John Steinbeck

Favorite Whitman Poem

There are many poems written by Walt Whitman and we have read many of them in class, but sitting here reading many more of them, I came across one i quite rather enjoyed.  "A Farm Picture" is the poem that I believe to be my favorite poem.  "A Farm Picture" is a very short poem but I do not think that the length of a poem determines its importance or fame.  I like this poem for that reason actually.  I am not the type of person who wants to read a poem with twenty stanzas that has to be analyzed for an hour. That is not poetry to me because it seems like it is too much of a story. Poetry should be short, sweet and beautiful and with this poem being only three lines it is rather short.

I also like this poem because it reminds me of being a kid.  When I was younger we had cattle at home and I can remember getting up early with my dad to go and feed the cows and fill their water troughs. And the poem also speaks of standing in the doors of a "peaceful country barn". When I think of a  peaceful country barn I think of the barn we use to have that the baby calves were born in.  A peaceful country barn is just like our one we had.  It was old, open spaced, and made of wood.  These new barns are made of metal and do not give you the same feeling of that country type of barn. This poem brought back good memories because as my brother and I got older and started playing travel baseball it was impossible to keep the cattle and travel at the same time.  We ended up having to get rid of the cattle we had for this reason and it is nice to remember the good old days. Sure the cows smelled awful and are big dumb animals but they really are funny animals to watch.  My family also has pictures of my siblings and I with baby cows and we were all so happy then and as you get older it is harder to have times like the ones we had. I hope to one day be able to have a small group of cattle so that my children can experience the same great things that I did.  This poem brought back some great memories and that is why it is my favorite poem by Walt Whitman.

http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/133

Chanting the Square Deific- Self

         Walt Whitman's, "Chanting the Square Deific", shows many of the traits of Self and Spirituality that he had used in a certain time frame of his writing. Whitman uses the idea of a quaternion, or four sided religious belief while many people are use to the three. Many people believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as much of the population of the United States is some type of Christian. Whitman uses the quaternion in the way of God, Jesus, Satan, and the Soul, each having their own stanza. The inner personality of each subject of a stanza is revealed throughout the poem. 

        The "soul" or who God is, according to Whitman, is not persuadable, relentless, and unmerciful.  "Not Time affects me—I am Time, old, modern as any, Unpersuadable, relentless, executing righteous judgments"(Whitman 1). "Executing righteous judgments" and "Relentless I forgive no man—whoever sins dies—I will have that man's life;" tell the reader that the man is not forgiving and that any man who has sinned will not be forgiven for his actions and their life will be taken from them. The author is a harsh but just man in his eyes and God does not feel bad for the judgment and decisions he must make. "I dispense from this side judgments inexorable without the least remorse"(Whitman 1). God believes that he is here to pass judgment on those of the living and make the decision whether man shall live or parish. In the remaining stanzas, Jesus, Satan, and the Spirit are able to interpret themselves as to who they are and why they are here.

       Jesus shows affection, forgiveness, and bears the sins of the world on his shoulders.  Jesus knows that he is here to take on all the burdens of the people of the world from the rich to the poor. "For I am affection, I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope and all-enclosing charity" and "All sorrow, labor, suffering, I, tallying it, absorb in myself, Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified, and many times shall be again" proves who Jesus really is(Whitman 2).

      Satan is "Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt" which means Satan is a trouble maker, but he is also the "brother of slaves" showing a kind-hearted sides towards those less fortunate(Whitman 3). Satan knows that he is here to cause war between nations and people in general and to cause trouble for those trying to get to heaven by putting temptations in their lives.

      The Holy Spirit is what brings the other three together.  The Spirit is like the person on a team that everyone likes and gets along with. "Including all life on earth, touching, including God, including Saviour and Satan" (Whitman 4). The Spirit is a little of all three and reconciles the three. The Spirit is here to be the universe, to be everything everywhere and it does its job to keep the three others in line.

     "Chanting the Square Deific" is about four incredible forces whom are able to identify who they truly are and why they are here which is a part of Self.  Normal people struggle to realize who they are and what purpose they serve in the universe and the author is trying to show that a normal person may not be able to identify themselves as to who they really are but a divine force can for it is true and honest.

Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman:        A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File,        Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.  

Journal 29 "Self"

Danny Hayes is a sixteen year old young man who is afraid of being alone.  Friends and family keep him going through  the highs and lows of life. This journal is beginning to be difficult. It is hard to analyze ourselves as a person. A drunk woman with a poor voice, but an influence in the teenagers life once said "We are who we are". I find this to be true. I know that I love baseball, cooking and eating,  friends, music, and many other  things. Danny is  also not good about  "having a bucket to piss in" or saving money.  He likes to go out to eat and buy things he does not necessarily need and this gets in the way of big ambitions like buying a car. Danny is also a cautious kid  when it comes to major things but he is not afraid to make stupid mistakes  and  get in trouble.  Danny gets in trouble but he hates it because he gets  butterflies in his stomach and gets  very  nervous about the consequences. Danny really is a loving kid though.  He loves animals, little kids, and does not really "hate" that many people.  Even the people who have hurt him have been forgiven by him. I guess he can be a bit  of a bully  but it is  not because of the state of  happiness he is in or confidence in himself or whatever all those scientists say. Danny can be self conscience about some things though.  When  people make fun of his weight it really hurts his feelings or when someone offends his family members he gets very defensive.  I think that many people would get defensive though if someone else was attacking their family members. This does not happen that often but occasionally does.  Danny is also a little bit of a self critic. He is very OCD about the cleanliness of his room and his car, although I do  not think it is a bad thing to want clean things.

Our group consisting of Shelby Stouffe and Danny Hayes decided to review or interpret the poem #668 "Nature' is what we see" The complexity that arises in dealing with Dickinson's poetry is partially due to the indeterminacy, uncertainty, and mystery that shroud her seemingly simple poetry. Most of her poetry is about nature.  Something so simple to see and understand is happening that we wonder, what is the inner lying meaning?  This poems talks deeply about our  ignorance to the simplicity of nature and to the beautiful things  found in nature. "-So impotent Our Wisdom is  -To her Simplicity"  (Dickinson 11-12) We believe that this means that the human race is smart and intellectual but when it comes to nature we are dumb and ignorant to her simplicity. This poem also talks about the beautiful things in life that we may take for granted.  We see nature everyday and since we know it will always be there we never really stop and look at it.  We know that it will be there tomorrow so sometimes I feel people don’t really find it to be something they will really miss.  Emily Dickinson was a poet that had the ability to see everything in its natural and truest beauty.  She could look past all the bad in the world that was going on and look at the raw beauty of nature since she could not find it within people.  She was not really a people person and she also thought that the people that were high in society saw her as a nobody hence the poem by her I Am Nobody Who Are You?  For someone to be able to look past all the bad and straight into the good really has a good clean head on their shoulders.  They know how to take in life as it comes and can see the true nature of someone.  Emily might have been able to see the beauty but the best part was was that she could transfer her thoughts from inside her mind onto paper and interpret what she saw and felt through words.  This is what I think truly made her famous or her poems so well known because they all had meaning to not only her but those around her.  They interpreted feelings that maybe a lot of people were feeling and made it more known by others.  She definitely had a strong will and determination because no matter what she never gave up on her writing or what she believed in.  I think that is something really special.

"The Hill—the Afternoon—Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—Nay—Nature is Heaven—Nature is what we hear—The Bobolink—the Sea—Thunder—the Cricket—Nay—Nature is Harmony—"


http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nature-is-what-we-see/

Emily Dickinson Poem

The Emily Dickinson poem that we read for this journal was "I heard a fly buzz when I died".  The speaker says that she heard a fly buzz as she lay on her deathbed. The room was as still as the air between “the Heaves” of a storm. The eyes around her had cried themselves out, and the breaths were firming themselves for “that last Onset,” the moment when, metaphorically, “the King / Be witnessed—in the Room—.” The speaker made a will and “Signed away / What portion of me be / Assignable—” and at that moment, she heard the fly. It interposed itself “With blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz—” between the speaker and the light; “the Windows failed”; and then she died (“I could not see to see—”). This poem can be sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace" and this is a pattern in most of her literary.

Dickinson's Writing Style

Emily Dickinson used her own style of writing.  She does not really fit into the modernism period that was going on at the time.  Dickinson fit into the Transcendentalist movement more than anything..  She isolated herself to try and figure out the meaning of life and why she was here on Earth. She did not really use a rhyming scheme, she just wrote what she was thinking about and it just happened to turn into poetry. Dickinson basically cut her self of from society because of how sick of it she was.  Dickson locker herself in her house and I am pretty sure  that she did not leave her house for many years.  Can you imagine how clean her house must have been? Anyway I believe that this is why she was able to write about whatever she wanted to. I think that her poem "A Bird Came Down" is a scene she may have witnessed looking out her window while she was writing.  I do not think that being kept up in your house is the best way to experience life, but I also can see how she would find inspiration from such a scene.  A bird is just such a peculiar thing and I think that Dickinson saw the same thing.


"He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head"(Dickinson Stanza 3)

This is the third stanza of the poem "A Bird Came Down" and reiterates what I said about the interesting thing of a bird. A bird is just so interesting in how it hops around, moving its head quickly, and looking for something to eat.  This poem does not follow a more difficult rhyme scheme.  Only some lines rhyme with each other. Unless I am not able to rhyme words together,  this poem follows an A B C B D E F E G H I G J K L M N O P Q rhyme scheme.  Only the first two stanzas appear to have a rhyming pattern at all and this is very weird for poetry.  When I think of poetry, I think of every other line rhyming with each other.  I know  that this is not true for all poetry.  Another thing I do not understand is or who considers this good poetry.  Seems to me that this poem is just about a bird walking around eating bugs.  It is possible that I am looking to far into taking this poem literally but that is just what it seems to me.  I do not understand what makes some of these authors worthy of being famous.  I hope one day to be able to open up and understand these author's writing better.

"A bird came down the walk: A
He did not know I saw; B
He bit an angle-worm in halves C
And ate the fellow, raw. B

And then he drank a dew D
From a convenient grass, E
And then hopped sidewise to the wall F
To let a beetle pass. E

He glanced with rapid eyes G
That hurried all abroad,-- H
They looked like frightened beads, I thought; I
He stirred his velvet head G

Like one in danger; cautious, J
I offered him a crumb, K
And he unrolled his feathers L
And rowed him softer home M

Than oars divide the ocean, N
Too silver for a seam, O
Or butterflies, off banks of noon, P
Leap, splashless, as they swim."  Q

Dickinson, Emily. "Emily Dickinson." PoemHunter. 14 May 2001. Web. 12 Mar. 2012