Bostonian, Mercy Otis Warren, "Muse of the American Revolution"

Mercy Otis Warren, photo from cover of book:

Mercy Otis Warren: The Muse of the American Revolution

Mercy Otis Warren was born in 1728 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was a successful businessman and an acquaintance of John Adams and his family and circle of friends. Warren observed the intensity with which her contemporaries had to live in order to receive the dignified respect that any human being would rightly expect to receive. Within her plays and essays, she included the concept of human rights advocacy and relevant themes of independence, juxtaposed with iconic characters and structures to bring awareness to her audience of the need for social and political transformation.

For example, in her 1773 play, The Adulateur, Warren described the issue of individual rights through the speech of her main character, Brutus:

            The change how drear! The sullen ghost of bondage

            Stalks full in view—already with her pinions,

            She shades the affrighted land—the insulting soldiers

            Tread down our choicest rights; while hoodwinked justice

            Drops her scales, and totters from her basis.

            Thus torn with nameless wounds, my bleeding country
            Demands a tear – that tear I’ll freely give her. 


[1] Mercy Otis Warren, The Adulateur, Act I, Scene I, Boston: New Printing Office, 1773.

        

The Great Escape movie and Iconic Realism

The Great Escape movie poster from 'Duck Duck Go' Images

Once, I was channel surfing and landed on The Great Escape, a 1963 film directed by John Sturges. I couldn't help but notice that this film illustrates the semiotic theory of iconic realism in that the audience perceives icons of both freedom and constraint through the character representations of the Allied prisoners of WWII and the German gestapo. 

As the film progresses with bucolic settings that also provide a perception of freedom, only to be constrained by the Nazi forces, the viewer becomes poignantly aware of freedom and its multiple forms. In the end, those characters who are still alive, question their need for physical freedom from the p.o.w. camp as they learn to appreciate their spiritual, intellectual, and emotional autonomy. 

To hear me read this, please click HERE.

Ode to Skunk Cabbage

Below, you will find my favorite spring poem. It has nothing to do with iconic realism. Today is a beautiful, early spring day here, and I just felt like sharing this. Hope you enjoy it!

Photo of Skunk Cabbage

Ode to Skunk Cabbage

Bursting forth from its ruddy milieu

a flower erects from its hooded spathe.

This courageous prophet boldly

faces the frigid air with confidence,

radiating silently, as if to say,

“Come to me, for I offer

nourishment you need now.”

Sweet attraction allures, and she comes:

the beetle, the spider, the queen bee,

warmed by the generosity

of Spring’s first flower.

Odiferous, proud, protective,

he inspires other fragrant flora

to engender beauty.

Now, Spring has arrived

with the burgeoning

of the exceptional Skunk Cabbage.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos