...The novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse examines the life of Siddhartha, the main character as he goes on a journey searching for Nirvana. Likewise, the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman also depicts a man’s journey of personal discovery. Whitman begins his poem exclaiming to an unknown listener that is “large and contains multitudes” (Whitman 8). With these words, the poet is saying he is a complex person who is interested about the world. The poet sees the world as exciting and multifaceted. Similar to his vision of the world, the poet’s soul is convoluted and contradictory. Like Whiteman, Siddhartha has a restless soul. For example, “his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still” (Hesse 5). Moreover,...
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...In “Song of Myself,” by Walt Whitman, Whitman uses grass and a hawk as symbols to convey an underlying message of equality in America. During this time era, the 1800s, slavery was going on, meaning many racism was also going on. Whitman supports the idea of having equality for instance in the section, “A Child Said What Is The Grass?,” Whitman says, “Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same” (Lines 11 - 12). This evidence reveals that Whitman did not care who you are, but that everyone would receive equal actions. Whitman says that all people should treat someone the same as you would want to be treated. If someone wants respect they should also treat others with respect. Whitman uses the slang terms for a French Canadian or African American showing that Whitman does not care if you are a different race....
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...of a perfect circle - starting with birth and completing with death to start the cycle again. They express that the circle of life is the best model to completely understand how life works. In the poem, “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, he describes his distinct interpretation of the classic symbol of the circle to represent the meaning of life that differs from most poets. Whitman believes that the circle of life can be found within the grass on the ground. Whitman sees grass as a vehicle for people to find comfort with death and learn how life works. Through the extended metaphor of grass, Whitman taught us not to be fearful of death and that all people are connected together. First of all, Whitman used the metaphor of grass to help explain to people how they should not be afraid of dying, rather to...
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...David Deaton Mr. Huitt American Lit and Comp 24 January 2014 Dickinson versus Whitman Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson's works have numerous differences. Compared to Dickinson's short and seemingly simple poems, Whitman's are long and often complex. Yet both twentieth century writers share several similarities when scrutinized thoroughly. Though their approaches differ, they often deal with the same themes, and both pioneered their own unique style of writing. Using death as a theme is probably the strongest connection that Whitman and Dickinson share. Whitman's view on death is reflective of his belief in Transcendentalism. In "Song of Myself", Whitman uses the scientific principle of the conservation of energy to assert that there is life after death, because energy cannot be destroyed; only transformed. In stanza six, he writes "And what do you think has become of the women and children?/ They are alive and well somewhere,/ The smallest sprouts shows there is really no death" (Whitman 124-126). Whitman contends that life remains long after death, Dickinson's writings on death are more complex and contradictory. She personifies death, generally seeing as a lord or as a compelling lover. In one of her more popular poems, "Because I could not stop for Death", death is like a kindly courter. He picks her up in a "Carriage held but just for Ourselves-/ And Immortality" (Dickinson 3-4). Many of her other poems are about the moment of death, and what happens when the living...
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...Walt Whitman Through the history of the United States there have been a countless numbers of poets. With them came an equal number of writing styles. Certainly one of the most unique poets to write life’s story through his own view of the world and with the ambition to do it was Walter Whitman. Greatly criticized by many readers of his work, Whitman was not a man to be deterred. Soon he would show the world that he had a voice, and that it spoke with a poet’s words. Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Thus Whitman began his “Song of the Open Road”. This paper will attempt to describe his life and poetry in a way that does justice to the path he chose. He was a man who grew up impoverished, who wrote from his experiences, and who tried to lift his fellow men above life’s trivialities. These are the points to be discussed on these pages. To know the essence of Walter Whitman, you would have to understand the heart of his writing. For he is in his pen. Walter Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, New York, on May 31, 1819 . He did not have much opportunity for education in his early life. His parents were mostly poor and illiterate- his father a laborer, while his mother was a devout Quaker. Whitman was one of nine children and little is known about his youth except that two of his siblings were imbeciles. No wonder he demonstrated such an insight for life in his poems...
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...people use to describe the people around them and the population, holds the meaning of so much more. Society always appears to be used in negative context, because normally, it is used to describe a stereotype. The world is fully of stereotypes that are created by the opinions of everyday people, members of our society. Society can be portrayed in many ways, but it is how it is shown that counts. Michael Cunningham in his works of “In The Machine” and “Children’s Crusade”, and Walt Whitman in his poem “Song Of Myself” portray society as a murderer and their characters as the victims. Through interpretations and descriptions, their journeys and victimizations are brought to life through the literature. The ways in which society affects each person are shown in “In The Machine” as Lucas falls to industrialization, in “Song of Myself” as the reader discovers society’s true effects, in “Children’s Crusade” as Cat breaks away from society and finds her true happiness, and in “Song of Myself” as stereotypes are formed by society. Throughout the story, In The Machine, by Michael Cunningham, the main character, Lucas falls victim to society and its expectations. Lucas is just an average boy trying to get by during the course of the industrial revolution. Throughout the course of this period, people in society began to realize how technology was going to take over their lives. Lucas, became very involved in machines, he began working with machines, and eventually obsessed with machines. What...
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...March. 21st, 2013 Prof. R. Rodriguez Walt Whitman Poems critique I found it difficult to understand most of Walt Whitman’s poems as I found some of them to be a little unorthodox. As I do to most poems in general. So I narrowed them down to two of the poems that I liked. In the first poem I read, Song of myself, Whitman jumps from topic to topic in almost every other line. The poem gave me a problem understanding where he was going with his poems as a speaker. I do have an understanding though, that Whitman himself is the speaker (as we call all poets)in this poem. Whitman pretty much declares it is “Walt Whitman day,” it’s the celebration of his life. He embraces the outdoors with this simple line, “The atmosphere is not perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my forever, I am in love with it” (21). This explains how much he loves the world and nature, and how everything blends together for him. There is some rhythm in this poem, but really no rhyme. Whitman uses some metaphors, and personifications. Whitman describes the “I,” that represents things that go on in everyday life. The “Me myself” is the observer of the “I”, as it observes everything in his life, and the “Soul” represents one of the essences of life which is nature. The other short poem, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, was an easier read for me, because I didn’t have to read it ten times like I did for the other ones. In this poem it...
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...novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse examines the life of Siddhartha, the main character as he goes on a journey searching for Nirvana. Likewise, the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman also depicts a man’s journey of personal discovery. Whitman begins his poem exclaiming to an unknown listener that is “large and contains multitudes” (Whitman 8). With these words, the poet is saying he is a complex person who is interested about the world. The poet sees the world as exciting and multifaceted. Similar to his vision of the world, the poet’s soul is convoluted and contradictory. Like Whiteman, Siddhartha has a restless soul. For example, “his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still” (Hesse 5). Moreover,...
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...Walt Whitman once wrote, “The proof of the poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he absorbed it” (Koelsch, Nelson, and Berliner 396). Whitman lived in the mid-1800s while America was growing as a country and in the midst of the Civil War. A patriot and whole-hearted Union supporter, he treasured freedom and democracy (Koelsch, Nelson, and Berliner 397). Influenced by the Transcendentalist movement, he also believed the human spirit was reflected in nature (Koelsch, Nelson, and Berliner 407). Whitman certainly left his mark on America. As written in The Continuity of American Poetry, “the history of American poetry could be written as the continuing discovery and rediscovery of Whitman, an on-going affirmation of his critical relevance to the mission of the American poet” (“Walt Whitman”, 2002). Whitman published the poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!” in 1871 and “A Noiseless Patient Spider” in 1863, conveying his belief in freedom and individuality by writing in free verse, revealing his support of the Union during the Civil War, and illustrating the introspection of his soul in later years. Relatively little is known about Whitman’s early life. He was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, New York, to semi-literate parents. Whitman, the second of nine children, was named after his father, a farmer, laborer, builder, and carpenter. He was close with his Quaker mother, and her influence led Whitman to use words such as “Thee” and “Thou” in his future writings. While...
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...Mary Hammer Hammer1 English 102 Prof. Thuran Poem Analysis Essay This essay will examine two poems by Walt Whitman, “A Noiseless Patient Spider” and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”. These two poems are similar in several ways yet differ in many as well. Each poem can be broken down and analyzed to relate to the human experience. Walt Whitman “A Noiseless Patient Spider” is about a spider as well as one’s soul. Whitman does a great job making two different things similar. A spider’s legs are always moving searching for a good place to make its connections to create its web. The speaker of the poem describes the spider as “a little promontory it stood isolated” (L.2) A promontory is a land mass protruding out surrounded by water. The spider is standing on a ledge protruding out surrounded by a vast emptiness. Whitman says “marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding” (L.3) meaning the spider is working vigorously to find the correct place for its web. This relates to the second stanza which is about a person’s soul which is alone in the world constantly searching for a companion to quote, “ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, and seeking the spheres to connect them.” (L.8). this poem really leaves you to wonder how exactly a person really connects ...
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...(Whitman). In Walt Whitman’s poems he describes how you can be taught in education. In passage number six of Song of Myself Walt Whitman talks about how you need to learn in experiential ways. In this poems a child asked what grass is. Whitman goes on to say that you cannot describe grass in the way that it will help the kid to understand it. You can describe grass as a weed that grows out of the ground and helps produce oxygen, but Whitman says that the best way to describe grass is to go outside at feel it. Whitman says, “I do not what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.” (Page 428-429). Whitman is a very emotional writer and many people say that only a person who has felt that emotion can write with that much emotion (Lehman). Walt Whitman describes how some people can learn threw lectures, but some cannot. Some people learn best when they get lectured. In When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer Whitman describes how this is true. He expresses how there is a professor who many people this astronomer is so great. The astronomer is giving a lecture about astronomy. Walt didn’t see how the students thought the astronomer was such a great teacher. It wasn’t till after Whitman left that he saw the stars in beauty. “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.” (Page 432)...
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...stories, lines of poetry, college essays; I’ve proven myself to be more than adequate at expressing myself on paper. Yet, when faced with the challenge of writing about myself, I can never seem to commit. My junior year of high school, my English teacher tasked the class with writing a poem modeled after Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” It was to be an ode to our individuality, our inner unique selves we rarely give others the permission to see. I couldn’t...
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...Halimeh Salem 1130428 Laila Shikaki Short Essay Nov. 5 2015 Unity and the Cyclical nature of life Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Mahmoud Darwish’s “To My Mother” and “Rita and the Rifle” explore a sense of unity and cyclical nature of life. Death, life, immortality, unity and oneness are all inner themes of such poems. Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet, conveys these ideas through the representation of the strength of love whether between mother and son or between a couple. On the other hand, Walt Whitman, an American poet, illustrates these ideas in a different way. He explains them in a broader sense by portraying unity and cyclical nature of life through many things found in Earth and beyond. It is evident that these poems are clear...
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...Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are both influential poets, who have inspired many young writers. The two authors vary significantly from one another. They both have unique style, content, and approach to writing. Whitman writes in a lengthy manner. “Song of Myself” spans many pages and contains long and descriptive lines. An example of his elongated style is, “I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women/And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon/out of their laps” (Norton Anthology 1028). This thought is expressed over three lines of his poem. This style contributes to the descriptive and eloquent nature of Whitman’s poetry. The reader absorbs much from his writing. In contrast to Whitman, Dickinson writes in an incredibly choppy style. For example, she states, “Flow plain – and foreign /On my homesick eye -/Except that You than He/Shone closer by-…”(Norton Anthology 1210). This style is evident in all of her works. It evokes a haunted feeling from the reader....
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...Theme Song For my theme song I have chosen “ love Myself” by Hailee Steinfield, I chose this song particularly many things going on in my life. The song is about being confident in life and to just stay as positive as possible no matter what being a strong, independent, self-empowered person is okay, and actually a good thing. With catchy lines like, “I love me, gonna love myself, no I don’t need anybody else,” accompanied by a high energy beat, it’s hard not to like the song, Hailee makes the song very empowering when I think about a song that I feel empowers me to just keep moving forward and not to drown in my sorrows of everything negative going on in life. There are many things that could potentially bring us down in life in the song it talks about being strong and that all we need is ourselves, because all we can truly count on in life is ourselves, “Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else, Can't help myself, no, I don't need anybody else anytime, day or night” The reason I feel that this song represents everything I believe in that throughout everything that has been chaotic in life I can listen to this song for hours and get the same reaction out of it, that just having positive thoughts through all the rough, and stressful times like Mid-terms and many other factors this song is the light at the end of the tunnel motivating me to just keep moving forward to not stop or loose sight of what I truly want in...
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