Walt Whitman Poetry Analysis

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Recommended: Walt whitman as a poet of life and death

This is an autobiographical type of poem in which the author, Walt Whitman, is also that persona, who in developing this type of poetic work, and surpasses the traditional limits of the “self.” The captivating and attention-grabbing aspect of the poem is the free verse technique or style, which significantly makes the development of the “self” a calming task while celebrating a personal life. The persona is described as a lover of nature, and incorporates three sections of the self-personality that include “I,” “me,” and the “soul”. Whitman’s use of sexual or bodily imagery and his use of grass as a central image and metaphor create a poem that is bold and uncommon for his era. A unique element of the poem is that the poet declines the basic conventions and rules of poetry. Whitman’s poem doesn’t follow any specific rhyme scheme, nor does it have a particular beat count or structure. Whitman still manages to successfully represent and replicate smooth flowing thoughts and ideas from the mind to the paperwork, making it a revolutionary form of poetry.
It is observed that the style and the subject matter of this particular poem represent a great number of sensational issues revolving around the poet’s life. It is peculiar that these are portrayed in a poetic work void of any specific poetic form; where the poem’s stanzas are take diverse arrangements in the different sections. This indicates the absoluteness with which the poet embraces the free verse style of poetry, which Shamsur Rahman describes as a style in which the poem is free from the rhythm that is usually imposed through prefixed meters and rhymes (Rahman 132). Whitman’s poem has an uneven number of sections, and each section is characterized by lines of uneven length....

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... this grass in awe is a representation of the cryptic manner in which the transition from life to death occurs. Whitman’s effort of combing the two imageries lets the reader remember that there exists a life circle in where surprising interactions take place. It also assists in insightful comprehension of the fact that, despite the world being full of wonder or greatness, it accommodates features that present it as a place of miseries, including the loss of the loved ones.
Conclusively, Whitman’s poem is one artistic material that is devised in a peculiar style that exemplifies a dynamic freedom in poetry. Even though the poet defies some regular conventions of poetry, a great success in autobiographical conveying the message is realized. Therefore, it is a poetic work that poses a challenge to the philosophy of poetry as far as poetry orthodoxies are concerned.

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