Wednesday, October 16th

Stephen Vincent Benét was born July 22, 1898, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, into a military family. His father had a wide appreciation for literature, and Benét's siblings, William Rose and Laura, also became writers. Benét attended Yale University where he published two collections of poetry, Five Men and Pompey (1915), The Drug-Shop (1917). His studies were interrupted by a year of civilian military service; he worked as a cipher-clerk in the same department as James Thurber. He graduated from Yale in 1919, submitting his third volume of poems in place of a thesis. He published his first novel The Beginning of Wisdom in 1921. Benét then moved to France to continue his studies at the Sorbonne and returned to the United States in 1923 with his new wife, the writer Rosemary Carr.

Benét was successful in many different literary forms, which included novels, short stories, screenplays, radio broadcasts, and a libretto for an opera by Douglas Moore based on "The Devil and Daniel Webster." His most famous work is the long poem John Brown's Body for which he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1929—a long narrative poem which interweaves historical and fictional characters to relate important events in the Civil War, from the raid on Harper's Ferry to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. During his lifetime, Benét also received the O. Henry Story Prize, the Roosevelt Medal, and a second Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for the posthumously-published Western Star, the first part of an epic poem based on American history. At the age of 44, Benét suffered a heart attack and died on March 13, 1943, in New York City.

Benét wrote the story in response to the April 25, 1937 bombing of Guernica, in which Fascistmilitary forces destroyed the majority of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.^[5] This story took place before the public knowledge of nuclear weapons, but Benét's description of "The Great Burning" is similar to later descriptions of the effects of the atomic bombings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. His "deadly mist", and "fire falling from the sky" seem eerily prescient of the descriptions of the aftermath of nuclear blasts. However, the "deadly mist" may also be a reference to chemical weapons in World War I, particularly mustard gas, a feared weapon of war that Benét's generation was very familiar with. The story was written in 1937, two years before the Manhattan Projectstarted, and six years before there was widespread public knowledge of the project.

Time to play detective.  What can we "decode" from our reading?

"By the Waters of Babylon"

• Setting?
• Point of view?
• Theme?
• Conflict?
• Personification?
• Characterization of John and his father?

Define the following terms from the story:

• Great Burning=
• Great Dead Places=
• Eight Suns=
• Great River=
• God Road=
• Ou-dis-sun=
• Place of the Gods=
• Old Writings=
• Too big to be houses=
• God Roads across the river=
• Fire from the sky=
• Great spike of rusted metal=
• ubtreas=
• ashing=
• shattered image=
• carved stones with magical numbers and words=
• enchanted boxes and jars=
• Great temple with roof painted like the sky=
• Caves and Tunnels=
• Fruits from jars=
• drink that made his head swim=
• towers high enough but not so high=
• bronze door with no handle=
• coverings on the floor=
• washing place with no water=
• cooking place with no wood=
• chariots=
• Gods=
• Turned night into day=
• Mist that poisoned=
• The destruction=
• Poison still in the ground=
• Flew in the air=
• All the magic they had=
• Dead God=
• Magic tools are broken=
• Catacombs=
• Bitter water=
• Enchanted box with food=
• Roaring in my ears=
• 2 towers=

Upcoming events:

• Thursday, college essay conferences
• Friday, "By the Waters of Babylon" quiz

Homework:

• Prepare for "By the Waters of Babylon" Quiz