Summary:
Analyzes the Walt Whitman poems "The Soul, Reaching, Throwing Out for Love" and "Leaves of Grass." Describes the numerous editing done to each poem.
In "The Soul, Reaching, Throwing Out for Love," Whitman is trying to help us imagine what love feels like through metaphors and different poetic devices. He accompishes this by comparing his soul to a spider and comparing trying to find someone to love as a spider casting off his filament. He helps us envision love through a spider shooting out a web in hope of catching something, like the soul reaching out for love in hope of finding love in return. This man then sees a person walking on the street. They "[passed] along, saying hardly a word," but still acknowledged each other. The soft "s" is onomatopoeic and reinforces the image of the spider and the sound it makes when he shoots his web. The "o" in this poem reinforces the image of two lovers......
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. There are 514 words (approx.
2 pages at 300 words per page) in the full essay.
Read the rest of this Essay with our Walt Whitman's Revisions Access Pass.
