Friday, March 4, 2011

Criticism of "A Glimpse"

After reading the very short poem called 'A Glimpse" by Walt Whitman, it is very easy to see how this poem reflects the many ideas of Self in which Whitman tends to portray within most to all of his literary works. For example, within the poem, Whitman uses the idea of Everyman within this poem to describe the simplicity of the situation in which the author is in and also he describes the people who the situation in which the author is in experiences. Whitman does not explain that these two people have very separate feelings of the situation that they are currently in, but they each have the same feelings in which the other person has. Foe example, in the description that Whitman uses for Self, he goes to describe that everybody within the world shares the same emotions, personalities and desires. Within the idea of Self, everybody is one. This former passage describes the idea of the Everyman because within the poem, the two characters in which the author is referring to share the same emotion to the situation in which they are in, and therefore, this poem reflects the simple idea of the Everyman, which is a topic that is commonly used within Whitman's poems. Another characteristic of Self that is found within the "A Glimpse" is the characteristic of nature. For example, within this poem written by Whitman,the author describes the glimpse of light that he sees and also he describes how the sights in which he sees through the glimpse make him feel. Even though this may be a stretch to reflect to nature, I believe that it does reflect to nature because of the simplicity of the quote. For example, the author states, A GLIMPSE through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the
stove late of a winter night, and I unremark'd seated in a corner, Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest," From this quote within the poem, it is clear that this quote is very simple, and that the author, Whitman, is using it to reflect the way he feels about what he sees and to describe the simplicity of the scene. This reflects nature because of the simple way in which the author describes the scene. This would be considered nature, because basically in Whitman's definition of nature, it does not have to be outdoors or literally nature to be described as nature within his work. Really, in the definition the Whitman uses to describe nature, it really just has to be something that can be considered simple or divine. Unfortunately, these are the only characteristics that i saw within this work of the idea of Self. It was a very short one, so i understand how he could not fit all of the characteristic in that he wanted.

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