CHAUDHARY CHARAN SINGH UNIVERSITY MEERUT COLLEGE, MEERUT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT M. A. IInd SEMESTER 2019-21 AMERICAN LITERATURE Song of Myself (1, 10, 14, 24), Out of Cradle – Walt Whitman Brahma, Self Reliance – Emerson Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau Mentor Dr. Neelam Sharma H.O.D English Department, MCM Unit I - Song of Myself – Very short questions Q1. Write is brief Whitman’s cocept of Democracy? A1. Whitman envisioned democracy not just as a political system but as a way of experiencing the world. Whitman tried to be democratic in both life and poetry. He imagined democracy as a way of interpersonal interaction and as a way for individuals to integrate their beliefs into their everyday lives. “Song of Myself” notes that democracy must include all individuals equally, or else it will fall. Q2. What is The Cycle of Growth and Death according to Whitman? A2. Whitman’s poetry reflects the vitality and growth of the early United States. As a way of dealing with both the population growth and the massive deaths during the Civil War, Whitman focused on the cycles of individuals : people are born, they age and reproduce, and they die. Describing the life cycle of nature helped Whitman contexualize the severe injuries and trauma he witnessed during the Civil War – linking death to life helped give the deaths of so many soldiers meaning. Q3. What is Whitman’s concept of individuality? A3. Throughout his poetry, Whitman praised the individual. He imagined a democratic nation as a unified whole composed of unique but equal individuals. “Song of Myself” opens in a triumphant paen to the individual : “I celebrate myself, and sing myself”. Elsewhere the speaker of that exuberant poem identifies himself as Walt Whitman and claims that, through him, the voices of many will speak. In this way, many individuals make up the individual democracy, a single entity composed of myraid parts. Q4. Explain Whitman’s style? A4. The poetic structures he employs are unconventional but reflect his democratic ideals. Perception, rather than analysis, is the basis for this kind of poetry, which uses few mwtaphors or other kinds of symbolic language. Anecdotes are another favored device. Whitman largely avoids rhyme schemes and other traditional poetic devices. He does, however, use meter in masterful and innovative ways. Q5. What does plant or grass symbolise? A5. Throughout Whitman’s poetry, plant life symbolizes both growth and multiplicity. Rapid, regular plant growth also stands in for the rapid, regular expansion of the population of the United States. The title Leaves of Grass highlights another of Whitman’s themes: the beauty of the individual. Each leaf or blade of grass possesses its own distinct beauty, and together the blades form a beautiful unified whole, an idea Whitman explores in the sixth section of “Song of Myself.” Multiple leaves of grass thus symbolize democracy, another instance of a beautiful whole composed of individual parts. Q6. What was the impact of The Civil War on Whitman’s poetry? A6. The Civil War diminished Whitman’s faith in democratic sympathy. While the cause of the war nominal furthered brotherhood and equality, the war itself was a quagmire of killing. Reconstruction, which began to fail almost immediately after it was begun, further disappointed Whitman. His later poetry, which displays a marked insecurity about the place of poetry and the place of emotion in general (see in particular “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”), is darker and more isolated. Q7. When was Song of Myself first published? And what was its title? A7. The poem had no title when first published in his collection, Leaves of Grass (1855). It was called A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American until he changeit in 1881 to Song of Myself. Q8. What is the major literary symbol of Song of Myself? A8. The major symbol is the first person personal pronoun. ‘I’ can be interpreted in four ways. The ‘I’ in the first is the representative man. It includes all the Americans in their social context with their heritage. Secondly it refers to the natural man who loafs and invites his soul, who lies down with animals since they are guided by instinct. Thirdly, the ‘I’ refers to the unique individual poet and his ‘self.’ Finally, it symbolises the biological race of man. Q9. What are the main themes of Song of Myself? A9. There are three main themes in Whitman’s epic poem: 1. The idea of the self 2. The self in relation to others 3. How the self relates to elements in nature and the universe Q10. Writedown Whitman’s concept of self. A10. His concept of self is a spiritual entry that can interact and flex with others and the cosmos, yet maintains a permanence that reflects the individual’s intellectual, spiritual, and artistic being. And it never ends: the “perpetual journey” is where our self confronts limitless time and limitless space, and we are products of ages past and future. Q11. What is Whitman’s eroticism or treatment of sex? A11. For Whitman, spiritual communication depends on physical contact, or at least proximity. The body is the vessel that enables the soul to experience the world. Therefore the body is something to be worshipped and given a certain primacy. Eroticism, particularly homoeroticism, figures significantly in Whitman’s poetry. The affection Whitman shows for the bodies of others, both men and women, comes out his appreciation for the linkage between the body and the soul and the communion that can come through physical contact. Q12. Explain the following opening lines of song 1 of Song of Myself : I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume A12. In the opening section of the Song of Myself the poet, in the manner of the epic poets, states the theme of his poem. He proudly exclaims. “I celebrate myself”. The “I” used throughout the poem has a dual significance. It refers to Walt Whitman, the common individual as also humanity in general. In the second sense “I” has a universal application, and the poet imagines a complete identity between himself and others. There is a merging and fusing of the individual and universal spirits. Q13. How does Whitman establish his Americanness? A13. Starting his mystical journey towards unity with the Divine the poet proudly declares his pride of beingAmerican. He is American in all his traits and charecteristics. His heart and mind are American, being born there “from parents the same, and their parents the same.” He promises to go on singing of American till his last breath. Q14. Expain the last stanza : Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy A14. For the time being, Whitman declares, he will have no connection wiith religion, its saints, and philosophers of any kind. Their teachings are good in their own way, but at the moment, he would not like that they should interfere with his union with Nature. Nature should speak to him, he seeks, with all its pristine glory, energy and power. Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking – Very short questions Q1. Can this poem be compared to an opera? A1. The poem is very melodious and rhythmic and may itself be compared to an aria (in opera, an aria is an elaborate melody sung by one voice). Its use of dactylic and trochaic meter is very appropriate in describing the motion of the sea waves and their meaning. In the firdt twenty lines theme of the poem is stated and the appropriate mood is evoked. This is the musical declaration in narrative and dialogue part of opera. After twenty two lines we have the recitative and aria which is an extended song in three sections. Into this form are introduced the suggestive images of the bired, the sea and old crone rocking the cradle. The communicated meaning is emotive and metaphorical. Q2. Write down the symbolic meaning of the poem. A2. The main symbol is the sea which rocks the cradle. The sea symbolic of maternity, of birth and love. The cradle is the symbol of continual movement and birth. Death is the savage old mother ; and the word “death” comes as he recollects the time when the sea reveals the rhythm of life and death. Death does not have terror, for it is the source of the bird’s song, of the boy’s tears, and of the poetry. There is the assertion of life in the face of death. Q3. What features of an elegy do you find in this poem? A3. As an elegy this poem has following features; death of some dear one, here the death of the female bird, as the main subject of the poem. Tthe nature too mourns on the death. In this poem, the sea is restless and thee moon is lagging behind on the seperation of the loving birds. The mourner laments and recalls the past happiness, the speaker tells us the past happy situations of the birds. As in elegy this poem too has the ending with the poet and the lone bird getting consollation through the realization that death is final and superior. Q4. Whitman presents his attitude towards death in this poem. How? A4. Through this elegy, Walt Whitman presents his attitude towards death through the medium of the he-bird. For Whitman, death is not the end of life, but the beginning of another form of life. It is true that death is superior and final, yet it can make us enter another phase of life.