|
1 [2]
Comment 5 of 15, added on November 7th, 2005 at 9:03 AM.
this is certainly not one of his best poems. *sad face*
jenn
Comment 4 of 15, added on September 19th, 2005 at 8:07 AM.
i honestly love this poem it's by far one of my favorites by whitman.
Lara from United States
Comment 3 of 15, added on August 9th, 2005 at 3:29 PM.
I'm not a big Walt Whitman fan, but I do love this poem because it, speaks
to my sense of indiviuality and patriotism at the same time....I love
it...great poem
Kim from United States
Comment 2 of 15, added on May 31st, 2005 at 10:22 PM.
WOW!!!!! Huck Gutman, you really outdid yourself interpreting your
perspective of this beginning! I loved how you put this puzzling poem into
logical words! .....maybe u could do the same for the rest of them ((i need
them)).........lol!!
jk jk!
Michelle from United States
Comment 1 of 15, added on January 11th, 2005 at 10:05 AM.
The opening poem of the final edition of LEAVES OF GRASS is clearly not one
of the greatest of Whitman's poems -- I'd say Song of Myself, Out of the
Cradle, As I Ebb'd, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, The Wound Dresser (and several
other poems from Drum-Taps) and some of the Calamus poems are the best.
But this opening poem is nonetheless remarkable, for what it does, in the
first two lines, is highlight Whitman's awareness of the boldness and
originality of his enterprise. He raises the question, essential for
Americans then as today, for all people in all nations: how can one be a
self, a separate person, and at the same time be a citizen, a member of a
group that also has an identity.
His answer, that he is and has a self, but that he can also speak about a
larger 'belonging,' a sense that he is one of many, a part of a whole (I
love the use, in this most American of poets, of that French 'En-masse,'
which literally means the whole massed together).
That dual sense, of the self (Song of Myself begins, "I celebrate myself")
and of the social whole (be it the United States Whitman so dearly loved,
or the whole of humanity, which he also loved), is central to the entirety
of Leaves of Grass. Which is why this is an appropriate beginning.
Huck Gutman from United States
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
1 [2]
|
this is certainly not one of his best poems. *sad face*
jenn