Whitman's Use of Dualism in His Poems of Identity
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Laurie Lamon, llamon@whitworth.edu
Session Type
Traditional Paper Presentation
Research Project Abstract
Many of Walt Whitman’s poems in Leaves of Grass center on the themes of the nature of identity and the relationship between life and death. Whitman juxtaposes the individual and the universal, presenting human nature as dualistic or fragmented, and often seeming to contradict himself, but, in doing so, actually strengthening his own arguments. By explicating sections of “Song of Myself,” “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” and “O Me! O Life!,” this essay explores Whitman’s various perspectives on division within identity as well as his assorted attitudes toward the cyclical relationship between life and death, with the intent of helping to clarify some of Whitman’s apparent discontinuities.
Session Number
RS1
Location
Weyerhaeuser 203
Abstract Number
RS1-a
Whitman's Use of Dualism in His Poems of Identity
Weyerhaeuser 203
Many of Walt Whitman’s poems in Leaves of Grass center on the themes of the nature of identity and the relationship between life and death. Whitman juxtaposes the individual and the universal, presenting human nature as dualistic or fragmented, and often seeming to contradict himself, but, in doing so, actually strengthening his own arguments. By explicating sections of “Song of Myself,” “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” and “O Me! O Life!,” this essay explores Whitman’s various perspectives on division within identity as well as his assorted attitudes toward the cyclical relationship between life and death, with the intent of helping to clarify some of Whitman’s apparent discontinuities.
