I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Walt Whitman
- First Published: 1860
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Love or romance, Nature, Nineteenth century, Trees
The Poem
“I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing” is a short lyric poem made up of thirteen lines of free verse (verse written in no traditional meter). The speaker of the poem may be identified with the poet or at least with “Walt Whitman,” as the reader comes to know him in Leaves of Grass, the book in which this poem appears. The poem begins with a memory: The poet remembers the live oak tree he saw standing by itself in Louisiana, whose “rude” and “lusty” look reminded the poet of himself. In one important respect, however, the tree was very different...
[The entire page is 1516 words long]
