Walt Whitman
The ability to pinpoint the birth or beginning of the poet lifestyle is rare. It is as rare for the observer as it is for the writer. The Walt Whitman poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is looked at by most as just that. It is a documentation, of sorts, of his own paradigm shift. The realities of the world have therein matured his conceptual frameworks. In line 147 we read "Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake." This awakening is at the same time a death. The naivete of the speaker (I will assume Whitman) is destroyed. Through his summer long observation, the truths of life are born, or at least reinforced, in him. The obvious elements are birth and death, which are both caused by another instance of the latter (death of the "she-bird"). Nature's role is omnipresent. Not only in the sense of it giving a constant livable environment, but also almost deified in the personification of its will and actions. The birth of vision in the speaker is due not only to the observation of death, as that is just a single occurrence, but to the observation of the role of nature in all of its mysterious cycles. Nature is not the sole source of dramatic symbolism in the piece. The actions of the characters themselves reflect the
The unknown want, the destiny of me. The he-bird is further tormented by his loss, to add to his dismay he feels the physical forms of nature are pitted against him. The landscape becomes hostile. This example of nature's embodiment is the third element to the "trio" (Line 140). The first is the speaker, who is broken into two categories the matured and the naive boy. The second element are the "two feather'd guests from Alabama". In each of the first two elements we find a duel role. The third however possesses more layers as it encompasses all. References to its power span land, sea, air, and even the creatures themselves. From the myriad thence-arous'd words, And with them the key, the word up from the waves, From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears, This latter description is that of a lonesome love deprived of its object with seemingly only the world to blame. From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease, piece's definite goals. Though these "characters" set the scene and take center stage at different points, it must be remembered that what occurs is removed from the reader by two filters. The first is the filter of interpretation by the boy who is witnessing the events, it is then filtered through the memory of the boy become both man and poet. The boy has thus created a profound story of want and injustice through translation of natural occurrence (sounds and sea), and the man-poet has created a path though which all could trace the progression of these messages into the poet's insight. Due to this fact, the central character in this piece is the boy, foreshadowing what he is to become. Attention is not focused on the birds and sea themselves, but on the boy-man's growing understanding brought on by them. They are then factors in the equation of nature and speaker. Along with the day the speaker receives his answer from the blending of the physical and spiritual realms of nature, the answer is death. Death to what he had entered with. Death to his childhood. The repetition of the beating waves is onomatopoeic. Each wave is an answer to his question and to his purpose. The "hissing melodious", which seems a oxymoron, is a further extension. Hissing, thought of as a constant noise with out melody, is here made to ring with pleasant truthful melody. The beauty is in truth and understanding. Whitman knows of the truth and the vision now born within him. "Neither like the bird nor like my arous'd child's heart".
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1960
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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