Trying to read Walt Whitman's hand writing is closely equivalent to trying to read hieroglyphics, it is very hard and interpretive. When trying, emphasis on the word trying, to decode these letters I could only make out bits and pieces of sentences and words. For me the words became clearer to read towards the end of the text as I was able to read "Ship of the world - Ship of Humanity - Ship that circles the world Ship of the hope of the world - Ship of Promise". To me this is very hopeful and Whitman is using a Ship to tie everything and everyone together. This plays off of his universal theme of acceptance and welcoming everyone no matter who they are. He also could be comparing poetry to the ship and saying that it is the ship of the world, humanity,and provides hope and promise to society. The last image presented stood out to me a great deal because it was nothing like the previous portraits he had drawn. This image of a skeleton of a man, who has been stabbed in the heart. Since the previous drawings seemed to be of Walt Whitman, I viewed this image as him also drawing himself but in a different way, showing how society viewed and discriminated against him and his poetry. However when looking at the interpretation of this image it was said that it was an "allegory of America itself, poised in a strange halfway state, suspended between day and night, life and death".
Just a tad bit off I would say.
Also, side note please take the time to appreciate the title of this blog post!
Some good points, but I wish you had looked at other examples in order to provide additional details and support to your thoughts and analysis.
ReplyDeleteHowever, great title.
First of all, I think the title is an excellent pun, which I greatly appreciate. I also thought that the drawing was interesting as it represented a halfway point between the light of equality and the death of the civil war. I agree that the ship of equality could also be representative of poetry and the commonalities that it has throughout the world. Overall, I liked your analysis of the drawing and the ship and agree that it was very hard to read.
ReplyDelete