Poems of Walt Whitman and the Acceptance of the Portrayal in American Drama and Theatre Industry - Essay Example

American Drama and Theatre Analysis THESIS MENT The main objective of this paper is to analyse the poems of Walt Whitman and the acceptance of the portrayal in American Drama and theatre industry. INTRODUCTION The American cultural society is always acknowledged for its theatre and drama culture. Since several decades the American theatre and drama group gave birth to multiple talents and creations. As compared to past and present era, a huge transformation has been noticed among the cultural societies with respect to drama. Present era has created new chances and various challenges for every creative field. Likewise, American theatre and drama faced a cultural change, which created a new challenge for the modern play writers. In the history of American theatre and drama varied authors creations hit the floor. Walt Whitman is one such author whose poem made a mark in the American theatre and drama history. “Leaves of Grass” and “Song of Myself” are the two precious works of Walt Whitman, which is credited as the representation of core poetic vision. The play writers of varied generations has presented Walt Whitman model in a different manner. Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a very famous poem, which is a combination of biography, sermon and poetic mediation. In these two poems, Walt Whitman has represented picture of multiracial republic and portrayed them beautifully and graciously. Moreover, “Leaves of Grass” and “Song of Myself” are poems, which described the political environment of past revolutionary period. In this aspect, Walt Whitman wanted to give a poetical expression to his thoughts about the life enduring mysteries such as birth, death, and reincarnation. The entire study is based on Whit Whitman poetic exploration and its modern representation by play writer in American Theatre and Drama society (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). DISCUSSION The poetic works of Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass” and “Songs of Myself” both are known as influential poems. Between these two poems, “Songs of Myself” creates an image of an epic journey in minds of the reader. Walt Whitman had drastic ideas about the America, its democracy, spirituality and various other aspects which were portrayed in traces of the poems. In the poem ‘Songs of Myself” poet had explored those ideas while preaching self-knowledge and acceptance for all. “Songs of Myself” has been considered to be one of the modern poems of that time as it expressed the notion of equality. In the stated poem, Whitman used symbols and clever commentary to describe the American social issues, which are related with racial discrimination and more (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). The structure of poem is with compelling rhythms, multiple themes and shifting narrations under the influence of the poets of 20th century. Every line of this poem expresses a real view of the America society. The passages of “Songs of Myself” are bold, which had shocked the readers of the contemporary society. Moreover, “Songs of Myself” is an epic poem in English literature. For instance, “Missing Me One Place Search Another” this line described the journey of the poet’s life. On the other side, “I stop Somewhere Waiting for you” also expressed the constant search of the poet for life path. The two lines of poem is a collection of American life and its boundaries, which are reflected through the drama in the American Society and are loved by the people. This poem presented a passive perception of human life (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). “Songs of Myself” is crammed with significant details with three key episodes in it. Every episode of the poem represents different phase of a poet life. Whitman has used various ideas, characters, images and symbols in the whole poem. Some of the sections of “Songs of Myself” expressed agitation and some directly explains the philosophy of a poet. From the poem, Whitman always wanted to create equality among the people of the society. On the other side, poet expressed that birth and death are not in the hands of a human but it depends upon the luck of a being. Moreover, poet in a very intelligent yet poetic manner portrayed the nasty part of society. In the section 11 of this poem, Whitman takes a persona of young women, watching 28 beautiful young men immersion in a river. In this section Whitman tries to display the essence of a beautiful society by changing the mood of the scene through high commitment towards democracy and equality. This episode expressed an optimistic nature of a poet regarding regular people. In section 11, young women fantasize about joining men. This section creates a nasty model among the readers mind, but in next stanza poet fade away the aspect of fantasizing. Whitman’s is particularly interested in telling stories about regular people of the society. Whitman has portrayed the life style of every regular people of society such as slaves, workers, the poverty-stricken and even prostitutes, without discriminating any individual. The poet always wants to describe that every people living within the society is equal. No one is integrally better or worse than anyone else in the society. The poem is set on 19th century American backdrop. During this time most of regular people were being judged under the dimension of better and worse. With the help of this poem Whitman, wanted to diminish this idea and set an example that everyone in this society is equal and have equal freedom. The value of human life is priceless and every people have to be valued was one aspect of the poem (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). These various aspects of the poem are dramatised by the American theatre as it displays the reality of life, which is loved by people. The structure of ‘Songs of Myself” is completely different from any other contemporary poem of English literature. This poem do not follow normal poetic format and it is almost a regular speech written in a free verse. Whitman loved to use underscore for its characters, which creates an equal feeling in reader mind. The entire poetry is a repetition of every two line. Whitman has very skilfully using his words to diminish the redundancy of his ideas. Whitman poetry is known for the common language, which reduces the gap between individual of same society. According to Whitman, spiritual communion depends on physical contact or at least proximity. The human body is a vessel that allows the soul to experience the world. The erotic interchange of his poetry is, meant to be symbolized as an incomplete connection between individuals. In the stated poem, Whitman described about civil war and his faith in democratic sympathy. According to Whitman war, it was a quagmire of killing. Whitman also expressed his words about reconstruction, which failed almost immediately after war ended. From the study of Whitman’s portrayal, it is understandable that he was very democratic and loved freedom of individuals (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). Whitman’s poetry model has mainly described the American life style. It has been seen that the American poetry is far different from the European society. Politically and practically the American are far different from the European counterparts. For that reason, American poetry distinguishes itself from the previous models. The poems of Whitman have been breaking new grounds in both subject matter and expression. The play writer of theatre or drama group has recreated the entire script of play. Whenever, a play writer recreates a famous poem or drama there are always a criticism faced. “Song of Myself” is a renowned poetic drama of Whitman. Most of the time in the American theatres personnel recreated dramas according to the audience demand. It has been seen most of the European theatre personnel do not describe the poetic works of Whitman in their dramas. Every time the play writer over sexualised the 11th section of the stated poem. On the other side, Whitman always wanted to diminish racial discrimination from society, but the play writer over shadows this part in their drama. In the entire poem, Whitman represented his thoughts about the American democratic society. From the birth to death, human life has been going through various emotions such as love, sorrow and many more. “Songs of Myself” is a complete set of those human emotions. Every section has described different emotions of human being, but the play writers of theatre do not convey every message of poet as expressed by the poet. The play writers mixed up every emotion and presented a different drama in front of audiences, which does not portray the true image of Whitman’s poetry. Most of the readers loved to watch their favourite poet writing in a motion form. Theatre and drama is that place where play writer represent the written words in a visual format. Therefore, Whitman’s epic poem “Songs of Myself” is one of such loved poetic drama of audience but, most of play writers do not shown actual citation of the poet, because most of the sections are repetition of another section. Moreover, while summarising “Songs of Myself” the play writers skips most of the sections and main message of the poet which has a social message towards the development of society. The actual description of Whitman model has been reformed into a new model. Due to this reason, the gentility of the stated poem has been diminishing in the contemporary era (University Of Toronto Libraries, “Song of Myself”). CONCLUSION Based on the above discussion it can be comprehended that, Whitman’s portrayal of the American or freedom is very realistic. The message of equality has created an anti-discrimination thought amid the mind of the reader. Every section of “Songs of Myself” has created an overview of the 19th century society. The play writers of theatre do not flourish actual thought of Whitman’s experience about life cycle of human being in their depiction. Therefore, overall “Songs of Myself” is a dramatic representation of Whitman thoughts. Work Cited “Song of Myself”. University Of Toronto Libraries. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. Read More