Great American Books (Walt Whitman) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Great American Books (Walt Whitman) - Essay Example The poem serves a critical aspect of American society while dealing with the symbolic paradigm and aspect of the theme of restlessness and love of America for freedom and open spaces. The major intricacy with this particular poem by Whitman is essentially concerned with the multi-layered symbolism operating within the text and its allegorical implication which is found hard to establish the co-relation with the central idea of the poem. This makes the poem presented in double and oscillating theme often hard for the comprehension of the average readers thereby deviating from the original view point of the poem. The beautiful poem consists of 224 lines which were divided into two neat divisions. The first eight section of the poem speaks about the enthusiastic and exuberant depiction of the lessons concerned with the healthful benefits of the open air. The second section is a description of the persona’s invitation guided by his passionate urge to his companion to join the journey with the open air. The critical problem or the main thesis query concerned in the poem revolves round the second section of the poem which speaks about the joining of the community or trajectory with the open road or space. The ambiguity is starker here and the apparent description of the impassioned invitation of the persona hints more towards the celebration of individual exuberance and spirit than the national mobility, flexibility and spirit of democracy. The co-relation and systematic interpretation of the individual and nation and establishment of the Meta thesis pertaining to individual is nation and vice versa, falls quite weak here in terms of practical operation. The query that might occur in the mind of Whitman’s readers will be essentially cantering round the play of allegory and explicitness in his poetry. The problem of criticism is wide but the thesis statement concerning the essay and one