Student Question
How does Whitman's "barbaric yawp" statement and his grass symbolism compare to Thoreau's ideas?
Quick answer:
Whitman's "barbaric yawp" and grass symbolism reflect his poetic freedom and celebration of individuality, contrasting with Thoreau's more constrained and factual style. Whitman's use of alliteration and symbolism in "Song of Myself" emphasizes liberation and self-expression, inviting readers to embrace freedom. In contrast, Thoreau, in Walden, focuses on detailed observations of nature, promoting communion with the natural world but with less lyrical inventiveness than Whitman.
Whitman's diction is poetic and free. His line that begins "I sound my barbaric yawp" celebrates his own power and freedom and liberates him from both poetic and societal conventions. His poetry is unconstrained, much as the life he celebrates. Later in Song of Myself, he writes, "I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass." In this line, he makes use of alliteration, of beginning several words with the same sounds, including "lean" and "loafe" and "spear" and "summer." He celebrates the individuality and the life of a single blade, or spear, of grass, just as he celebrates his own sense of individuality. Later, he invites the reader, "Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat." He beckons the reader to sit, just as he sits at ease on the grass, and to sing, and the grass becomes a symbol of freedom and lack of constraint.
Thoreau's writing in Walden is far less poetic and more constrained, even though he also writes about nature and about man's ability to commune with the natural world. For example, he writes in one passage "I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground" (23). His writing, even on the same subjects as what Whitman writes about, is far less inventive and original, and he is more matter-of-fact and concentrated on the details of what surrounds him at Walden Pond. While both writers celebrate the freedom of being in nature and speak about people's ability to become one with nature, Whitman's writing is more original and lyrical than that of Thoreau.
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