'Poems Of Joys' by Walt Whitman
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O TO make the most jubilant poem!
Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death.
O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, infancy!
Full of common employments! full of grain and trees.
O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of
fishes!
O for the dropping of rain-drops in a poem!
O for the sunshine, and motion of waves in a poem.
O the joy of my spirit! it is uncaged! it darts like lightning!
It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain time--I will have
thousands of globes, and all time.
O the engineer's joys!10
To go with a locomotive!
To hear the hiss of steam--the merry shriek--the steam-whistle--the
laughing locomotive!
To push with resistless way, and speed off in the distance.
O the gleesome saunter over fields and hill-sides!
The leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds--the moist fresh
stillness of the woods,
The exquisite smell of the earth at day-break, and all through the
forenoon.
O the horseman's and horsewoman's joys!
The saddle--the gallop--the pressure upon the seat--the cool gurgling
by the ears and hair.
O the fireman's joys!
I hear the alarm at dead of night,20
I hear bells--shouts!--I pass the crowd--I run!
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure.
O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena, in
perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his
opponent.
O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human Soul
is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless
floods.
O the mother's joys!
The watching--the endurance--the precious love--the anguish--the
patiently yielded life.
O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation;
The joy of soothing and pacifying--the joy of concord and harmony.
O to go back to the place where I was born!
To hear the birds sing once more!30
To ramble about the house and barn, and over the fields, once more,
And through the orchard and along the old lanes once more.
O male and female!
O the presence of women! (I swear there is nothing more exquisite to
me than the mere presence of women;)
O for the girl, my mate! O for the happiness with my mate!
O the young man as I pass! O I am sick after the friendship of him
who, I fear, is indifferent to me.
O the streets of cities!
The flitting faces--the expressions, eyes, feet, costumes! O I cannot
tell how welcome they are to me.
O to have been brought up on bays, lagoons, creeks, or along the
coast!
O to continue and be employ'd there all my life!40
O the briny and damp smell--the shore--the salt weeds exposed at low
water,
The work of fishermen--the work of the eel-fisher and clam-fisher.
O it is I!
I come with my clam-rake and spade! I come with my eel-spear;
Is the tide out? I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats,
I laugh and work with them--I joke at my work, like a mettlesome
young man.
In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot
on the ice--I have a small axe to cut holes in the ice;
Behold me, well-clothed, going gaily, or returning in the afternoon--
my brood of tough boys accompaning me,
My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with no one
else so well as they love to be with me,
By day to work with me, and by night to sleep with me.50
Or, another time, in warm weather, out in a boat, to lift the
lobster-pots, where they are sunk with heavy stones, (I know
the buoys;)
O the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning upon the water, as I row,
just before sunrise, toward the buoys;
I pull the wicker pots up slantingly--the dark-green lobsters are
desperate with their claws, as I take them out--I insert wooden
pegs in the joints of their pincers,
I go to all the places, one after another, and then row back to the
shore,
There, in a huge kettle of boiling water, the lobsters shall be
boil'd till their color becomes scarlet.
Or, another time, mackerel-taking,
Voracious, mad for the hook, near the surface, they seem to fill the
water for miles:
Or, another time, fishing for rock-fish, in Chesapeake Bay--I one of
the brown-faced crew:
Or, another time, trailing for blue-fish off Paumanok, I stand with
braced body,
My left foot is on the gunwale--my right arm throws the coils of
slender rope,60
In sight around me the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs, my
companions.
O boating on the rivers!
The voyage down the Niagara, (the St. Lawrence,)--the superb
scenery--the steamers,
The ships sailing--the Thousand Islands--the occasional timber-raft,
and the raftsmen with long-reaching sweep-oars,
The little huts on the rafts, and the stream of smoke when they cook
their supper at evening.
O something pernicious and dread!
Something far away from a puny and pious life!
Something unproved! Something in a trance!
Something escaped from the anchorage, and driving free.
O to work in mines, or forging iron!70
Foundry casting--the foundry itself--the rude high roof--the ample
and shadow'd space,
The furnace--the hot liquid pour'd out and running.
O to resume the joys of the soldier:
To feel the presence of a brave general! to feel his sympathy!
To behold his calmness! to be warm'd in the rays of his smile!
To go to battle! to hear the bugles play, and the drums beat!
To hear the crash of artillery! to see the glittering of the bayonets
and musket-barrels in the sun!
To see men fall and die, and not complain!
To taste the savage taste of blood! to be so devilish!
To gloat so over the wounds and deaths of the enemy.80
O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
I feel the ship's motion under me--I feel the Atlantic breezes
fanning me,
I hear the cry again sent down from the mast-head--There--she blows!
--Again I spring up the rigging, to look with the rest--We see--we
descend, wild with excitement,
I leap in the lower'd boat--We row toward our prey, where he lies,
We approach, stealthy and silent--I see the mountainous mass,
lethargic, basking,
I see the harpooneer standing up--I see the weapon dart from his
vigorous arm:
O swift, again, now, far out in the ocean, the wounded whale,
settling, running to windward, tows me;
--Again I see him rise to breathe--We row close again,
I see a lance driven through his side, press'd deep, turn'd in the
wound,90
Again we back off--I see him settle again--the life is leaving him
fast,
As he rises, he spouts blood--I see him swim in circles narrower and
narrower, swiftly cutting the water--I see him die;
He gives one convulsive leap in the centre of the circle, and then
falls flat and still in the bloody foam.
O the old manhood of me, my joy!
My children and grand-children--my white hair and beard,
My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long stretch of my life.
O the ripen'd joy of womanhood!
O perfect happiness at last!
I am more than eighty years of age--my hair, too, is pure white--I am
the most venerable mother;
How clear is my mind! how all people draw nigh to me!100
What attractions are these, beyond any before? what bloom, more than
the bloom of youth?
What beauty is this that descends upon me, and rises out of me?
O the orator's joys!
To inflate the chest--to roll the thunder of the voice out from the
ribs and throat,
To make the people rage, weep, hate, desire, with yourself,
To lead America--to quell America with a great tongue.
O the joy of my soul leaning pois'd on itself--receiving identity
through materials, and loving them--observing characters, and
absorbing them;
O my soul, vibrated back to me, from them--from facts, sight,
hearing, touch, my phrenology, reason, articulation,
comparison, memory, and the like;
The real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and
flesh;
My body, done with materials--my sight, done with my material
eyes;110
Proved to me this day, beyond cavil, that it is not my material
eyes which finally see,
Nor my material body which finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts,
embraces, procreates.
O the farmer's joys!
Ohioan's, Illinoisian's, Wisconsinese', Kanadian's, Iowan's,
Kansian's, Missourian's, Oregonese' joys;
To rise at peep of day, and pass forth nimbly to work,
To plow land in the fall for winter-sown crops,
To plough land in the spring for maize,
To train orchards--to graft the trees--to gather apples in the fall.
O the pleasure with trees!
The orchard--the forest--the oak, cedar, pine, pekan-tree,120
The honey-locust, black-walnut, cottonwood, and magnolia.
O Death! the voyage of Death!
The beautiful touch of Death, soothing and benumbing a few moments,
for reasons;
Myself, discharging my excrementitious body, to be burn'd, or
render'd to powder, or buried,
My real body doubtless left to me for other spheres,
My voided body, nothing more to me, returning to the purifications,
further offices, eternal uses of the earth.
O to bathe in the swimming-bath, or in a good place along shore!
To splash the water! to walk ankle-deep--to race naked along the
shore.
O to realize space!
The plenteousness of all--that there are no bounds;130
To emerge, and be of the sky--of the sun and moon, and the flying
clouds, as one with them.
O the joy of a manly self-hood!
Personality--to be servile to none--to defer to none--not to any
tyrant, known or unknown,
To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic,
To look with calm gaze, or with a flashing eye,
To speak with a full and sonorous voice, out of a broad chest,
To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the
earth.
Know'st thou the excellent joys of youth?
Joys of the dear companions, and of the merry word, and laughing
face?
Joys of the glad, light-beaming day--joy of the wide-breath'd
games?140
Joy of sweet music--joy of the lighted ball-room, and the dancers?
Joy of the friendly, plenteous dinner--the strong carouse, and
drinking?
Yet, O my soul supreme!
Know'st thou the joys of pensive thought?
Joys of the free and lonesome heart--the tender, gloomy heart?
Joy of the solitary walk--the spirit bowed yet proud--the suffering
and the struggle?
The agonistic throes, the extasies--joys of the solemn musings, day
or night?
Joys of the thought of Death--the great spheres Time and Space?
Prophetic joys of better, loftier love's ideals--the Divine Wife--the
sweet, eternal, perfect Comrade?
Joys all thine own, undying one--joys worthy thee, O Soul.150
O, while I live, to be the ruler of life--not a slave,
To meet life as a powerful conqueror,
No fumes--no ennui--no more complaints, or scornful criticisms.
O me repellent and ugly!
To these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving my
interior Soul impregnable,
And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me.
O to attract by more than attraction!
How it is I know not--yet behold! the something which obeys none of
the rest,
It is offensive, never defensive--yet how magnetic it draws.
O joy of suffering!160
To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies undaunted!
To be entirely alone with them! to find how much one can stand!
To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death, face to face!
To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect
nonchalance!
To be indeed a God!
O, to sail to sea in a ship!
To leave this steady, unendurable land!
To leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and the
houses;
To leave you, O you solid motionless land, and entering a ship,
To sail, and sail, and sail!170
O to have my life henceforth a poem of new joys!
To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on,
To be a sailor of the world, bound for all ports,
A ship itself, (see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air,)
A swift and swelling ship, full of rich words--full of joys.
Editor 1 Interpretation
Poems of Joys by Walt Whitman: A Celebration of Life and Nature
What better way to celebrate the joys of life and the wonders of nature than through poetry? Walt Whitman's collection of Poems of Joys is a beautiful and inspiring tribute to the world around us.
In this literary criticism and interpretation, we will explore the themes, style, and significance of this classic work of poetry.
Themes
Whitman's Poems of Joys is a celebration of life, love, and nature. It is a hymn to the beauty of the world and the joy of being alive. Throughout the collection, Whitman explores various themes that are central to his vision of life.
Nature
One of the most prominent themes in Whitman's poetry is nature. He celebrates the beauty and power of the natural world, from the "tangled and wild" forests to the "majestic and mighty" oceans. For Whitman, nature is not just a collection of objects to observe; it is a living, breathing entity that is intertwined with human life.
Love and Companionship
Another important theme in Poems of Joys is love and companionship. Whitman celebrates the deep connections between people, the joy of being in love, and the beauty of shared experiences. His poetry is filled with images of couples walking hand in hand, friends laughing and talking, and families enjoying each other's company.
Freedom and Democracy
Whitman was also a passionate advocate for freedom and democracy. He believed in the power of the individual and the importance of self-expression. His poetry is filled with images of people breaking free from the constraints of society and forging their own paths in life.
Style
Whitman's style is unique and innovative. He rejected the traditional poetic forms of his time and instead developed a style that was free-flowing and improvisational. His poetry is characterized by long lines and a lack of rhyme, which gives it a natural and spontaneous feel.
Whitman also used repetition and parallelism to create a sense of rhythm and unity in his poetry. He often repeated phrases or words to emphasize their importance and to create a sense of musicality.
Significance
Poems of Joys is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it represents a break from traditional poetic forms and a move towards a more free-form style of poetry. Whitman's poetry was revolutionary in its time and has influenced countless poets since.
Secondly, Poems of Joys is significant for its celebration of life and nature. In a world that is often filled with darkness and despair, Whitman's poetry is a reminder of the beauty and joy that exists in the world around us.
Finally, Poems of Joys is significant for its celebration of freedom and democracy. Whitman's poetry is a call to action, urging people to break free from the constraints of society and to live life on their own terms.
Interpretation
Whitman's Poems of Joys is a celebration of life and nature, but it is also a celebration of the human spirit. Through his poetry, Whitman urges us to embrace our individuality, to seek out the beauty and joy in the world around us, and to stand up for our freedoms and democratic values.
At its core, Poems of Joys is a call to action, a reminder that we all have the power to make a difference in the world. Whitman's poetry is a source of inspiration and hope, and it encourages us to live life to the fullest and to find joy and happiness in the world around us.
In conclusion, Walt Whitman's Poems of Joys is a masterpiece of poetry, a celebration of life and nature, and a call to action. It is a work of art that continues to inspire and uplift readers today, just as it did when it was first published over a century ago.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Poetry Poems Of Joys: A Celebration of Life and Nature by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman, the American poet, essayist, and journalist, is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. His collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, is a masterpiece that celebrates the beauty of life, nature, and the human spirit. Among the many poems in this collection, Poetry Poems Of Joys stands out as a celebration of the joys of life and the wonders of nature. In this article, we will analyze and explain this classic poem in detail.
The poem begins with the lines, "O to make the most jubilant poem! / Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death." These lines set the tone for the entire poem, which is a celebration of life and death. Whitman believes that life and death are intertwined, and that one cannot exist without the other. He wants to create a poem that celebrates life in all its glory, even as it acknowledges the inevitability of death.
The next stanza of the poem is a celebration of the natural world. Whitman writes, "O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, infancy! / Full of common employments! full of grain and trees." He is celebrating the beauty and diversity of nature, which is full of music, life, and growth. He sees the natural world as a reflection of the human experience, with all its joys and sorrows.
In the third stanza, Whitman turns his attention to the human experience. He writes, "O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of fishes! / O for the dropping of raindrops in a poem!" He is celebrating the diversity of human experience, which includes not only our own lives but also the lives of animals and the natural world. He wants to capture all of this in his poem, to create a work of art that reflects the richness and complexity of life.
The fourth stanza of the poem is a celebration of love. Whitman writes, "O for the sunshine and motion of waves in a poem! / O the joy of my spirit—it is uncaged—it darts like lightning!" He is celebrating the joy and freedom that love brings, the way it can lift us up and make us feel alive. He sees love as a force that can transcend death, a way to connect with something greater than ourselves.
The fifth stanza of the poem is a celebration of the human spirit. Whitman writes, "O great star disappear'd! O the black murk that hides the star! / O cruel hands that hold me powerless! O helpless soul of me!" He is acknowledging the struggles and challenges of life, but also the resilience and strength of the human spirit. He believes that even in the darkest moments, we can find hope and light.
The final stanza of the poem is a celebration of the act of creation itself. Whitman writes, "O the joy of creation! / To speak! to compose! to sing! / To incarnate, to embody the spirit of life in forms, in sounds, in colors!" He sees the act of creation as a way to connect with the divine, to bring something new and beautiful into the world. He believes that through art, we can transcend our own limitations and connect with something greater than ourselves.
In conclusion, Poetry Poems Of Joys is a celebration of life, nature, and the human spirit. Whitman sees the world as a beautiful and complex tapestry, full of joy and sorrow, life and death. He wants to capture all of this in his poem, to create a work of art that reflects the richness and complexity of life. Through his words, he invites us to celebrate the joys of life, to embrace the natural world, and to connect with something greater than ourselves. This poem is a timeless masterpiece that continues to inspire and uplift readers today.
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