1) is the meaning of the poem the same in all different versions? does the format affect the meaning?
-yes, since the text is the exact same in all versions (except for the weird digital code on a couple), however the older scanned poem on the antique paper is what our group preferred b/c of how natural it reads w/ the breaks in the stanzas. hemans never planned on having her poem scanned onto the internet and have her stanzas broken up. it's really in a completely new format now, and although the meaning of the words are still the same, to some people, the meaning may change (and in my opinion cheapened) by a digital version.
-it's sort of like looking at a painting in a museum (heman's original poem) versus looking at that same painting as a jpeg online. it's technically the same image, but art history lovers tend to swear that certain paintings look so much different when viewed in person (either the lighting, the figures' expressions, etc.). or, another way of looking at it, in a slightly more pessimistic view, is that it's as if one ripped the painting out of its frame. people need the right setting to view certain works of art, painted or written. similarly, reading an old hard copy of a book is a different experience than reading it on the computer. still, it's probably better to have the poem online than to not have it at all.
2) what difference (if any) will digitizing make to our understanding of poems?
-although this was sort of addressed in the previous question, to expand on that, it might make some people's understanding slightly altered. it may make the poem more difficult to understand. it's sort of a weird juxtaposition that the poem uplifts nature yet its digitized version is like nature's antithesis. this poem is now displayed on the same piece of technology (a computer) that kids spend hours playing world of warcraft rather than go outside and experience the real world and real nature. so there's that.
3) how are each of these versions made?
-the first version looked at was made by taking a digital image of the original poem and then uploading it onto a computer. the library has a special camera that does less damage to the original poem when photographed than other cameras. the 2nd version could have been created by anyone just by typing the poem onto a blog or web site.
my interpretation:
-the meaning of the poem is more than just a girl that's picking flowers and being innocently happy. on page 2, the lines
"nature hath mines of such wealth—and thou
never wilt prize its delights as now!"
give the poem a deeper overall meaning. hemans is saying that not only are children naturally happy and more reactive no nature than adults, but that children value aesthetics in general on a different scale (and perhaps more so) than adults do. in defense of adults, they have to grow up and deal with the real world. the line in the epigraph
"griefs that along thy altered face"
means that grief and sadness affects children slowly over time and add character and wrinkles to adults' faces. wordsworth defended his childhood view of nature as an adult and vowed he would never lose his innocent childlike perspective. hemans seems to echo a little bit of that way of thinking about life as an adult.
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