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Attitudes Toward America In Walt Whitman's Poetry

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Walt Whitman was a man ahead of his time. He expressed different sorts of sexuality that were considered taboo in his time, his writing was erotic and democratic, it made people uncomfortable, and it was sensational. In Beat! Beat! Drum! And I Hear America Singing Whitman uses several techniques to show a theme through the structure of his poems, These poems share an underlying theme which is Whitman 's attitude toward America and what it represents, he celebrates the rigorous labor that America is built on, which is evident in Beat! Beat! Drums! As he speaks of Whitman wrote Beat! Beat Drums!in 1861- the start of the civil wars and drums are used as a symbol of battle, just how Ancient Egyptians used the horn to signal war. Beat Beat Drums …show more content…

represent citizens whose lives are disrupted by war.Theme: war disrupts all.There is no rhyme scheme, here is no metrical pattern. Whitman is the father of free verse. He does use repetition, hwoever, to create rhythm.Of all the "I Hear America Singing" literary terms, none makes its mark more strongly than synecdoche. "America" in line 1 represents individual Americans, more specifically, workers. Each line of the poem is an example of synecdoche (a special type of metaphor where the parts equal the whole or the whole equals the parts). Whitman is celebrating the greatness of America by celebrating the greatness of its individuals.His word choice beholds different meanings such as "Carols" in line 1 is a connotatively charged word. It is most often associated with holy songs about Christmas. What better way to celebrate individuals and the physical body than connecting it with the physical manifestation of God himself.the sounds and actions of laborers working is compared to music. Note that all the jobs described by Whitman require physical effort.Repetition - The repetition of "the" in the final

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