Denotative Language In Walt Whitman's A Woman Waits For Me

When the dust had settled following the grisly Civil War, Americans realized just how uncivil the war actually was. Significant loss of life was never the intention, but it was the result of this bloody war. The fate of a fractured America grieving the loss of hundreds of thousands of men was a cause of concern for all citizens. One of those people pondering America and its future was the poet, Walt Whitman. Through the careful usage of figurative, denotative and connotative language, Walt Whitman’s final stanza in “A Woman Waits for Me” explores American identity following the Civil war and procreation and how it should not merely be a human desire but an American responsibility.
In the wake of the Civil War, America was hurting. The second …show more content…
Throughout the stanza, he uses adjectives to envision his future country. Descriptors such as “fierce” and “perfect” both have connotations that would evoke the image of a strong, formidable opponent that no one would dare cross. A solid reputation would be important to establishing a safe country which would have undoubtedly been on the forefront of everyone’s mind following the Civil War. The denotative meaning of fierce according to the OED is “proud, eager, and full of desire” while perfect is defined as “supreme moral or spiritual excellence” or “of offspring: fully formed”. The idea of being fully formed and not lacking anything would suggest a nation of people with a strong reputation. Whitman also uses the superlative, “best-beloved” as a way of describing the parts of him and America that should continue on and increase. This superlative is functional in cementing the idea that America is and should always according to Whitman be admired and …show more content…
Whitman “demands perfect men and women out of my love-spendings”. ‘Demand’ is “to call for or require as necessary”(OED). Connotatively, ‘demand’ is reminiscent of an authority figure giving directions that are not up for discussion or negotiation. Four times toward the end of the stanza, ‘shall’ is used. Similar to a demand, the OED describes ‘shall’ as “to owe allegiance to” and recognizes that in Old English ‘shall’ was used to, “express necessity or indicate what is appointed or settled to take place”. “I shall expect” is a phrase Whitman uses in this stanza with ‘expect’ being analogous to demand. In the OED, expect is “to require someone to do something in fulfillment of an obligation”. Whitman seems to say that if you identify as American, you are indebted to the country and therefore must contribute your genetic material to grow the population. Again, the need for procreation is not up for debate, it simply IS what America will have to do to rise up according to