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Walt Whitman's views were seen as progressive and some people didn't understand them. This is similar to the poem as in the poem, many people wouldn't understand what he is saying and the true meaning of the poem. Walt Whitman wanted to see all perspectives of the world, not just his own. In this poem, in the first and second stanza, he describes how he is also a bit untamed. He is trying to understand the perspective of others by thinking like they do. He wrote in free verse, but this was also about him finding freedom and peace.

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What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem?

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What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem?

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The figures of speech that are used in the poem include metaphors and personification. Whitman uses personification to give the reader a better understanding of the things happening in the poem. Whitman wrote, "I shake my white locks at the runaway sun." The personification in this quote is "runaway sun." This description allows the reader to picture what is happening. Whitman also uses a metaphor to describe how he is going into the air. The phrase "depart as air" gives an image of flying freely and effortlessly into the air.

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What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? Can you state it in a single sentence? Elaborate on your idea.

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What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? Can you state it in a single sentence? Elaborate on your idea.

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This poem's theme is that he can be freed by connecting with nature. After feeling judged by society, he writes, "I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,/ I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift in lacy jags". His poem shows that he feels like a current of air: free and able to go anywhere, effused into the sky's serenity. He seems enlightened in his writing and nature, free like a bird and as pure as a breath of fresh air. He also talks about how he invites other people to join him, "Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,/ missing me one place search another,/ I stop somewhere waiting for you.". Whitman feels that his writing doesn't just give him freedom, it offers it to everyone. After this transformation, as he becomes one with nature, he beckons to anyone who listens to follow him. He says that it can be hard to find him, that this peace may elude you but not to be discouraged, and finally that he will stop and wait. As an open-minded poet, his feelings of freedom were radical and expressed through this poem.

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Are there any symbols? What do they mean? Are they universal symbols or do they arise from the context of this poem?

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Are there any symbols? What do they mean? Are they universal symbols or do they arise from the context of this poem?

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Walt Whitman uses symbols to add a deeper meaning to the poem than what it may seem. For example, the hawk can represent freedom or getting away from society. In the second stanza of the poem, Whitman wrote, "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable." The narrator is comparing himself to the hawk in this stanza. Later on in the poem, he talks about how he goes away from society, and goes to where he finds peace. The hawk that the narrator compares himself to represents freedom. Another symbol in the poem is the sun. Whitman wrote, "I shake my white locks at the runaway sun." The sun represents warmth, brightness, and hope. Rather than a symbol that is brought up for the poem, the sun is more of a universal symbol. When the narrator describes and sees the sun, that is when he feels hope and warmth.

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The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains

of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back of me,

It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fiber your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

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What images does the poet use? How do the images relate to one another? Do these images form a unified pattern (a motif) throughout the poem?

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What images does the poet use? How do the images relate to one another? Do these images form a unified pattern (a motif) throughout the poem?

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In this poem Whitman paints a vibrant picture for the reader that emphasizes his feelings about freedom and connections to the world around himself. In the beginning, he says that "The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains. . .". Hawks are hunters and symbols of humanity's wisdom, so as a hawk swoops by and accuses him it creates a scene of the world looking down on him. As Because he was a progressive poet, his views on rights and freedom may have seemed outlandish and he may have felt like he was being followed by a hawk. As he transitions into the middle of the poem, he says that, "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,/ if you want me again look for me under you boot-soles". In this quote a picture of his being, maybe his soul, going into the ground and becoming part of nature, is portrayed. As he keeps writing he becomes more of an enigma, he is like the sun, the wind, and the earth as his feelings of connectivity spread throughout nature until it suffuses his being. All in all, the imagery Whitman uses allow the reader to see what he means and how he feels.