Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking: Whitman´s Sonnet

Glasgow sonnet is a touching poem written by Edwin Morgan and is about how Glasgow used to be, years ago and the effects that it had on people. It deals with an important issue such as poverty and we see the reality of it and how it shouldn’t be ignored. By examining Morgans use of techniques we will be able to seen more of the effects of poverty and how and things actually are Morgans makes the poem particularly effective by the use of sonnet structure, the first 8 lines show us the area and the surroundings and the second half shows us the inside of the situation including people having to deal with this poverty.

“Blank Sonnet” by George Elliott Clarke is a sonnet expressing struggled communication with a lover through a broken relationship. This poem expresses communication struggles through the stylization that is atypical to a Shakespearean or Petrachin Sonnet. Clarke

In one of the sections from the poem, “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman starts out with a child asking a question, “What is the grass?” Grass is a symbol of life. God, who created both the heavens and the earth also gave birth to life. When Whitman refers to grass as a “handkerchief of the Lord” (7), as a gift. When people look at the grass, they do not think of it as a creation but rather just a plant. Whitman refers to the grass as “a child, the produced babe of vegetation” (11, 12). Here, the grass is a metaphor for the birth of a child. In often cases, the birth of anything is celebrated because it symbolizes a new life, a new beginning.

The addressing of the readers continues on, though more directly than before. In the seventh chapter, Whitman asserts that "What thoughts you have of me now, I had as much of you" (ln 90). He is also informing his future readers than he is with them, "enjoying this . . . as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me" (ln 93-94), which parallels “Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,/Missing me one place search another,/I stop somewhere waiting for you,”(ln1341-1343) the closing lines of "Song of Myself." The spiritual nature of this “chapter” addresses the Christian believe in life-after-death. Though

In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, the speaker often uses “I” as a way to embody individuals, or “adjuncts,” of society and the whole that they comprise. At other times, the use of “I” appears to refer to the singular speaker, occasionally seeming to contradict its more encompassing voice. Two particular passages from this selection of poems employ parenthetical statements that work both to differentiate between which “I” is speaking, as well as to whom he is directing his words. This manipulation of punctuation is most notable in poems 7 and 51, the first of which the speaker informs the audience of the immortality of all people, while the latter expresses the brief nature of the speaker’s time with the reader and addresses potential contradictory

In 1819, Walt Whitman was born in a two-story, cedar-shingled house that his father had built about thirty miles east of New York City. Whitman was raised by radical democrats; his father was born on the same day of the Storming of the Bastille in France. His mother was of Dutch ancestry and he claimed that her free spirited perspective of life influenced his personal creative impulses (Lewis). Her belief of combining the “practical and the materialistic” with the “transcendental and cloudy” was likely the source of Whitman’s contradictory instincts (Lewis).

a. The parts I read from Whitman’s Song of Myself are very interesting because right off the bat, Whitman informs his audience that he is writing this long epic poem about himself. His work shapes what it means to be an American. He discusses all different kinds of people and places and tries to find unity that forms positive relationships. To him, everything is good if it is contributing to the larger good in some way. His poem was controversial because he lacks any sort of “filter.”

Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a poem about self discovery and origins. It is also about being one with what made you. Whitman is saying that the identity isn't define by the people you know or the places you been but by the things around you. The sights, sounds, experiences, it all makes who you are. “The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides, The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.” Whitman is saying that all these things here still go on, just without him being present. Walt Whitman is everyone and no one, he is one with nature here. “ I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as

In his poem, “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman disregards the traditional, narrow minded, and systematic structure of poetry in exchange for a liberated and unrestricted point of view that represents a utopian democracy. Whitman’s objective of diversifying ideas on life and extinguishing the boundaries between contrasting individuals regardless of social status, age, or location formulate a style of writing that is dedicated to uplifting all of nature’s organisms. Whitman’s poem questions the boundaries of what know to be realism by eradicating the borders we have between humans and God, the self and others, life and death, and harmonizing humans, animals, and individuals from all walks of life. These are things we tend to isolate and disconnect.

“Song of Myself” is one of Walt Whitman’s most popular poems. “Song of Myself” is written in free verse, which gives the poem a more organic feel. The poem is centered strongly around nature. Through nature, Whitman compares universality and individuality and their importance to the self. Whitman describes that all individuals are connected and are of one.

Title- The song of myself sounds like a poem of self expression, and a gospel of Walt Whitman's’ self beliefs. When his optimistic outlook on life is brought into perspective, one could also conclude that the poem was about his positive and radical outlook on life, because it is a song of himself, his personal expression.

Whitman's Poem "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking," is not, at first glance, an obvious love poem. Most readers would probably consider this a tragic poem about death and love lost. In spite of the fact that the poem is about intrinsically sorrowful events, or perhaps because of it, Whitman is able to capture a very unique and poignant portrayal of love. There are three major perspectives to examine how Whitman develops the theme of love in Out of the Cradle, and by examining each reoccurring theme in the poem separately, we can come to a more complete understanding of how they work together to communicate Whitman's message about love.

Whitman's Poem "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking," is not, at first glance, an obvious love poem. Most readers would probably consider this a tragic poem about death and love lost. In spite of the fact that the poem is about intrinsically sorrowful events, or perhaps because of it, Whitman is able to capture a very unique and poignant portrayal of love. There are three major perspectives to examine how Whitman develops the theme of love in Out of the Cradle, and by examining each reoccurring theme in the poem separately, we can come to a more complete understanding of how they work together to communicate Whitman's message about love.

As Walt Whitman wrote his multiple editions of Leaves of Grass, each edition always had something new, because he would take his experiences and reflect them into his poetry. For example, the first edition that came out in 1855 wasn’t popular, “Walt Whitman’s literary masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, was first self-published in 1855 with less than glowing reviews.” (Woodworth p. 270). Walt Whitman self-published his first edition due to not being able to find a publisher, the book was beautiful with green leather on the front to give the feeling of “laying down in the grass”. The first edition was mainly focused on nature and the solitude that is found within it. In addition, his involvement in the Civil War appears in the later editions, “When the war broke out, he soon found himself working as a wound dresser for the North. These war experiences became the subject of Drum Taps, a series of poems set during the war.” (Woodworth p. 272). His experiences in the Civil War could be read about in the fourth edition published in 1867. The fourth edition mainly focused on the Civil War and Reconstructionism. Furthermore, his background life before publishing has an influence on his writing, “The life familiar to him is the picturesque, free, unconventional life of the people—not the pale, monotonous, artificial life of literary student, aristocrat, or plutocrat. He enters profoundly into all their difficulties, enjoyments, sorrows, and eager aspirations.” (Noel “A Study of Walt

Whitman is known for being revolutionary for his use of free form verse in the nineteenth century. This style is evident throughout Song of Myself which aids in his descriptions and devices used to get his meaning across. His grouping of three lines per stanza for this section is common for the entirety of “Song of Myself”, which has variations of three line to occasionally five line stanzas. His freedom in his poem’s style and lack of rhyme scheme allow him to fully showcase his thoughts in a new way for this time period. An overall summary of the poem is Whitman’s pondering of himself and the world in behavior and personality to him being fully confident in himself with no existential crisis. For the first half of section 20, Whitman’s character of himself questions everything beyond the ownership of himself. He questions the integrity of other people’s identities and characters as well as ignoring social norms involving manners and religious behavior. The declaration of a lack of manners and questioning the church would have been scandalous to