Although Walt Whitman and Martin Niemöller lived in two different centuries, the 19th century and the 20th century respectively, both men were well-aware of the injustices occurring to the innocent around them. Walt Whitman lived to witness the controversy of slavery, even partook in the Civil War as a nurse, and personally witnessed the violence and death resulting from the Civil War whereas Martin Niemöller lived to witness the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism. Through the art of poetry, both men then expressed their perspectives of their worlds as Whitman wrote “I Sit and Look Out” and Niemöller wrote “First they came for…”. When both poems are then compared, both Whitman and Niemöller express a sorrowful and regretful tone through different
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For Whitman, he utilizes careful diction, in that he incorporates a variety of words with negative connotations. An example would be the line, “I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate…” in that Whitman consecutively lines up four words that all relate to despair to describe such an event. With the inclusion of these vivid descriptions, the tone Whitman provides demonstrates to the reader that the speaker is conscious of the magnitude of the atrocities that surround him, but, as it is stated in the last line of Whitman’s poem, he reveals his own cowardice to the audience by writing, “I sitting, look out upon, see, hear, and am silent”. This leaves an implied sense of regret for his lack of action in the misdeeds he witnessed, which is emphasized through Whitman’s repetition of his use of verbs of complacency, such as “I see” or “I hear”. Niemöller’s tone is also through the use of repetition. The repeated line of “…and I did not speak out…” would then build up the emphasis of the very last line of Niemöller’s poem for, “…and there was no one left to speak for me” clearly portrays to the audience of the speaker’s regret for his lack of action now that the speaker’s safety was on the line. In short, the tones of both poems were of remorse and sadness, of which would then set the mood of their writing
For Whitman, he utilizes careful diction, in that he incorporates a variety of words with negative connotations. An example would be the line, “I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate…” in that Whitman consecutively lines up four words that all relate to despair to describe such an event. With the inclusion of these vivid descriptions, the tone Whitman provides demonstrates to the reader that the speaker is conscious of the magnitude of the atrocities that surround him, but, as it is stated in the last line of Whitman’s poem, he reveals his own cowardice to the audience by writing, “I sitting, look out upon, see, hear, and am silent”. This leaves an implied sense of regret for his lack of action in the misdeeds he witnessed, which is emphasized through Whitman’s repetition of his use of verbs of complacency, such as “I see” or “I hear”. Niemöller’s tone is also through the use of repetition. The repeated line of “…and I did not speak out…” would then build up the emphasis of the very last line of Niemöller’s poem for, “…and there was no one left to speak for me” clearly portrays to the audience of the speaker’s regret for his lack of action now that the speaker’s safety was on the line. In short, the tones of both poems were of remorse and sadness, of which would then set the mood of their writing