The poem was based near the time of the civil war. It is a poem that captured the feelings of all the Americans during the end of the Civil War’s end and the assassination of Lincoln. Also, captured the hearts of many Americans making the poem popular.…
As I read selected Walt Whitman’s poems I felt as if I was reading unfinished work. For example in the poem, “When I Heard the Learned Astronomer” it was very clear on what he was talking about. However, it felt to me as if he had received writers block. The poem could have gone on for a couple of more stanzas. I am no poem expert, but I feel as if the poem could have gotten into more details about the stars, and the astronomer. However, that is just me. Another one of his poems, “I Hear America Singing” was another beautifully written piece. However, once again, I felt as if it was not finished. He goes through each occupation with ease and briefly gives an overview of what they “sing.” To me, Whitman would have made an intriguing poem if…
Walter (Walt) whitman is an american poet, essayist, and a journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Was born May 13th, 1819. Lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s. Whitman spent his declining years working on additions and revisions to a new edition of the book and preparing his final volume of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My…
found the poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman interesting. The poem was straightforward for the most part so I found it easier to read than many of the other poems. First, I found the use of the word gliding in the poem very strange. The speaker was in an astronomy lecture hall and he stood up and left in the middle of the lecture. When I imagine an individual standing up in the middle of a hall, I think of it being disturbing, loud and annoying. The choice of the words rising and gliding made it sound like the writer stood up smoothly and gracefully which I found strange in the context. Also, the line that says “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick.” I understood unaccountable as in the author wasn’t feeling…
There can be several meanings and lessons take from the monologue said by John Keating. Keating is portrayed by Robin Williams and he does a wonderful job. He starts off by saying that poetry isn’t written just to be cute. It has a deeper meaning. It can stand for so many things. John takes time to discuss the necessities of the human race. We need medicine to heal us, laws to keep us in order, business to keep us off the coach and engineering to advance us. He is saying that we stay alive for “poetry, beauty, romance [and] love.” John quotes one of Walt Whitman’s poems “O me! O life” to gather further meaning to what he was saying to the students. It’s almost like John is saying the answer to our lives and why we’re still going is poetry.…
Walt Whitman entails a man questioning his own existence, only to answer himself with a simple answer. It begins as a list of the negative parts of life. For example, he feels as if he is “forever reproaching [him]self” (3); this means that no matter what happens in his life, the speaker still disapproves, and he can never feel truly content in his actions. When Whitman is spelling out “the struggle ever renew’d” (5) in life, he uses a repetitive device to emphasize the multitude of hardships people face in their lifetimes. At the beginning of each idea, he uses the word “of.” For example, Whitman states “of eyes that vainly crave the light” (4) to state that one negative art of life is that some people desperately crave attention and praise…
Walt Whitman, generally ignored in his time, has come to be recognized as a great poet among the American romantics. His works emphasize romantic ideals such as reverence towards nature, examination of the inner self, and distaste for scientific thought. Whitman's poems piece together life lessons and observations of existence into a message which promotes reader based reflection. His strongest works are debatable, but his poems with the strongest messages remain clear. "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer," "A noiseless patient spider," and "A Clear Midnight" each present a fascinating insight into the nature of human existence.…
As a recovering anorexic, I am all too familiar with my body and how it looks when I am standing, sitting, and lying down. I know the way my stomach curls under my ribs and how the fat on top makes a crease as if to say, “I’ve got your back ribs, no one can touch you.” I know the way my thighs stick to wooden seats when I sit for too long. I know the way my body feels when it is hungry, full, or tired. In these ways, one could say that I am overly sensitive to my body and its ways and cues. However, I feel that it makes the sensations I have in my body more “electric.” In I Sing the Body Electric, Walt Whitman caught my eye with the very first few lines.…
Although all of the texts that we have read in class are of equal importance, I have chosen to compare “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy, “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, and “From Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. All works have to do with the sense of self and coming to terms with the world around them.…
In Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself, I found different key pieces of Whitman’s diction and language to be more in depth and not so cut, black and white. This poem really makes you think by giving you different perspectives of life to wonder about through the use of his words. I have gotten the impression that Whitman really values himself and his beliefs of a good world and being alive in the present is worthwhile to him. His words are very powerful, thoughtful and even strong enough to change somebodies view of how they see the world. Whitman includes inspirational, yet erotic views of how he feels for his soul and the life around him.…
Charles Whitman was born June 24, 1941. The town he was born in is called Lake Worth, the state is Florida. In the early years of Charles Whitman he was taught at a young age how to properly handle a gun. Charles was a model student and an Eagle Scout who left home early to escape a violent father. When Charles joined the Marine Corps be became a sharpshooter which in other words a sniper. Charles did his time in the marines before he enrolled into the University of Texas. During his time at Texas University Charles met his future wife, Kathryn Leissner, they soon married in 1962. Charles suffered from mental illness and severe anger fits.…
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…
Like most of the other poems, it too was revised extensively, reaching its final permutation in 1881. “Song of Myself” is a sprawling combination of biography, sermon, and poetic meditation. It is not nearly as heavy-handed in its pronouncements as “Starting at Paumanok”; rather, Whitman uses symbols and sly commentary to get at important issues. “Song of Myself” is composed more of vignettes than lists: Whitman uses small, precisely drawn scenes to do his work here.This poem did not take on the title “Song of Myself” until the 1881 edition. Previous to that it had been titled “Poem of Walt Whitman, an American” and, in the 1860, 1867, and 1871 editions, simply “Walt Whitman.” The poem’s shifting title suggests something of what Whitman was about in this piece. As Walt Whitman, the specific individual, melts away into the abstract “Myself,” the poem explores the possibilities for communion between individuals. Starting from the premise that “what I assume you shall assume” Whitman tries to prove that he both encompasses and is indistinguishable from the…
Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle. Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men. Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, and at one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy.…
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," Ginsberg immediately tears into razor-sharp words, intended to cut through the foggy vale of contemporary American society. "Howl" is a title that is truly definitive of this work, it seems to pierce the quiet night like a solitary wolf's cry, hell-bent on reaching the deepest part of the reader's mind. How does it do this? With astonishing architecture, the writer clearly bases his foundation on Walt Whitman's "Long lines" pushing themselves upon the margins of the page. In contrast to Whitman one does not seem to have time to ponder before moving on. To do this he abuses the meter of the work at first using a myriad of catalog such as "angels staggering on tenement…