orange juice
Daniel Ahn
The Genius of Walt Whitman
One of America’s greatest poets in history, Walt Whitman, wrote the masterpiece “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” which is a literary masterpiece that showcases sincere and genuine feeling through his facility of words. Whitman utilizes certain words to enhance his diction to create a somber yet hopeful tone and parallelism to create a more melodious elegy that has lasted through the centuries. Whitman uses his diction to create a dark melancholy aura. Early in the poem, Whitman says, “…shades of night…moody…, tearful night…. Black murk that hides the star…” (Whitman 8-9). The dark description of the night evokes a kind of solemn regret that facilitates the creation of a proper mental image of the dark night. Again Whitman reiterates the darkness by saying, “… great cloud darkening…dirges through the night…” (Whitman 34-40). He chooses to use “darkening” to show that the cloud looming over them is casting a heavy shadow over the people. “Dirges” are used in place of songs in order to convey the mournful demeanor of the music that was played. Whitman makes use of diction by choosing words that have a certain solemn connotation in order to create a dark setting.
Although the words Whitman writes could create a dark, heavy setting, they also create a sense of hopefulness. He says, “…heavenly aerial beauty…arching heavens…summer approaching…” (Whitman 111-112). He utilizes “heavenly” and “arching heavens” to prove that even though a tragedy has occurred, there will always be hope. Later, he uses “summer approaching” and “throbb’d” in order to convey the vibrant life and hope which is yet to come but will nevertheless arrive even after the sorrow that follows the death of the president.
Whitman places parallelism in plenty of paragraphs to create a flow within the poem. When Whitman writes, “As I walk’d… As I saw… As you...” it creates a unique flow by repeating the first word every line. (Whitman 57-65).
The Genius of Walt Whitman
One of America’s greatest poets in history, Walt Whitman, wrote the masterpiece “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” which is a literary masterpiece that showcases sincere and genuine feeling through his facility of words. Whitman utilizes certain words to enhance his diction to create a somber yet hopeful tone and parallelism to create a more melodious elegy that has lasted through the centuries. Whitman uses his diction to create a dark melancholy aura. Early in the poem, Whitman says, “…shades of night…moody…, tearful night…. Black murk that hides the star…” (Whitman 8-9). The dark description of the night evokes a kind of solemn regret that facilitates the creation of a proper mental image of the dark night. Again Whitman reiterates the darkness by saying, “… great cloud darkening…dirges through the night…” (Whitman 34-40). He chooses to use “darkening” to show that the cloud looming over them is casting a heavy shadow over the people. “Dirges” are used in place of songs in order to convey the mournful demeanor of the music that was played. Whitman makes use of diction by choosing words that have a certain solemn connotation in order to create a dark setting.
Although the words Whitman writes could create a dark, heavy setting, they also create a sense of hopefulness. He says, “…heavenly aerial beauty…arching heavens…summer approaching…” (Whitman 111-112). He utilizes “heavenly” and “arching heavens” to prove that even though a tragedy has occurred, there will always be hope. Later, he uses “summer approaching” and “throbb’d” in order to convey the vibrant life and hope which is yet to come but will nevertheless arrive even after the sorrow that follows the death of the president.
Whitman places parallelism in plenty of paragraphs to create a flow within the poem. When Whitman writes, “As I walk’d… As I saw… As you...” it creates a unique flow by repeating the first word every line. (Whitman 57-65).