Cycle Of Life And Death In Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass

The idea of death can be, and is an enormously disturbing, unknown issue in which many people can have many different opinions. To some individuals, the process of life can progress painstakingly slow, while for others life moves too fast. In the excerpt We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, a innocent farm boy named Judd Mulvaney has an eye-opening encounter by a brook near his driveway. During this encounter, Judd faces a chain of feelings and emotions that lead to his change of opinion of the issues of life and death, and change as a character. This emblematic imagery of life and death, as well as jumpy, and retrospective tones benefit the development of Judd as an innocent child as he begins to change into a more conscious and aware adult.

The first stanza appears to have a rhyme scheme in which the second and fourth lines rhyme. However, this rhyme scheme is not perfect as the remaining stanzas do not follow this pattern. As death is personified throughout the entire poem, lines 2 and 3 introduce him as a kind gentleman that has come the take the speaker for an enjoyable carriage ride. The second stanza shows their courtesy to one another by his patient towards her as he “slowly drove-He knew no haste”, and her giving up her “labor and..leisure too” to join him for a ride.

Also included in the poem is the image of a young child being embraced by their elders. This shows the gap in life and the aging process that we go through. When we are young we are carefree, but as we age we hold on to the ones we love because of the knowledge that we will one day have to make our departure. Out of this idea of death, Whitman shows that this is a natural part of life and

This poem is like an extended metaphor because it refers to death as being dark like the night time

The positive outlook that Whitman portrays towards death in his poem the "Wound-Dresser", is similarly shown in Emily Dickinson's "Narrow Fellow in the Grass". She tells a simple story with impressive word choices that allow for deep interpretation and symbolism. Her poem narrates the story of a dead man laying on the ground that looks as if "the Grass divides as with a comb-" (line 5). "He (meaning the dead man) likes Boggy Acre/ A Floor too cool for Corn-" (lines 9-10). Notice as she uses the word 'likes' as if the dead man still lived or had feelings towards the

“Fallings from us, vanishings:/Blank misgivings of a Creature/Moving about in worlds not realized” (lines 146-148), Whitman writes, moving along the linear timeline into a place of unknowability and tranquility, a place that does not necessarily kill the light, but simply a place where he is unable to see it, a place where it will never be “realized,” a death in his world, and not necessarily in all worlds. The development of glory: “What though the radiance which was once so bright/Be now for ever taken from my sight” (lines 178-180), now reaches its end - the glory itself it dead, and whatever wispy clouds, whatever matter remains infuses itself into other things, other places. For this type of reincarnation, not the recreation of glory as it was in its first life, but the absorption of its remains into a new, different life, to be efficient, Whitman continues to confirm the developmental symbol of glory, by emphasizing this temporary death: “Doth the same tale repeat:/Whither is fled the visionary gleam?/Where is it now, the glory and the dream?” (lines 55-57), It allows him now the ability to revisit these worlds, to imagine the places where the glory has

Of his own death, he wrote “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,/If you want me again look for me under your boot soles” (1338-1339). Whitman is completely at peace with nature and death so much so that he does “not talk of the beginning or the end” (39). Instead, by comparing death and nature, he is talking about everything in between. In Song of Myself, he often makes long lists of scenic moments as if to appreciate the never ending cycle of life and death within human

We see a continuation from “out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” with its basis of life and death. However, our poet is dealing with an inner struggle, which solemnly deals with the time and space he is currently occupying: Paumanok. Whitman gives sense to ideals through various examples, such as, “I am too, but trial and debris, I too leave little wrecks upon you” (142). Our poet makes connections to himself and the physical wreckage and how his corpse will one day become debris and trial the shores. The union created between life and death and its relation to the area is profound to our speaker. Since those items will cycle on through for generations towards others individuals; really connecting different points of

Everyone feels burdened by life at some point. Everyone wishes they could just close their eyes and make all the problems and struggles of life disappear. Some see death as a release from the chains and ropes with which the trials and tribulations of life bind the human race. Death is a powerful theme in literature, symbolized in a plethora of ways. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve" Robert Frost uses subtle imagery, symbolism, rhythm and rhyme to invoke the yearning for death that the weary traveler of life feels.

There are many themes present in “song of myself”, but three main themes stood out to me more than any other themes. The themes are the beautification of death, knowledge, and the connection between people and things. The beautification of death, knowledge, and the connection between people and things is apparent throughout the poem.” The poem that would come to bear the title "Song of Myself," the major poem of the original 1855 edition, contains several key passages relating to death, including sections 5 and 6, which offer another example of a scene where ecstatic sexual engagement leads to and is linked with a visionary spiritual transcendence of death.” I put this quote from “"Restless Explorations": Whitman's Evolving Spiritual Vision in Leaves of Grass” to support the claim of death being romanticized and repeated throughout the poem.

Like Robert Frost, Walt uses symbolism throughout his poem. In one of his sections, he references grass as the hair of the dead. ¨And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves¨ (Whitman Stanza 6). This short section shows his thoughts on death and what the possibilities of the afterlife may contain.

To him, the concept of the self, its individuality, and the universe, is a significant factor in his work. He uses various types of imagery, colloquialisms, and foreign words to unite the natural with the spiritual, and to suggest and increase the impression of a poetic idea. While these images seem not to have a clear organization, they actually possess a basic underlying unity, which involves spiritual concepts. This in turn provides a meaning and even coherence to the apparent lack of relationship between scenes and imagery. There is a sense of purpose in Whitman’s work, although sometimes it overflows with significant details. The narrator keeps questioning himself and the world, which forces the author to explore his own use of symbolism and the inability to breakdown things to basic principles. An example of this is grass and how it becomes a symbol of life and regeneration. Grass is also a democratic and uniting factor in the life of America. Whitman describes how not only grass grows everywhere, but how it also feeds on the bodies of the dead in the graves, the roots of democracy being born of the mortality of man. However, while there is a clear longing for the union of the physical and the spiritual, the reader can sense

the theme of death. The speaker of the poems talks about the loss of a

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, the story that has many different messages that Thomas Gray has been trying to point out to people as soon as he moved to the country to see what it was like to live there. Gray was born in the city so for him to move out into the country and get a taste of what it was like really did open up his mind more and allowed him to write this poem. The poem has so many different messages that everyone really should be thinking about on a day to day basis, especially during this time when everyone claims they want to be famous and rich. He brings up a lot of valid points that everyone needs to know and think about because what he has to say in this poem really opens the readers eyes and makes them think about the messages and the poem itself. Elegy simply points out what the huge difference there is between rich and poor, how one has more opportunities than the others and how one is treated differently than the other after they pass away.

The elegy When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, written by Walt Whitman in 1865, extraordinarily emphasizes on the unexpected loss of love, succinctly portrayed through the combination of three parts of free verse poems containing constant comparison between transcendentalism and realism that sums up to 216 lines. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, is the man whom Whitman always talks about, despite never been mentioned by name. The first section, stanza 1-4, conveys his massive depression and ruthless despair through the metaphorical lilacs. The second, stanza 5-9, depicts an emotional dramatization when the coffin is in progress to be buried. The third, stanza 10-13, indicates the tributes and the actions that Whitman is willing to do the best he could for the dead Lincoln. Stanza 14-16 sums up the motif and symbolisms to develop the ideology of reconciliation of the eternal loss. Whitman illuminates his reconciliation on the feeling of great loss through his personal