jvjv at posthaven

Contents

The Columbian orator: containing a variety of original and selected pieces, together with rules, calculated to improve youth and others in the ornamental and useful art of eloquence [Titlepage] Contents Introduction General Directions for speaking Practical Pieces for Speaking Oration on Eloquence Washington's First Speech in Congress, 1789 Paulus Emilius to the Roman People Exhortation on Temperance in Pleasure Judah's Plea for Benjamin Before Joseph Plea of Thomas Muir at Trial in Scotland On the Starry Heavens Paper, a Poem Cato's Speech Before the Roman Senate Dialogue Between Duelist, Savage, and Mercury Indian Chief to the Massachusetts Congress, 1775 Creation of the World Lines Spoken by a Seven Year Old Boy Pitt's Speech on the Stamp Act, 1766 Scene from the Farce of Lethe Eulogy on Dr. Franklin, Paris, 1790 Epilogue to Addison's Cato Self Conceit, Lines Spoken by a Very Small Boy Dialogue Between Howard and Lester Christ's Crucifixion The Wonders of Nature Dialogue on Physiognomy Oration at the Festival of Gratitude, 1796 Address to the President of The United States President's Answer The Oppressive Landlord, a Dialogue Speech in the British Parliament, 1770 Sermon on the Day of Judgement Christ Triumphant over the Apostate Angels Slaves in Barbary, Drama in Two Acts Speech in the British Parliament, 1770 Defense Before his Accusers Dialogue on Cowardice and Knavery Speech in the British Parliament Cicero's Oration Against Catiline Description of the First American Congress French General to His Army Reflections over the Grave of a Young Man "Moses in the Bulrushes" Speech of a Roman General Speech in the British Parliament, 1784 Address to the People of the U. States Choice of Business for Life Speech of a French General Speech in the British Parliament, 1777 Dialogue Between a Schoolmaster and School-Committee Speech in the British Parliament, 1770 On the General Judgement Day On the Works of Creation and Providence Speech in the British Parliament, 1778 The Conjurer, a Dialogue Speech in the British Parliament, 1775 Speech of the Caledonian General to his Army Modern Education, a Dialogue On the Existence of God The Dignity of Human Nature Infernal Conference Speech in the British Parliament, 1777 On the Day of Judgement The Dissipated Oxford Student Oration on Independence, July 4, 1796 General Description America, a Poem Dialogue Between a Master and Slave Speech in the Irish Parliament Scene from the Tragedy of Tamerlane Speech in the British Parliament, The Last Day Dialogue on Loquacity American Sages Speech in the British Parliament, 1777 Scene from the tragedy of Cato Oration at Boston, July 4, 1794 Dialogue Between a White Man and Indian Oration at Boston, July 4, 1794 Dialogue Between Edward and Harry David and Goliath Oration on the Powers of Eloquence Dialogue on Civilization Oration on the Manumission of Slaves A Forensic Dispute Oration at Boston, March 5, 1780

The book that Frederick Douglass used to teach himself oratory.

Birches
(Bill Morrissey)

They sat at each end of the couch, watched as the fire burned down,
So quiet on this winter's night, not a house light on for miles around.
Then he said, "I think I'll fill the stove. it's getting time for bed."
She looked up, "I think I'll have some wine. how 'bout you?" She asked and he de
clined.

"Warren," she said, "maybe just for tonight,
Let's fill the stove with birches and watch as the fire burns bright.
How long has it been? I know it's quite a while.
Pour yourself half a glass. Stay with me a little while."

And Warren, he shook his head, as if she'd made some kind of joke.
"Birches on a winter night? no, we'll fill the stove with oak.
Oak will burn as long and hot as a July afternoon,
And birch will burn itself out by the rising of the moon.

"And you hate a cold house, same as me. Am I right or not?"
"All right, all right, that's true," she said. "It was just a thought,
'Cause," she said, "Warren, you do look tired. Maybe you should go up to bed.
I'll look after the fire tonight." "Oak," he told her. "Oak," she said.

She listened to his footsteps as he climbed up the stairs,
And she pulled a sweater on her, set her wineglass on a chair.
She walked down cellar to the wood box -- it was as cold as an ice chest --
And climbed back up with four logs, each as white as a wedding dress.

And she filled the stove and poured the wine and then she sat down on the floor.
She curled her legs beneath her as the fire sprang to life once more.
And it filled the room with a hungry light and it cracked as it drew air,
And the shadows danced a jittery waltz like no one else was there.

And she stood up in the heat. She twirled around the room.
And the shadows they saw nothing but a young girl on her honeymoon.
And she knew the time it would be short; the fire would start to fade.
She thought of heat. She thought of time. She called it an even trade.

Sung by Bill Morrissey on "Night Train," Philo, PH 1154, 1993.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments on the Song "Birches"

Subject: Re: A 3-minute movie...
From: pbertsch@cup.hp.com (Peggy Bertsch)
Date: 18 Nov 1995
MessageID: 48jmff$b7o@hpax.cup.hp.com#1/1
references: <48asqd$7i7@hpax.cup.hp.com> <48gmj9$oo1@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
organization: Hewlett Packard Cupertino Site
newsgroups: rec.music.makers.songwriting

JEricL (jericl@aol.com) wrote:
: While story songs are great. Good ones are few and far between. It is a
: real challenge to write a great one. My point it, that you probably should
: write some of the other types of songs also. The ones that deal with
: things in a short time frame, without a loger story line.

Absolutely.  Variety is important.  Not all songs are meant to be chock full
of dialogue or metaphor or other elements that are so crucial to, say,
short story writing.  But by the same token, some songwriters *never* think
of their songs as short stories, and I was trying to show that sometimes
the two forms of writing can overlap very effectively.

Most story songs seem to hand-hold the listener through the passage of time,
telling the story from beginning to end, not leaving anything to the
imagination.  It's like each verse starts out with a line that tells you
exactly how much time has passed, or which particular significant milestone
this verse is going to cover (e.g., verse 1: meeting your true love, verse 2:
getting married, verse 3: having a child, etc.)  Some do this *much* more
effectively than others -- I personally think "Something In Red" did this
in a very unique and special way; I wasn't, on the other hand, impressed with
"Don't Take The Girl" and the way that *two* of the verses started with the
line "Same old boy, same sweet girl, (X) years down the road"...I felt like
I was being force-fed the scene, instead of being drawn into it. (That is,
of course, only my opinion -- obviously tons of people liked that song a *lot*
more than I did :-)

What I found unique to "Birches" is the way the writer (Bill Morrissey) just
drops us down in the middle of this couple's living room, no introduction,
no background on what has transpired before, and manages to paint the most
vivid picture of what their relationship has come to by letting us eavesdrop
on one simple scene.  It's a skill that writers of great short fiction have,
but which songwriters too often neglect, IMO.  But of course, I obsess over
lyrics to a point that sometimes goes beyond rational :-)

XXVII. Oral Literature.

§ 3. Early Popular Song.

An early mention of popular song in America occurs in an entry in the diary of Cotton Mather for 27 September, 1713:	3
“I am informed, that the Minds and Manners of many people about the Countrey are much corrupted by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Peddlars carry into all parts of the Countrey. By way of antidote, I would procure poetical Composures full of Piety, and such as may have a Tendency to advance Truth and Goodness, to be published, and scattered into all Corners of the Land. There may be an extract of some, from the excellent Watt’s Hymns.”	4
Doubtless many legendary and romantic ballads were brought from England by the colonists, but probably Mather’s “foolish songs and ballads” did not refer to these but rather to convivial, sentimental, or humorous ditties, the street pieces or broadsides popular in the mother country. These he would like to see replaced by religious and moralizing songs. Most songs, of either type, in the period before the Revolution, were probably imported, either orally or in broadside versions; but there were also historical pieces that were indigenous. Professor Tyler, writing in 1878, mentions as ballads popular in New England The Gallant Church, Smith’s Affair at Sidelong Hill, and The Godless French Soldier. These pieces do not appear in printed collections, however, and, in general, little has been done in the way of an attempt to recover songs from the period before the Revolution. The oldest remaining historical ballad composed in America of which texts are available is Lovewell’s Fight, recording a struggle with the Indians in Maine, 8 May, 1725. It was composed not long after the event, and was long popular in New England. A text reduced to print almost a century later begins: What time the noble Lovewell came, With fifty men from Dunstable, The cruel Pequa’tt tribe to tame With arms and bloodshed terrible. Longfellow chose the same subject for his early poem The Battle of Lovell’s Pond.	5
Greater effort has been made toward collecting songs and ballads of the Revolution, though the work should be done again more exhaustively and more critically. Frank Moore printed in 1856 a collection of verse, brought together from newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, and from the memory of surviving soldiers. Most of these pieces are semi-literary in character, to be sung to familiar tunes imported from England. That oftenest quoted as having the best poetical quality is Nathan Hale. 1  Many express the discontent of the colonists, and many are burlesques. Sometimes they were based on older pieces, as Major André’s The Cow Chace, which is built on The Chevy Chase. Of better quality is A Song for the Red-coats, on the defeat of Burgoyne.         Give ear unto my story, And I the truth will tell Concerning many a soldier Who for his country fell. Some of the most popular pieces of the Revolutionary period, mostly satirical verses by known authors, have been treated in an earlier chapter. 2	6
From the War of 1812 remain James Bird, a ballad of a hero shot for desertion, texts of which have drifted as far inland as the Central states, and a camp song in ridicule of General Packingham. Some verses beginning         Then you sent out your Boxer to beat us all about; We had an enterprising Brig to beat the Boxer out, and some stanzas preserved as a marching song for children—         We’re marching down to old Quebec While the drums are loudly beating— may also date back this far. The Texas Rangers, widely current through the South and the West, and modelled on the British Nancy of Yarmouth, sounds like an echo of the fight with the Mexicans at the Alamo in 1835.	7
Songs surviving from the Civil War are frequently sentimental in character, like When this Cruel War is Over and The Blue and the Gray. 3  These are of traceable origin, yet they have passed widely into oral tradition. There were numerous camp songs on sieges or battles, but these have not shown vitality. Best remembered in popular literature from the time of the Civil War are many negro, or rather pseudonegro songs, given diffusion by the old-time itinerant negro minstrels. Many are the work of composers like Stephen C. Foster 4  or Henry C. Work. 5  These persist in popular memory side by side with songs like Juanita or Lorena, or the later After the Ball. Every collector of folk-song comes upon pieces of this type far oftener than upon songs commemorating battles or political events. In similar manner, the popular song given currency by the Cuban War, A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, modelled on a Creole song, does not reflect directly the war that “floated” it. Nor do the songs universalized for England and America by the war of 1914—Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Over There, The Long, Long Trail—commemorate its leading events.	8

---

Note 1. See Book I, Chap. IX. [ back ]

Note 2. See Book I, Chap. IX. [ back ]

Note 3. See Book III, Chaps. II. and III. [ back ]

Note 4. See Book III, Chap. V. [ back ]

Note 5. See Book III, Chap. II. [ back ]

CONTENTS · VOLUME CONTENTS · INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

A branch of American Literature too often ignored.

the web of

American

Transcendentalism

For discussion of Transcendentalism, join the Transcendentalism Club Forum (est. 9/2010). Mariana Mussetta and Andrea Vartalitis, The Transcendentalist Experience of Beauty in "The Artist of the Beautiful." Excerpts from Diane Yoder's thesis on "Satisfying the Head as Well as the Heart: James Marsh, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the American Transcendentalist Movement", 2009 Transcendentalist Principles from Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman in the film, "The Dead Poets Society" by Allan Sugg Review of Excursions, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer. "Man Thinking About Nature: The Evolution of the Poet's Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852," by S. H. Bagley "Transcendence: the Yin and Yang of Emerson and Goethe" by Sheri Gietzen. The Transcendentalists by Barbara Packer. Review of A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England by R. Todd Felton.

Authors & Texts Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Margaret Fuller [Dr.] William Ellery Channing Theodore Parker Amos Bronson Alcott Jones Very [William] Ellery Channing Christopher Cranch Orestes Brownson Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Other Transcendentalists

Roots & Influences Transcendental Forerunners The Transcendental Legacy in Literature Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Frederick Douglass The Transcendental Legacy in Philosophy and Religion The Transcendental Legacy in Political and Social Reform

Ideas & Thought Introduction to Transcendentalism Philosophy of Nature Aesthetics and Writing Social & Political Reform Religion Education

Criticism Literary Essays Historical Essays The Dial

Resources & Bibliographies Bibliographies Web Links

Communication Center Talking about Transcendentalism Submission of New Materials or Links

This interlinked hypertext was first created in Spring 1999 by Virginia Commonwealth University graduate students studying in Professor Ann Woodlief's class in Studies in American Transcendentalism. It is a work in progress, and submissions of papers, texts and notes on them, and links are welcomed; full credit will be given to papers selected for the site. Professor Woodlief [now emeritus] may also be contacted at awood@vcu.edu by people interested in doing serious independent study of these writers. [Article on the site in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 6, 2002]

Well worth exploring. You could write a whole term paper just using this site and its links.