“Song of Myself” is written completely in free verse, as it has no consistent poetic form throughout. In my opinion, this could resemble how life really has no set rhythm or length. From what I have read, the image of grass is mentioned several times throughout the poem, and is observed by Whitman in many different lights.
In the first stanza of the poem, Whitman explains what he is doing in that, “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass” (5). Although one might just think that grass is only grass and there is nothing more, Whitman feels as if there is so much more beneath the surface of this simple object. Whitman also really emphasizes the idea of eternity and that the grass represents something more than life.
In chant 6, Whitman is asked by a child, “what is the grass?” (89), and this simple question suddenly becomes a struggle for Whitman. A very important point that Whitman comes up with is that grass is really just, “the beautiful uncut hair of graves” (101). That is just my favorite line in this chant. I think that is such a great answer and strikes something so great inside me. He is referencing the fact that grass grows from graves and that it is here to remind us of the cycle of life. He says that because grass is everywhere that everyone is connected to it in some way from past experience. It seems like he keeps trying to let us into his head and see how he thinks.
Whitman uses great craft in this poem to make the reader ponder so many different meanings of one simple object. Something like grass is so common that we don’t even realize that it really is everywhere around us. This poem is very meaningful because of its originality and the images and ideas really stick with the reader b...
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...ard to believe in God when you are in a situation like this. It would be hard to have faith when you are treated like a nobody, and you feel like you have no other choice but to stay there and work because it is how you have to provide for yourself and your family. I would hate to think that there was nothing out there. To me, God is the stone that I have built my world around. I can talk to him no matter how my day has gone.
After reading this story, it gave me a better understanding of the work conditions of this era. It opened my eyes to the fact that the working conditions of the factories, the workers health, and age did not matter to the employers. It even makes me wonder if working conditions are still like this. I know as working class Americans, we don't think that people would work like this in the United States, but I'm sure that it happens every day.
...ntion of memories sweeping past, making it seem that the grass is bent by the memories like it is from wind. The grass here is a metaphor for the people, this is clear in the last line, “then learns to again to stand.” No matter what happens it always gets back up.
Carl Sandburg's short poem "Grass" represents a metaphor for the disguise of history. The persona tells how histories that have taken place are sooner or later disregarded. The persona tells that the histories should not be disregarded, but be left the way it is as cited in the poem "I am the grass .Let me work." People should notice the events that took place and learn from their mistakes and be better people. The places that are mentioned in the poem are allusions. The allusions are indirect references that Carl Sandburg utilizes to exhibit the seriousness of the past events.
Walt Whitman is one of America’s most popular and most influential poets. The first edition of Whitman’s well-known Leaves of Grass first appeared in July of the poet’s thirty-sixth year. A subsequent edition of Leaves of Grass (of which there were many) incorporated a collection of Whitman’s poems that had been offered readers in 1865. The sequence added for the 1867 edition was Drum-Taps, which poetically recounts the author’s experiences of the American Civil War.
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.
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.
Walt Whitman poem is about the marvel of astronomy. He wanted to learn about the stars. He went and heard an astronomer. He tells, “When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me.” All the data about astronomy was laid out in front of him, but this did not captivate his interest or filled his curiosity. It mad things worst. His plan to see the beauty in the stars was turned to boredom and sitting in a tiresome, lackluster lecture. He writes, “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick.” The lecture, data, and astronomer were not the beauty he wanted to see. The visual experience is what he wanted to see. The silence and view of the stars was better for him than the lecture and data. The beauty is what he really wanted. He did not want the hard facts.
... poem becomes “the subjective Romantic spirit personified” (Zweig 243) who assumes a highly personal point of view. At the same time, the natural world also demonstrates equality between individuals and the idea of forming an equal society. For example, the grass which the speaker mentions presents this idea as it is a “uniform hieroglyphic” (Whitman 1) that grows “among black folks as among white” (Whitman 1), therefore implying the notion of egalitarianism.
"look in vain for the poet whom I describe. We do not, with sufficient plainness, or sufficient profoundness, address ourselves to life, nor dare we chaunt our own times and social circumstances. If we filled the day with bravery, we should not shrink from celebrating it. Time and nature yield us many gifts, but not yet the timely man, the new religion, the reconciler, whom all things await" (Emerson 1653). Emerson is stating how everything can be a poem and a poet can reflect on valuable resources like nature to draw on and write. Whitman clearly uses this guide in order to write his poetry. He agrees that nature is a valuable tool.
In stanza six of the poem "Song of Myself", by Walt Whitman, he poses the question "What is the grass?" I believe that grass is a metaphor for the cycle of life. Throughout the poem Whitman points out images that grass could represent. All of these images stem from the life and death that we come to expect in our lifetime. During your life you will experience death, it at times surrounds you, but if you look past the grief and look to the beauty you will see that it is a cycle that keeps our world in balance. The images of flags, tears, children and older people that are torn from the ones they love, but only to soon return to other lost ones are all parts of Walt Whitman's poem.
... a much bigger picture such as a lawn. Whitman also shows the each of our self-identities are vital to the universal identities when he writes about growing among different races and groups. Again, he is telling us that even though we are our own entire person, we are equal. No man is greater than anyone else. Whitman shows his transcendentalism side here because to come to this conclusion that grass is so much more than just grass, he had to look deeper than his senses or his logical knowledge of grass. Sight, taste, touch, smell, or sound couldn’t have helped him answer the boy’s question. Taking classes on the importance of grass could not have accomplished this either. Whitman shows here that a person must look inside themselves and see what their soul is telling them because at times, it can provide infinitely more wisdom than a scholar or a book ever could.
He crossed the boundaries of the poetry literature and gave a poetry worth of our democracy that contributed to an immense variety of people, nationalities, races. Whitman’s self-published Leaves of Grass was inspired in part by his travels through the American frontier and by his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson (Poetry Foundation). He always believed in everyone being treated equally and bringing an end to slavery and racism. Through his poetry, Whitman tried to bring every people in America together by showing them what happiness, love, unison, and real knowledge looked. His poetry and its revolution changed the world of American literature
By describing itself with the word “am,” the speaker provides a solid, definite presence in the poem (10). The grass knows what it is and what its duty entails. Its simple stative sentence conveys its confidence in its place in the world, and its power over humanity. The speaker uses stative verbs about humans exclusively in questions, depicting uncertainty in the human’s place in the world. “Where are we now?” is the most obvious example of the uncertainty and temporary placement of humanity in time and the Earth (9). The humans of Earth have a rocky, unsure presence on Earth in comparison to the simple, solid statement of the grass’ purpose on the
In “On the Beach at Night Alone,” Walt Whitman develops the idea that everyone has a connection with everything else, including nature. Whitman uses a variety of writing techniques to get his point across. First, the repetition and parallel structure that his poems contain reinforce the connection between everything in nature. The usage of “All” 11 times emphasizes the inclusion of everything in the universe. The sentence structure remains the same throughout the poem, without any drastic change; however, the length of the lines in the poem vary. In addition, Whitman’s’ extravagance with his words further illustrates his idea of the Over-Soul. For example, “A vast similitude interlocks all” (4) shows his verbose nature. Whitman does not do directly to the point, but gives every little detail. Most importantly, Whitman’s’ use of catalogues stands as the most recognizable Whitman characteristic that illustrates his beliefs. These long lists that he uses set the mood of the poem. “All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,” (5) shows the idea that everything is connected in nature. Similarly, “All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations languages.” (10) furthermore emphasize Whitman’s belief in the Over-Soul.
Nature was an important concept that Whitman used to convince people that there were more important things to life than class structure. He used nature to connect us all, and encourage people to become less materialistic and more appreciative of life itself. There are many themes in Emily Dickenson’s poem that are very reminiscent of Whitman’s popular themes. Although there were some consistency with the themes Whitman’s used in his own work, there were still a lot of ideas Whitman would not have agreed with. The poem starts off with something Whitman would have unanimously disagreed with.
This poem just shows how great the talent of Walt Whitman really is. All of the imagery and structure of this poem are astounding. Like I said this was one of Whitman’s most famous poems and I can see why. Just reading the poem without looking for any hidden meanings is a refreshing experience. This is a great example of what the reader can find when they truly study the work and find alternative meanings behind a