Journal 30 - Favorite Whitman Poem

My favorite Whitman poem is "O Captain! My Captain!". That poem had a lasting impact on America. When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, the nation was in shock. Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" to unite the country in the time of mourning. I also like the fact that it rhymes. I enjoy rhyming poems as it is easier for my to find the rhythm that the author intended. In "O Captain! My Captain!", the captain of the ship represents Abraham Lincoln. I also like the poem because it is easy to understand the symbolism. The ship is America and the captain is its dead president. The poem celebrates the Union winning the Civil War. I like the poem because it tells a story (and rhymes, rhyming poems are the best). But, seriously, rhyming poems rule. In my opinion, rhyming poems (specifically aabb or abab scheme poems) flow better. As I have never met any of the authors of the poems I have read, I do not know exactly how they intended on their poem being read. Maybe they would have emphasized a different word or phrase then what I would have emphasized when I read it out loud. That is why I like rhyming poems because I know how the author intended the rhythm to be. The emphasized words might be different in my mind, but it is definitely closer in a structured poem as opposed to a free verse. That is why out of Walt Whitman's poems I like "O Captain! My Captain!" because unlike the majority of his poems, it is not free verse. Whitman disliked the structure and constraint of structured rhyming poems, but knew that America could not handle a President Lincoln remembrance slash mourning poem involving his normal sexual innuendo and scandalous free verse. Instead of helping to heal the nation, that poem could have shocked the nation into healing, or scarred the already hurting nation more. Luckily "O Captain! My Captain!" was very successful and a very popular and non-offensive poem (that rhymes!).




Whitman, Walt. "O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!" The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

"Chanting the Square Deific"

Walt Whitman's "Chanting the Square Deific" interprets a different spin on the classic Christian Holy Trinity. Instead of a trinity, Whitman writes of a "quaternity" of figures (Oliver). The first side of the square is God, but not just the Christian God. Whitman's first side of the "Square Deific" is the God of Hebrews, "Jehovah"; God of Hindu religion, "Brahm"; God of Romans, "Saturn", and God of Greeks, "Kronos" (Whitman). The main thing that the gods have in common is that they represent the leader or chief of their respective religious deities, just like God of Christianity's Holy Trinity is the top of the triangle. As opposed the the Christian God, the first side of the "Square Deific" is not merciless as He "forgives no man" and "lets none expect mercy" (Whitman). That is a major difference separating the Holy Trinity and the Square Deific. The first stanza exhibits the power of the first deity. The God decides "judgments without the least remorse" and has all of His subjects and followers' lives in His hands (Whitman). The extent of His power is shown when the seasons and Earth's gravitation pull are mentioned, as the Square Deity is as constant, reliable, and relentless as the aforementioned acts of nature (Whitman).

The second stanza describes the next side of the Square, the son of the first side. The knowledge that the second side deity is the offspring of the first comes from the mythological references of the "Lord Jesus", "Hercules", and "Hermes" (Whitman). Jesus was the next part of the Christian Holy Trinity, which seems to be a model for the Square Deific. Hercules was the son of Zeus, another chief deity and rose to power and eventually became a god himself. Hermes was another son of Zeus, ruler of Greek Gods. The Square Deific second side diety represents the people better than the first deity as he "absorbs the suffering", "crucified", "taunted", "cheer bringer", and His "charity has no death" (Whitman). That signifies that His influence and support will always be present in whatever way is desired and can bring comfort to the people that He is there (Oliver).

The third stanza, the third side of the Square, is the opposite of the deity representing the first side. In Christianity the Devil is the opposite of God, as well as evil is the opposite of goodness. But the "Square Deific" version of Satan is not as evil as the Christian version. The Square Deity is the "brother to the slaves" and is not necessarily evil (Whitman). The deity is stubborn and will live up to his "permanent" vows and decisions (Whitman). That makes Him a respectable God as one can always trust him to keep his word, but with the knowledge that He is not looking out for their benefit as well as the second side of the Square Deific will be.

The final side of the Square is the equivalent of the last part of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit in Christianity represents the invisible acts from God that help His followers better understand their religion and Him. The "Santa Spirita" is the "breather of life" which is very similar to the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is the most "solid" part of the square, therefore the most important part (Whitman). The Spirit triumphs over Heaven and Hell ( "lighter than light", "flames of hell", "Paradise" ) and "including God, the Saviour, and the Satan" in Its rank (Whitman). The last line of the poem makes the reader assume that the narrator, Walt Whitman, either is the "Santa Spirita" or has the "Santa Spirita" within him, which is another trait of the Christian Holy Spirt (Oliver). Whitman's "Square Deific" is a well rounded Holy Trinity, with all sides of humanity represented in good and evil as well as self and savior. Whitman expanded on the classic Trinity, but improved it to represent what he envisioned as the deities of man.



Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 02 Apr. 2012.

Whitman, Walt. "Chanting the Square Deific." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 02 Apr. 2012.

Journal 29 - Self

Well, this is going to be a hard journal. My transcendentalist self is deep within me and will be hard to locate and describe. My real self, according to Anna Sakach is "a stunningly intellect" (insert a British accent). My personality and self perception is harder to determine as it is more of a private thing. I am a different person when I am alone and do not have peer pressure and stereotypes to act under. Everyone assumes in a "real me" way that I am a smart, nerdy, person. I am, but not to the extent that others think. I am way more nerdier at home by myself. When I meet new people, I try to restrain myself to meet the criteria of accepted behavior in society today. People frown upon the ability to speak the equivalent of Spanish 1 in Klingon and to be able to quote line for line, 10 out of the 11 Star Trek movies. Especially because I am a girl. And not in my 40s or 50s, as a typical and stereotypical Trekkie is. I feel like I am introverted in a way when I am in public. There is a little fear in me about not meeting people's expectations. That is hard and stressful for me a lot of the time because people, especially my peers, assume that I am getting good grades and ranked first in our class, and will go to college and accomplish great things. I think that the pressure to succeed has actually made me a better person, stomach ulcers aside. Because I try to meet the expectations, and normally succeed, my work ethic increased and the desire to be first grew. Self- confidence came as a byproduct of the peer pressure and social stereotypes. My spiritual self is a different story. I do not know where I am spiritually, which means I need to do some soul searching. Because I do not have a specific religion (who knows maybe down the road I will be a devoted follower to Hestia), there is more for me to discover.

"Nature, the Gentlest Mother"

"Nature, the Gentlest Mother" by Emily Dickinson describes Mother Earth and how she takes care of her "children" and "household" (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which symbolizes how Mother Earth takes care of everyone on the planet and even when her "children" harm her (carbon emissions, fires, ecosystem meddling), she will always be their mother and take care of them from the "feeblest" to the "waywardest" (Dickinson). The next stanza in the poem describes how Nature aids her children. She is present in the forests and hills, and is "heard by travelers" (Dickinson). "Hearing" nature invokes onomatopoeia of wind whistling and rustling the trees in the forests and whipping the tall grass and wildflowers on the tall and rolling hills. Also the animals making a variety of noises in the forest are a sign of Nature's presence. The flowers growing on the hills represent the gentle loving touch of Mother Earth as life on the hill. The third stanza uses personification. Emily Dickinson describes all of the flora and fauna, as well as the creatures and critters that roam the Earth, as Nature's "household" and "assembly" (Dickinson). Nature has "fair conversation" with her "household" (Dickinson). The conversation is a representation of the interaction between Nature and the living things on the Earth. Without sun light and rain the plants and trees could not survive. Also, the changing seasons effect the ecosystems and the animals. Mother Earth takes care of her "children" by providing "warm summer days" and not having freezing, deadly winters (Dickinson).

Emily Dickinson explains that nature, or Mother Nature, has an effect on every creature, whether it is the “minutest cricket” or “the most unworthy flower” (Dickinson). Dickinson has done a great job of personifying nature in this poem also. She says that “her voice among the aisles incites the timid prayer”, so she has given nature a voice that reaches all creatures she has created (Dickinson). She also says that “with infinite affection and infiniter care, her golden finger on her lip, wills silence everywhere” (Dickinson). She has given nature not just a finger but a golden finger. That symbolizes that nature’s finger is of a more important significance because gold represents more noble or distinguished feature. She clearly has a deep affection for nature in this poem. This poem also has a good amount of imagery. Her descriptions are very strong and animated. She creates the image of children sleeping, a very miniscule cricket, an ugly or ‘unworthy’ flower, and how when nature turns to darkness it creates silence everywhere. She presents rhymes in the final stanza, but it is only with the second and fourth lines. The rhyme scheme does not seem to matter as much to her as a good rhythm. She keeps a constant rhythm that is different, but makes the reading flow. The syllables do not always match up with each line, but she creates a certain element of poetry that makes this poem, “Nature, the gentlest Mother”, worth reading.



Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

Journal 28 - "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"

"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is a weird symbolic Emily Dickinson poem. The fly in the poem stops the woman from dying for a short period of time. The fly's buzzing disrupted the "silence" in the room. The fly came in between the narrator and the light. The light symbolizes Heaven or whatever afterlife the narrator believes in (Valhalla, Elysian Fields, or Hell, but most likely Heaven considering Emily Dickinson's background and the religion that surrounded her in New England). The narrator had a will and had her keepsakes willed away and as she "signed" it, her possessions were in order. That means the narrator knew that she was going to die and had everything arranged for her children/ heirs/ beneficiaries. Next to her bedside, the narrator's next of kin and close friends had "wrung them (eyes) dry" which symbolizes that they had cried and expressed their sorrow, but know had past that stage of grief and accepted the narrator's passing. As she was ready to be taken to the next adventure, the silence (now that there was no more crying since everyone knew and accepted that the narrator was going to die) was interrupted by a fly. The buzzing of the fly disturbed the narrator's inner peace and acceptance of her moving into the next life (or reincarnation or rebirth or peace and happiness in a better place). The unexpected fly startled the narrator away from the light from the "window". The window light was really the infamous light that whisks the dying to whatever comes after death. For a moment the fly took her away from the light and drew her attention to the fly. But then the "window closed" and the narrator could not see anymore. That could be interpreted in two ways. The narrator could have died, or she could have lived another day. The blindness could have came from her eyes being closed forever. Or it could have come from the light disappearing and the narrator continuing to live.

Dickinson, Emily . "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

Journal 27 - Emily Dickinson's Poems' Tune

Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace" and "Yellow Rose of Texas". Her poems have rhythmic lines and the reason that they can be sung to several different folk songs was because her rhyme scheme and story telling can follow a musical beat. The ironic part of "Amazing Grace" fitting in with Emily Dickinson's poems is that she was not religious. Dickinson never became a member of the Church, but her family and friends all were Christians and very faithful. Her poems had a standard rhyme scheme and as almost all of them had the same scheme. That is why they can all fit into "Amazing Grace" and "Yellow Rose of Texas". "Amazing Grace" became a staple of the Christian Church. When I was confirmed in eighth grade, my cousin who was my confirmation sponsor, gave me a snow globe type object that played "Amazing Grace". Emily Dickinson was not religious at all, and rejected the Church which is why the fact that "Amazing Grace" fit in her poems was significant. Emily Dickinson's poems involved life, love, death, and nature. She looked at her subjects in a scientific manner, not a religious one. Her poems would have been different if she believed, and was exposed to the Church's beliefs and philosophies. Another song that fits with Emily Dickinson's poems is "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing (in Perfect Harmony)". The song is a bit slow for my speed of reading poems out loud, but it fits nicely with "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" as well as other Emily Dickinson poems. The rhythm of folk songs, such as my favorite "Oh Susanna" also carries the same rhythm and beat as "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" and other Dickinson poems. I learned the lyrics of "Oh Susanna" in elementary school music class. As I know that tune very well and can read Dickinson's poems to that song and keep a constant rhythm when reciting her poems.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson lived a life of self induced seclusion in Amherst, Massachusetts (Leiter). She expressed herself through her poems and letters, many that she did not show to anyone until her sister, Lavinia, published her writings against Emily's death wish (Leiter). To understand Emily Dickinson's writing style, one has to understand her life. Dickinson never was religious and became a member of the church, like her friends and family did (Lieter). Through a rigid schooling and her father's strict and stubborn view on women and their place in society, Dickinson's writings reflect a "state of eruption, throwing off the rules her elders had pounded into her" (Leiter). As she did not share her writings with anyone, the poems and letters truly express Dickinson's inner thoughts and feelings in an unadulterated and uncensored way. Emily Dickinson often felt at a loss for words to adequately describe her thoughts, and turned to her Webster's Dictionary for guidance (Leiter). Ironically, Noah Webster, the author and compiler of the dictionary was a neighbor of the Dickinsons' (Leiter).

Emily Dickinson's poems are popular today and are considered classics. The poems can fall into both categories because of the subject matter and the manner in which they were written. Dickinson wrote of love, life, death, nature, and "the question of immortality" (McChesney). Those themes are also popular in today's literature (Harry Potter for four out of five categories). But the way that Dickinson wrote the poems is what makes them resonate in the twenty first century. By using dashes, the reader feels as if the narrator of any given poem is physically speaking and taking a pause at crucial and important parts in their tale (McChesney). In Poem 549, Dickinson speaks to the reader and the lines resonate through time as they will always be true: "That till I loved/ I never lived—Enough—" (McChesney). Because Emily Dickinson did not belong to a church and was not committed to the teachings of the Bible and the Bible's interpretation of the world and universe, her writings show her "knowledge of a boundless Universe, unfettered by the strictures of church" and enrich her poems with deep thought and meaning that would prove blasphemes to some religious readers of the time (McChesney). Instead of using the traditional pagan symbols of a dove for peace, Dickinson creates her own symbols to better represent her and her writings. She uses a daisy to represent calm and innocence in one poem "The Daisy follows soft the Sun—/ And when his golden walk is done—/ Sits shyly at his feet—" (McChesney). Instead of a volcano traditionally meaning anger, rage, and an explosion of some sorts, Dickinson uses an image of a volcano to represent passion and force (McChesney). Emily Dickinson agreed with Plato that "writing itself is only a poor imitation of a poet's words", but tried her best through Webster's Dictionary and by working through the limitations of words on paper to express her thoughts and opinions on life, love, death, and nature (McChesney).



Leiter, Sharon. "Dickinson, Emily." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.