The Good in Life

1003 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Walt Whitman poems about sexuality

Whitman lived his life as a blank page in a journal, and he feared not what others said about living a very liberal life. Being that he was homosexual, people looked at him as a joke when in reality he saw things on a new level ; he was strong minded like a man and rather intense yet sensitive like a woman. According to W.D. Snodgrass, "Whitman was more [of a] man than you'll ever be...and a bitch, too." (572). Walt Whitman was said to be "omnisexual" because he acted as both man and woman, a superior being within his own mind. He didn't see situations as a male or female but as an outside source as both genders. In "Song of Myself #7" his writing is self evident that he reflects his "omnisexual" views of life. The purpose of this poem is to celebrate the everyday gifts of life given to us by God. He incorporates the use of literary techniques into free verse structure which paints a vivid picture of his ideas and beliefs as a poet.

Walt Whitman has a very profound writing style and needs very little structure or solid form so his literary devices are limited. The only technique used in "Song for myself #7" is his use of repetition. In the first stanza death is spoken of in three different ways, to die, death and dying; he covers all tenses of the passing of life to get his point across letting the reader know how serious dying is. Yet in the same stanza mentions life, born and birth, but only twice as to say that death is closer than birth. The next stanza mentions "good" several times, all relating to nature and God's marvelous creations. Whitman is using repetition to express his feelings of the good in an ordinary day. In the last two stanzas he repeats the phrase "For me" to show that every phenomenon created in life effects every other human or creature. Whitman uses very few literary devices to stress the words in his poem but allows the words to express themselves.

Through "Song of Myself" there is not a set structure, but Whitman uses the technique of free verse. Snodgrass claims, "Whitman... constructs his text through expansion and inclusion" (577). He takes a simple idea, like goodness, from being just an abstract idea but to allow it to relate to the world through nature.

Show More
Related

  • The Comparisson Between Edna Pontellier Character and a Poem

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself and Alice Fulton’s You Can’t Rhumboogie in a Ball and Chain

    2924 Words  | 6 Pages

    Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” 1855 ed. Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Edwin Haviland Miller. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1989. 9-11.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe: Examples Of Transcendentalism

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    A literary catalog is considered a long list of events. One of the works that it is demonstrated in is “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Whitman writes over 52 sections within his poem, which clearly he mastered the technique. He informs the reader that it is time to celebrate himself which then he transmits different episodes of his experiences. The main concern is that his poem is universal in America and can encourage self-reliance.

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman Oh Captain My Captain Analysis

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    The way he writes the poem shows how he was in love with the president on how Lincoln conducted himself during the war. He refers to Lincoln as the captain of the ship which is the Union, throughout the poem he begins to call out to the Captain acting like the president was never shot. Through this all, it seems like Whitman could never bring himself to acknowledge the assassination of the late president. He also wrote it as a way to express the grief of losing the beloved commander and chief, and also explain to the American people how Booth killed the man who helped bring the Union together once again. However, he makes the metaphor in this poem explain why he would have wrote it, it shows that through an imaginary situation that things begin to seem alright in the world. Finally, Whitman deals with the pain through the metaphor to cover up the hurt America feels even if he despised the poem later on in

    Read More

  • Philosophic Thought in Whitman's Song of Myself

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman Essay

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman Poetry Analysis

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Poetry comes in many different shapes and forms. There are a plethora of American authors that use various writing techniques to transform their ideas into works of art. Walter “Walt” Whitman is one of the most famous authors that used a variety of styles in many of his poems. Many of his works of art affected the population and has influenced the country. He has created multiple poems that have become popular over the years and will be remembered for years to come. Walt Whitman comes from a self-deprecating family that has a tremendous adoration for their home country, America. His father took him out of school when he was young to help with the household funds. As he grew older, Whitman was in and out of different occupations

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman: An Omnisexual Poet

    2601 Words  | 6 Pages

    The homosexual themes displayed in Walt Whitman’s works, especially in his most famous collection of poems Leaves of Grass, raise the question of his own sexuality. Many of his poems depicted affection and sexuality in a simple, personal manner, causing nineteenth century Americans to view them as pornographic and obscene. Based on this poetry, Whitman is usually assumed to be homosexual, or at least bisexual. However, this assumption does not account for major influences of his writing such as the shift from transcendentalism to realism and the American Civil War. After considering these factors, it can be concluded that Whitman’s poems were not intended to set apart a few homosexual men, but to bring all men and women together. Walt Whitman’s poems of spiritual love and physical togetherness of both genders emphasized exalted friendships and are indicative of his omnisexuality, or lack of a complete sexual preference, rather than his alleged homosexuality.

    Read More

  • Criticism Of Walt Whitman

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    (A critique of Walt Whitman’s themes and ideas in Song of Myself 6, 46, 47)

    Read More

  • Individuality in Whitman's Song of Myself

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whitman's radical ideas of individualism have a great deal to do with his Quaker background. The Quaker religion is one in which the authority was Inner Light. "Whitman himself was not only personally familiar with, but deeply impressed by, a religion whose only authority was the Inner Light" (Canoy 481). The Inner Light is a special influence, which made Whitman's poetry unique. This certain influence did such things as guide Whitman down his soul searching path as well as help him define within himself the characteristics of an individual. In section fifteen of "Song of Myself," Whitman discusses people from every class and every profession. He goes on to say "the young fellow drives the express-wagon... love him though I do not know him;" (2753). ...

    Read More

  • Romanticism In William Wordsworth

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, this difference can also be seen as an addition to Wordsworth, as Wordsworth advocated for organic form. Whitman’s further use of organic form is still within the influence of Wordsworth, as it ties back to the Romantic ideals he put forth. Overall, while Whitman may have denied inspiration from Wordsworth, the evidence points in a different direction. All in all, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Wordsworth’s preface to Lyrical Ballads show the influence of Wordsworth’s ideas on Whitman through the use of the common experience and the language they utilized, even if their forms were slightly different.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices used in Walt Whitman´s Poem Song of Myself

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    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?

    Read More

  • An Annotation of Section 24 of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem has set a certain theme and tone but no definite rhyme. In this poem, the poet explores into a thought of the self, the all-encompassing "I," sexuality, democracy, the human body, and what it means to live in the modern world. He addresses that the human body is sacred and every individual human is divine. Hence, Whitman was known for writing poems about individualism, democracy, nature, and war.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Self In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about The Good in Life

Open Document