Poetic Tools Describe Life in Walt Whitman's Song of Myself
Walt Whitman is commonly known as the bard of America, a poet who wrote about the common man of the country as had never been done before. He was able to do so because he was a common man, as can be seen in lines such as "This is the city and I am one of the citizens." Within his poetry he often used certain tools of the typical epic tale, borrowed from such tales as The Iliad, and The Odyssey. All of these tools can be seen within the lines of his lengthy poem of fifty-two sections "Song of Myself." The first of these tools include an invocation of the muse, as can be seen in the lines "I loafe and invite my soul," which appears to be an invocation of a muse, or his own soul which may also be his muse. Another tool used is cataloguing, throughout this poem Whitman incorporates many descriptions and images that he lists in a catalogue form. Another typical epic tool is that of beginning en medias res, or in the middle of things. The use of similes, comparisons using like or as are another epic tool that is pervasive within Whitmans works. The final tool Whitman uses is the intermingling of high and low, or the common man associating with people of a different class for example when he compares someone to the president " Have you outstript the rest? are you the President?" Whitman also incorporates certain personas into his works when he uses "I" and "me", which do not always refer to him. Lastly, Whitman uses a form of writing called free verse, which exhibits no conscious rhythmic structure, it is unrhymed. It is with this form that Whitman sets out to capture the American vernacular, making his poetry more of a representation of Americas common man.
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...mbryo, saying "My embryo has never been torpid." Using his well-known tool of cataloguing he lists several items such as a "nebula," an "orb," "strata," "vegetables," and "sauroids." All of which are items of the past and add to the theme of eternity. It is with these words and images that Whitman incorporates his life into the great expansive eternity. He shows how he, and everyone else fits into the great timeline, and ultimately how the past can effect ones life in the present. Ultimately Whitman comes to realize just this, that the past has come to make him who he is and he ends the section by saying "All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me, Now I stand on this spot with my soul."
Works Cited:
Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Ed, Paul Lauter. Boston,NewYork: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
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Through the development of Inclusive Education it is possible that children grow up to be more accepting of differences, where once the notion of something “different” and “separate” could cause caution, fear and ridicule. There are multiple policies and processes present within our society supporting inclusivity and the right every child regardless of their special needs or difficult circumstances has to an education. The Salamanca Statement developed world wide in 1994 states every child’s right to an education. In support of this policy the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act (1992) sets disability standards in our education system and the Melbourne Declaration (2008) further attempts to promote equity and excellence within our schools.
Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 24-67. Print.
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From the poem, it shows that Whitman is well educated by the scientific theories. In Whitman’s opinion, the universe dynamic and ever-changing, which new ideas and thoughts will be produced as the world changes (Trecker 11) and there is “always the procreant urge of the world” (Whitman 45). As Whitman says that he represents the whole human race and the voices of men and animals speak through him, he states himself is a “kosmos”. The self contains more than soul and body, it consists of goodness and badness, all the live forms, and it is deathless (Whitman 401-415). He is the universe, and he accepts all forms of lives. Besides that, he can also hear from the universe. “I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years” (Whitman 1023-1024). He is as old as the universe and with that time he heard the universe. Whitman states that “Prodigal, you have given me love—therefore I to you give love! O unspeakable passionate love” (446-447). He thanks Earth for giving love to him and he will give his love to the Earth in return. Whitman argues that if the first step is the awareness of self, the next step is expanding self to a larger scale. According to Whitman’s point of view, the universe exists in every object at every moment (Kepner 148). Man can obtain description about the universe though scientific works and the beauties of nature (kepner 148). The purpose of the statement is allowing man to be aware of his self identity and explore the structure of universe though his life (Kepner 148). Man shall release his self and merge it to the universe. Though out this process, one can have better knowledge about his role in the universe (Kepner 148). He argues that “There was never may more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, Mad will never be any more perfection than there is now”(31-33).
It is unfortunate that even in the 21st century that the policies and legislations related to inclusive education are different between all the different states and territories of Australia as well as between the public and private school systems. These current differences in policies in legislation between the states and different school structures in my opinion don’t encourage the students’ with diverse needs. As a nation Australian authorities do promote and encourage inclusion into their mainstream classrooms (Campbell, Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2003). But this promotion cannot and does not ensure that this as a policy will be accepted by all individual classroom teachers (Campbell, Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2003). As a whole teachers with bad attitudes towards inclusion impact their own views onto their pupils and onto their students general level of educational outcome (Campbell, Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2003). As time moves forward more and more schools are becoming involved with the idea of inclusive education (Ashman & Elkins, 2009). One of the negatives or variations as seen by a school with inclusion is that if the child has high...
Noorman, Merel, and Deborah G. Johnson. "Negotiating autonomy and responsibility in military robots." Ethics and Information Technology. (February): 2014. Print.
One very important topic that major American authors Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson incorporated into their writing was the idea of the “self” or “self-identity”. Both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were prolific major American poets and many of the topics they chose to write about involved aspects of transcendentalism. Though Whitman and Dickinson wrote about some of the same topics, they did not share the same meanings, especially with the description of “self”. Published in 1855 within a poetry collection called Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself” gives a look into how Walt Whitman felt about self-identity. Whitman uses a first person narrator to describe the “self” as the celebration of the individual through personal exploration and gaining personal experience. In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” published in 1896 as part of Poems by Emily Dickinson (third series), she alludes that the key to identifying the “self” is sight.
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7. Robots, Ethics & War. (n.d.). Center for Internet and Society. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2010/12/robots-ethics-war