Whitman and Emerson - Comparison - Essay Example

Also he culled words and phrases from the country side which were also an inexhaustible source of words to him. Thus his poems contain words taken from different sources. James Miller says “ Whitman’s wit is seen in his language ; in his , sometimes indiscriminate mixture of levels of usage : in his comic occasionally grotesque , use of foreign words and phrase , and in his blabbing , gabbing and yawping in a multitude of mingled voices .” Emerson was a note d orator. Most of his essays were texts of speeches delivered by him.

An oration falls into seven broad divisions, (i) exordium, where the orator captures the attention of the listener: (ii) the narration, where the theme is surveyed historically (iii) proposition in which a definition is offered (iv) partition in which the orator states the objections to his argument (v), confirmation or proof (vi) reprehension or censuring the opponent and vii peroration in which he sums up his position. ‘The American’ Scholar has all these seven parts tightly knit together.

What strikes the reader of Whitman first and foremost is his gift of phrasing – a capacity to mint memorable phrases. Even the first lines of his poems bear eloquent testimony to this capacity of Whitman. The following examples prove this: i. I celebrate myself. 2. I sing the Pody electric, 3. Out of the cradle endlessly rocking, etc. He viewed objects from unusual angles. . Even the first lines of his poems bear eloquent testimony to this capacity of Whitman. The following examples prove this: i.

I celebrate myself. 2. I sing the Pody electric, 3. Out of the cradle endlessly rocking, etc. He viewed objects from unusual angles. He saw grass as the flag of disposition, he saw the sharp peaked farmhouse with its scallop’s scum and slender shoots, from the gutters he heard an aero plane’s “wild ascending lisp”. Emerson uses plenty of analogy and metaphor in his essays. The American scholar is strewn thick with metaphors and analogies. The poet was turning experience into art is compared to the silkworm turning the mulberry leaves into satin..The Gods devised man to men, and this is analogues to the hand divided into fingers .

Whitman’s poems are full of symbols. The unseen is suggested through the seen. In Lilacs the lilac’s, the thrush and the star are effective symbols employed by the poet to explain the mystery of death. The master symbol of the leaves of the grass is ‘grasses. The poet provocatively speaks in connection with the grass. The leaves of grass are connected with the leaves of pages of the book of poems. The grass serves as a symbol of the mystery of the world. In order to grasp the mystery of the universe, the poet must first grasp the mystery of the “spear of summer grass.

” Emerson frequently uses such literary devices as contrast and repetition.”Every day, the sun, and after sunset, night and her stars, ever the window blow ever the grass grows etc. The device of repetition is effectively used in the forgoing sentences. Emerson had a fondness for paradoxical statement s. He says that the most secret thought would become public and universally