Walt Whitman uses diction and figurative language to find the purpose of life in his poem, “O Me! O Life!”. For the duration of the first stanza, a negative choice of vocabulary describes the problems of life. “The endless trains of the faithless” (2), displays a lack of hope that leads to a morose tone.
In the poem A song of myself featured in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman he insists that the grass itself is the cycle of the living and dead. Whitman demonstrates,” It seems to the beautiful uncut hair graves. ” This demonstrates that the grass covers the top of the graves and is like a metaphor described as human hair. It is important, because the grass is seen as hair. Ultimately, what is in discussion here is the idea of the grass being hair.
In his poem, “To the Sayers of Words,” Walt Whitman recognizes the problems associated with language and its inability to fully convey meaning. As we have discussed in class, Whitman seeks to discover a natural, organic language, which can embody the living force of things on earth. “To the Sayers of Words” is Whitman’s renunciation of “audible words,” as he acknowledges his “tongue is ineffectual on its pivots” and that “the best of earth cannot be told anyhow.” Because we use to mediate or signify things, there is an implied distance between the object and our languages. In this poem, Whitman seeks a merger of “the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth,” or to bridge the gap of distance by making “dictionaries of the words that
Overall, the speaker's viewpoint in "Song of Myself" is one of exuberant celebration of self, interconnectedness with nature, and a profound belief in the equality and interconnectedness of all people. The poem is a testament to Whitman's humanistic and
Throughout his poem, he constantly talks about the importance of coming together and merging. Whitman says, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman 1). On the surface, this quote may appear to illustrate that Whitman thinks highly of himself, but it is more than this. The last part of this quote emphasizes that we are all connected and even though we are all individuals, we should not forget that we are connected to one another. Whitman also says, “Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world.
America was not just a place to Walt Whitman, it was a goal to shoot for. His perfect America is where all people are equal and all jobs are equally important. Also that all people feel for one another and are passionate and caring individuals. One theme to “Song of myself” is Walt Whitman’s idea of America. The poem celebrates diversity in America.
To Whitman poetics and politics are inseparable. He understands the politics of his country and realizes the mutual relationship between that politics and the national poetry of his country. He tried to put up for sale the first edition of Leaves of Grass on July 4, 1855. “By invoking the scene of an Independence Day celebration in ‘Song of Myself,’ Whitman succeeds in connecting the internal events of his poetry with the external circumstances of his book’s publication” (Whitley 460). “In addition to the metonymic feat of making Leaves of Grass and his own person merge so that they became almost exchangeable terms, Whitman created similar slippage between himself and his country” (Price, To Walt Whitman, America 4).
Looking at the world, it all looks so magical, with all of its beautifully done buildings. However, “Everything’s uglier up close” (Green, 57), even the hardest rocks can’t cover up the “paperness” [1] of the world. Whitman wrote “Leaves of Grass” as a way to represent himself, and his perspective of the fakeness, and materialism of life. John green, on the other hand, used Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” in his book “Paper Towns” to discuss his own point of view on materialism. Margo Roth Spiegelman, the main character of John Green’s novel is influenced by Whitman.
Following the Unions win over the Confederacy in the Civil War; slavery was abolished and The American identity was ultimately challenged. Walt Whitman was known as the “Democratic Poet” wrote in favor of uniting The United States and abolishing all kinds of racial segregation. Section 19 (lines 373-388) in Whitman’s poem titled Song of Myself, reiterates how all men are created equal and shall be treated as equal. Whitman presents this new America as fair to all by stating: “This is the meal equally set, this is the meat for natural hunger” (373). All men are naturally hungry; however, before not all men satiated their hunger in the same ways.
Walt Whitman similar to Henry David Thoreau and other transcendentalism writes based off nature. This nature could relate to either nature outside or even nature with someone. In Walt Whitman’s Song Of myself, Section 51, Whitman basically tells every reader to be grateful for every moment in their life because each moment leads up to the future and to do what they need to do before it is too late. In the beginning, Whitman says “The past and present wilt[..]”. Whitman expresses the past and present in a way as flowers and that each time something occurs, the moment in the present or past that had made it led to the that moment wilts.
“Now I will do nothing but listen,/ To acrrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute towards it.” (Section 26) In “Song of Myself” Whitman directly references his desire to sit and do nothing but listen to the sounds of nature. He trusts in nature to bring him the clarity he pursues, and he believes that all of his desires can be fulfilled in this way. Japhy attempts to teach Ray the importance of meditating and listening to mature in order to help build religious and spiritual understanding.
Everyone has a moment in life we they feel that they are not the person they were before that after that moment they will be forever changed whether it be during a heartbreak a celebration or just a going through a rough time it is important to realize that when you read this poem you become changed; for its message is universal and is so relatable. Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself touches on so many aspects of humanity that when you try to compare this works you often find people who share the same views that he had. For instance, we see so many sides to Walt as he expresses himself in his writing much like the musical artists of today like Lady Gaga, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie these artist each convey one of his many messages that his poem
In Leaves of Grass, is a poem called the “Song of Myself”. Whitman’s purpose of the poem was to explain “Me, Myself, and I” (Shmoop Editorial Team) in 52 stanzas. it was first published in 1855, with no title, included in his collection of poems, Leaves of Grass. There is not a way to fully summarize this poem because there is too much poem (52
Walt Whitman’s poems in his book, “Leaves of Grass” are very interesting because of the amount of descriptive details that he uses throughout his works. When read out loud, I was really able to imagine what Whitman was writing about at certain points. For example, in describing grass in Poem number 6, Whitman describes it as, “This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, darker than the colorless beards of old men, dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths” (1397). This description from Whitman gives us a much deeper detailed description of grass than we would usually think of it as by receiving sensory details from these lines. These sensual poems by Whitman goes to show the great detail he used in writing his poems and also shows the difference these sensory details make for his poems.
In this grand poem, Whitman glorifies the unity of all people and life. He embraces the geographical diversity as well as the diversity of culture, work, as well as sexuality or beliefs. Whitman’s influence sets American dreams of freedom, independence, and self-fulfillment, and changes them for larger spiritual meaning. Whitman appreciates hard work as well as being simple and non-egotistical. His major ideas are things such as soul, good health, as well as the love of nature.
