Walt Whitman Continued

I sincerely hope the poem, "When I heard at the Close of the Day" by Walt Whitman was a love poem...if not...all is lost!

I just had to comment on "Twilight". Even I can see that it is a poem on death...short though it may be. As twilgiht comes...so does the end of our lives.

I had actually forgotten about "Drum-Taps" (poems from the Civil War) and that Walt Whitman himself rushed to find his brother, George, on hearing that he had been wounded and stayed to serve as a nurse. The poem, "The Wound Dresser" is easier to follow with that knowledge.

I must admit, I do much better with the shorter poems. I tend to get lost in the longer ones trying to figure out what they "mean" instead of just enjoying the poem itself. I am also ready for some that are not quite so gloomy!

Poetry featuring Walt Whitman

Whew...I knew this was going to be challenging for me but man oh man! I started by trying to read, "Song of Myself". Big Mistake. I did not understand anything that I was reading so I went back to basics. I copied off the "11 basic steps to reading a poem" and searched for a smaller poem and found "The Dalliance of the Eagles". Much Better. I read the poem...then re-read the poem...the again, re-read the poem. Is this poem actually about a male and female eagle dallying around or is there deeper meaning? So I did what every red-blooded librarian would do...I looked it up on the internet. Of course, there it was...deeper meaning! We as human beings searching for thrills and the joy of living only to find ourselves spiralling down unto death! Well, I re-read the poem again with this in mind.

And so...on I will go to another poem of Walt Whitman's and see if I do any better!