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Walt Whitman as an American poet essay
Walt Whitman as an American poet essay
Walt Whitman as an American poet essay
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American Poetry comes in many different shapes and forms. There are a plethora of American authors that use various writing techniques to transform their ideas into works of art. Walter “Walt” Whitman is one of the most famous authors that used a variety of styles in many of his poems. Many of his works of art affected the population and has influenced the country. He has created multiple poems that have become popular over the years and will be remembered for years to come. Walt Whitman comes from a self-deprecating family that has a tremendous adoration for their home country, America. His father took him out of school when he was young to help with the household funds. As he grew older, Whitman was in and out of different occupations …show more content…
Repetition is used profoundly to help the reader understand the symbols and themes throughout the poem. It creates the emphasis that the speaker is praying and searching immensely for his connection to eternal life. It also creates an effect on the reader that the speaker and the spider are similar in the same way, repeating similar actions. “Artful repetition of keywords and phrases occurs throughout ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider.’ This is a strategy Whitman employs in many poems … but it is particularly appropriate here, because the repetition echoes the repetitive nature of the spider’s actions and longings of the soul,” (Napierkowski and Ruby 31: 192-193). The repetition portrays the yearning desire of the spider and the speaker to find their connections. In the second stanza Whitman writes, “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them…” (Whitman 212). He repeatedly uses verbs in this line to show how tremendously the speaker wants to find his reattachment to society. It emphasizes the persistent activity of the speaker’s soul. Repetition is one of the many great rhetorical devices Whitman uses. Not only is it shown in this poem, but he also uses it in many other poems to create themes and different aspects. “Whitman’s poetry exudes a sense of music throughout, not in the traditional manner, but in a new vein, much of it emanating from his expertise in using the repetition of sounds, words, and phrases to create expressive rhythms,” (Philip K and Irons-Georges 5: 2704). This rhetorical device has created many different characteristics in Whitman’s poems, and has especially created one in “A Noiseless Patient Spider.” Without his repetition throughout the poem, the portrayal of the themes separateness and desire for connection would not have been understood by the
Walt Whitman was a famous American poet who wrote many great poems during the Civil War. Though he originally worked for printing presses and newspapers, he later became a famous poet. During the Civil War, Whitman wrote many patriotic poems that supported the ideas of the North. Whitman’s poems will forever be linked to the American Civil War era of poetry. Walt Whitman was an iconic American poet with an interesting life that later impacted his works of poetry.
One of the greatest American poets Walt Whitman, wrote an amazing poem called I Hear America Singing. In this poem, he talks about a journey on a boat. Using very in depth symbolism to show America and the journey that this country has been through. It also talks about the freedoms that America has, and how here, it is unlike any other country. Expressing the way how women have this everlasting freedom as well. Langston Hughes also write a poem called I, Too, Sing America. In this poem, it is blatantly obvious that he cites Walt Whitman, and expresses his mutual belief about America, stating that Walt Whitman is one of his greatest influences.
The theme in “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” “is the quest, or exploration, for meaning and knowledge in the vastness of the universe” (Cummings). He elucidates this idea through the symbolization of a spider and human. He describes the actions of the spider and connects it with the behavior of a human in order to get his idea across. He also uses repetition. Line four says, “it launched forth filament, filament, filament out of itself” (Whitman 723). Filament is reiterated. It is what spiders do when they are loo...
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island. His early years included much contact with words and writing; he worked as an office boy as a pre-teen, then later as a printer, journalist, and, briefly, a teacher, returning eventually to his first love and life’s work—writing. Despite the lack of extensive formal education, Whitman experienced literature, "reading voraciously from the literary classics and the Bible, and was deeply influenced by Goethe, Carlyle, Emerson, and Sir Walter Scott" (Introduction vii).
The Heath Anthology of American Literature repeatedly refers to Walt Whitman and his poetry in terms of being American, yet as I read Song of Myself, my thoughts are continually drawn to the philosophies and religions of the Far East. Like the Tao Te Ching ideas are expressed in enigmatic verse and each stanza is a Zen koan waiting to be meditated on and puzzled out. Even Emerson called Whitman's poetry "a remarkable mixture of the Bhagvat Gita and the New York Herald" ("The Whitman Project"). Song of Myself contains multitudes of passages that express Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist thought.
In his poem A Noiseless Patient Spider, Walt Whitman talks about how a spider is lost in a large space and is working hard to find a connection to everything around it. He compares it to his own life and how he hopes he will be able to use bridges or ships to find connections in large “oceans of space (7)” to prevent feeling isolated. Whitman expresses this through an extended metaphor, repetition of certain words or phrases, and alliteration.
Poetry is a universe of subjectivity. When two poems are set up, side-by-side, to create discussion, results may vary. But it is clear in Sherman Alexie’s two poems, “Defending Walt Whitman” and “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel”, where the discussion must go. Alexie explores Native American culture and the effect that the Europeans have had on the native people of the United States. This feat is accomplished through the thoughtful use of several literary devices, including tone, simile, allusion, and metaphor.
In “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, Walt Whitman compares the images of a spider creating a web to catch its prey to his own soul. In the first stanza, he describes the spider creating its web. In the second stanza, he begins to describe his own soul searching for something it needs. Throughout the poem, Whitman is relating the spider to the human soul by showing how both would pursue and capture what they need to continue to exist in this life.
Somewhat than developing a casual look, the speaker is closely observing this spider, taking footnote precisely what it is doing. The whirling of the web is so astonishing that the speaker nearly gets lost in just watching it. Thus the speaker not only is accurately scrutiny a web being created, but without recognizing is figuratively getting “caught in a web” of thought and admiration. As is nearly always the illustration with Whitman, this poem is created in free verse. Which means that it doesn’t rhyme, and there’s no set rhythm or meter. Slant rhymes are families of words that are not “full rhymes (like “cat”-“hat”) although have endings that nearly rhyme in sound. Alike noiseless and patient- hear the “ent” sound? Also the repeat has a specific wave to it. Think of what a spider does. A spider flings out its filament, seeming never-ending and so of course there will be repetition here as the speaker attempts to create a rhythm similar to a spider sitting and throwing its thread. The main question is, if this doesn’t rhyme or use meter, why is it a poem? Is it just a series of sentences broken up into shorter lines? Now, there
One may argue that old poetry is better than new poetry simply because it is older, so some would think it is more raw and original than modern poetry. This is not the case. There are plenty of authentic and original artists out there, like Tyler Joseph of the band Twenty one Pilots. There are plenty of not-so-organic poets from decades ago, like Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman is not a bad poet, but others are better at using the poetic literary devices (PLDs) to convey their message. The pieces that will be argued in this paper are “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman and “Car Radio” written by Tyler Joseph. These two authors utilized the literary devices of symbolism, figures of speech, imagery, tone, hyperbole & repetition to get their
Love is the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon mankind. Defining love is different for every culture, race, and religion. Walt Whitman’s love is ever changing for anyone who tries to love him or understand his work. Love can be broken down into a multitude of emotions, and feelings towards someone or some object. In order to find love that is searched for, preparations must be made to allow the full experience of Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand by Walt Whitman to be pious. Walt Whitman’s poem is devoted to the fullness of love, and a description of fantasy and reality. A journey to find love starts with knowledge that both participants are willing, and able to consummate their love in judgment under God. Time is the greatest accomplice to justify the energy and sacrifice needed to start developing the ingredients needed for love to grow. Each stanza is a new ingredient to add to the next stanza. Over time, this addition of each stanza will eventually lead to a conclusion. A conclusion that love is ever changing, and people must either change along with love or never know the miracle of love.
The poem is not written in traditional epic style such as The Odyssey or The Aeneid, but instead adopts a free verse style. Whitman’s choice of how to write the poem reflects on his thoughts of the country. Since America is unlike any country before it, its epic should not be limited to the same traditional style. Instead its style should be as free as the country which it represents, and propose a revolutionary set of ideals which will one day become an example for others to
Walt was not the type of writer who wrote for the “norm.” He was the type who was against it, constantly crossing the conservative boundaries by expressing his views, political,.religious and sexual. His outspoken attitude, and fearlessness was exactly what separated him from the rest. “Walt Whitman had a passion for his native soil; he was hypnotized by the word America; he spent much of his mature life in brooding over the question, “What, after all, is an American, and what should an American poet be in our age of science and democracy?”(Bliss) Walt Whitman is exactly what an American poet should be, an outspoken individual not afraid to go against the normality. Although Walt was a great writer, what led him be able to create work such as the ones he did? His life experiences. Just as the majority of the greatest writers of history, they were highly influenced by their life experi...
Illustrated by Whitman from his poem “ Song of Myself “ from the collection Leaves of Grass that the individual place is to be part of nature. Whitman articulates, “ This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers “ (ll. 31). This example proves that people who die and get buried fertilizes the soil and grows grass. It’s being proven by the corpse buried underground and grass that’s growing from it, and it’s significant because in order to live individuals have to die and in order to die individuals have to live. Transcendentalist like Whitman valued nature and the individuals belonging in it. Therefore, Whitman illustrates, “ They are alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprouts show there
Walt Whitman is arguably America’s most influential poet in history. Born Walter Whitman in May 31st, 1819 to Walter Whitman and Louisa van Velsor, he was immediately nicknamed ‘Walt’ to distinguish him from his father. He came to life in West Hills on the famous Long Island, the second of nine children that grew up in Brooklyn. He came to be fondly known as ‘the Bard of Democracy’, mainly because that was a main message in his work. He is also celebrated as ‘the father of the free verse’. He was a liberal thinker and was vehemently against slavery, although later on he was against the abolitionists because, according to him, they were anti-democracy. He managed to marry transcendentalism with realism in his works. His occupation was a printer school teacher and editor.