Disparate Objects in Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass Essay -- Walt Whit

Reconciling different Objects in Walt Whitmans Leaves of GrassWalt Whitman begins this excerpt from Leaves of Grass by describing an elusive this This is the meal pleasantly set . . . . this is the meat and drink for raw(a) hunger. These dickens clauses that are set next to each other describe this as truly different things. A meal pleasantly set, evokes a quiet display board in a genteel household. In contrast, the meat and drink for natural hunger, recalls a more rugged table at which the food impart be consumed after strenuous activity. How can one thing--this--have such debate properties? The entire excerpt is defined by the outward contradictions such as this one. Whitmans poetic rhetoric, however, attempts to create an internal unity from the contradictions. By unifying things that attend diametrically opposed Whitman emphasizes the possibility for reconciliation between disparate objects. Whitman places two contrasting ideas next to each other at all levels of the ex cerpt. The most(prenominal) prominent level at which he does this is in the images, as in the first line. H...