To start off, the specific word usage that Wayman chose to use gives off the impression that poets have their drawbacks. Not once throughout the poem does he put in a positive word for the poet. In order to look at the figurative meaning of the poem we should look at the literal meaning of the text. For instance, “Cannot recognize visual absurdities” (Wayman, line 10). This quite literally means that the poet has trouble recognizing or simply cannot recognize anything that is absurd visually.
In this grand poem, Whitman glorifies the unity of all people and life. He embraces the geographical diversity as well as the diversity of culture, work, as well as sexuality or beliefs. Whitman’s influence sets American dreams of freedom, independence, and self-fulfillment, and changes them for larger spiritual meaning. Whitman appreciates hard work as well as being simple and non-egotistical. His major ideas are things such as soul, good health, as well as the love of nature.
Although this poem does not relate to death or any other of his poems in any way, it adds to Whitman’s unique style point of view. Basically this poem is about the American spirit/Patriotism in all forms from the people of his society based upon his perspective. An example that proves this viewpoint is when he writes “Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, /The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,/The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work” (Whitman 3-4). This quote represents the American patriotism that he is trying to display in his poem. Lastly, the poem is also trying to convey the message of the American dream by showing how the people of this country are happy and patriotic about what they are
In Walt Whitman’s “By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame” we see the poem being narrated from the perspective of a soldier in war who is settled on the floor as a procession winds around him. This soldier has experienced horrifying events from the battles and has lost many things because of it; nevertheless he continues the fight and soothes himself with thoughts of his loved. Whitman uses the word procession three different times in this poem and they all refer to the same type of procession because of the homogeneous terms he uses to describe each, because of the events he describes around him and his reference to the procession as thoughts. They all refer to the same procession because of the almost identical terms he uses to describe each. The
The wish to reach people is clear for both Whitman and Douglass. Whitman states throughout his poem that he is the voice of the world and also gives a sense of preaching and utters his feelings for all to hear him, in the first verse of “Song of Myself” he writes: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume, you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you" (p. 1024 Baym & Levine S., 2013) By doing this Whitman introduces himself and at the same time identifies with the reader. He also states that he should be celebrated not only by himself, but also by the reader because they are the same. He also gives off a feeling that his writing is true and good, we get the feeling he is one of us and at the same time a poet. This leads to comparing Whitman with a preacher or public speaker of some sort, he wishes to be
In the beginning of the poem written by Millay, she talks about the changes between the woman's past and present, “pity me not for beauties passed away/from field and thicket as the year goes by” (Lines 3-4). These two lines are meant to show that the wife knows her husband no longer sees her as a beautiful wife, but she does not want anyone to feel bad for her because each year that goes by, she ages and that is something she can not stop from happening. This is the first sign that she is heartbroken but too humble to let other people feel her pain. A few lines later in the poem Millay explains what is already assumed by the reader, “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,/and you no longer look with love on me” (7-8). The spouse does not desire to be with his wife anymore.
His work reveals how the human soul and Transcendentalism can be better understood through nature. Whitman’s use of nature and the common man ties in with Transcendentalism through his use of abstract writing, rhetorical questions, and the choice between eternal life and death. In the poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider” Whitman connects his own view on the universe to a spider’s view. Through his words “A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding” (Whitman 1/3), he emphasizes the loneliness that the spider is feeling. He portrays his own soul through the
In Housman’s poem “To An Athlete Dying Young” the theme of the poem is victory, and glory as author begins the poem on a cheerful tone, and continuously leads back to glory, despite the young boy’s death. The speaker remembers when the athlete had won a big race, and the townspeople carried the athlete through the marketplace in celebration, bringing victory to the town. But not long after the tone becomes saddening, as the speaker then puts the reader at the young athlete’s funeral. But as the author mentions that the athlete never has to worry about his glory fading, and will always be remembered at his peak of glory, the tone then changes to be celebratory. In his poem, Housman pulls together figurative language, sound devices, and structure in order to prove the idea of the athletes fleeting glory.
The ideologies included in the poem is targeted towards young men who are growing and embracing the foundations of adulthood, but is not limited to only males. The poem is male dominated but the values of life and character can be interpreted by both females and males. The male pronouns present are on line 3, “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you”, line 28, “If all men count with you, but none too much”, but more importantly line 32, ‘And-which is more-you’ll be a Man, my son!”. The male pronouns used in the poem may have more of a response in males than females, though the values of life within the poem is not limited to the male gender. On line 32 the word man has a capital letter despite being in the middle of a sentence displaying a clear exaggeration of the male pronoun.
Landow gives a valuable counter-perspective on pathetic fallacy when he says, “Although such a poetry proves eminently valuable in its ability to educate the reader about the experiences of life, it can never present a balanced, complete view of nature and man's existence” (“Ruskin’s Discussion of the Pathetic Fallacy”). However, in a poem like ‘Mariana’ it would seem that the lack of ‘balance’ is what makes the poem even more meaningful. Harold Bloom finds a mixture of Victorian scientific and Romantic thought in Tennyson’s depiction of nature because the latter attempts to “spiritualize nature in the sense of making it subservient to the needs of the human soul and of forcing it to become symbolical of human moods and passions” (147). He finds that “No lyric by Tennyson is more central to his sensibility than “Mariana,”” (xiv) and that “no poet has ever shown such depths of tenderness or such skill in interweaving the most delicate painting of nature with the utterance of profound emotion” (137). For Rhoda L. Flaxman, the use of “word-painting” in the poem creates a “faithfulness to a precise and consistent perspective focused through the viewpoint of a particular spectator.