EXCELSIOR

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EARLY LIFE

• Born on February 27, 1807. In Portland, Maine
• He went to private Portland Academy when was 6
• When he was 15 he went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
• From January 1824 through his graduation in 1825,
• he published 40 minor poems

CAREERS

• Began translating books
• Worked in Harvard in 1837
• Published poetry in 1839
• Translated "Divine Comedy"
• Died on Friday, March 24, 1882 (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

EXCELSIOR

• "Onward" or "upward"
• Pulished in 1841
• Inspired by the romantics
• Inspired by the seal of New York

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EXCELSIOR

• The shades of night were falling fast,
• As through an Alpine village passed
• A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
• A banner with the strange device,
• Excelsior!

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• His brow was sad; his eye beneath
• Flashed like a falcion from it shealth,
• And like a silver clarion rung
• The accents of that unknown tongue,
• Excelsior!

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• In happy homes he saw the light
• Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
• Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
• And from his lips escaped a groan,
• Excelsior!

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• "Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
• "Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
• The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
• And loud that clarion voice replied,
• Excelsior!

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• "Oh stay," the maiden said,"and rest
• Thy weary head upon this breast!"
• A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
• But still he answered, with a sigh,
• Excelsior!

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• "Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
• Beware the awful avalanche!"
• This was the peasant's last Good-night,
• A voice replied, far up the height,
• Excelsior!

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• At break of day, as heavenward
• The pious monks of Saint Bernard
• Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
• A voice cried through the startled air,
• Excelsior!

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• A traveller, by the faithful hound,
• Half-buried in the snow was found,
• Still grasping in his hands of ice
• That banner with the strange device,
• Excelsior!

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• There is the twilight cold and gray,
• Lifeless, but bautiful, he lay,
• And from the sky, serene and far,
• Avoice fell like a falling star,
• Excelsior!

OVERALL MEANING

• A young man's willingness to go above all things
• People tried to stop him from danger
• He died climbing up the mountains
• He is found still holding the banner with "excelsior" written on it

THEME

POETIC STYLE & CONNOTATION

• Narrative
• Repetion
• Alliteration
• Personification
• Simile

ROMANTIC CONNECTION

• Individualism
• Nature
• Idealism
• Emotional passion