Walt Whitman

Life

• Grew up in New York. • Influenced by the revolution• Father was Walter Whitman, Sr.• Had five siblings• Lived in Brooklyn for a good amount of time• Very aware of his surroundings

Work 1. “The Spanish Lady”

• Based on a beautiful person• Presence of Life and death• Representations of evil: the serpent and

assassin• About how not all good things end in good• What you see is deception

Important Quotes

• “O beauteous was that lady;And the splendour of the placeMatched well her form so graceful,And her sweet, angelic face”

• “O better had she slumberedWhere the poisonous snake lay hid”

• “The soul of that fair ladyHas passed from earth to heaven”

Work 2. “To You”

• More of a personal poem• Uses many opposites within the same line• Gives “you” a good reputation• Insightful and a universal topic• About how you should never give up• Gives “you” the glory of light

Important Quotes

• “Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams”

• “I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God,beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself”

• “Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you arepicks its way”

Comparisons

• Both poems tie in the subjects such as life, death, and peace

• In his poems he defines an end to the being he is addressing

• Whitman points out the positives and negatives in his subjects and it is up to the reader to decide what I truly a positive or negative

Contrasts

• In “The Spanish Lady” she gets murdered and it symbolizes an evil end

• Also, she is only seen as an image without much substance

• In “To You” it only suggests death in the future.

• The subject is given a personality and less of an outward description