Sunday, March 7, 2010

THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH

“There Was a Child Went Forth” by Walt Whitman illustrates his position as part of the new American Tradition and his desire to fulfill the call for a poet who “sings the materials of America” by Emerson. The poem is earthy and real: the emotion, events and perceptions are that of the average person. The lofty ideas presented within are approachable because they are part of the every-man’s perception and life.

Walt Whitman’s language is loose yet precise, varied but common, and it illustrates a perfect balance between the real and the artistic. The structure flows coalesces and begins to flow again while all the while remains a simple list-like form.
However ,within this list, he pulls and plays with emotions and moves from excitement into doubt and then to resolution to rescind all doubts. Doubt begins as the child moves from the pleasant natural world into the human world he is subjected to. The ills of the drunkard, the boys and his father manipulate the child and pushes him beyond the comfortable bounds of childhood and nature and forces him to deal with the negative aspects of human existence: the child moves from the tactile understanding of reality into the doubt of the mind. The permanency of emotion and the place of the individual within the group.
Finally, the real world intrudes again and the child leaves the mental world and resolves to enter the real world experiences the world as it is without being subjected to the existential doubts that flooded his mind as the world intruded on his excitement.

This is most definitely a Bildungsroman poem, providing a description of any one child's disillusioning transition from childhood to adulthood. It begins with a child living in the country - nature surrounds the child with good things (like flowers); nature is also a sign of innate goodness and innocence. As the poem procedes, the child grows, and moves from the country to a small town, to a city. The city is very industrialized, crowded, and corrupt. The child has gained knowledge, but he is not bad or corrupt...he is well-rounded, with a healthy skepticism.
Another aspect that you may want to note is Whitman's use of balanced pairs: mother/father, country/city, childhood/adulthood, etc. So this poem is about what a child experiences of good and bad stays with him or her for life.

Whitman was referring to life in the eyes of a child or a newly born baby how he memorized things for the first and how his childhood and neighborhood became a part of him , and so will affect his life in the future. And this poem might be referring to how whitman's childhood affected and played a role in his life today. He discusses about the imagination of a child and how everything around him molds him to how he is now as an adult. He made use of nature and everyday people that everyone feels impacted life (mother and father).He is reflecting on his childhood years by mentioning old images like the "friendy boys" and the "fresh-cheek'd girls" to show the innocence of life when young.


So Whitman in this poem carefully transitions from his own personal life and relations with himself to his relationship with mother earth and nature. He combines the elements of nature with those of his soul comparing and contrasting the good and the bad.It is a very romanticism kind of idea. Whitman talks about the different elements that have shaped his life in his adulthood and the impact they will leave in the future. Whilst showing respect for nature and life and America.

So the basic thing which he wants to tell us is that how the child gets older, the lines of the poem get longer. Written in free-verse, there is an overlapping progression seen throughout the poem: the child first notices objects, then nature, then animals, then people, then machines. The progression can also be seen in the specific things the child notices: at first, he or she notices "early" lilacs, third-month lambs, calves...all things representing new life. The child begins to understand that many different things can have the same color, such as the red and white morning-glories and the clover. Then the child branches out to the barnyard and sees "feild-sprouts of the
Fourth- and Fifth-month" and apples trees with flowers and then "the fruit afterward," symbolizing the growing maturity of the child. He or she is beginning to differentiate people by their age, gender, and race, and
behavior, as seen by the descriptions of many different kinds of people. Another interesting point: the child realizes that not everything he sees is good, such as the drunkard and the weeds. The poem then moves to the parents and shows that along with giving the child physical life, the mother and father also gave their child more of themselves than that: it talks about the "wholesome," gentle mother before talking about the "mean, anger'd, unjust" father. However, these words are not mean to be as harsh as they seem. Fathers (as well as mothers) seem
"mean" to their children when they make rules and set limits, "anger'd" when their child disobeys those limits, and "unjust" when they punish their child for their disobedience. All of the child's family experiences stay
with him during his life, and at home he can always find "affection that is not gainsay'd."
As the child gets older, he begins to think about the things he views - "the doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time" - and wonders if things happen by random chance or if there is a purpose to his everyday life.
The rest of the poem uses very descriptive language. It first talks about a journey on a ferry that in today's world can be compared to a child going off to college. Although it makes one nervous, there is still a safe
destination in sight: "the village in the highland." Also, a ferry is a large, slow-moving boat, and much less frightening than a tiny schooner being hurried and slapped by "tumbling waves." The voyage on the schooner
can be compared to the rest of the child's life: unsure and dangerous, but most likely worth the trip. The image of the horizon suggests an unknown, an area still to be discovered, adventures that have yet to take place,
etc.

"The strata of color'd clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint away solitary by itself, the spread of purity it lies motionless in...these became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go
forth every day." Each one of our experiences has an effect on us, whether temporary or
permanent, that shapes the rest of our lives.

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