Whitman's Song of Myself and The Nature of Life
Identifying the mystery of existence, Whitman writes "Song of Myself," section six to question the nature of the life of man. He alludes to and confronts past answers to this query by utilizing as his central image the leaves of grass. In the Christian tradition, the Bible utilizes this image of grass to describe the lives of men. Isaiah, a prophet of God cries out, "All men are like grass . . . and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, . . . but the word of the Lord stands forever" (Isaiah 40:6-8). The scriptural image of men as grass, "the handkerchief of the Lord," places man in relation to God and establishes the transient, finite nature of man. Whitman responds throughout this poem to the Biblical answer to the question of life. Emphasizing the cyclical process of nature, Whitman constructs his poem to insist that the life of man, as in nature, moves not with linear progression, but rather in a cyclical succession. Birth and death, Whitman asserts, serve not as bookends to a concise life span, but rather as connections in a larger continuum of existence.
Whitman utilizes an imagist technique relating a series of associated images through a central connection. Whitman first presents the reader with the image of a small child offering up grass with the question, "What is the grass." In light of the scriptural connection Whitman provides, this query "What is the grass" from the lips of a child presents the larger question of what is man. Whitman chooses not to answer this question directly, but rather to present possibilities and proffer the question back to the reader, stating "How could I answer the chil...
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...ot ceased to exist but rather now continue their existence "alive and well" in the ambiguous "somewhere." Whitman will not accept the Biblical understanding of death as a passage to either heaven or hell. He claims instead that "to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." This fortuitous death he would apply to every man, not reserving destruction for any man. Death, if it truly exists, for Whitman, leads only "forward to life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it." Stating "All goes onward and outward . . and nothing collapses," Whitman affirms the view of man's earthly life as a succession rather than a progression and claims for man a part in a larger cyclical continuum of existence.
Works Cited:
Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Ed, Paul Lauter. Boston,NewYork: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
(A critique of Walt Whitman’s themes and ideas in Song of Myself 6, 46, 47)
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.
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere” (Whitman 33) is Walt Whitman’s first and one of his most popular works, Leaves of Grass. It was and still is very inspirational to many people including Ralph Waldo and many others after him. He had a major influence on modern free verse. Following a hard childhood in and around New York, Walter Whitman was well known and received in his time for Leaves of Grass which did not use the universal theme, which he became known for in the eighteenth century as well as his way of seeing the world in a view that very few could comprehend in his time.
The theme of Time to Come presents the mystery of life after death and calls attention to how vulnerable it’s victims are. Whitman begins his poem with the strong metaphor “ O, Death! a black and pierceless pall” (1). This bold statement allows the reader quickly realize that the work will somehow be connected to death, but in an insightful manner. The alliteration of “pierceless pall” emphasizes death’s ruthless approach. Whitman then describes death as a “mystery of fate” that " No eye may see, no mind may grasp” (3-4). This points out that death lingers in the future, essentially waiting to seize lives and nobody can know when th...
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.
There is a famous saying that states, “ we should not judge a book by its cover”, but oftentimes the first thing noticed on a person is their looks. One’s “physical beauty” strongly influences people’s first impressions of them. As a whole, we tend to assume that pretty people are more likeable and better people than those who are unattractive. Around the world, we believe that what is beautiful is good. There is a general consensus within a culture about what is considered physically appealing and beautiful. “Physical beauty” is associated with being more sociable, intelligent, and even socially skilled. Society shares this common notion of who has and who does not have “physical beauty”. Thus, “physical beauty”, as seen
Walt Whitman used free verse in “Song of Myself” in order to connect with the common man and his American readers. In this first person narrative, Whitman deconstructs the “self” into many different sections that all are a part of the celebration of the individual. Some of the topics he breaks the “self” into are self- identity, and human exploration (including the human body and sexuality). In the poem, Whitman uses a speaker to exclaim that for individuals to grow they must discover themselves spiritually, physically, and mentally. The speaker in the poem
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Explication Through a multitude of literary devices and techniques, Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," is one of his most famous contributions to American literature. He uses simile and metaphor, paradox, rhythm, and free verse style, to convey his struggle between the relation of the body and soul, the physical and the spiritual being. He continues to disobey all social restrictions of the romantic time period. From the beginning, Whitman begins by stating, "What I shall assume, you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you," proposing that the reader listen to him, for he possesses all of the answers to life. The setting is somewhat naturalistic, and offers an image of the speaker, relaxing, possibly sprawled out across a blanket, philosophizing about life, while in the middle of a peaceful meadow. As the poem later shifts in tone, and setting, Whitman starts to think about the answers to life he has come up with, based upon the past, and decides that the reader should hear him out, one final time, as his ideas have changed. This brings us to #44 of "Song of Myself." In section #44 of, "Song of Myself," Whitman's first stanza begins: "It's time to explain myself…let us stand up. What is known I strip away…I launch all men and women forward with me into the unknown. The clock indicates the moment…but what does eternity indicate? Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirs…its buckets are rising forever and ever, they pour and they pour and they exhale away." Whitman is simply stating that he wants to tell the purpose of his madness. The madness that Whitman expresses is that of power and self-confidence. Whitman has written this based upon his experiences in life. Through these experiences, he has grown to know certain things about life and tries to pass them down to the reader. Throughout the beginning of the poem, Whitman takes the reader by the hand and demands that he follows Whitman and his ideas, because based on his own life Whitman holds the answers to the reader's questions. But now, he asks the reader to erase everything that he has previously said - forget the past. Why don't we try something new? We have to focus on the present, not on the past, but also to focus on what we are going to experience in the future, what can we expect?
The perception of the "ideal beauty" is an arbitrary and abstract concept that is constantly being modified as a result of the times. People are influenced by the images they see in the media to determine what the ideal beauty is. The media is manipulative and deceptive in nature, and it continues to carry harmful suggestions about ideal beauty despite the concrete evidence of damaging effects to people of all ages. Fortunately, it seems there may be shifts in the media that are beginning to portray men and women more realistically.
Beauty, how do we define it? Why is beauty so important among us? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this paper, leaving a clear understanding of what “beauty” is and the many qualities which define “beauty”. We are regularly challenged with “beauty”, trying to define what it is and what it’s supposed to be, who is and who is not, and what is and what is not?
For countless ages, people have never stop pursuing the characteristic and definition of beauty. It is the power of beauty that makes something attractive to the others. One of the greatest writers in English language, William Shakespeare (1598) said 'Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye'. Although inner beauty is undeniably important, but does it still weigh much in this current society? If it does, how do people judge an individual when first met? Halo effect experiments had shown us that physical beauty plays a significant role in judging a person (Dean.J., 2007 ). Cognitive bias exists where our overall impression give influence to what people think about our character. Perception of “What is beautiful is good” is not something new. As the role of physical beauty expands, people start to investigate the causes which include genetics, facial proportions and symmetrical effects. It has become a trend for people to invest in the process of enhancing their physical beauty. For
IS BEAUTIFUL ALWAYS GOOD? IMPLICIT BENEFITS OF FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS by Van Leeuwen and Macrae have conducted a study that discusses the implications of attractiveness and whether we associate that with positive or negative words. 20 women and 16 men from Dartmouth College were presented with a number of words and a picture of an attractive or unattractive person in the background. Researchers found out that attractive faces triggered a positive reaction which proved to them the stereotypic social perception that “beautiful is good”. This latter possibility is theoretically important because, if true, it suggests that the “beautiful is good” stereotype may shape people’s evaluations of others in a covert manner”. (Beautiful is always good) The participants associated more positive words with more attractive people which depicts the socialization we have in America that being beautiful is more acceptable and positive. Many social aspects come into play when talking about beauty and why we think that “being beautiful is good”.
The concept of beauty can be hard to define, as it is an ever-evolving notion. What people perceive as beauty has varied through time, across cultures (Fallon 1990) and can also vary based on individuals. To a culture, beauty can be its customs and traditions, and to an individual it can include physical appearance (outer beauty) or personality (inner beauty). However the word beauty can also defer according to gender, Ambrose Bierce (1958) once wrote, “To men, a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But a woman’s body is the woman.” Despite the societal changes achieved since Bierce’s time, this statement still holds true. Attractiveness is a prerequisite for femininity but not for masculinity (Freedman, 1986).
Beauty has differed through time, different cultures and perceptions of the world. It’s not easy to define beauty, you could say that there are “a thousand” definitions of beauty. And there are numerous degrees of each. “Beauty depends on the eye of the beholder”. This saying is correct because what one individual considers beautiful is not necessarily what another individual may consider beautiful. Someone “beautiful on the outside” can be “ugly inside”. The media and the society are constantly using the conception of “beauty” to show us what we should strive to be. They assert that we have to appear a certain way to be viewed as beautiful. This is wrong, so what is beauty, really, and what different ways of looking at beauty are there?