How Does Walt Whitman Use Imagery To Represent Lincoln's Death

Whitman wrote broad stanzas and focused on the whole of America as his inspiration. His lines covered a wide range of topics and generated multiple points of view for the reader. He called his life’s work “Leaves of Grass”; stressing the

After the Civil War, Walt Whitman realized that the American people were in need of their own identity. Therefore, he wrote the book “Leaves of Grass” with the goal of creating a literature piece that was authentic and organic to the United States in every sense. Whitman introduced to literature the idea of the “American Dream” and highlighted how important it was for the American people to develop their own identity. Consequently, he rejected the European writing styles and adapted the use of free-verses to his writing, making it a popular writing style in American poetry. Whitman valued of humanity, nature and spirituality. Therefore, he joined the Transcendental literary movement and

Based on the text on page 292 the differences between the Federalist and the Democratic Republicans was that the Federalist was  on the British alliance so the French was the enemy for them. Their leader Alexander Hamilton had favored the Party Federalist from its rule by the wealthy class, its strong federal government, emphasis on manufacturing , loose interpretation of the constitution, its national bank, and last of all its protective tariffs. The things that doesn't make the Democratic Republicans equivalent to the Federalist is that  they are on with France so this means that they are with France. Their leader is Thomas Jefferson 

Walt Whitman was an American poet whose writings are a major landmark in the history of American literature. A worldview is a system of beliefs and perspectives that inform and guides every decision we make. The worldview of Walt Whitman in his poem "O Me! O Life!" is that even when you feel useless and that all your aspirations are hopeless, you can still contribute a verse to the powerful play of

Many people believe that this mimics Whitman's life. Living in a life of social separation much of the time, he still managed to succeed not only with his writing, but also in life itself. However, in line five Whitman goes on to say that he wonders how the tree could grow such joyous leaves while being alone. He himself says that he could not survive if put in the same situation. Whitman did however lead a joyous and happy life in many peoples opinion, even though he did not enjoy the social life many other had during his lifetime. His own opinion of himself not being lonely may be frayed in order to spare the image he proposes to the public in his writings. The next few lines are interesting because of the way they could possible spell out Whitman's life. In the poem, he breaks of a twig, wraps some moss around it, and takes it to he room and places it in plain view. This may parallel his life by way of his memory. The twig may represent pieces of his memory that were enjoyable to him. He then takes the twig and places it in his room signifying that he wants to be able to constantly see those fond memories. Again Whitman replies by saying he did not do this to remind him of his friends, but in reality he may have just said this to help keep a good report with his readers about his lifestyle.

Captain Lincoln Steers the Ship to victory. “Where on the deck my captain lies Fallen cold and dead.”(7-8) This quote from the story refers to the assassination of President Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was President during the Civil War, and is considered to be one of the greatest presidents of all time. President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14,1865 and was in a coma for 9 hours before he died. With the death of the President the nation lost it’s most important man and a great father and husband. The elegy “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman is an extended metaphor about President Lincoln’s presidency because it compares Lincoln to a ships captain, the Union

James McPherson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain all state and indicate the importance of freedom, independence, and individualism throughout all the excerpts. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Satirical novel, 1884, Huck exposes the flows of white society in the Antebellum south. Twain’s novel discusses racism, slavery, and hypocrisy of “civilized society” is to show how they are doing wrong to individuals. Walt Whitman's free verse poem “Song of Myself”, Leaves of Grass in 1855 illustrates when someone passes away life is reincarnated and becomes something better such as grass, air, or soil. Whitman’s purpose for composing this was to inform that death is a forturate thing and not something to fear for. James McPherson,

The Sea-Drift is one of the few poems that recount Walt Whitman’s childhood. Whitman takes us through journey to imagine his childhood in way that is straightforward. This poem gives me the vibe of song and musical because use of the language. This poem Sea- Drift sounds like song lyric maybe, because the bird crying to the ocean and which creates a chirping sound, nature sounds. I think this is iconic because it illustrates the imagination of a child observing nature as it makes him curious to figure out microscopic things in nature, although birds are visible but to investigate the nest of the birds and count its contains are bit unbelievable.

This is significant because it emphasizes the melancholy and mournfulness that he depicts with imagery in the first stanza. Later on in the second stanza, he author describes the tree the narrator would have planted as a “green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs”. The author uses visual color imagery of the color green to describe the sapling in order to emphasize just how young the newborn was when he died. Later on in the poem, the narrator speaks of himself and his brothers kneeling in front of the newly plated tree. The fact that they are kneeling represents respect for the deceased. When the narrator mentions that the weather is cold it is a reference back to the first stanza when he says “of an old year coming to an end”. Later on in the third stanza the author writes “all that remains above earth of a first born son” which means that the deceased child has been buried. They also compare the child to the size of “a few stray atoms” to emphasize that he was an infant. All of these symbols and comparisons to are significant because they are tied to the central assertion of remembrance and honoring of the dead with the family and rebirth.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson’s poetry is very different; however death seems to be a familiar topic amongst both poets. Opposites attract, and you could say the same for Whitman and Dickinson because though they have different writing styles both repeatedly write about death. Once more, although both Whitman and Dickinson have many different feelings about death, they also share many similar feelings about it as well. Although Walt Whitman's poetry is rather long and quite simple and Emily Dickinson's are often short and complex, the theme of death strongly ties their works together.

Walt Whitman, one of the world's greatest journalist and poets, touched the lives of many different and diverse cultures through his many works in which he placed his feet in the shoes of everyday people and the experiences they faced. However, his attitude towards slavery and abolitionism were never permanent as if he was constantly torn between how he really felt or how others who did not agree with him would judge his views. As the saying goes, "your first teachers are your parents." Whitman grew up in a racist environment, in which he was a descendent of slave owners. Therefore, he grew up embodying white prejudice and coming to a conclusion that blacks were shiftless and ignorant. However, as he grew older and became more educated on the

In his essay “Death of Abraham Lincoln”, Walt Whitman recalls the first time he ever saw the future president elect when Lincoln silently passed through New York City on his way to Washington D. C. Then Whitman remarks on the rapid succession of the well-known, recent, and still yet painful events of the Civil War. The strata of session sympathizers, the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s theatre by John Wilkes Booth five days after the end of the Civil War, and the effect Lincoln’s death will forever have on our nation. Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist-in addition to publishing his poetry- was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. The Civil war lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was the result of four

President Abraham Lincoln, admired by Walt Whitman, blossomed in “Whitman's writing and in American mythology”(Eiselein) for his leadership and nobility. Whitman hoped for a rugged, healthy, who knew what real, physical work was, to be the “[r]edeemer [p]resident of [t]hese [s]tates”(Whitman). His hopes came true “as in a dream”(Whitman) when “four years later, just such a beard-faced boatman”(Goodheart) entered the White House. Walt Whitman discovered the “comprehensive, all-directing soul he had long been seeking”(Reynolds) in Abraham Lincoln’s life. Therefore Whitman, a patriotic American, would see Lincoln’s death as not only a grave tragedy but also a “promise [of] ultimate purgation and unification for America.”(Reynolds).

It is not news for anyone to hear that Lincoln changed America, but Whitman explains it a little differently. Looking closer at “Oh Captain! My Captain!” elements of American Romanticism pop out, and one of those major elements is political changes or events. The Event of this is very well known, Lincoln’s assassination. New york Times tells that Whitman was pushed to write this poem after Lincoln’s assassination as a tribute to him. “Generations of historians have described, and tried to interpret the meaning of, this unique funeral procession. But no author has probed the event more deeply than Walt Whitman”. (Griffin, New York Times). This can be shown through the detail of the poem to his assassination. It describes the captain falling cold and dead, which can be a direct correlation to him being shot. His assassination isn't the only thing discussed in this poem. Going back to the metaphors about the voyage, the voyage is described as done. This can show that the civil war was over recently, it ended on April 9th. Lincoln’s assassination took place on April 14th. The close relations of both of these events happening are described like a history lesson through the poem. The second stanza is describing the vents after the war, and the third is describing Lincoln's death. After the war ended the country was in a state of happiness and celebration, but Lincoln was assassinated only a few days later.

In Walt Whitman’s collection of Leaves of Grass, he includes many poems that are a compilation of his musings and thoughts. One thing that he does throughout his collection is that he creates goals through each poem to get different messages across. Some of his common messages, or underlying themes, are the Self, democracy, and the individual, but an interesting common theme found scattered throughout Leaves of Grass is the cycle of life and death, especially in comparison to the United States, the Civil War, and life itself. In “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” does such thing. Published in 1865, the pastoral elegy was written after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. This is the best way that Walt Whitman mourns a beloved public figure in his own modern world, and also the way he copes with the natural world. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” best captures Whitman’s notion what it means to be human: the common understanding of the never-ending cycle of life and death through the form of the elegy, the symbol of the lilac, and the personification of death.