Prompt #4: Representations of America

Prompt #4

e.e. cummings and Walt Whitman both write about patriotism with their own personal twist of patriotism in America. It is important to realize different people have different views of patriotism. cummings writing more about the idea of a “fake patriotism”, which means fighting for un-honorable causes or for the wrong reasons, whereas Whitman writes more about the working everyday life being the backbone. The following paragraphs will look into the structure, figurative language, and style the poets use that are different and the same. Some people interpret poems and patriotism differently and the authors use these writing tools to help explain their points better.

Secondly, the structure of these poems brings up several differences while they only hold one thing in common. They both are relatively short poems ranging from 11-14 lines (Mays). Whitman’s poems “I Hear America Singing”, and “I celebrate myself, and sing myself”, are both shorter but have the appearance of looking longer because of the use of dividends throughout the poems (Mays). Cummings’ poem is longer in length in terms of lines, but he does not use stanzas at all. Cummings uses a rhyme scheme by using a rhyming quatrain, and a rhyming sestet. while Whitman does not appears to use a free verse rhyme scheme. Cummings also does not capitalize any words until the very last line suggesting emphasis or importance to this line. Whitman capitalizes every letter in the beginning of a new line showing he does not use capitalization to show anything (Mays 865).

Thirdly, the tone and style of the poem are very different primarily. Cummings’ poem reads as a more relaxed tone with no real emotion, in other words you can read through it with no emphasis because of the lack of punctuation. Besides the rhyming, and the last sentence where he uses capitalization twice. Cummings’ style is in a way neutral because he starts out cheerful and happy, but ends in a sarcastic more serious style of writing, so there is not really a particular style in this poem because of the shift towards the late-middle part of the poem. It is more obvious on lines 9-11 when cummings says, “why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter” (cummings 718). Cummings starts to transition here how people want to go to war, and the only way to be patriotic is with dying for your country. Cummings’ poem about “fake patriotism” was written shortly after World War one in 1926 (Mays 718). Cummings could have been writing to show that he did not approve of the war and that he thought very many Americans only enlisted for unjustified glory rather than for the right reasons. Cummings starts off with sounding very patriotic about loving the pilgrims and the third line when it quotes part of the national anthem. The ending then sounds like is he almost mocking himself by acting like the only way to be patriotic is to die for your country. Whitman’s poems had a more happy tone throughout most of them, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” was not as happy sounding, but it still presented a positive message. In “I Hear America Singing” I am not sure why but it just makes me wish I lived in the industrial period of America. Whitman really uses joyful words such as carols, melodious, friendly and singing to show how American’s came to work hard for the improvements of their lives. Whitman’s tone was joyful and yet straight to the point of America running off of skilled labor man. The style Whitman uses shows that he was really interested and appreciated the working man in America. It sticks out to me especially in the very first line when Whitman says, “I hear America Singing, the varied carols I hear” (Whitman 865). To me it just means something like America is singing together as one, and Whitman goes on to clarify what he means by explaining how the working class works together for America. Whitman wrote this poem in the middle of the industrial revolution, 1860 (Encyclopedia Britannica). That really makes me picture myself or Whitman walking along the harbor and seeing the carpenter, mason, boatman, shoemaker, and wood-cutter all working away and singing their own tune as they work hard . Whitman’s style of writing seems to be more formal with capitalization on every beginning of a new sentence unlike Cummings. Whitman also seems for a majority of the time to use the last word of each sentence as a type of stanza break or to show a break in the line.

Next, the figurative language used in cummings’ poem ranges from personification to alliteration to a hyperbole. In some sense cummings personifies the American dream by saying come to it is beautiful and the land of the free, but quickly transitions into a more sinister type of writing by saying the only way to be patriotic is to die for your country. In lines seven and eight cummings also uses alliteration by saying, “by gorry by jingo by gee by gosh by gum (cummings 718.)” He uses this to capture the attention of the reader in an almost joyful mood before turning to sinister. Cummings combine a simile and a hyperbole by saying, “these heroic happy dead who rush like lions to the roaring slaughter.” This quote is a simile first because cummings compares the lions to the soldiers. It is a hyperbole because it is blowing out of proportion normal people fighting for their country, and is comparing the people into lions being slaughtered. Whitman uses personification in the very first line by saying, “I hear America singing”, this is important because it is already unifying the whole country working and singing together as one (Whitman 865.)

In conclusion, cummings and Whitman each had different views of patriotism. Both poets used a specific form of either figurative language, style and tone, and structure to prove their point and specific views of patriotism. Cummings compared a wild animal being slaughtered to a man fighting for his country, and saying the only way to be patriotic is by doing this. Whitman is more of a unified America vision, where all the skilled-labor positions keep America running and those specific skills act as the back bone for America.

References

Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 11th Ed. 2013. Print.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Industrial Revolution." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Jan. 2016. Web. 05 Apr, 2016.

#eecummings #WaltWhitman #America #poetry