Walt+Whitman

> Part B: Two poems. > || 1 > BEAT! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow! > Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force, > Into the [|solemn church], and scatter the congregation; > Into the school where the scholar is studying; > Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride; > Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his field or gathering his grain; > So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums—so shrill you bugles blow. > > 2 > Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow! > Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets: > Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? No sleepers must sleep in those > beds; > No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—Would they > continue? > Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing? > Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? > Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow. > > 3 > Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow! > Make no parley—stop for no expostulation; > Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer; > Mind not the old man beseeching the young man; > Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties; > Make even the trestles to shake the dead, where they lie awaiting the hearses, > So strong you thump, O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow. || > || A NOISELESS, patient spider, > I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; > Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, > It [|launch’d] forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; > Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them. > > And you, O my Soul, where you stand, > Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, > Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them; > Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; > Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. || > || THEE for my recitative! > Thee in the driving storm, even as now—the snow—the winter-day declining; > Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing, and thy beat convulsive; > Thy[|black cylindric body], golden brass, and silvery steel; > Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating, shuttling at thy sides; > Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar—now tapering in the distance; > Thy great protruding head-light, fix’d in front; > Thy long, pale, floating vapor-pennants, tinged with delicate purple; > The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy [|smoke-stack]; > Thy knitted frame—thy springs and valves—the tremulous twinkle of thy wheels; > Thy train of cars behind, obedient, merrily-following, > Through gale or calm, now swift, now slack, yet steadily careering: > Type of the modern! emblem of motion and power! pulse of the continent! > For once, come serve the Muse, and merge in verse, even as here I see thee, > With storm, and buffeting gusts of wind, and falling snow; > By day, thy warning, ringing bell to sound its notes, > By night, thy silent signal lamps to swing. > > Fierce-throated beauty! > Roll through my chant, with all thy lawless music! thy swinging lamps at night; > Thy piercing, madly-whistled laughter! thy echoes, rumbling like an earthquake, rousing > all! > Law of thyself complete, thine own track firmly holding; > (No sweetness debonair of tearful harp or glib piano thine,) > Thy trills of shrieks by rocks and hills return’d, > Launch’d o’er the prairies wide—across the lakes,To the free skies, unpent, and glad, and strong. || > > > Part C: Figurative Language > > > Part D: Meaning
 * May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892
 * Geographic region of influence was in NY, generally around Brooklyn. Eventually recognized internationally
 * Walt Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman, a housebuilder, and Louisa Van Velsor. The family of nine lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820's an1830's.
 * He received very little formal education, but voraciously read the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible
 * Authors / poets of influence
 * Unique characteristics of works : His unrhymed, unmetered verse marked a radical departure in poetics
 * The Influence / Focus of works were generally considered revolutionary( his Leaves of Grass poetry collection was so radical it made him into a revolutionary figure)Even more controversial than Whitman's radical democratic, self-celebrating verse was the poet's sexually explicit imagery. A hundred years ahead of his time, Whitman believed that sex and procreation were not only legitimate but necessary subjects for poetic exploration.
 * biographers were uncertain about his sexuality, as he seems to have had intimate relationships with both men and women
 * **Walt Whitman - Beat! Beat! Drums! - Leaves of Grass 1900 ** ||
 * **Walt Whitman - A Noiseless Patient Spider. - Leaves of Grass 1900 ** ||
 * **Walt Whitman - To a Locomotive in Winter. - Leaves of Grass 1900 ** ||