Walt Whitman's Poem I Hear America

In Walt Whitman poem I hear America singing, major themes are work, and pride. Whitman expresses his American pride, He focuses on the hard work that each worker puts in everyday, and how these hardworking people help build America, such as the shoemaker, mechanics, carpenter, boatman, etc. He also speaks about them in such pride and honor, it shows how much he values them, as well as America.

In Emily Dickinson's poem, "my life closed twice before its close", major themes is death and pain. In her poem, it describes her pain and agony she has experienced regarding two beloved ones. She reveals that her life has "closed twice before its close" meaning that she feels she had died twice, and the situation was very traumatizing. Dickinson also considers how horrible it would feel to lose another person in her life would be, when she states " a third event to me, so high, so hopeless to conceive". Lastly, in the last two sentences she states " parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell", comparing the work we live in as hell and that all we need is heaven, since it's where our beloved ones part to.

In the first stanza of the poem he starts talking about Helen's beauty, Stating how beautiful she is, when he states, “Helen, thy beauty is to me”. He then discusses her beauty in terms of how it has makes him feel, comparing himself to a guy lost at sea, a "weary way-worn wanderer", who is finally carried home by the beauty of a woman he calls "Helen". Helen is an object of admiration, and fascination for poe. Lastly, he chooses the name helen, because in greek mythology, she was one of the most beautiful women