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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
With the command “Come” (Line 1), the first stanza’s opening line invites an unidentified audience into a realm where democracy isn’t present or has a limited presence. The speaker promises to form an everlasting, stronger nation. The speaker implies that the nation’s entire destiny rests with the speaker. The speaker repeats the phrase “I will” (Line 2, Line 3), manifesting the idea that the nation’s formation and future rests solely with the speaker. The speaker promises to “make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon” (Line 2), which echoes the eugenics of Whitman’s time, even though Whitman opposed slavery. Because scholars view Whitman’s poetry as an attempt to embody all of America and to be an inclusive voice for the nation, Whitman’s poetry often includes ideals that often contradict Whitman’s own beliefs. This echo of his time’s eugenics is only one example. The speaker promises they “will make divine lands” (Line 3), implying that they will create a heaven, a utopia shaped with “the love of comrades” (Line 4) and “With the life-long love of comrades” (Line 5). The repetition of the words “comrades” reinforces the idea of unity and brotherhood.
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman