I Saw Louisiana in a Live-Oak Growing

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Recommended: Whitman as a representative poet of America

I Saw Louisiana in a Live-Oak Growing

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important writers in the history of American Literature. The people of his own time called him a radical, a madman, and a pornographer. These days he is greatly appreciated and entitled as a fearless prophet of a new stage of human development. Sometimes Whitman would be in a slump and he felt that he needed to deflect the people who inquired too directly. This even meant using examples of homosexual elements in his work, as well as unbelievable stories of him having affairs with numerous women and fathering many children, unknown to him. Throughout these sorts of times W. Whitman has gone through both resentment and flattery, nevertheless showing us his best work. I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing, is a great example.

An older man comes across an oak tree in Louisiana. He begins to compare his life and friendship with this Live-Oak growing as a symbol of this. The word Live-Oak is a form of metonymy standing for the old manís friendship. He describes this tree as it stands there alo...

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