An example of this can be seen in the poetry of Frances Sargent Locke Osgood’s Ellen’s Learning to Walk and The Little Hand. Osgood’s whimsical metre is an expression of a parent’s joy and love for a child. Passionate and sentimental, her work in these two poems provides the reader the opportunity to reflect on mans relationships and the beauty that can be captured in the quizzical look of a child (Sargent Locke Osgood, "Ellen Learning"; Sargent Locke Osgood, "The Little Hand"). Another example of Osgood’s ability to use poetry to generate thought provoking prose can be found in the poem A Reply; on the surface it appears merely to be about the song of a bird, yet when the reader looks more closely this poem may be about the desires of a woman. Osgood uses the symbol of a bird to explore this topic, and by doing so provides the reader with enough information to want to look closer at her work (Sargent Locke Osgood, “The Reply”).
Due to her ability to use symbols in her work providing just enough information to generate curiosity in the reader, and her ability to use subjects that question man’s personal relationships with others and to look into his own psyche Osgood is a good choice for inclusion in any curriculum, especially one at the college level where students are better capable of peeling away the layers to better understand the personal relationships she writes about.
Criteria: The importance of theme in a poem or story.
Frances Sargent Locke Osgood was a very popular poet who wrote very sentimental themes and took them very seriously. Often times her theme would be based on something that was real or may have been based off an experience of someone whom she knew very closely. Her themes would often focus on children, death, love, or even life. Her themes were always very moving and touching and would have you thinking twice. Her themes often had meanings for her and would have her own personal views. Her tone of voice within her themes was always sophisticated which would attract any reader. As teachers, we can introduce our students to the writing poem of Osgood for the way she shows a love and devoted meaning to her work (Lauter 2006).
Most of Osgood’s themes and inspiration for writing her poems came from portraits of her husband Samuel Osgood painted. She would immediately develop a theme that would naturally flow out into the poem giving it a more sentimental touch. She writes her themes with not just meaning, but with understanding that any child will be able to see clearly what her theme is all about (Litscape). Her theme touches students of all ages and can be shared with students all around the world. Her ideas within her themes are to share not just her feelings, but feelings and pain that other individuals share. Osgood’s themes show the effort she puts into creating a theme that can relate to every individual; her themes are strong and well written and always come out with a powerful message to the end. Based on her themes she can be considered a great poetry writer of old times. This is proven true, as even on her dying bed she was still writing poems with great themes.
Criteria: Appeals to the heighten curiosity of the student to want to know more about the poem or story and is informative about the subject at hand.
Frances Sargent Locke Osgood is an author who can appeal to the right audience. Osgood is an author that would be well suited for both high school and college level students because her poetry is about love, innocence, and romance. Although at one time audience members thought her poetry seemed confusing, modern critics have re-evaluated Osgood’s poems and are starting to see them as sophisticated and witty. Many critics feel that her poetry is telling the story of women as victims. Osgood’s poem Ellen Learning to Walk is a poem about little baby Ellen learning to walk. This is a poem that is for all parents, because it is such an innocent poem. In the opening line “My beautiful trembler! how wildly she shrinks!” Every parent can relate to teaching their own child to walk. The child is so scared that all they can do is hold on to your hand and look up at you to find that you look so much bigger. This poem is so sincere and so pure that it makes the audience wanting more and more from her. Osgood is an author that should be used in today’s teaching of literature. Her literature has a place for the right audience; when you are reading the right literature to the right audience it will make the audience want more and more. All literature should be re-evaluated from time to time to make sure that it is right for the era. Some literature is so out of context that it needs to be removed from classrooms, but Osgood is one author who deserves to stay in the classroom. Osgood just has a way with keeping the audience engrossed and that is what students need.
Every genre of literature needs to meet criterion that makes it literary worthy. It must involve the nature of man and his relationship to the world and those around him. It should provide the reader the opportunity to learn from those things that history has proven to be fruitful experiences, the opportunity to explore the world we live in, and build relationships with our fellow man. The author should appeal to and build curiosity among its readers. If it can reach a student’s curiosity to even pick up the book, it is worthy to read. Frances Sargent Locke Osgood was a very popular poet who wrote very sentimental themes and took them very seriously. Her themes were always very moving and touching and would have you thinking twice, which makes it literary worthy to study. This author should be included in a classroom of English college students.
Work Cited
Grand Canyon University (GCU). “American Narrative: Changing Genres.” Grand Canyon University. ENG341 Module 7 Online Lecture, Phoenix. 31 January 2011. Lecture.
Lauter, Paul, et al., eds. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th Ed. A vol. Boston:
Houghton, 2006.
Lauter, Paul and Richard Yarborough. “Ellen Learning to Walk.” Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. John Alberti. Volume B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 2978-79. Print.
---. “The Little Hand.” Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. John Alberti. Volume B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 2979-80. Print.
---. “The Reply.” Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed John Alberti. Volume B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 2982-83. Print.
Litscape. Titles of Frances Sargent Locke Osgood. Litscape.com. Litscape.com, n.d. Web. 09 February 2011.
National Council of Teachers of English. “Standards for the English Language Arts.” National
Council of Teachers of English. National Council of Teachers of English, 05 October 2002. Web. 02 February 2011.
