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8/8/2019 Poet - Walt Whitman
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January 10, 2011
Walt Whitman by Mr. Ankeny
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On The Beach at Night AloneOn the beach at night alone,As the
old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,As I watch
the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the
universes and of the future. A vast similitude interlocks all,All
spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,All
distances of place however wide,All distances of time, all
inanimate forms,All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so
different, or in different worlds,All gaseous, watery, vegetable,
mineral processes, the shes, the brutes,All nations, colors,
barbarisms, civilizations, languages,All identities that have
existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,All lives and
deaths, all of the past, present, future,This vast similitude spans
them, and always has spann'd,And shall forever span them and
compactly hold and enclose them.
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Poem Thoughts.
As the old mother sways her to andfro singing her husky song,
iscomparing the waves crashing on theshore to a mother, swinging
her baby.The ocean is the mother, the waves arethe baby.
I think a thought of the clef of theuniverses and of the future.
Hesthinking about how the world isinterrelated. At the edge of a
great dark ocean, he thinks of the great darknessof the universe
and the blank future.
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Poem thoughts continued...
A vast similitude interlocks all, could be reworded: A
largesimilarity unites everything. Again, hes pondering how were
allconnected, were all similar and locked to each other
(interlocked).
The next 8 lines start with All... This is an example of
repetition,and hes using the repetition to show how different
things are
connected, from the shes to colors to lives and deaths. Finally,
he ends with them held compactly in our universe. We end
with the thought that were not only connected, but intricately
linked,close together, like a mother holding her child close to her
(line 2).
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About Walt Whitman...
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Walts Life
Born: May 31, 1819; Died: March 26, 1892
Lived primarily in NYC, parents moved to Brooklyn when he was
4.
Liked to hang out in Pfaff's Beer Hall, where you had to walk
downawkward stairs into the basement, where he would stay late in
the
night in the underground bar. He worked as a journalist in
Brooklyn and roamed the streets on
foot, carrying around a polished cane, people-watching, and
seekingout story ideas.
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Walts Life (continued)
Whitman struggled to support himself through most of his life.
He founded a weekly newspaper the Long-Islander , a free-soil
paper
called the Brooklyn Freeman and he published poetry.
His most famous work is Leaves of Grass , rst published in 1855.
It wasa groundbreaking work of modern poetry and included the
iconicSong of Myself.
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From Song of Myself
I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the
beginning and the end;But I do not talk of the beginning or the
end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,Nor any
more youth or age than there is now;
An d will never be any more perfection than there is now,Nor any
more heaven or hell than there is now.
Sources:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/31
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/31http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/31http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/31http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/31http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126
