The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges - 227 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Library of Babel


The Library of Babel is a 1941 short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story brings together a number of trademark Borgesian ideas, such as the infinite, and the paradoxical nature of the world.


In this story, Borges’ narrator describes the universe as a vast and virtually infinite library, comprising a great number of hexagonal rooms, with various floating staircases and long galleries, containing a huge number of books. These books comprise every possible permutation or combination of 25 symbols: 22 letters, the comma and full stop, and the space. All the books are exactly 410 pages long, and every single one is different from all the rest.


Among all these books, somewhere, are the ‘Vindications’: books which excuse away every sin man has committed, and offer keys for his future. However, the chances of finding the relevant Vindications is said to be zero, given the magnitude of the library. So, most of the books are useless because they are incomprehensible to the librarians who study them.


To make this task easier, some librarians attempted to remove the books they perceived as useless or irrelevant. But this was futile, because there were always hundreds of thousands of near-identical copies of any one book (different from the discarded book by just one character here or there), and the library was so vast that any human attempt to cull the number would produce virtually no effect on the library’s vast size. The narrator concludes by asserting that the Library of Babel is infinite and cyclical.


‘The Library of Babel’, can be described as a story that exposes the absurd futility of humanity’s attempt to understand everything, when there is so much to comprehend – an almost infinite amount, in fact.

Adapted from interestingliterature blog

Recoleta Cemetery by Jorge Luis Borges - 224 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Recoleta Cemetery by Jorge Luis Borges


‘Convinced of decrepitude

By so many noble certainties of dust,

We linger and lower our voices

Among the long rows of mausoleums’


The Recoleta cemetery is the city’s Montparnasse, a bone labyrinth for the remains of generals and diplomats and statesman, the site of homages to Evita’s grave, and the subject of an early poem by Jorge Luis Borges. The poem is a collection from his work Ficciones



The poem is a conversation between the narrator and an unnamed companion. Borges’s poetry is often described as baroque, but this poem reads more like a juvenile ‘Tintern Abbey’. Romanticism, maybe, but it’s clear that this isn’t a romantic relationship. Instead, the figures on this shared walk are companions in ideals, losing themselves in thoughts of being and non-being in the lanes of the dead.

Adapted from BorgesArchive

Comes the Dawn by Jorge Luis Borges - 223 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Jorge Luis Borges

Borges was a founder, and principal practitioner, of postmodernist literature, a movement in which literature distances itself from life situations in favor of reflection on the creative process and critical self-examination. The Argentine author had a radical way of writing which he showed in his metafictions, essays, and poetry.

His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, philosophers, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology.

Jorge Luis Borges belonged to a notable Argentine family in Buenos Aires who had British ancestors.



His first publication was a volume of poems entitled Fervor de Buenos Aires, poemas (1923). Later on he wrote several more volumes of poems, essays and a biography Evaristo Carriego (1930).
Borges then moved on to writing fiction publishing Historia universal de la infamia in 1935.


He wrote his best stories, later collected in Ficciones and a volume of English translations The Aleph and Other Stories (1933–69). Borges also wrote some detective stories in collaboration with another writer under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq. The detective stories entitled Seis problemas para Don Isidro Parodi were published in 1942.


Comes the Dawn by Jorge Luis Borges


Comes the Dawn is a poem that focuses on life lessons learnt through relationships. Borges expresses that life moves through the idea of ‘learning’ - different ideas through relationships – the difference between permanent and temporary relationships, what is ’love’ and what is only ‘company’, ‘defeats’ and moments where you can hold your head high.


Borges splits Comes the Dawn into 9 stanzas. The line length of the stanzas varies, moving between 2-4 lines. The changing structure reflects Borges’ idea that the future is never certain, things can change in an instant and this must be remembered.

The poem stresses on themes of courage, loving on, living with reality and emotional strength.


After a while

you learn the subtle difference

between holding a hand

and chaining a soul.

And you learn

that love doesn’t mean leaning,

and company doesn’t mean security.

And you begin to learn that

kisses aren’t contracts

and presents aren’t promises.

Love Poems -William Butler Yeats - 162 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

The Secret Rose: Love Poems -William Butler Yeats

The Secret Rose (1897) is a collection of poems by W.B. Yeats. The collection exhibits Yeats' devotion to mythology and occult much more than romance and is a display of symbolism. "To the Secret Rose" opens the collection. The poem, inspired by Yeats' membership in the Rosicrucian Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.


The themes of the poem are religion, myth and Irish history.


'Who sought thee in the Holy Sepulchre,

Or in the wine-vat, dwell beyond the stir

The ancient beards, the helms of ruby and gold

Of the crowned Magi; and the king whose eyes

Saw the pierced Hands and Rood of elder rise '




The "Far off, most secret, and inviolate Rose '' is a portrayal of utopian longing. This was inspired by Yeats' own romance with a lady Maud Gonne, which was unfulfilled. He waits for an ideal life and future with her.

Essay - W B Yeats - 161/365 of reading one short story every day.

A Remonstrance with Scotsmen for Having Soured the Disposition of Their Ghosts and Faeries. - Essay

‘ in Ireland there is something of timid affection between men and spirits. They only ill-treat each other. Each admits the other side to have feelings.’

This short essay is a satirical and reprimandable take on people who don't believe in spirits or worse, questions those who ridicule people who do believe in them. Yeats throughout the essay shows the core of Ireland is about folk tales and stories ranging from many centuries. He says one should embrace that identity as part of the nation’s culture and heritage.



He compares the two countries Scotland and Ireland and says,

‘In Scotland you are too theological, too gloomy. You have burnt all the witches. In Ireland we have left them alone.

You have discovered the faeries to be pagan and wicked. You would like to have them all up before the magistrate. In Ireland warlike mortals have gone amongst them, and helped them in their battles, and they in turn have taught men great skill with herbs, and permitted some few to hear their tunes.’

The Man and His Boots - W B Yeats - 160 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

The Man and His Boots is a funny and scary story about a man whose boots are haunted. Based in Donegal, the man is at first unwilling to believe in ghosts or haunted houses. But one night, the house decided to finally make him believe in the supernatural world.


‘ after the night had fallen, and everything had gotten very dark, one of his boots began to move. It got up off the floor and gave a kind of slow jump towards the door, and then the other boot did the same, and after that the first boot jumped again.’

The Untiring Ones - W B Yeats -159/365 of reading one short story every day.

The Untiring Ones


This story is another part of The Celtic Twilight. It concerns humans who were enchanted by the fairies. He specifically talks about the Donegal farmers and peasants who,

‘ danced on and on, and days and days

went by, and all the country-side came to look at them, but still their

feet never tired.’

Love with them never grows weary, nor can

the circles of the stars tire out their dancing feet. The Donegal

peasants remember this when they bend over the spade, or sit full of

the heaviness of the fields beside the griddle at nightfall, and they

tell stories about it that it may not be forgotten.'

A Teller of Tales - W B Yeats - 158 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Yeats was not simply an observer of Irish folk belief. He came to it already very interested in the world of the occult, a thinker of the way of spirits, accepting of the reality of Irish experiences, and even having direct experience with the spirits themselves. He was influenced by the folktales of course but the rich and harsh landscapes of the country - moors, cliffs, deep forests - all contributed to his imagination.

According to many scholars, the three main threads of Yeats’ life and mind were:

Aestheticism

Nationalism

Occultism


A Teller of Tales - a part of the collection of stories called The Celtic Twilight.

The Celtic Twilight is divided into two parts. The first, was in 1902, but some pieces as early as 1892, are small notes or essays Yeats made in West Ireland when he was travelling or gathering stories from the local people.

The second part of the book are poems set in Ireland and relevant to his exploration of the spirit world of Ireland.

Yeats was not just a story or poem writer but a listener too. All the poems and the stories in this collection are as if heard or observed from others. Thus the teller is not Yeats but all those who contributed to him through their experiences , past folk tales and from his note taking. His favourite “character” was Paddy Flynn who suffered from old age, eccentricity and deafness, but experienced the full range of spirits and beings.

“He was a great teller of tales, and unlike our common romancers, knew how to empty heaven, hell, and purgatory, fairyland and earth, to people his stories.”

What makes this section of the book so interesting is Yeats’ participation in this quest of the spirit (mainly fairy) world. He tells us:

“. . . in Ireland there is something of timid affection between man and spirit. Each admits the other side to have feelings. There are points beyond which neither will go.”

Yet a couple times he has people tell him how they deal with the fairy world:

“They always mind their own affairs and I always mind mine.”

The Celtic Twilight is a book of encounters. The encounters Yeats writes of are the meetings between the Irish folk and native people and the faeries.

Death - a poem by W B Yeats. 157 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Death - a poem by W B Yeats.

‘Death’ was written in 1929 and included in Yeats’s 1933 volume The Winding Stair and Other Poems. Yeats examines human attitudes to death, contrasting them with an animal’s ignorance of its own mortality. He says that humans live as if there is no end. He focuses on the wrong behaviour of humans which lead them to think of their immortality - pride, ego, violence, superiority, self worship etc



'Nor dread nor hope attend

A dying animal;

A man awaits his end

Dreading and hoping all;

Many times he died,

Many times rose again,

A great man in his pride.'

The poem, then, suggests an ambivalence: when we breathe our last breath on this earth, do we merely replace one kind of existence with another? What happens to us when we die?

Illustration of A Black Tower, Ireland. W. B. Yeats’ final poem, ‘The Black Tower’, is dated one week before his death on the 28th January 1939.

When You Are Old - Poem - William Butler Yeats -156 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is one of the greatest of all Irish poets. His first collection, Crossways, was published in 1889 when he was still in his mid-twenties, and his early poetry was clearly influenced by Romanticism. As his career developed and literary innovations came with modernism in the early decades of the twentieth century, Yeats’s work retained its focus on traditional verse forms and rhyme schemes, but he became more political and realistic.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.



When You Are Old is a poem by Yeats.

The poem was published in Yeats's second collection, The Rose (1893). In the poem, the narrator makes us think ahead to old age. He strongly suggests that the addressee will soon regret being unwilling to return the speaker's love. The tone here is of one lover requesting, literally pleading and alternately warning the addresse of his love not being responded to. Most critics agree that the poem is about Yeats's relationship with Maud Gonne, an Irish actress and nationalist. Though the poem is known to be based on a much earlier sonnet by Pierre de Ronsard, a 16th century French Renaissance poet.



'When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep'



Themes

Love and Beauty

“When You Are Old” is a bittersweet poem that reveals the complexities of love. The poem argues in favour of a kind of love based not on physical appearances—which fade over time—but on the inner beauty of the soul.

The speaker contrasts his own love for the addressee with the inferior love described above. The speaker’s love, the poem argues, will stand the test of time because it is based on the addressee’s “pilgrim soul” and the “sorrows” of her “changing face.” That is, the speaker perceives an inner restlessness of this woman's soul and implies that this will express itself in her “changing face” as she grows old. The speaker, then, claims to experience love that goes beyond the surface—the addressee's face may change over time, but the "soul" that the speaker loves will not.



Aging

The poem talks about age as not just a number but also a timeline for the future of his affection. He feels that together, as a couple, they both do not have enough time to make memories.

Picture courtesy - FineArtAmerica

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d - Poem by Walt Whitman - 149 / 365 of reading one short story every day

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d


This 1865 poem is part of a series of pieces written after Lincoln’s assassination. The poem is a sort of elegy that keeps mourning as its central theme.

“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is composed of three separate yet simultaneous poems. One follows the progress of Lincoln’s coffin on its way to the president’s burial. The second stays with the poet and his sprig of lilac, meant to be laid on the coffin in tribute, as he ruminates on death and mourning. The third uses the symbols of a bird and a star to develop an idea of a nature sympathetic to yet separate from humanity.



The symbolism used here is through three major symbols- the star, bird and the lilac.

The symbols are interconnected, and recurrent throughout the poem. Whitman has used the symbols from the time of Lincoln’s death. The flower is used to represent the onward and incoming cycle of nature and also to show the memory of Abraham Lincoln. The Western Star that appears in the evening is used by the poet as a symbol to indicate the death of the President. Abraham Lincoln was a very beloved leader and was like a guiding star to the people of America during the Civil war. The hermit– thrush represents the voice of spirituality and the poet’s soul singing.


' When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love. '

There Was a Child Went Forth - 148 / 365 of reading one short story every day - Walt Whitman

There Was a Child Went Forth

The continual process of becoming is at the heart of the poem. In this abstract poem, Whitman narrates a story about a child who becomes, everyday, the first object he sees outside his home. Not just another person but even objects like a lilac flower, street, ocean and clouds even.


This poem expresses the poet's identification of his consciousness with all objects and forms, and the list of things which he himself identifies with is large and comprehensive and is a good example of Whitman's observations. The continual process of becoming is at the heart of the poem. We become something or grow into something and this is the process of becoming, of change and development. The interpretation of the child's consciousness and physical phenomena, as shown in this poem, is one of the essential elements of Whitman's thought.




He composed this poem in 1855 with the initial title of "Poem of The Child That Went Forth, and Always Goes Forth, Forever and Forever" which later appeared in his poetic collection, Leaves of Grass 1860. This poem is autobiographical as many scholars associate this poem to Wittman's actual life of his childhood. The poem revolves around the past memories of a child which are pleasant and unpleasant simultaneously.


Aspects of the poem -


Observation power of Whitman (and humans)
The young child progressively observes a colourful array of plant and animal life, including the grass, "early lilacs," the ovoid "white and red morning-glories" (corresponding to the glorious morning of his world), young farmyard animals, and—in language suggesting the intersection of his objective and subjective worlds—fish "curiously" suspended in "the beautiful curious liquid." In an intimation of good and evil, he views the passing spectacle of children and adults. The statement that "all the changes of city and country" became "part of him" signals his growing powers of cognition.



Stages of life in the stages of the calendar - the poem shows the progressing stages of life of a person from childhood to old age and all the different major crossings that one has to go through.


' And the March-born lambs
And the field-sprouts of April and May became part of him '

Innocence to maturity
The poem starts with the early stages of a boy and then progresses to full fledged person in his being. Just as with all his poems, Whitman uses nature here to show the stages.

' The early lilacs became part of this child
the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf, and the noisy brood of the barn-yard
And the appletrees covered with blossoms


Nature as a companion
Nature here is used not just for symbolism but also to show how it is part of us. For Whitman, nature was very ornamental. He was far from seeing the beauty around him just for display. In the poem, he aligns nature as part of the growing child.


' The early lilacs became part of this child '

'Shadows . . aureola and mist . . light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,
The schooner near by sleepily dropping down the tide . . the little boat slack towed astern '

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry - Poem by Walt Whitman - 147 / 365 of reading one short story every day - Walt Whitman

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 



' Crowds of men and women attired in the usual
costumes, how curious you are to me.
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that
cross,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years
hence are more to me, and more in my meditations,
that you might suppose. '

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem about a man taking the Brooklyn ferry home from Manhattan at the end of a hardworking day. It shows Whitman’s astutely observed idea about all humans united experience of life.



The shore here represents the various stages of life that a human crosses. But is the crossing easy? No, not for anyone. The highs and lows of life are the "ebb-tide" and the "flood tide" that Whitman continually refers to in the poem.

Just as we live in a world where nothing is in isolation, everything we do also has a ripple effect. Our actions are responsible for someone else’s happiness or misery. Our words can evoke happiness, can hurt someone and inspire others. Just like the waves of the sea cause the other waves to form through.

"The similarities of the past and those of the future," and "the others that are to follow me, the ties between them and me,", Whitman uses this symbolism to show that his actions and words can be followed by someone else or cause another into a word or action.


Obviously referring to the river and its associated aspects like the ferry, the current of the water as symbols and also as a rich natural depiction, Whitman paints a beautiful picture of humanity and the comfort it gives in its collectivism and multitude.

Themes portrayed in the poem are -

Unity - in the idea of all humanity seen as one. Experiencing joys, sorrows, stages of life all as one. Maybe at a different time and maybe in different quantities, but we do take the tests, bear the pains and can have scoreboards of checked lists of achievements and losses.

Nature in the form of cityscape - a very beautiful description of the American city is done here with vivid pictures of Manhattan and the nearby islands.

'Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
Others will see the islands large and small;
I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine,
I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it '



Working class - The poem shows the working class life of people who have the daily goings on. Waking, travelling, commuting. Scores of people going to their workplaces and all rushing, living, never pausing - to run a home and bring bread and butter to their tables. And a clear picture is painted of the workers at the ships and ferryside too.


' Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor,
The sailors at work in the rigging or out astride the spars,
The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender serpentine pennants,
The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses'

Illustrations - Chris Ede and Brooklyn library

The Perfect Human Voice - essay Walt Whitman - 146 / 365 of reading one short story every day - Walt Whitman

The Perfect Human Voice - Essay


Referring to the physical voices of Elias Hicks, Father Taylor, Alessandro Bettin and Marietta Alboni, Whitman says they have some of the finest voices. Since he was a lover of poetry, he says that those who have beautiful voices, create the best philosophy or poetry.


According to him ‘Of course there is much taught and written about elocution, the best reading, speaking, etc., but it finally settles down to best human vocalisation. Beyond all other power and beauty there is something in the quality and power of the right voice (timbre the schools call it) that touches the soul, abyss.’



The importance of articulation of voice and the impressions of it both audibly and cognitively is a scale which Whitman has underwood and we can see that in several of his poems.


In I Sing the Body Electric, he refers to the voice of women as ‘ The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud’ through which he praises women as strong and the centre of a household keeping all members together.


In the poem , As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life, Whitman also portrays the importance of silence just as it is important to speak. He emahsies that silence can be a result of oppression, solitude, calmness or even confusion.


Oppress’d with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
Aware now that amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me I have not once had the least idea who or what I am,

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking - 145 / 365 of reading one short story every day - Walt Whitman

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking


This poem was written in 1859 and included into the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. It describes a young boy’s realization as a poet, inspired by nature and his own maturing consciousness. The poem does not follow any rhyming pattern and some sections are written in a way purport to be a transcript of the bird’s call, which are musical in their repetition of words and phrases. It was first published in 1871 in New York Saturday Press.



Unlike most of Whitman’s poems, which can be abstract ,“Out of the Cradle” has a distinct plot to it. A young boy watches a pair of birds nesting on the beach near his home. He warms up to them, probably seeing a reflection of his own home, and marvels at their relationship. One day the female bird fails to return. The male stays near the nest, calling for his lost mate. The male’s cries touch something in the boy, and he seems to be able to translate what the bird is saying. Brought to tears by the bird’s pathos, he asks nature to give him the one word which can put an end to the suffering and which is “superior to all.” In the rustle of the ocean at his feet, he finally discerns the word “death,” . The boy feels this will be comforting to the male bird. Death continues, along with the bird’s song, to have a presence in his poetry.


This is another poem that links Whitman to the Romantics.


Themes

Nature
Whitman claims to take his inspiration from nature. Where Wordsworth is inspired by a wordless feeling of awe, though, Whitman finds an opportunity to anthropomorphize, and nature gives him very specific answers to his questions about overarching concepts. Nature is a bland clean slate onto which the poet can project himself. He then proceeds to find solutions form nature.

Shorelines
And "in the moonlight on Paumanok's gray beach" the sea whispered to him the sweet song of the secret of death.

Whitman's speaker "wended the shores" he knew to ponder if he is at most "a little wash'd up drift." Finally he concludes that to the ocean of life, all are but drifts.


Plants
Vegetation in Whitman's poems symbolise the cycle of growth and change. The lilacs in "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" are especially emblematic of this cycle, a cycle that inevitably ends in death. In the poem, the "ever-returning spring" brings lilacs every year. In the prime of its life, the lilac is "tall-growing" with "every leaf a miracle." Later, Whitman breaks off a "sprig of lilac" to lay on Lincoln's coffin, a symbol of its diminishing purpose. When Whitman finally comes to understand death, the lilac is absorbed into Whitman's own soul.


Stages of life
Some sections of the poem describes the birth and adolescence of a poet.

The poem presents two things; the speaker’s meaningful transformation from an immature child to a mature poet, and the transience of life.
Whitman’s boyhood is forever tied to his Paumanok (Long Island) and the sea culture that is found there. Thus, Whitman’s childhood is tied up within the sea and the endlessly rocking cradle is a metaphor for the ocean. This is not only a reference to Whitman’s own beginnings, but also to the beginnings of creation, referring to the Biblical themes of creation.


Biblical symbolism
The endlessly rocking cradle is the “formless depths” of the Book of Genesis; the poet is Adam, the first man, being formed from the earth. The seashore is Whitman’s own Eden.


Death
Here death is shown to be the one lesson a child must learn, whether from nature or from an elder. Only the realisation of death can lead to emotional and artistic maturity. Death, for one as interested as Whitman in the place of the individual in the universe, is a means for achieving perspective: while your thoughts may seem profound and unique in the moment, you are a mere being in existence.



Some literary analysis of the poem -

Personification
Whitman has meaning from a human point of view to objects. Fro eg. the sea here is explained by him as something which speaks to him.


“Over the hoarse surging of the sea”, The sea whisper’d me.”


Alliteration
Consonant sounds in the same line have been repeated. Use of d and m frequently are repeated.


Rhetorical question
Is like an open ended question without the expectation of an answer. Whitman uses such in the poem to make the readers think.


For example, “O night! do I not see my love fluttering out among the breakers?” and “What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow??”


Assonance
repetition of vowel sounds in the same sentence

For example, the sound of /i/ in “twittering, rising, or overhead passing”


Anaphora
Phrases have been repeated at places to emphasise the transition of something to the next. For eg. out of the 

“Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mockingbird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight.”

Free Verse
No specific rhyming pattern is used here.

The Artillery Man's Vision - 144 / 365 of reading one short story every day - Walt Whitman

The Artillery Man's Vision 

In Walt Whitman’s poem, The Artillery Man's Vision, a soldier back from war wakes from his sleep to find a vision of the recent war appearing before him. Through this vision, Whitman shows the urgency the soldier feels during and after the war. The poet uses explicit vividness to show the emotional state of soldiers serving currently and of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) , as well as war trauma and the effect on families.



‘There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me’


The poet begins by explaining his current situation where the war is over on the field maybe but is still in his mind. Obviously haunted by the memories, he is only physically present at home with his family, but mentally elsewhere. He then progresses by recalling his wartime experiences. Whitman explains the post-traumatic stress disorder affecting , and how it is a never ending process.


Whitman uses a variety of figurative language throughout the poem to transport his audience onto the battlefield with him,


The skirmishers begin—they craw​​l cautiously ahead—I hear the irregular snap!​​
snap!
 hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the
Rifle shells exploding, leaving small white clouds
hum and whirr of wind through the trees,
I breathe the suffocating smoke
the wounded, dripping and red,

Throughout the rest of the poem, repetition and alliteration are used as Whitman brings a sense of quiet chaos of the aftereffects of war to us readers.

Song of Myself - 143 / 365 of reading one short story every day- Walt Whitman

Song of Myself - a part of Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

The poem has a lovely trivia that it had no title at the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. It was simply called "A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American '' in 1856. In 1860 it was plainly called "Walt Whitman." The great poet changed the title to "Song of Myself" in 1881. What was the reason? The significance is how the poem grew in the minds of the American people and became globally known as a poem of self awareness, identity and spirituality.



These are some of the main themes of the poem -


Identity and friendship - The poem explores the idea of self. How it is nurtured, how one can see oneself in solitude and in the presence of others.

“what I assume you shall assume”

Whitman says that his observations are the same as others. Thus what he feels about certain aspects of the universe is the same as what others feel. But he is aware that it is an assumption on his behalf and that is why others also assume. His ideas are just a blueprint and he knows the human psyche well enough at the time of writing this poem, that ultimately we all feel and react the same way, though our decisions will be different and hence conclusion is also different. But we are on the same path.


This shared space in Whitman's mind extends to realms of spiritual and emotional stages too.

“I too had receiv’d identity by my body"

'Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,

Growing among black folks as among white'



Nature and America-  Whitman does a tribute to America and the idea of country and what it means to him.
Whitman wrote this poem at an era when the Romantic and Transcendentalist traditions of writers such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson and Dickinson were very popular. The nineteenth century saw the rise of American Romanticism. From his travels across the country, his writings mirrored the American landscape of the nineteenth century from an agrarian state to an industrialized one and then a commercial one. But Whitman's poem harks back to the wilderness of the country that he once knew. He aligns his nature loving mind to the cities by not differentiating between the natural and the man-made. Steamships and tall buildings are described as seagulls and waves, the high and the furious ones, growing and enlarging. Just as America grew by leaps and bounds in the last two centuries.


Spirituality - 

'Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,

And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,

And that a kelson of the creation is love '


Whitman unites himself with the idea of God through peace that he sees around him. Again he sees nature in the spiritual sense with a possibility that he sees God in nature.

Whitman engages the idea of individuality and collectivity. He wishes to see unity among all irrespective of race, skin colour and status. That is why he simplifies people to nature where everything looks same - all green trees feel the same unless you go to analyse which is a pine or an oak and then compare the benefits of each

As a vision for his country, he balances the ideas of individuality and collectivity as two necessary aspects for the unity and democracy of America.