Rhetorical Analysis Walt Whitman

“Song of Myself” is an attempt by Walt Whitman to become the “American poet” as described by Ralph Waldo Emerson; he attempts to be “[T]he sayer, the namer, and [representative] of beauty” (Emerson 1182). Whitman wants to speak to and for America. Whitman does not explicitly choose sides on the slavery debate that was raging at the time of his writing, but he does express the equality of all people, regardless of gender and race in “Song of Myself”. While Whitman’s writing can be read as neutral but “Song of Myself” is, in reality, very anti-slavery and pro-equality.

Walt Whitman’s poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” expresses many feelings throughout. He expresses the mournfulness that the nation felt after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. It is especially evident when he wrote, “But I with mournful tread, / Walk the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead” (Whitman 22-24). Whitman uses carefully selected word that let the reader know what has happened recently and show the heavy heart people now bear. He expresses the grief of a nation through imagery within his poem. This imagery helps give the reader an even clearer image and sense of what feelings and emotions, both abstract ideas, are present within the nation during this

“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” is Walt Whitman’s way of personifying the everyday experiences of living in society; specifically, Whitman’s firsthand account of his routine crossing on the Brooklyn Ferry. To achieve this is his poem Whitman utilizes the use of repetition to emphasize specific points throughout the works. This is particularly evident in stanza six, here Whitman begins each statement with the phrase “I too”; in doing so Whitman exploits the device of repetition to consolidate the striking commonalities each individual share. By relating to such familiar commonalities such as “I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan, and bathed in its waters.”, the author brings the reader onto level ground and utilizes the familiar experiences of common

Walt Whitman is one of the most influential writers in American History. Although greatly unappreciated in his time, Whitman’s works were truly groundbreaking and served as the basis to usher in a completely new literary movement. Growing up and writing in a era of American History of immense change on numerous spectrums, Walt Whitman’s literary works explored many of these new concepts and ideologies brought forward during this time. As possibly the most important poet of the American Romantic movement, Walt Whitman’s poetry such as “For You O Democracy” and “I Sing the Body Electric” exemplified resurging and new found American ideals stemming from the events of the early to mid nineteenth century. With economic, physical, ideological,

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.

Walt Whitman and Elizabeth Bishop are two of the most highly acclaimed American poets of all time, exploring themes, scenes and emotions that deeply resonate with psyche of the American public. Whitman and Bishop explore the relationship between themselves and their audience by writing about the liminal space between individual and community. As renowned poetic voices for their country, the two are individuals speaking for the multitude. They are therefore fascinated with their apparent inability to determine what defines an individual within humanity, and it becomes clear through their writing that they are at times frightened

The mid 19th century was an exciting time in United States History. America was expanding, and some settlers were headed to the western shores of the continent in hopes of a better life, and for some to follow their dream of striking gold. On the other hand, African Americans were held captive, dreaming of their emancipation, and the women suffrage movement had just begun. Meanwhile, the American poet, Walt Whitman wrote, “Facing West from California Shores”, a short lyrical poem, in the year 1860. He included the poem in a collection called Leaves of Grass, which he self-published in the year 1855. Whitman demonstrated his highly artistic expression of sentiment with the irregular style of free verse; moreover, the poems tonality guides the reader to the sensibility of the speaker’s doubtfulness of ever receiving justification. In the poem “Facing West from California’s Shores”, Walt Whitman, uses the speaker to adopt the new world’s persona, he then uses the speaker to associate the imagery of the coastlands, along with word choice and order to incite an extension of civil liberties to American minorities, during the 19th century.

Walt Whitman was one of the greatest poets in American literature. In his works he celebrated the freedom of the individual and the spirit of American democracy. He exalted the common man, the immigrant, the laborer, and the pioneer, he made the occupations of everyday life a subject of native American poetry. His truly original work , Leaves of Grass, was a landmark in both content and style.

Walt Whitman had a way of reaching out to all people as if speaking directly to them. He accomplishes this by displaying love and adoration for himself, for others, and for his nation. Whitman believed in the union of each individuals own mind, body, and soul. He also believed in the union of the individual with others and the union of the individual with all living things in the universe. In Song of Myself individualism is an extensive theme throughout the work. “Immortality in Whitman’s Philosophy and Art” makes the statement “His poetry sought to present the highest form of American ideals, purified of the strife that was dividing the American community” (Devardhi and Deepika). The American dream of democracy resonates throughout Whitman’s writings in conjunction with his belief that all life of every race, religion, or sex are equal. In Song of Myself section 24, Whitman is expressing his belief in self-divinity and self-love “through me the afflatus surging and surging through me the current and index.” Later in the same section Whitman makes another reference to the divinity of the

Walt Whitman, a great American poet to be compared to Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe, exists at the heart of American culture. Whitman’s work has not lost its appeal because it still applies to America in the new millennia; America is still deeply troubled by issues of division, hypocrisy, and racism—much unlike the America of inclusion and forbearance Whitman envisioned for American in Leaves of Grass. Although Leaves of Grass is often considered Whitman’s most influential work, Whitman spent eighty-five chapters of his autobiography discussing his war experiences, even though his life through 1860 seemed to be the years crucial to the background of Leaves. When considering Whitman’s view that the war

While this appears to be a loss of the sense of self as a discrete individual, it actually lends power to the individual, who now becomes “part of the scheme” (89). Each man within the crowd has a role to play in the forming of a coherent organic whole. By transporting his poetic self from his own time and place to the time and place of the reader through the repetition of the phrase “Just as you… I” (90), Whitman blurs the line that separates poet and reader,

Here he is making it known that he is mindful of who he is and what he is saying. This is an aspect that most ordinary people lack, but flâneurs do not. Flâneurs, like Whitman, know how to conduct themselves in society and are present in all they do and say. There is no loss for identity, no confusion in what is going on; there is only this awareness of all that indefinitely surrounds them in a certain place and moment in time, within themselves and the outside world.

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important writers in the history of American Literature. The people of his own time called him a radical, a madman, and a pornographer. These days he is greatly appreciated and entitled as a fearless prophet of a new stage of human development. Sometimes Whitman would be in a slump and he felt that he needed to deflect the people who inquired too directly. This even meant using examples of homosexual elements in his work, as well as unbelievable stories of him having affairs with numerous women and fathering many children, unknown to him. Throughout these sorts of times W. Whitman has gone through both resentment and flattery, nevertheless showing us

In his first anthology of poems entitled “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman reveals some of his views on democracy through the use of symbolism and free verse poetry. His use of symbolism and free verse poetry creates indeterminacy, giving the reader hints rather than answers about the nature of the poem. In the sixth part of “Song of Myself”, a child asks the narrator of the poem, “What is the grass?” (Whitman). Instead of simply giving an answer, the narrator cannot make up his mind, and stumbles on how to explain the grass to the child. Through the use of specific symbolisms, Whitman, as the narrator, explicates his views while remaining under the façade of explaining grass to the child. The views Whitman conveys remain indeterminate and

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself / and what I shall assume you shall assume” (Whitman 1-2). These lines not only open up the beginning of one the best poems of the American Romantic period, but they also represent a prominent theme of one of this period’s best poet, Walt Whitman. In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Whitman deals with his time period’s most prominent theme of democracy. Whitman tells readers that they must not only observe the democratic life but they must become one with it. As Whitman states, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (3). Democracy provides a connection with all people. It is as if Joseph Stella felt this connection and decided to depict it in his collection of paintings entitled “Americans in the Rough.” The individual is of no greater or lesser worth than anyone else. Beatrice Marovich states that, “It is a song for fellow Americans, about the American body politic” (349). An analysis of Song of Myself portrays that understanding and becoming one with democracy through political collectivity essentially sets the stage for the American democratic self. Joseph Stella does a great job of interpreting and depicting Whitman’s ideals of democracy through his illustrations representing every facet of an American democratic life.