I Hear America Singing

I Hear America Singing Aurel Lazar 2. I believe that an emphasis is placed on the happiness that Americans seem to be finding in the liberty of their own jobs. There is a power in being able to express one’s satisfaction with what one does, and I believe Whitman expresses that such a power can be found in America. 3. I would say that Whitman is expressing a sort of love for the independence to choose one’s job regardless of the difficulty (“each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else”) of that specific career. Although he is seriously wrong, the people work as a coherent group that always supports itself.

Song of Myself, 10 2. The first scene is one being a lone hunter in the wilderness, the next is one spotting land from a boat, the next is one fun with the common folk, the next is the marriage of a trapper to a Native American girl, and lastly the acceptance of a runaway slave into one’s house, each evoked sympathy and a sort of mystery and desire to find out more about the world. 3. Because in these he is addressing more touchy subjects, he wants to be less direct regarding his opinions; he also wanted to be a little more sympathetic to what is generally insulted by others 4. The cadence seems to suggest a sort of happiness or celebratory pattern that seems to be recurring throughout the poem about the American lifestyle 5. The narrator seems to show a connection to the slave to make him feel welcome in life rather than a dejected piece of trash. The gleaming fire-lock shows how the man’s lifestyle affects his relationship with the slave: his independence allows him to sympathize with the slave and allows him in all the situations to trust the slave.

Song of Myself, 33 2. For each one of the heroic images, Whitman uses a lot of imagery to help the reader feel transported to the scene of action. We can hear the gurgling of the dying general, we can see the oozing blood from the slave’s back, we can hear the booming thunder of the cannon, and we can smell the smoke of the burning building. 3. It helps the reader fully comprehend the rationale behind the narrator’s ability to assimilate the pain unto the utter essence of his inner self. 4. The speaker’s tone is one of terrible sorrow and agony, but also of respect for the heroes. 5. The lines would be slightly more prolonged to create a balance, but also to emphasize the spontaneity of that specific moment. 6. They are everyday common people rather than amazing superheroes to which we usually associate the word.

Song of Myself, 52 2. He is tamed, and he sees the untranslatability. He uses natural words to describe himself, like barbaric. He shares the gab and loitering of the eagle. 3. He uses mostly present tense to show that this present situation is how he differentiates himself from his past life. Had he used past tense the poem would have implied that he is no longer that way and then we would have no reason to read such a poem. 4. He’s saying that if you look at the lowest part of oneself they can find a low person like Whitman, where he relates himself to the dirtiness of a worker, a common man, and also relates himself to nature. 5. I think that in exploring himself, he’s essentially discovered that it’s not himself that matters but others.

Dickinson — Heart! We will forget him! 2. The heart has the power of emotional control, and by eliminating that pain, Dickinson feels that she will be able to eliminate the wrenching memories. 3. She’s referring to the memories and the hope, and if I were getting rid of one, I’d start with the hope, because I don’t want to ever forget good times regardless of how much they hurt. 4. The agonizing threat of emotional pain is too much to bear, and she’d rather get over it. 5. It helps to keep the flow of the poem going in an ABCB pattern, and the rhyme appears to be rather harsh rather than feminine rhyme.

If you were coming in the Fall 2. The speaker is waiting, and has no idea when the person that she holds dearest to deepest part of her heart is going to return to her. She feels agonized, not at his absence, but rather at the fact that she knows not at all the hour of his return and the moment of her joy. 3. A housewife, brushing away a fly, is compared to the brushing away of time (if she knew he was coming). 4. The months themselves are compared to balls of yarn that the speaker states that she would wind up and store away, as if the time did not matter. She would put them in separate drawers so that the time did not muddle and she could keep track of his arrival, but ironically that is exactly what she is experiencing. 5. If I had an infinite amount of fingers I’d be counting down the time to your arrival, even if the amount of time were as far away as the farthest possible place from where I currently am. 6. In the first four stanzas there appears to be the slightest glimmer of hope, shown by the use of the word “if” in every sentence. However, a change happens where she begins to realize that time will forever separate that and that she is indeed uncertain of the length.

The Soul selects her own Society 2. I think in this case the majority used is the best part, because she’s referring essentially to the selection of a somewhat Elitist collection of fellows who might indeed only be elevated in the selector’s point of view. Thus, divine as used here seems to portray a heavy and powerful reverence for those individuals selected by the soul. 3. I think it is derived from both. First of all, the valves, mechanically speaking, can be turned or off, tuned, or even regulated. In such a case, she’s saying that she can shut her self off to the other people. In an organic sense, observing specifically the various valves found within the heart and blood vessels, the valves allow fluids to pass through in one direction but not the other. In such a way, she allows them to pass through her for an observation, but they are immediately expunged without any hope of entering the cold wretched Society. 4. Valves allow the flow, but a lid would contain it, which is exactly the opposite of what is happening, the expulsion rather than the containment. 5. It seems to be shorter, probably symbolic of a shorter attention toward those people, or the process of shutting off.

Some Keep the Sabbath going to Church 2. She claims to keep the Sabbath by observing God’s creation rather than the ritualistic system of church attendance. She can have her own church in the beauty of Nature rather than in a building. Keeping the Sabbath like the other people would cause her worship to not be wholeheartedly, but rather something done out of guilt or duty. 3. The speaker relates very well to nature in this poem by constantly drawing connections between her backyard and the church. For example, each different kind of bird represents a different kind of member, be it a choir member or sexton. 4. While all the people are struggling to get into heaven when they die, she’s already on her way.

I taste a liquor never brewed 2. In essence, the speaker is getting drunk on life. She can’t, because alcoholic beverages are addicting, and being happiness and feeling elated bliss is the goal, which is what the speaker is doing by drinking life. 3. The landlord is the owner of the liquor store, or allegorically the common man who sees the speaker as a different person in that the speaker is the only one who ever chose to get drunk on happiness, and while all the others are whimpering in sadness the speaker is utterly happy. Her being unique is a sign of rebellion against the conformity of the world in choosing to remain sad. 4. She is in the sun, the place that gives light and hope to the word, and she is absorbing all the happiness it offers because she can.

Much Madness is divinest sense 2. The fact that she suggest that madness is sanity is very paradoxical, and it set up a sort of mocking yet deeply perceptive tone for the whole poem. 3. That what people consider to be normal and natural is not always the best approach toward a societal encounter because observing it objectively, one can see the utter fallacy of following standards. 4. They cause the reader to pause — and think — about what has just been said. 5. Once again, a slight jest runs throughout the poem, symbolic of the insanity of the narrator in suggesting that insanity is the best way to approach such things.

Apparently with no surprise 2. The blonde assassin is the sun with its scorching powers. 3. The flower is portrayed as common worker, laboring under the sun, the sun is a terrible assassin seeking to murder all, and the frost is the accidental killer. 4. The fact that unmoved is used to describe the procession of sun is a pun because a procession moves, but it is referring to the cold emotional state that the sun has while murdering. 5. God feels it is natural because after all, he made it that way. Death is a natural part of life.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant 2. It implies the fact that electricity follows an indirect path as it travels a circuit rather than directly; it follows the path of least resistance, arriving at its goal in the best possible way, which is what Dickinson is trying to suggest. Arrive at the truth in the best way, not the most direct one. 3. A kind explanation of lightning eases children’s fears 4. Dazzle and blind refer to the manner in which the truth is presented, be it at a slow easy scale, or at a quick blinding power. 5. The truth is being compared to light; it can sear a dark soul, but if that soul is acquainted with the light gradually, it sees the truth easily.

Success is counted sweetest 2. I think it is referring to a metaphorical conquering army that has taken on the world and feels no pride in the largest victory. 3. The ear is that of a dying soldier, who is waiting for the sound of victory before he can finally relent his dying soul unto death. 4. See question 3 because it explains the answer to this one rather well.

Because I could not stop for death 2. The fact that death is personified as a polite gentleman is rather ironic. “Kindly” makes it especially ironic. 3. The fact that the speaker uses civility keeps the image of an evil death yet kind at the same time, which is very contradictory. 4. They pass a school, fields of gazing grain, and a setting sun. The setting of the sun is the last day of the speaker’s life, and the temperature drop is the chill of a recently dead corpse. 5. It is a grave. 6. I think it is a tone of triumph figuring out that finally, I’m on my way toward eternity.

I heard a fly buzz —when I died 2. They were expecting the speaker’s death by wearing traditional funeral based clothing. 3. They are expecting to find relaxation and comfort but rather discover the irate buzzing of a fly. 4. I believe it is because the death that is about to come is the storm, and right now it is the period before the storm, in which it’s taking up some more breath to blow out of the speaker. 5. The speaker uses dashes and commas to make the fly appear more dramatic, and also uses extended alliteration of B’s, and polysyllabic words. 6. The speaker’s monetary and material life is distributable, but her soul is not. 7. The king is god, and the failing window is her death, namely, her inability to reconnect with that which she knows. The eyes are the window of the soul, and when the soul looses sight of light, it fails like that window. 8. I think it’s a rather relaxed one at first that then progresses into a diabolical fear. I died for beauty — but was scarse 1. 2.