Journal #39

Walt Whitman's "Bardic Symbols" is a very confusing poem. It is hard to understand, so it is hard to read into it and try to get knowledge from it. It is about a man walking beside the sea and how cold the sea was. The man wants the ocean to like him and he cries out to the ocean, but to no avail. There are many words in this poem that are not used in everyday life, and that could confuse a great number of people. William Dean Howell agrees in his criticism of "Bardic Symbols", and he shows how people did not understand Whitman or his poetry at that time. Whitman often discusses the Everyman, America, or Christianity or spirituality in his poems, and that is an easy thing to look for as a common theme throughout all of his works. "Bardic Symbols" is a harder poem to read into, but I did not see anything about Christianity in this poem. There may be some spirituality because of how emotional and sensual he gets, but that depends on the interpretation. He becomes very sensual in the poem and it becomes mildly awkward because he is being sensual with the ocean and the beach, which he calls his mother and father. Many people would not understand that, and that might make the not like the poem and eventually not like Whitman himself. There is not much about the Everyman, but people could all walk along the beach like he does. He is not talking about something that is expensive or hard to do, so everyone would be able to walk along the beach like he did here. There is also some about America, because the poem is set along a beach in Manhattan. He is discussing how beautiful it is while is calm outside and when it is stormy outside. Whitman was a very controversial poet, and as seen in Howell's criticism, many Americans did not understand his works at that time.

Whitman, Walt. "Whitman's Poems In Periodicals—Bardic Symbolsa Machine Readable Transcription." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Howell, William D. ""Bardic Symbols": [Review]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .