Parental leave

In 1831, at the age of twelve, Walt Whitman began working for his local newspaper. He soon fell in love with the written word and started writing his own poetry (“Poet Walt Whitman”). Fast forward to the turn of the 20th century, and Whitman has already made a name for himself as one of America’s most influential poets. Two of Whitman’s most esteemed works are “O Captain! My Captain!”, written in 1865 to reflect on Abraham Lincoln's death, and “O Me! O Life!”, written in 1891 to contemplate…

scientific facts and mathematical figures. The information is arranged in proofs, columns, and charts. Supposedly, the lecture is successful because the audience responds “with much applause.” However, the narrator grows “tired and sick” of the lesson and leaves the lecture. The narrator left outside and gazes up at the stars.…

Some may argue that people interact with nature in an overall positive way because of the poem titled, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman, and how it shows that humans interact with nature in a positive way. However, when people do interact with nature, it is usually in a negative way and they tend to take the Earth and all it has to offer for granted, as shown in “My Life as a Bat” by Margaret Atwood, because people's feelings for bats are almost always negative, as well as…

Whitman and AL-Hallaj as Sufi poets Throughout centuries poets and mystics of all nations have faced the dilemma of trying to express the inexpressible (Selim 26). They had a lot of knowledge, and insights within, but they were unable to put them into words in many occasions. Especially in times of intense spirituality, words failed to express the ecstasy they reached often through meditation and deep thinking. Sufi poets were among the most poets who suffered from this dilemma. Their beliefs…

Whitman Pre-Civil War and Post-Civil War Analysis During his influential seventy-three year life, Walt Whitman produced works such as Leaves of Grass, and “Song of Myself”, which were influential in the transition from transcendentalism to realism. Whitman’s evolution was partly caused by the Civil War, being that after the war, the starkness of the situation his beloved country was in is evident in his work. More specifically, the Civil War changes Whitman’s view of Democracy, changing the…

Composers have the power to create different worlds and new messages. The autobiographical novel Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah and the drama Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard demonstrate the hardships faced by individuals in difficult circumstances and their ability to escape to new places. In these texts the composers have developed the concept of new messages having the power to change an individual’s lack of acceptance in their world. _In Chinese Cinderella, the protagonist…

Song of Myself written by Walt Whitman celebrates life and how people can become one with nature. Whitman shows how happy life can be if you take the world and look at its beauty. Whitman’s poem takes readers through many settings, time points and viewpoints. While the setting for the love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock written by T.S Eliot is about a middle-aged man in a big dirty city who views life as though it has nothing to offer but boredom, anxiety, and death. Prufrock shows life can be…

Poetry Explication Walt Whitman was an inspirational poet who mainly focuses on the ideas of Transcendentalism and Romanticism. These ideals show in the poem "When I heard the learn'd astronomer". This poem focuses on the importance of appreciating nature and is beneficial to those people who spend most of their time indoors. The poem "When I heard the learned astronomer" is explaining the issues that arise when people only view the world in an intellectual way. Whitman is not saying that…

By celebrating the beauty of the human body in Song of Myself, Walt Whitman promotes the philosophy of “[taking] off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men”. In section 24, when Whitman says, “I do not press my finger across my mouth //copulation is no more rank to me than death is”, he displays the need to embrace sexuality. Whitman sees the beauty in sex, and refuses to repress his ideals because of society’s opinion (Whitman 1245). In the preface, Whitman conveys…

Chinese Cinderella is the perfect title for this touching and emotional novel. Chinese Cinderella is a true story of Adeline Yen Mah's childhood where she was hated and despised by her family because she is believed to be the cause of her mother's death. Despite this, she is an extremely intelligent girl trying exceedingly hard at school, desperate to prove her worth. Some of the themes evident in this novel are perseverance, isolation, Tragedy, Acceptance and self-worth. One of the themes of…