Talk:The Courtship of Miles Standish

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	The Courtship of Miles Standish is part of WikiProject Poetry, a WikiProject related to Poetry.
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[edit] Messy

Well, this article is a mess, and I'm not sure where to begin. I assume the editor who worked on adding references wasn't really sure how to go about doing that. Start here: WP:CITE. Leave a message on my talk page if you're not getting it. --Midnightdreary 22:28, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

"Together, Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish captured the bittersweet quality of America's colonial era, then only recently past." [cough, cough] WHO WROTE THIS?

THEN ONLY RECENTLY PAST? EXCUSE ME?

Do you mean to imply that Bostonians/Americans of the mid-19th century thought of the colonial era as 'then only recently past'? Even the roughly hundred years between the writing of Evangeline and the events upon which it was loosely based constitute a significant lapse in time (and judgment on the part of the ridiculous author). And as for Miles STandish, the year 2007 is FAR closer to 1858 than the early 17th century in which the poem was set. It's like saying that Englishmen of the era of the Black Plague were nostalgic for the days of the Norman Conquest. Ludicrous historical generalization based on clumsy, even credulous understanding of history--or even the passage of time. It's not even the mere passage of time, but the cultural and cognitive divergence that transpired in the meantime (this is a silly and overwrought phrase, I know, but I will attempt to explain). Think of the worldview of a 17th century Pilgrim: a Brownian, perhaps, and certainly a Protestant of an extremely Low Church orientation. A patriotic ENGLISHMAN living in an era before Britain's colonial and imperial greatness. Contrast that with the mid-18th century English-American (still a very "colonial" era, but quite dissimilar in most every other respect) and then the mid-19th century wealthy, industrial Bostonian-Brahmin American with his unitarianism (I would imagine--don't know Longfellow's particulars) and thorough American patriotism. Essentially, the implied historical generalizations in the that 'only recently past' phrase are egregious.

I'd like to know what half-witted 4th grade teacher penned that historical fallacy. That's probably why our schools are so rotten and our children so poorly educated. For all the social problems of classical education, the billion dollar, post-modern, politically correct gruel we're forced to swallow through AT LEAST until college is insufficient.

The Lord loves a good rant, Simon Jester —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.9.156.95 (talk) 19:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

The poem is beautiful but this article is just butchering it! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.79.31.164 (talk) 23:28, 19 December 2007 (UTC)