| L'Oiseau Noir |
06-01-2008 01:23 AM |
Walt Whitman
Recently, I found a stack of old books buried away in my closet, and being curious, picked through them to see if I could find any promising titles.
A particular leather-bound book caught my attention. On the cover it said it was a collection of poetry by Walt Whitman, so I flipped through the yellowed pages and skimmed the various pieces. It wasn't until I came across his poem O' Captain! My Captain! that I decided to curl up on my bed and read into the rest of the book.
I immediately fell in love with his poetry. I found myself feeling an unprecedented calm, particularly when I read On the Beach at Night Alone.
I think I feel so drawn to his poetry because he describes his scenes in such candescent detail, especially in his poems about the Civil War. You can really see wounded soldiers marching meloncholily back to their encampment, the sadness a wife feels when her husband leaves for war, or the hurt expressions on the nurses' faces as they tell soldiers they're about to die, and that there's nothing they can do to help. Whitman's one of the few poets--at least in my opinion--that can accurately convey those types of intimate feelings in free-verse poetry. And that's saying something, as I'm uneasily swayed with words, whether it be in fiction or poetry (particularly poetry).
Anyway, are there any other Walt Whitman fans on the boards? Please, tell me I'm not the only one.
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