As Walt Whitman once said, “I bequeath myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love; If…
Through analyzing Walt Whitman’s “A Song of Myself” and Donald Hall’s “My Son My Executioner” and “Kicking the Leaves”, one can truly develop a sense of appreciation for the two poets. Both poets express the same wonder and awe for the cyclical nature of life, and both poets manage to relate this theme to nature. Whitman and Hall have proved to the world that the cyclical nature of life is a theme worth understanding, and both poets have successfully ignited their fascination with this theme in their…
Used in Walt Whitman’s “Song od Myself” to represent a number of things like the extent to which human beings are mentally and creatively…
Poetry comes in many forms such as a sonnet, ode, dramatic monologue, etc. and each form and structure can change or enhance the meaning of the text. For example, through the construction of the free verse poem 'Digging ', written in 1966 in Ireland as the rural economy started to change, the reader is shown the conflicts that arise when the expectations of a father, who represents a generation of rural workers, clashes with the ambitions of an individual. In the poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth ', written post-WWI, we see the sonnet form used to convey and criticize the events seen during and after a war (particularly with the inadequacy of the responding religious ceremonies) and its repercussions on those affected by it. Both poems achieve a very different effect and convey a completely new message as a result of the way they have been constructed.…
“I want to be a writer, a poet like Lord Tennyson, and several others I admire. I recently read a book of poems titled ‘Leaves of Grass’ by an American named Walt Whitman… the gent published it with his portrait in the book… quite a handsome fellow. His eyes beckon me to follow his lead and tell the world my thoughts…”…
Walt Whitman is considered one of America’s greatest poets. During his lifetime, Whitman wrote hundreds of poems about life, love and democracy, among many others. In particular, Whitman’s poetry reflects the spirit of the age in which he lived, the Civil War. In taking a closer look at one of his most renowned and brilliant pieces, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, three particular themes are observed; his love for nature, the cycle of life, as represented by both life and death, and rebirth.…
Although most people believe that the consequences of war will always be present in society, there are few who think it can be completely erased. In “Grass,” Carl Sandburg uses personification to proclaim that the traces of war can be eliminated by nature and time. "Grass" by Carl Sandburg is a poem filled with depth and complexity. The beginning line of the poem stating, "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo" (Sandburg, Carl line 1) shows that there were several bodies left over from war. This historical allusion has a colorful meaning because Austerlitz and Waterloo were two horrific warzones.…
Every time I study Walt Whitman, I am reminded of my two favorite movies. In The History Boys, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is referenced to by the main character, Hector. While the scene does not go into much detail about Whitman or his poems, the fact the Leaves of Grass is a renowned collection of poetry is mentioned. Dead Poet’s Society, my very favorite movie, tends to go into more detail regarding Whitman. Anyone who has seen the movie will know that the portrait that Keating keeps above his chalkboard in his classroom is of Whitman, himself. In one of the main scenes of the movie, Todd, a shy and quiet boy is brought up in front of the class to create a poem off the top of his head, using Whitman’s likeliness as inspiration. Todd comes up with “A Sweaty Toothed Madman” and shows his classmates how emotional and effective poetry can really be.…
In “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman is trying to see self as a whole. He wants to find strength and beauty as to make self whole and to be unified with humanity and nature. While people are condemning him, because the expression of a sexual content and a connection that makes use body and soul as well as the shock value. Whitman’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson decides to back him in his writing. Emerson’s letter to Whitman calling Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed" saved Whitman 's self-published first edition from sinking into obscurity. Yet even more important, Emerson 's work as a whole helped to prepare readers for the liberal, post-Christian spirituality that pervades Leaves of Grass. (Insert my source). Whitman wants to bring…
The origins come from his school teaching days when asked ““What is the grass?””(The Whitman Archive) a question that sent him into a state of pondering and wondering on the more complex meanings that were behind the seemingly simple and ordinary. Time passed and he moved with the idea in the back of his mind until the poem was created which expressed his answer. Like the previous this poem was in his first edition of Leaves of Grass. The book published when he witnessed the darker sides of the nation. He had visited New Orleans and was shocked at the sight of slavery, prompting him to create the free-soil newspaper, the Brooklyn Weekly Freeman, after which he did several odd jobs on the side while beginning to publish the book. The poem Song of Myself at first glance appears individualistic and self-centered especially with the heavy use of “I”. However, while boasting about American individualism, he weaves the idea of collectivism and unity by adding “you”. He places himself at the same level of the reader and reminds that while we are all different and seek different goals we all are made the same and breath the same…
Walt Whitman is one of the first great American poets. He was born in 1819 on Long Island and he was one of ten children. Whitman only went to school for a few years until he turned eleven and concluded formal schooling. He then attempted to find work to support his future family. He found a job as an office boy and then moved on to be an apprentice with a local paper where he learned all about the printing press. The following summer he joined a different paper called the New York Mirror where he published some of his earliest works of poetry. As Whitman’s work has grown with techniques such as free verse, parallelism, repetition, imagery, and symbolism so have his views of democracy, the human body, Abraham Lincoln, and race and diversity in America.…
Walt Whitman’s use of first person in his poems, allows the reader to be the author’s spectator. It is like the author is talking directly to the reader, which makes the reader feel more comfortable to read the poem and understand it better. However, the author uses first person as a rhetorical device. This leads the reader to pay closely attention to the poem in order to figure out what topic the author is trying to make the reader consider, from his perspective. Whitman’s poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” clearly shows this use of first person as a rhetorical device.…
The story unfolds during the poem, of the young farm boy having his hand severed by a wood saw, came from a newspaper article that frost read. However, being a poet, frost does not simply reproduce the details of the article as a narrative. He carefully selects the details to use and the ones to omit so that his poem,based on the factual,unemotional newspaper report of one particular farm boy’s tragic death becomes a poem exploring the fragility of life,its apparent cheapness and the constant presence of death in our lives which can happen at any moment,making this poem have a universal effect rather than a personal elegy for the dead body. Robert Frost often uses the backdrop of new England landscape to expose the darker aspects of human…
Ignoffo writes about Whitman’s vision of America democracy or his utopian Dream. According to the author the "grass" in the title is an expressively simple universal image that answers the question about the meaning of life and the destiny of the common man in America. He talks about the “grass” as “an over-returning growth; it dies and grows again in endless cycles. The grass of the present comes from the "leaves" (the leavings) of many past deaths, and will become the compost of many future lives.” In his paper the author describe the “grass” as a symbol of democracy. He explains that is the “most common vegetation of all, and it is very hardy if it is in good soil”, thus, Whitman hoped that the proper soil would be found in the future “amative…
During his life, Robert Frost, the icon of American literature, wrote many poems that limned the picturesque American Landscape. His mostly explicated poems “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” reflect his young manhood in the rural New England. Both of these poems are seemingly straightforward but in reality, they deal with a higher level of complexity and philosophy. Despite the difference in style and message, “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are loaded with vivid imagery and symbolism that metaphorically depict the return to the nature and childhood, the struggle between reality and imagination, and also freedom and captivation.…