Of course, he also seems to stand apart from the grime, putting himself in the position of the observer. In Leaves of Grass, Whitman celebrates unity of all life and people. Walt Whitman celebrates the freedom he sees as inherent in America through his verse. Whitman's style reflects his individualism. Whitman quit school at the age of eleven. Whitman understands very well that the democracy of America is imperfect, filled with injustice, self-serving, and undermined by the tyranny of the individual.
In this section, Whitman first engages the idea of individuality and collectivity. The first notion is that in the broadest sense we cannot know anything. The use of symbolism throughout the poem. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a collogue and admirer of Walt once spoke this of him '…Whitman, that Sir, is a strange case, a case unknown to any of us, unless we should stumble upon him at church one day…'; Chase 142. What was your favorite line of poetry from the Whitman reading and why? The passage is full of longing, and such blatant recognition of desire coupled with the lusty descriptions of the men's bodies shocked some contemporary readers. Dickinson was restricted to her own home for almost all of her life, which limits her views on how the world really is.
The father of free verse, and perhaps the American perspective of poetry, Walt Whitman embodies these values in his life and work. This lesson looks at the poem's structure, themes and interpretations. The poem Song of Myself has very mystical and profound ideas in this poem in my opinion. Though two very different writers with different styles, they share some of the same ideas. The poet loves them all and is part of them all. I mind how we lay in June, such a transparent summer morning; You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me, And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my barestript heart, And reached till you felt my beard, and reached till you held my feet.
The colloquial expressions void of obscure high-art references give Whitman's poem an accessibility and charm that is both obscure and wandering, yet we want it to be within our grasp so we can celebrate right along with him. Today, the goodness of the soul and the badness of the flesh still remain a significant notion in contemporary thought. It is hard to believe this classic was written during the Civil War era. Compare and contrast Whitman to other authors, such as and. Once more, although both Whitman and Dickinson have many different feelings about death, they also share many similar feelings about it as well.
During this time, Whitman learned and saw so much. It's divided into 52 sections, but those sections aren't arranged in any regular way. And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. Whitman has no answer for the child. Osgood, 1881 Passage to India J. They are passionate spectators who take in their surroundings with every sense. Current, Williams, Freidel- page 292-293.
This is the first indication of its theme of unity of all life and nature the inherent transcendence. He also explains how death leads to the beginning of life in this poem. The tone at the very beginning of this poem seems a bit youthful. In other words, he moves to attain the American Dream. He felt that both the form and the content of his work could sow the democratic spirit in his readers' hearts and minds.
Whether the sunshines or the rain falls, whether a flower blooms or willows, nature will always recreate itself and remain a mystery to mankind. Whitman does not search for divinity within abstract concepts but rather, he finds God in nature and in the human body. While this sounds like an accurate view, the problem is that through this notion we are assuming that there is someone out there that knows the answer to everything. Whitman begins the poem by asserting the idea of self and its identification with all selves, and its identification with all selves and emphasizing his belief in the interrelationship of all beings and all matter. Whitman seems to draw from the many roots of belief to form his own religion, putting himself as the center. Born on May 31st 1819, died March 26th 1892.
The poem could also relate to the loss of a memory… 1366 Words 6 Pages The Recurring Theme of Death in the Poetry of Philip Larkin. Whitman was most active in writing during the times before and after the war, choosing to dedicate himself to helping wounded soldiers during the war instead. Generally, the anaphora and the rhythm transform the poems into celebratory chants, and the joyous form and structure reflect the joyousness of the poetic content. The lines in 'Song of Myself' spill over the page, sometimes filling up two or three text lines before he takes a break. Radically democratic and explicitly sexual, the poem, from the very start, goes beyond even the extended bound of transcendentalist thought in its celebration of the relation between physical and spiritual, individual and universal. Whitman then takes the metaphor one step farther, telling the child that even the grass that has died and has gone back to the earth is a part of the whole. Evidently, there are uplifting and humorous sides to his work as well, but for… 819 Words 4 Pages The Theme of Death in Poetry Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are two Modern American Poets who consistently wrote about the theme of death.
He's also obsessed with how good life is. This joining is both mysterious and erotic for those that take part. This style, for which Whitman is famous, is in direct relation to several major American cultural developments. He no longer holds these pretensions, however. He used 'Song of Myself' to explore those ideas while preaching self-knowledge, liberty and acceptance for all.