The Heart asks Pleasure First

Emily Dickinson was a crazy old lady who wrote poems about things she observed from people who passed by here. Though in my opinion some one can not really write about life and stuff about it when their own life is nothing but watching other people. How do you write about life when she really is not even living her own life. Anyway, this poem is about human nature, the first line "the heart asks pleasure first" means exactly what it says. The most important thing to people is them having pleasure like how drug addicts only care about being high. The second line "And then, excuse from pain;" the second line is straightforward too. It just means that pain is the thing we all strive to avoid because we do not want to hurt. the third line "And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;" Is a little trickier because anodynes means medicine that help to alleviate pain but obviously deaden people are people who do not need medicine to alleviate any pain because they are dead. SO I think it means they need medicine to help their dead self or soul so not a real dead personjj

An Army Corps on the March

An Army Corps on the March is a poem by Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman was a poet during the civil war era who greatly changed the way poetry was viewed, used, and even thought about. Whitman was a revolutionary idealist who covered a broad range of topics from war to God to even his own homosexuality. The section in his book Leaves of Grass called Drum-Taps can mean a lot of things but for the most part the section and the poems inside of it focus on war and Lincoln, a man whom Whitman revered greatly. In the Drum-Taps section the poem I chose to analyze is An Army Corps on The Move. Just from the title, which is also the first line we already know that on the surface this poem is about an Army moving, presumably on the warpath. Knowing Whitman was in the Civil War and on the Union side we can assume that the army is a Union army and is going to fight a confederate army. The second line "With now the sound of a single shot snapping like a whip, and now an irregular volley," (Whitman.) This line brings to mind the long lines of men firing in to another long line of men, the most common civil war tactic. The part that says "With now the sound of a single shot snapping" (Whitman). Is meant to bring to mind the idea of a single man firing the first shot in a battle. Then " and now an irregular volley" (Whitman). This part is to represent how everyone starts to fire at each other after the first shot. On the surface this poem represents a war and a battle more specifically but in my opinion it represents the world as a whole too. The first line really represents like the idea of a trend. if on person does something then everyone does that too. Like clothes or an accessory ideas like that will sweep the globe as fast as people may start shooting at each other in a battle. The criticism I read was pretty stupid and did not really talk about a meaning and just sort of said "Yeah it is about soldiers and how they are getting shot at" so I can not really make any comparisons or contrasts from my views and the criticisms views since it did not have any. I thought this poem was pretty cool and I liked the meaning behind it. I thought Whitman did a really good job of giving the poem a double meaning, with it signifying not only soldiers in battle but also each and every on of the people that might read his poem as well.


Oliver, Charles M. "'An Army Corps on the March'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW023&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 10, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "AN ARMY CORPS ON TWaltHE MARCH. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. .

Ages and Ages

Walth Whitmman, to borrow from the movie Toy Story was one sad strange little man. Of course it is pretty well known Whitman was a bit eccentric the poem Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals REALLY shows how strange he was. The line "
Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet,

I, chanter of Adamic songs, " (Whitman) Is a good example of how strang Whit man really was. Just that line is enough to make almost any person sstop and have a giant what the eff moment. Jokes aside, the poem is a bit weird but does have a kind of cool meaning. As said by Blooms Literary reference "

The Adam of the Garden of Eden is, for the poet, "immortal": "Ages and ages returning at intervals, / Undestroy'd, wandering immortal." And sexual: "Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet." And Adam has been reborn in America.

The poet reminds the reader that he himself is the "chanter of Adamic songs" for "the new garden the West." He sings the song of America and of its growing significance for the mid-19th century world. And he turns the sex act into a time of purification, a metaphor for a cleansing in the new garden from the stains of the Old World. "Bathing myself," he says, "bathing my songs in Sex."" ( Oliver).

The Bloom's analysis really hit the nail on the head hear. Whitman is talking about how we are all sons of Adam and he thinks that America is the new Garden of Eden and we need to enjoy it. Towards the end of the poem whitman also talks about how "

Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex,

Offspring of my loins." (Whitman) What he means by this line is that the poems he writes are the offspring of his. Like children they represent him and what he is.

He thinks of his poems are little representations of himself. This is sort of how God thinks of humans are offsprings of himself and little pieces of himself in each person there is. Whitman says that it is a sin to suppress our sexual urges more than it could ever be a sin to have sex. Blooms says "For Whitman, here as in other Children of Adam poems, it is the suppression of sexual intercourse that is the sin, not the act itself. The act becomes a rebirth into a life free of sin." (Whitman). I thought this poem was pretty interesting if not a bit oddly worded and made to seem generally strange tot he reader as if they were reading a sort of sexual journal by Whitman. I had to read it several times before the what in world idea about the poem finally wore off and I could figure out what in the world the poem could mean. It certainly is not a poem that would sound harmless if it were taken out of context, no this poem could easily seem crazy and homosexual to anyone who did not understand the reasong behind the poem or hidden meanigns in it.

Oliver, Charles M. "'Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals'."Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW010&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 3, 2011)

Whitman, Walt. "AGES AND AGES RETURNING AT INTERVALS.. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Bardic Poem

Whitman is a supposed classic American poet. In reality most of his poems are not nearly as good as people pretend they are and he does not even use proper form and stuff for his poems. Everyone makes a big deal out of his writing when in reality most of his poems are not that deep. There is so much confusion about Whitman's poems because he had a few really good deep poems so naturally everyone assumes the idea that every single one of his poems is deep and has meaning when in reality some times there is not a deeper meaning about things. He just wanted to write a poem on it. Not everything can or should be related to God or Self or anything like that. When people start looking to much into things most of the meaning they come up with is different and that is what confuses them. If they look at the poem as a poem first and a hidden subterfuge of literation second they would be a lot better off. For example if I were to say roses are violets are blue i am dumb so are you. If Walt Whitman were to write the same poem then the roses and violets would represent the earth and all of its colors. The I am dumb part represents the world population and their stupidity. Finally the and so are you part represents our views on everyone and how we think they are dumb when in reality so are we. Then people would argue about how the poem also represents God and Whitman and his self. I have always thought that people often over react to poetry and I think it is dumb. No one just reads the poems to enjoy them they want to just analyze them even when some times there is nothing for the critics to analyze. Walt whitman was a good poet but I am turned off his work by the critics

Savantism

Walt Whitman was an american icon who wrote hundreds of poems in his life. Some of these poems are still read today and cherished. Savantism is NOT one of these poems. I have never even heard of this poem much less is it popular. Blooms literary reference guide has under 200 words on Savantism, which is odd because even though it is a short odd little poem I interpreted quite a bit from it.Bloom's criticism interpreted the poem as being about wise a trusted people. Blooms said the line " Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
As a father to his father going takes his children along with him." (Whitman). Meant that Whitman wanted his poems to be remembered as being wise and truthful and honest poems. He wanted all of his poetry to be remember favorable basically. I do not agree with Blooms reference on this poem. In my own opinion, the poem is about baggage. How he is talking about how everything goes with everything. When Whitman write's the line "Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
As a father to his father going takes his children along with him.
" (Whitman) He is really saying that like a father brings his son a long with him to different places Whitman brings his poetry a long with him wherever he goes. he can't escape it, it is always there. Blooms think the poem means "The poet wants his "leaves and songs [to be] trustful, admirant"—poems to be trusted as truthful and, therefore, admired." (Oliver). I do not think they really analysed the meaning of the poem as much as they did the meaning of the words. For instance when Whitman says "
THITHER as I look I see each result and glory retracing itself and
nestling close, always obligated,
Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, compacts, establish-
ments, even the most minute, " (Whitman). He is talking about how everything we do, every last second of our life is obligated to us. Rather it is bound to us, it becomes us. We can't escape what we do with our life because it is us. I think the Blooms criticism fell short of this poem dramatically and I strongly disagree with it. I think me disagreeing with it so much really has to do with how little into the poem the author of the criticism read. He clearly just took it at face value which you can never ever do for a poem. He looked up the meaning of a word, related it some how to the poem and called it done. Had he really read in to the poem, especially the last line. He would have seen that the poems are more like something following him rather than something he hopes will become successful. I was actually pretty surprised by how interesting this poem was because it was so short and nobody ever talks about ti being so interesting but I thought it was a pretty cool poem


Oliver, Charles M. "'Savantism'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW407&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 2, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "SAVANTISM. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 02 Mar. 2011.

Whitman

In the poem the Ploughman Ploughing Whitman's relates to both christianity and the everyman even though there is only four lines.The poem can relate to Christianity because when the poem describes the harvest growing and then being cut down it can represent Jesus. Just like a harvest that gets cut down and then sent out to people all over the world to help and feed them. Jesus was sacrificed for people all over the world. Just like harvests come back every year to keep providing people with food Jesus too, came back to help the people around the world with their sins and to save them. The way this poem relates to the every man concept as well. The everyman concept is a concept where the ideas in the poem can relate to anyone anywhere. The ideas are a universal concept that is apply able to anyone. But anyway the everyman idea is pretty applicable to this poem because, everyone dies. At some point every ones life must end. Whether your big or weak, smart or dumb everyone dies in the end. So when Whitman talks about dying and how there is a circle of life with the grain being cut down or killed when it is old and mature then a new seedling pops up and the process of life starts all over again. It was a representation how people grow form a little seedling and then into an old stalk that gets cut down. Such a universal concept like death is definitely a everyman concept. Many of Whitman's poem can be interpreted in many ways. In my own opinion this poem is over analyzed. I dont think it has anything to do with God and is meant to be interpreted as the cycle of life and how just like agriculture people will keep growing. It is over analyzed when you try to relate it to the divine because it has nothing to do with it.

Whitman

Walt Whitman was an American poet who lived around the civil war time period. Whitman was a doctor during the civil war and saw first hand some of the brutal carnage it the civil war. (Ferry). After serving in the Civil War Whitman went back to writing poetry. A lot of Whitman's poetry after the Civil War was much darker and more focused on death.

“As I Watch'd the Ploughman Ploughing” was one of Whitman's death poems. Or a poem where focused on death. The poem says that a man ploughing represents life. The man plants a seed to grow on. But when he harvests the plant that represents death because the seed has grown up and is chopped down like a person would be. (Whitman) Another poem of his that represents death is When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d this poem is about Lilacs. Lilacs are the most commonly used funeral flowers. Whitman talks about how Lilacs are everywhere we go and are always in bloom. It sorta represented the fact that death is always there and can happen at any time whether the world is good or bad it can still happen in the blink of an eye.

Another pretty big focus of Whitman's poems was God. In his poem Excelsior the poem is saying that the writer of it is as good as or better than everyone in everything. This could be seen as Whitman being arrogant but when the poem says “For I would be the boldest and truest being of the

universe; “ (Whitman) The line says that the main character of the poem has been there forever. Just like God has been there forever. Whitman probably turned to God more during the Civil War when he saw so much bloodshed to men then before the war. Another reason he most likely focused on God was as he got older he begin to think not just about death more. But also he began to think about his own impending death.

Of Whitman's three main focuses in his writing Self was the most important. In his poems Whitman often used self to represent how we perceive ourself. In the poem The Singer in the Prison Whitman writes:

“It was not I that sinn’d the sin,

The ruthless Body dragg’d me in;

Though long I strove courageously,

The Body was too much for me. “

This quote exemplifies self. Whitman is analyzing his own personality. Realizing his shortcomings. When he says the body was too much for me it means that he could not handle the pressure and responsibility that comes with being a human being. That reason is why he is in prison now because he could not handle him self out of it.

Whitman was a very amazing writer who explored areas that were” previously taboo to most writers. He was one of the first writers to talk about his homosexuality, albeit in a veiled way. Whitman will likely never be replaced as one of the greatest poets of his time and he will surely be relevant a hundred years from now and most likely probably even longer than that.

Ferry, Crossing Brooklyn. "About Walt Whitman." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/whitman/bio.htm>.

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." Casscom. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." As I Watch’d the Ploughman Ploughing. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .