O' Captain! My Captain!
O CAPTAIN!
my Captain! our
fearful trip is done;
The ship
has weather'd every
rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port
is near, the bells I
hear, the people all exulting,
While follow
eyes the steady
keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart!
heart! heart!
O the bleeding
drops of red,
Where on
the deck my Captain
lies,
Fallen cold
and dead.
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This poem is about the coming to a new land and the ship
refers to the new land and Captain refers to President Lincoln. When he talked
about Him laying on the check cold and dead that is talking about Lincoln assignation.
Among the Multitude
AMONG the men and women the multitude,
I perceive
one picking me out by secret and divine signs, Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am,
Some are baffled, but that one is not--that
one knows me.
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This poem talks about finding
a person like you that matches your style, likes and dislikes. He talks about someone finding him based on him not anything
else. he doesnt care what others think about him just that if that other person likes something in him thats all he wants.
Facing West From California's Shoes
FACING
west, from California's
shores,
Inquiring,
tireless, seeking
what is yet unfound,
I,
a child, very old, over
waves, towards the house of maternity, the
land
of migrations, look afar,
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This poem is about him looking at his life, Where he talks about seeking
what is yet unfound that means he doesnt know what the future has to offer or what will come of it. Yet open to changes and
willing to try new things but still remembering where he came from and where he wants to go.
A Hand-Mirror
HOLD it up
sternly! See this it
sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)
Outside fair
costume--within
ashes and filth,
No more a
flashing eye--no more
a sonorous voice or springy step;
Now some
slave's eye, voice,
hands, step,
A drunkard's
breath, unwholesome eater's
face, venerealee's flesh,
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The poem A hand-mirror is refering to seeing your self in a totally different way thnking of your
self as a low person maybe someone of crime and wrong. he's talking about that his life is nothing and looking to see what
he is and how unhappy he is and looks or how he see's him self .
What Am I After All
| WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas’d with the
sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; | | | I stand apart to hear—it never tires me. |
|
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I feel this poem is about children and how everything to a small child
is great. No worries no cares, even the sound of their own voice makes them happy. Also small things never get old, he's saying
dont forget to live let kids be kids let them enjoy what ever they please, what ever makes tham happy.
Come Said My Soul
Come, said
my soul,
Such verses
for my body let us
write, (For we are One),
That should
I after death
invisibly return,
Or, long,
long hence, in other
spheres,
There to some
group of mates the
chants resuming,
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In this poem, Walt is trying
to figure out if he would be
more content coming back as invisible or becoming part of the earth and playing
a role in the earth’s nature. The tone of this poem is about how he is thinking
concerning his options about how he wants to come back from the dead. He is
worried about if people will remember him in a good way.
Earth! My Likeness
EARTH!
my likeness! Though
you look so impassive,
ample and spheric there, I
now suspect that is not all; I
now suspect there is something
fierce in you, eligible to burst forth;
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Walt is comparing himself to the earth.
He is comparing how
the two look on the outside, in contrast to what they are really like. They are
both willing to show their true selves to each other. He would rather show his
emotions than say it in words. He would like to possess the qualities that an
athlete has, and he is jealous that he does not.
Beginning
My Studies BEGINNING my studies, the first
step pleas'd me so much,The mere fact,
consciousness--these forms--the power of motion,The least insect or animal--the
senses--eyesight--love;
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I believe Walt wrote this poem to
tell about his childhood.
He says “BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas'd me so much” what he means
by this is his enjoyment of learning. The tone of this poem is happy memories
of childhood. He would be happier going back to that moment, and staying there
because everything about it was perfect in his mind. No other feeling he has
felt has compared to the feelings he had when he was young, a time and place he
can never go back to.
Not the Pilot
NOT the pilot has charged
himself to bring his ship into port, though
beaten back,
and many times
baffled;
Not the path-finder,
penetrating
inland, weary and long,
By deserts
parch'd,
snows-chill'd, rivers wet, perseveres till he
reaches his destination,
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Walt Whitman is
explaining in this poem how the pilot and the pathfinder have continued on
their journey to reach their destination, although they have had many setbacks.
They have done more to ‘compose a free march for These States’ than the person
talking in the poem has. Their main goal is to be an inspiration to people to
fight for what they believe in, no matter what the consequences, for years to
come.
When I read the book
WHEN I read
the book, the biography famous,
And is this,
then, (said I,) what the author calls a man's life?
And so will
some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
(As if any
man really knew aught of my life;
Why, even
I
myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real
life;
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This is a short poem about
his concerns that people will forget who he was. The first stanza is about how
he wonders if anyone will write a biography on his life, which as he seems to
think is a mystery even to him. He starts the poem by saying he was reading
someone else’s biography, questioning the books validity and detail of this
man’s real life. He doesn’t think many people know about his life, not enough
to write anything significant about him. The tone of this poem is confusing, I
believe he wrote this when he was getting old and wondered about his life and
what he did with it.
The Wound Dresser
An old man bending I come among new faces, Years looking backward resuming in answer to children,
Come
tell us old man, as from young men and maidens that love me,
(Arous'd and angry, I'd thought to beat the alarum, and urge
relentless war,
But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself,
To sit by the wounded and soothe
them, or silently watch the dead;)
Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions, these chances,
Of unsurpass'd
heroes, (was one side so brave? the other was equally brave;)
Now be witness again, paint the mightiest armies of earth,
Of
those armies so rapid so wondrous what saw you to tell us?
What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
Of
hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains?
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The
poem “The Wound Dresser” is a poem that comes straight from the author Walt
Whitman’s own wartime experiences. During the Civil War Whitman from 1862 to
1864 helped the injured and wounded soldiers in Washington D.C. after traveling
to Virginia where his own brother was wounded and hospitalized in the Battle of
Fredericksburg. The poem “The Wound Dresser” is an accurate depiction of how
war can have a profound effect on anyone involved.
The
poem starts off in the first stanza by introducing the main character by
stating, “An old man bending I come among new faces.” This expresses the over
all theme of the poem, indicating that the old man has been in this position
before and is preparing for another intense scenario. In the same stanza
Whitman continues to explain the feelings the old man is going through and the
mental preparation for what is to soon happen. In the second stanza Whitman
describes what the soldiers go through in great detail describing them as
alert, covered with sweat, dust, and also how they plunge themselves in a
successful charge as the battle begins.
In
the fourth stanza as the battle commences the wounded start to pour in as the
old man attempts to patch up as many patients as possible. Whiteman best
describes the setting by saying, “bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
straight and swift to my wounded I go where they lie on the ground after the
battle brought in.” At this point of the poem just from this stanza alone puts
a picture in the readers mind what it really was like during this horrific
period when the wounded start to pile up and what the old man was experiencing
at that specific moment. Even with all that is happening the old man who was
tending wounding is quoted saying, “I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp
yet unavoidable” which fully describes the old man’s dedication towards the
injured under his care.
In
the second to last stanza as the main character is going from patient to
patient desperately doing what he can for each one and begins to waver, but
tells him self, “I am Faithful, I do not give out.” This the moment where the
old man dedication for his flag and fellow man shines through making him self
tough it out and do whatever possible to get through all of this. Eventually,
the brutal battle dwindles down and how the atmosphere around the hospital and
battlefield is described in the poem is complete silence. The old man in the
poem who heroically tended to all the injured at the end poem stands beside him
self and when all is said and done he then, wanders through the empty hospital,
at this point Whiteman’s character recalls the experience as sweet and sad
stating, “ Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested,
many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips.”
Ambition
The
poem “Ambition” by Walt Whitman in the first stanza starts off by describing
the main character of the poem. Whitman describes the young man as, “a wander,
known but to few, lay musing himself.” To me that really set the tone of the
poem and to support this Whitman also, in the first stanza states how the young
man, “in that youth’s heart, there dwelt the coal ambition, burning and
glowing.” At this point the theme of the poem is revealed and the author goes
into great detail describing about the how the main character keeps a low
profile and thinks to himself how maybe one day in the future his name will one
day be famous.
When
the young man is thinking about his dreams of future success a shape appeared
from the clouds and spoke the man. The mystical figure spoke to the young man
about his ambition of being world-renowned by saying, “Some will win that
envied goal, and have their deeds known far and wide; and some by far the most
will sink down into oblivion’s tide.” I think the mystical figure is a symbol
that the young man created in his own mind to try to explain to himself that
having such dreams of being famous is possible, but is hard to obtain. Also,
others share the same dream and can devour a person if that person doesn’t know
how peruse that dream in the right manner.
The mystical
figure in the poem continues by saying, “but thou, who visions bright dost cull
from the imagination’s store, with dreams, such as the youthful dream of
grandeur, love, and power.” What I think what he is trying to convey here is
that in youth it is normal to have such dreams, but as time goes by and as a
person gets older with age such dreams are replaced with more of sense of a
realistic point of view. Which is a natural progression in life. As the poem
goes the figure made up of clouds makes a point of telling the young man about
the pit falls having a dream such as his. Saying, “weak childish soul! The very
place that pride had made for folly’s rest; what thoughts, with vanity all
rife, fill up thy heaving breast.” This symbolizes how fame can go to a
person’s head and that could go wrong if a person in that position doesn’t have
the right frame of mind.
In the last stanza
in the poem points out the reaction the young man has towards the advice giving
to him by the mystical figure made of the clouds. Whitman goes on to describe
the young mans feeling sick at heart when hearing what may occur if he so
chooses to peruse his dream of fame. Also, the poems states, “it pierced him
sore to have his airy castles thus dashed down”. I think this best describes
how the young man felt because before talking the figure in the clouds he felt
confident and good about his aspirations, but the negative aspects of fame and
the lifestyle that goes along with it all crushed those dreams.
Overall, I really
enjoyed this poem some of language and meaning of what Whitman was trying to
across was a little difficult to understand and to decipher, but all in all the
poem was unique and intriguing. I thought it was really clever how the young
man in the poem had these dreams of being famous and none the less had those
dreams in a way crushed by truths of being in situation that in some cases has
a dark side to. Also, the poem gives a sense of hope as well, because no matter
who you are, people’s dreams are their own and those dreams can take an
individual anywhere.
More...
- Brasher,
Thomas L. The Early Poems and The Fiction. New York: New York University Press, 1963.
- Bloom,
Harold. Modern Critical Views Walt Whitman. New York: Chelsea House
Publishers, 1985.
- http://www.poemhunter.com/
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