Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.
Seems pretty nihilistic
7 Matching Annotations
- Sep 2020
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whitmanarchive.org whitmanarchive.org
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I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me,And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.
depicts something or someone viciously taking over the poet, who is unassuming and vulnerable. Similar to the all-consuming yearning described earlier in the poem.
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Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news,the fitful events;
referring to the Civil War, which obviously heavily influenced his world view as well as this stanza
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Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.
shows that he feels unity with humanity as a whole
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There was never any more inception than there is now,Nor any more youth or age than there is now,And will never be any more perfection than there is now,Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
Repetition of ending each line with the word "now" shows that the author is trying to call the audience to be proactive and not wait for the things that are just.
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Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
Rhetorical question that causes the reader to contemplate their own relationship with nature directly following a vivid description of natural beauty
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Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
Perfume is sort of a luxury item, and here it is portrayed as a nuisance for taking up space.
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