Essay about Transcendentalism in the Poems of Whitman

The soul is also mentioned earlier in the poem as beautiful, despite the faces he sees which are at most "despising," (Whitman, `Faces'). Whitman was apparently very much intrigued by the soul, he tried to find a "path," to the soul even though he admits that he was not sure what the soul was. However, he was determined he would find a "path between reality and their souls," (Allen, 192). Like most of the pantheists of his time he wanted to connect many things, reality and the soul; even individualism and the nation. Whitman quoted, "The empowerments of each element of the country individually but at the same time their merger in the collective empowerment of the nation

"Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?……I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones." (pg 40)Nature and all of her wondrous facets, especially the human body, was Whitman's religion. Walt Whitman was indeed an intensely spiritual man in his own unconventional way. His epic classic "Song of Myself" demonstrates these attitudes of his, and in his view how the proverbial "poet" of his America should believe. Humanity yearns for spiritual fulfillment and Whitman believed that everything around us and even ourselves were walking testaments to what true ethereal life is.

The predicament that the spider and the speaker face is similar. They use their inner connections to search for meaningful bonds. Whitman's enactment in the first stanza of the spider reads as if the creature is somewhat isolated and "ever unreeling...ever tirelessly speeding" the web without the knowing of making any encroachment on his environment. However, the poem has an optimistic idea at the ending. Even though it is difficult to try and find connections, his soul will end up being successful and he will be able to rest, just like a spider when it completes it's web in

The first stanza explains how the cunning spider “stood isolated” and to “explore the vacant, vast surroundings” it “launched” thread after thread “out of itself” thus creating a sturdy web. This then flows smoothly into the description of his soul, which acts in a very similar manner. At first, it too seems isolated. Whitman writes “O my Soul, where you stand” and “surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,” which connects to the how the spider “stood isolated.” This wording, however, might take on a new meaning to describe how his soul has an endless number of opportunities, even though it also seems as lonely as the spider. In the third line, “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,” Whitman illustrates how his soul also launches its own webbing, determined to connect itself with its surroundings. These may be relationships with others or finding a place to call home - anything that will create “the bridge [it] will need” or connections that will “anchor” it to its environment. Whitman helps readers understand the actions and nature of an intangible soul by relating it to a small and tangible

Perhaps the intent was to emphasize how easy the spider had it in comparison to the soul, who had a risker and greater need for connection. In another perspective the writer’s intent is to connect the earth and the universe into one. It is hard to establish the true purpose, but it can be concluded that the speaker was the central connection between the soul and the spider. Even though the poem was developed with a split speaker, who began overviewing the action of the spider in stanza 1, while in stanza 2 they began to address the soul as their own. The connection is established by showing by the speaker talking about the similar characteristics the soul and the spider share.

In Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, the poem only consists of two stanzas, however, they fit hand in hand. Walt Whitman was the “King of free verse”, he worked hard his whole life, he only began writing in his 60’s and published his book of poems right before he died. Before writing he was a farmer, house builder, and worked at other jobs before turning into one of the most recognized poets in America. I believe this poem was written as a metaphor to his life. The first stanza is used to introduce the spider, the setting is marked on a big open space overlooking a sea. It states “It launched forth filament, filament, filament, filament, out of itself.” Whitman uses repetition to emphasize the tireless hard

Whitman begins by creating a contradictory image of himself. On one hand he relays an egotistical representation by alluding that he is the center of the universe, "a kosmos, of Manhattan the son," almost a deistic type of character. Whitman also describes himself as not being above any one person, woman or man, an obvious contradiction to his previous representation. His God-like persona is depicted in human terms, physical qualities that all humans possess. Whitman creates this contradiction to show his belief that he is everything, but is only this way because everything is a part of him. He represents himself as part of a whole&emdash;nature, mankind, and the universe are all a part of him. By being everything in nature and nature being a part of him, Whitman has the power to become the voice of nature as a whole. He speaks for nature and mankind when they do not possess the power to do so. Whitman is the voice of all.

Valuable things take time to make their mark on Earth, just like hope does. Hope is not something that will take all pain away but seal your emotions into a more positive light. In “ A Noiseless Patient Spider,” Whitman also used an extended metaphor comparing a spider web to finding yourself in this world. The spider illustrated the confusion like a stumbling block that one may experience to find themselves, he said, “ Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,”. These verbs convey the struggle the human race goes through, but shows patience with the multiple actions the spider took. This is a valuable lesson of patience and how to never give up on hope. Parallelism is used in this poem just as it was in

In under 20 lines, Walt Whitman managed to give a broad detail of his views on the world in his poem “ A Noiseless Patient Spider”. He started by talking about his observation of a tiny spider that moves to a outtake on the world. The spider seems to be having difficulty creating its web as it constantly misses the support to stick to something to form a beautiful tricket of design known as a spiders web. Whitman uses the spiders constant missing as a metaphor about how us as humans may try to connect and hope to catch onto something or someone that will provide a steady web. As in the last stanza, Whitman said how his soul needed to catch a gossamer or web and catch and hold onto the connection. He soul is exhausted of being detached and

The whole poem is a metaphor. Web and soul are not related, but share common characteristics, according to Whitman. Both an insect and a person are “surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space” (Whitman l. 7). They create and spread “filaments” around them until a strong

Every sentence in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" tends to either repeat or contradict. He even says of himself, "I contradict myself" (Lauter, p. 2793). This can make Whitman's poetry a little confusing to some. In his many stanzas, definition of the soul is ambiguous and somewhat contradictory.

In the poem “Song of Myself” Whitman presents the idea that regardless of particular religion, a higher power resides within every living thing and that the knowledge of ourselves and the living things around us gives us a transcendent power beyond our world. On the “Song of Myself” poem Whitman presents the believe that every living organism in the universe possesses a spirit. Additionally, Whitman acknowledges the need for a spiritual relationship between a person and a higher spiritual power. For Whitman, life was and endless journey. The following quote captures some of the Transcendental elements used by Walt Whitman on the “Song of Myself”

Along with the use of metaphors, the form of the poem plays an important role in uncovering the views of Whitman. First and foremost, this poem was written in free verse which is a form of poetry that lacks structure. The free verse stucture of the poem is shown in the lack of form in the stanzas of the poem. Some stanzas are six lines long while others are only one, and the lines can be either concise or drawn out. The poem also lacks any apparent rhyming scheme or rhythm. Unlike Shakespearean poetry, where the foot of the poem stays the same, the lack of any apparent structure to the poem leaves the reader unable to predict what is coming next. In addition to this, at the time this poem was written, free verse was not common. In fact, Whitman may have been one of the first poets to use this form, showing that he may have been rebelling against the predominant structured form in poetry. The lack of any apparent structure guides the reader towards the conclusion that Whitman did not like structure in poetry, and can even be

In his poems and life, Walt Whitman celebrated the human spirit and the human body. He sang the praises of democracy and marveled at the technological advances of his era. His direct poetic style shocked many of his contemporaries. This style, for which Whitman is famous, is in direct relation to several major American cultural developments. The development of American dictionaries, the growth of baseball, the evolution of Native American policy, and the development of photography all played a part and became essential components of Whitman’s poetry.

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”