). I typed this quote on this blog because I wanted the reader to realize what Emerson saw in a individual. This quote also ties into the poems that we are currently reading. In Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, everybody believes and everybody is just singing to the angels who are coming down and taking them up to heaven. Here is a quote that I found from a criticism about Thoreau and Transcendentalism, "a Transcendentalist is one who believes that one can (and should) go beyond Locke in believing that all knowledge is acquired through the senses" (Harding). This quote is a good one because it talks about how Thoreau saw an individual. In Go Down, Moses, it talks about how the Lord told Moses what to do and Moses did do it. This is like Emerson who believed that somebody's voice was given to them by God and that is like Go Down, Moses where God is telling Moses what to do. This belief is also relevant in "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" because when "Paul and Silas shouted the Jail Doors opened and they walked out" ("Keep" 348). Overall in these poems they all had somewhat the same beliefs of Thoreau and Emerson.

Bibliography

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts
On File, Inc.

"Go Down, Moses." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 347. Print.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 10 Feb. 2012.

"Keep Your Hands on the Plow." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 348. Print.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 6. Print.