Leaves of Grass #7

Do I contradict myself?
Very well...I contradict myself;
I am large... I contain multitudes.

I concentrate toward them that are nigh...I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day's work and will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? Will you prove already too late?
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me...he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am a bit tamed... I too am untranslatable.
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

What I find very interesting was what Whitman says before, "Listener up there! Here you...what have you to confine me?" He wants to hear what the reader has to say. He wants to know another's opinion, but at the same time, he values his own opinion and believes it. He is willing to listen to others, but not take in consideration their full opinion.
When he says if he contradicts himself, he is realizing what he has been doing throughout the poems. He takes two sides to things to fully understand things, therefore although he is contradictory, he is aware and realistic. That is why he then says that he contains multitude. He has many perspectives even the ones he doesn't believe.

As Whitman continues to state how he is loitering and how he is being accused of such a thing. The world around he do not like that he isn't simply looking for answers, he is looking for more. And that is something a human can not have. To have such a high understanding would make him more than human. When he's yelling at the listener, he is yelling at the sky, therefore he's yelling at God. The reader and God are both the listeners to Whitman, therefore in a sense, he is having an argument with God. He is fighting the aspect of knowing too much. The hawk represents God's messenger as nature is looking down at Whitman. The struggle of knowledge and its journey towards discovery is a major theme and deeply conveyed in the passage.

Leaves of Grass #6

All doctrines, all politics and civilization exuge from you.
All sculpture and monuments and anything inscribed anywhere are tallied in you,
The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records reach is in you this hour-and myths and tales the same;
If you were not breathing and walking here where would they all be?
The most renowned poems would be ashes... orations and plays would be vacuums.

All architecture is what you do to it when you look at it;
Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or the lines of the aches and cornices?

All music is what awakens from you are reminded by the instruments,
It is not the violins and the cornets...it is not the oboe nor the beating drums-nor the notes of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza... nor those of the men's chorus, nor those of the women's chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.

What Whitman is describing in these passages is the power of opinion. He is saying how everything is determined by what others believe of it. Without people to acknowledge it, nothing in the world would have meaning. He creates a very close relationship with the reader as he addresses them directly with "you". He is telling the reader that without them, this book like all others would have no power; no purpose.
He continues his argument discussing architecture and music. He gives ultimate power to opinions because he says things are titled by what feelings they created, not what they are.The identity of things aren't what they are composed of, but rather what they create.
I absolutely agree with what Whitman is saying, but just reading made me realize how powerful what people believe has on things.
I related this to our class discussions on reader response criticism.
Whitman says, "The most renowned poems would be ashes." Without the opinion of others, a book would mean nothing. I mean is not criticism an opinion itself?

Leaves of Grass #5

"I am the hounded slave...I wince at the bite of the dogs,
Hell and despair are upon me...crack and again crack on marksmen.
I clutch the rails of the fence...my gore dribs thinned with the ooze of my skin,
I fall on the weeds and stones,
The riders spur their unwilling horses and haul close,
They taunt my dizzy ears...they beat me violently over the head with their whip-stocks."

For many of the poems, Whitman has been the observer. However in this section, he has become the things that he is observing. He becomes the wife, then the man, and finally the slave. By him becoming them, he understands who they are and what they have to go through. This gain of understanding is what Whitman has been looking for and in a sense is his epiphany because he now has the awareness he's been looking for.

The passage above begins with him finally realizing the place of a slave, which is the harder for him to understand because it's the farthest to what he was. He has understand the position so much that he can feel the pain that a slave feels. "My core dribs thinned with the ooze of my skin" is an example of his realization. After, he says, "I do not ask the wounded person how he feels... I myself become the wounded person. In this area, he syntactically favors describing himself, follow by an ellipsis, and then something occurring to him. This has an interesting effect because it parallels the slave or his characteristics with what is occurring with it, but at the same time dividing them. This paradox expresses the complexity of the social issues at the time and the tough life of a slave.

Leaves of Grass #4

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chief-d'ouvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea-keddle and baking shortcake."

In this segment of Whitman's poetry begins a trend of repetitive syntax. In the first sentence, Whitman expresses his opinion on his title. Because he says "no less" he is expressing the magnitude of something so simple. A leaf of grass is but one piece in an entire field. No one notices it, except for Whitman who notices all the little things around him. He wants the reader to understand what he feels, so he compares it to stars orbiting around in the solar system. The line is juxtaposition between the simplicity and minute size of the grass verses the complexity and large size of the star. Also, the mentality that grass is at people's feet and diminishes its view, while stars are above the heads and gives that larger than life effect plays a role as well.
Then Whitman goes into the repetitive syntax. In this segment, he brings up the motif of nature and the theme of things being more than they appear. Whitman gives aspects of nature, human qualities. What I find so interesting is that nature has human qualities, but Whitman enjoys nature far greater than humans themselves and their actions. This give nature equality to humans, but at the same time superiority to them. The repetitiveness expresses the tone of the speaker has it keeps encountering this idea more and more and it makes the reader feel overwhelmed by the continuous usage.
Then after all that with nature, Whitman says, "And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea-keddle and baking shortcake." Whitman discusses how much better nature is compared to humans and their artifical machinary, yet he says how much he loves seeing a girl using the machinary. This ironic statement either says that Whitman is a hypocret and cares more about what goes on in his pants than in his head or he wants to show that everyone including him is flawed and this increases the connection between him and the reader rather than him saying how the reader is a terrible person.

Leaves of Grass #3

Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.

I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe...
and am not contained between my hat and boots,
And peruse manifold objects, no two alike, and every one good,
The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.

I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and
fathomless as myself;
They do not know how immortal, but I know.


Before the passage, Whitman repeatably brings up the motif of grass and dark. The author appears to be referencing the life of a slave. He is watching their lives unfold and the terror they had to go through. The reference to the grass could refer to the work slaves do on the field as well as a symbol for life, in which it is dying as he says, "This grass is very dark."

Whitman is doing several things here as he is doing throughout his poems. He is exploring his own self, his individuality and his personality. He is examining democracy and the American nation with its achievements and potential. And also he is expressing his thoughts on aspects of life like birth, and death.

Whitman deals with death for most of the poems as a fact of life. Death in life is a fact, but life in death is a truth for Whitman. However in this case, it is giving it more meaning. He is considering death as an escape from the terrors of life. He sees the slaves dying in front of him and he wants to try and understand what they are going through and believes that in their case, although life is beautiful and offers so much, it would be better to die. Or possibly even not even be born, so that they did not have to suffer through what they had to which is why he asks, :has any one supposed it lucky to be born?" When he asks the question, he is directing it towards the slaves and wondering what they feel on life verses death.

In the passage, Whitman says, "I'm not contained between my hat and boots. The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good." He is comparing his life to that of a slave and saying everything has been good to him. The repetition of good appears as an allusion to the bible as the adjective good was used a lot as well in that structure so Whitman could possibly be referring to the Book of Genesis and saying how his life is natural and as it is meant to be, while the slave's lives are not.

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.