3B+Metviner

[Response to Walt Whitman's I Sit and Look Out]

The Silent Killer

The silence, you spoke of, has taken its toll, No action was taken against any lost soul.

The wives were broken and laid there dead, While the gun was under, the husband’s bed.

The men are still crying because they hate themselves, While their journals full of regrets, sits on their shelves.

I hear secrets that could practically kill and I sit and watch the hopeless victims stand still.

Sailors are gone, there was no food to spare, Others were killed for the best, they swear.

I see the children, still running around and I observe their poor mother who lies motionless on the ground.

The wealthy still snob, while the poor wilt away, Too much hatred, especially these past dark days.

I understand your silence, though as you can see, There is no longer hope, just misery.

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 Simplicity in Poems

 The creation by Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, contains many features that contribute to the overall theme of the piece. For instance, Whitman uses repetition in the first half of the poem. He repeates the word "when" at the beginning of lines one, two, four, and six. This creates a monogamous feeling and notion in the poem. When the repetition is stopped, it signifies a change. I believe that the specific use of "when" shows boredom and unimportance to the things around him due to the fact that he is basically listing what he observed. In addition, Whitman uses punctuation, especially commas, to separate different ideas. This is benificial to the reader in order to clearly obtain what is going on as well as showing where more changes in mood or events come into play. For example, lines four to eight states, "When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured/ with much applause in the lecture-room,/ How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick" (Whitman 273). In this case, the commas is used to separate two contrasting ideas. Line four and five describe how the speaker sat and listened to the lecture of the astronomer who then received a great amount of applause, however, line six states how instead of behing happy and supportive by clapping he felt sick and run down for no apparent reason. This is a great use of punctuation because it shows characterization and plot due to the change in mood or events. Furthermore, Whitman also used punctuation to show irony and a deeper meaning. The title and the first line contain this feature: "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (Whitman 273). The word "learn'd" contains an apostrophe which shortens the word almost representing slang. This is ironic because of its context and the word it is placed in. The astronomer is suppose to be smart and high educated, but is described with a word that is shortened signaling a lack of intelligence and ad lack of respect towards academics. This brings up the theme that the simpler things matter more in life. The repetition of the word "when" shows this by representing the lack of enthusiasm in the complications of "the proofs, the figures,""the charts and diagrams" (Whitman 273). Yet, when it is stopped being repeated so much the speaker leaves that mess of a lecture and returns to the peaceful outdoors. Also, the commas represent this theme do to the separation of the ideas of facts and data from silence and stars. Finally, the abbreviation of "learn'd" shows this theme by representing how education with all of its charts and division are not important, but the simple night time sky is. I think Walt Whitman was a very wise man in his creation of this poem because this theme is definitely important and becomes more usefulness as time goes on. In our hectic life we are focused in small details and information and miss the big picture of how the simplest things are what is really important.