Song of the Redwood Tree (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Walt Whitman
- First Published: 1876
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Nature, Nineteenth century, California, West, U.S., Death or dying, Trees
In “Song of the Redwood Tree,” the poet injects himself into the consciousness of a century-old California redwood as it is being felled. In a musical structure that Whitman often used, the song of the tree is presented as a grand operatic aria, and it alternates with passages of recitative in which the poet repeats and expands upon the message that the great tree imparts. The poem testifies to Whitman's belief in the evolutionary growth of the universe toward perfection, culminating in the new land and peoples of America. These themes are particularly evident in Whitman's poems...
[The entire page is 765 words long]
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