Leaves of Grass#2

"Urge and urge and urge,
Always the procreant urge of the world.
Out of the dimness opposite equals advance... Always substance and increase, Always a knit of identity...always distinction...always a breed of life.
To elaborate is no avail... Learned and unlearned feel that it is so." (pg.22)

The repetition of urge syntactically conveys a tone of annoyance in a sense as things, even flaws, remain the same and don't ever change. He says "always", it has always been that way and it always will be, which explains the speaker's mood and his annoyance. The speaker feels that change and communicating is good. He says, "opposite equals advace, always increasing." He's describng how people need to be with others and experience things to gain and learn from your mistakes. Always he describes learning from mistakes as a building to find who we are as a person. Syntactically, Whitman puts "always" in the front of a continuous group of phrases to sink deeper the idea that things don't change, but rather stay constant, for the worst, as time passes. The theme of things repeating and remaining the same is conveyed by his repetition fo always and displays a motif of time verses change. At the end, Whitman says, "Learned and unlearned feel that it is so," which refers to people that are eduacated and not educated. Even with the distinct difference of education, the different people both agree with his point. I find this interesting because he's showing that others see the same thing he does and because even the uneducated see it, it is very easy to see. Whitman puts the idea of time and natural occurrances throughout his writing shows his curiousity of what's suppose to happen and what isn't. Throughout, he focuses on syntax and diction to convey his message rather than imagery which is more common.

Leaves of Grass Post #1

The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. In the history of the earth hitherto the largest and most stirring appear tame and orderly to their ampler largeness and stir. Here at last is something in the doing of man that corresponds with the broadcast doings of the day and night. Here is action untied from strings necessarily blind to particulars and details magnificently moving in vast masses. Here is the hospitality which forever indicates heroes...Here are the roughs and beards and space and ruggedness and nonchalance that the soul loves. Here the performance disdaining the trivial unapproachable in the tremendous audacity of its groupings and the push of its perspective spreads with crampless and flowing breadth and showers its prolific and splendid extravagance. (pg. 3)

The book begins with an essay. It express the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the country's vi trues and vices. Whitman acknowledged America as this great nation with little flaws. He uses his bias to not only show his opinion, but also describe the nation itself. The history is a metaphor of a poem. Whitman chooses his metaphor because it explains his love for America and poetry and the same time and thus are parallel. He then uses repetition and parallelism of sentence structure with here at the beginning of the sentence. This use of syntax and diction connects the sentences and conveys the many similar, yet different ideas that the history creates. He believes the history is natural and done in unison as he says, "the doing of man corresponds to the broadcast doing of the day and night." When he says, "action untied from strings" and "hospitality that forever indicates heroes", he is describing how America's separation from Britain was free willed and not selfish, but necessary and America as a whole is a selfless nation. His connection of America's history to nature and proper morals convey his opinion of the nation and makes the reader connect to him easier and what he is trying to say. Perhaps, his opinion is so bias because he is trying to convince the reader that America needs a need poet and he is using this tactic of "sweet-talking" to swede them.