Predrag Kovaevi 14

Predrag KovaeviProfessor Nataa Karanfilovi Phd

XIX Century American Literature

18 April 2011

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking: ThemesA great philosopher and a very influential figure in nineteenth century America, Ralph Waldo Emerson, stated in his essay The Poet that every great nation has to have its leading poet, a visionary and a seer who will help in creating the national identity and set foundation for the equally great culture (Emerson 189-211). Walt Whitman read this essay which was published in 1845 and was profoundly influenced by it, he was even remembered to have said: I was simmering, simmering, simmering and Emerson brought me to a boil. (Reynolds, 92). It can be true that this idea of Emersons provided the impetus for Whitmans very prolific literary career.In 1855 Whitman published his collection of 12 poems called Leaves of Grass which was to see 9 editions and grow from 93 pages to 456 pages and 389 poems which the final, deathbed edition, in 1892 contained. It was very different form conventional American poetry of the time and even though it might be wrong to judge a book by the cover, the covers of this book, ornamented with natural motifs on the green background, suggested one very important aspect of the collection, which is the theme of nature . One of the main themes of the book is nature but there are many others as well which are perhaps even more important. This book was to become Walt Whitmans magnum opus and to grow together with the poet, to change the mood and attitude as the poets mood and attitude changed, to be, what S.T. Coleridge referred to as organic form, a work of art which matures with the artist, just like his Biographia Literaria. This collection of poems dealt with the importance of the poet as a visionary, as someone who unites the present and the future and helps in awakening peoples consciousness but he does not say he is worthier that any other individual, because he adhered firmly to the belief of democracy that every individual is equally important, the belief which would become so deeply rooted in the American culture and consciousness. For Whitman, the poet is more like a channel through which natural imagination and beauty, inherent to humans, springs out. The title of the collection was a sort of pun in which grass referred to the way publishers at that time called literary works of minor value and leaves were the pages on which they were printed (Loving, 179) but grass has many different interpretations and it can be said that it unifies almost all the themes in the collection. It can stand for individuality in the mass since every blade of grass is unique in some way even though there is a large number of them, it can also represent the cycle of life and rebirth since every spring the grass starts to grow before all the other vegetation and as Whitman, himself, stated grass is a symbol of equality among the races since it grows among the black men same as among the white (Matthiessen, 548).Marc van Doren, in his work Happy Critic, stated that the poems When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd and Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking are the summit of Whitmans poetry in the way that they are most effective and mature (Van Doren, 43). This paper will deal in much greater detail with Out of the Cradle Endlessly RockingOut of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking was first published individually in New York Saturday Press under the title A Childs Reminiscence in 1859, however, Whitman was not completely satisfied with the poem so he altered it several times and also changed the title. In 1860 it became a part of Leaves of Grass under the title A Word out of Sea. The poem went through considerable changes in 1867 edition and got its final form in 1881, in so-called deathbed edition when it was placed as the first poem of the Sea-drift section. The present title was first used in 1871 edition.The poem represents, as the first title suggested, a reminiscence of the poet about the crucial event in his childhood which awakened the artistic side of his being and determined his future as a poet. The storyline is quite simple: the poet remembers himself as a young boy who on the beaches of Long Island observes two mocking-birds whom he refers to as featherd guests from Alabama (Whitman 26). Not only does he observe them but he is also able to understand their song and translate it. One day the she-bird does not return to the nest so the he-bird suffers and calls to her the entire summer. When he finally loses hope the boy experiences a kind of epiphany about lifes sorrows and loss and the sea utters the word death as the final word which is superior to all. The realization of death as an overwhelming power is what provides the source for his art.There are several important themes which are dealt with in this poem and they will be elaborated on separately. These themes are: the birth of a poet, the sources of poetic imagination and the theme of nature, the theme of love and happiness, the theme of loss, the theme of death and finally the cycle of life.

The first and the most important theme, which underlies all the others is the theme of birth and, more specifically, the birth of a poet. This theme is evident even in the structure and rhythm of the first sentence, which is one of the sentences typical of Whitman but also one of his best such sentences. Subject in this sentence does not appear until the line 20 and is preceded by abundance of prepositions and movement adverbs suggesting struggle and tension, struggle and tension of birth. The rhythm of the sentence resembles the sound of the sea and the waves crashing against the seashore. The sea which is compared to cradle in the first line and the title symbolizes birth among several other things. Scholars have coined the term oceanic sentences to refer to this element of Whitmans style (Allen, Davis 232). Out of the Ninth-month midnight (Whitman, 3) is one of the prepositional phrases in the first, oceanic, sentence which particularly suggests the culmination of pregnancy and that something, in this case the poet, is about to come to existence. The boy spends the entire summer watching the birds careful not to disturb them. When the he-bird stays alone and suffers the boy identifies with him, feels his loss and sorrow as something universal and at that moment he experiences epiphany, the line Thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me never to die (Whitman, 149) means that the realization awakened the artistic impulse within him. However, it is not at this moment when the boy turns into a poet, its rather that he becomes aware of his poetic abilities and aptitudes but he is still lost and surprised and he almost desperately cries for meaning, the meaning of all the suffering in life. The poet is finally born when the sea utters the word death as the answer to his pleas, at this moment the boy realizes that the fact that everything has to come to an end and die makes life what it is and gives the immense value to it. This realization gives the basic idea to his later poetry and provides the impetus for his poetic endeavors. Whitmans view of the poet and sources of poetic imagination can be regarded as a separate theme in the poem. This view has its roots in Emersons essay The Poet where the author points out to the necessity of the society to have its representative bard, a spiritual leader, a visionary, an inspired seer, who helps people form their national consciousness. He has to possess an inner illumination which he then projects on the world through his art. But where does his inspiration come from? Answer to this can be found in both Transcendentalism and Romanticism, which had great influence on Whitman. Both of these movements held that nature is the supreme source of the poetic inspiration, but Whitman even goes one step further, since his inspiration does not come from mere admiration of natural beauties but he seems to able to communicate with nature and get answers from it. This particular poem presents these ideas in many ways. Firstly, the boy is able to understand what the birds sing about, unlike any other human, therefore, he is a connection between ordinary people and nature and natural truths. This can easily be only his imagination or the projection of his own psychological state but then it shows how fruitful and truly poetic his imagination is. Secondly, the poet is here to represent a universal man, different form the ordinary people only in his exceptional gift of imagination. This idea is obvious in the line: From your memories sad brother, form the fitful risings and fallings I heard (Whitman 9). Thirdly, the poet is uniter of here and hereafter (Whitman 20), therefore, a seer who is able to foresee the future of his nation and a collector of different experiences- Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them (Whitman 21) but not only does he collect individual experiences but he generalizes about them and finds universal truths as well. As we can see the first sentence serves as a sort of catalogue (Van Doren, 48) where the sources of poetic inspiration are numbered. In addition to these, nature is also a great source of inspiration as obvious in Over the sterile sands and fields beyond (Whitman 4) or Out form the patches of briers and blackberries (Whitman 7). Great natural forces - the sea, the land, the sun, the moon, the stars are presented as similar to gods, because living beings, in this case the poet and the he-bird turn to them for answers. This can be viewed as a reflection of Whitmans pantheism. The he-bird addresses each of these elements asking for his mate and the poet gets the final answer from the sea. Also the natural atmosphere corresponds to the events and emotions in the poem love is accompanied to sun, loss to the moon and night and the hope of the he-bird fades gradually with the moon. The moon also foreshadows the sorrowful events when it is described in the beginning as that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears (Whitman 10). Love and happiness are two very important themes in Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking and they are mirrored in two mockingbirds which come from Alabama and make their nest near the boys house. The two birds live in perfect happiness singing all time, minding no time (39), they are complete as one whole while they are together. However, their happiness is presented in very short part of the poem, some nine lines, in order to show how happiness lasts shortly. It can be seen merely as a literary device providing a transition, a step, towards more important theme of loss. It is very important to note that love does not die with loss, on the contrary, it gets stronger, it seems like it finally and fully realizes itself only when it gets disturbed. This could, very well, fit in with, perhaps, the general idea about life that Whitman wanted to portray in this poem and that is that the full appreciation of something comes only after the loss or the realization of changefulness of that particular thing.As we come to the theme of loss in Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking we can see that loss here is a general concept which encompasses losses of several individual things, namely, the loss of the loved one and happiness and hope on the part of the bird which correspond with the loss of childhood illusions and innocence in the boy. In the line 41 Till of a sudden (Whitman 41) an abrupt twist takes place and the picture of loss and loneliness replaces the idyllic picture of happiness. Now there is The solitary guest from Alabama (Whitman 51) who sings to his mate, who did not appear one afternoon in the nest, wanting her to come back. He addresses the wind, the moon, the land asking them to bring his love back to him and his hope gradually fades, this loss of hope is represented by the moon which is first laggingheavy with love (Whitman 76), after that there is a dusky spot (Whitman 97) of hope on the Low-hanging (Whitman 96) moon until the hope finally dies and the moon almost disappears leaving only brown halo (Whitman 121)(Karanfilovi, practice classes). The past love and loss are contrasted from the line 125 to 130:

O past! O happy life! O songs of joy!

In the airin the woodsover fields;

Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved!

But my love no more, no more with me!

We two together no more. (Whitman 125-129)The insistence on the words no more is to illustrate the sorrow of the one who was once happy but has now lost that happiness. Edgar Allan Poe used this device as a refrain in his poem The Raven with the same purpose. The boy was able to understand the birds when they were happy but they did not influence him so much until the he-birds dirge corresponded with the same emotion of loss within him. The young poet identifies with the bird and feels his loss trough his own loss of childhood illusions and ignorance. He pourd forth the meanings which I of all men know.Yes my brother I know,

The rest might not, but I have treasurd every note (Whitman 60-62) undoubtedly, suggests his ability to understand the sufferings of others because he has suffered himself. However, this ability of identification of pain is still not complete, he is still not able to feel the sorrow of life completely because he still has that shell of childhood around him. After witnessing the birds loss of hope he feels the shell of his childhood cracking in the ecstasy of awakening of a poet, he is now an outsetting bard (Whitman 143). Becoming conscious of his nature as a human being prone to suffering and also a poet who is to feel that suffering, perhaps, even more intensely is painful and causes tears. There is even doubt in the boy whether the bird is a demon since it provoke so much pain within him, it becomes an embodiment of sorrow: O you singer solitary, singing by yourself, projecting me (Whitman 150), sorrow which gives a birth to the poet. The culmination of the feeling of loss is evident in the following lines:

Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations,

Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,

Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there, in the night (Whitman 152-154)The anaphoric repetition of the words never more is a parallel to the birds loss of hope expressed by never again cited above and identical to Poes use in The Raven This is now the boys dirge about the loss of childhood and safety. According to Marc van Doren, this realization alone is enough to make a good poem and a good poet, but what makes Whitman a great poet and this poem one of the masterpieces is the realization that comes after. Van Doren states that in most of his poems Whitmans effect is somehow watered down because he is very appreciative of everything thats natural and devoted to praising life but whats necessary is to incorporate death in the poetry because without death there is no life as we know it. In this remarkable poem Whitman manages to incorporate death and by writing about it he actually writes about life as it is and thus makes this poem a masterpiece (Van Doren 48).If we say that the birth of the poet is the overall theme in this poem then we must say that theme of death is crucial in that process. In the ecstasy of the realization of himself as a poet the boy is near the sea, which provides an undertone and is first mentioned as the old mother incessantly crying (Whitman 141). When the boy finally dares to ask for the meaning of all the suffering in life expressed in one word it comes from the sea and the waves repeat death, death, death, death (Whitman 169) in their sweet lulling rhythm. To the boy, this word is suddenly delicious, it makes him understand everything, it laves him softly all over (Whitman 172) because it gives him the most important meaning that everything is in a cycle, everything comes and goes, happiness and sorrow, love and loss, life and death. This realization is what makes his art great because as he says:

Which I do not forget,

But fuse the song of my dusky demon and brother,

That he sang to me in the moonlight on Paumanoks gray beach,

With the thousand responsive songs, at random,

My own songs, awaked from that hour;

And with them the key, the word up from the waves,

The word of the sweetest song, and all songs, (Whitman 74-80)it enables him to fuse death with everything he writes thus giving everything the true meaning. At the very end of the poem we have a picture of an old woman rocking the cradle whispering death which creates a sort of paradox on which Davis and Wilson comment:The word death whispered by the sea means essentially the same as the key word emerging out of the endless rocking of the cradle except that cradle is itself highly suggestive of life, young life and hence birth.(Davis, Wilson 165)therefore, death, itself, is not the meaning it is only a transition towards rebirth and new life. With this in mind it is no wonder that the ending of the poem is so peaceful and the atmosphere is that of peace and satisfaction.By speaking alternately about happiness and sorrow, love and loss of the loved one, life and death the poet underlines his basic idea, the idea of the cycle of life. This theme makes even the flow of this poem cyclical since it starts from the picture of love and happiness then through the loss of happiness, hope and death it comes to rebirth and new life (Van Doren, 48). The line in the first sentence, which was mentioned above: Out of the ninth-month midnight (Whitman 3) is available for multiple interpretations, for not only does it refer to the culmination of pregnancy, which was already mentioned, but also to the month of September. This particular month is very convenient for illustrating the idea of cycle of life, since it is the beginning of autumn and death of vegetation but it is, as well, the time when vegetation bears fruits and seeds, thus the beginning of new life. In addition to this, a bit later in the poem, Whitman also mentions the Fifth month, that is the month of May suggestive of spring and birth, again fusing life and death into one whole.

In this cycle death seems to represent a sort of frame for life, or as Marc Van Doren puts it death is the pre-eminent theme for poetry, since it is the enveloping force, the beginning and end framing the middle life. (Van Doren, 46.), and the realization of it defines life in itself. This idea goes together with the fact that death, loss, suffering, a sense of guilt and personal fragmentation is the source of poetry of high distinction ( Paci, 198), since physical and mental suffering broaden ones perspectives and open new spiritual vistas, thus, giving birth to something new, in this case the art of poetry.Finally, it would be good to analyze the ocean as the central symbol of the poem, because it forms an element which unifies the most important themes. Whitman regarded it as the unity of life, death and rebirth and drawn much of his inspiration from it. He associates it with birth for two reasons, first, for its constant movement which resembles the rocking of the cradle, hence, the first line and the title, secondly, shortly before the publishing of the poem Charles Darwin came up with the idea that all living creatures on the Earth come from the sea. On the other hand, darkness and depth below the illusory stillness of the surface (Matthiessen 566) is highly suggestive of unknown and death. The setting of the poem, that is the seashore, is according to Whitman a place of perfect balance, right in between what Melville referred to as unshored harborless immensities and lands peaceful margin of safety (Matthiessen 566). That is the place where the solid is marrying the liquid (Whitman, 135), where the two antagonists meet and fuse, like male and female, real and ideal making one another complete. This way he instinctively adopts sexual symbolism which is nearly always at the root of his most living utterance (Mattheissen 565), like in the lines O madly the sea pushes upon the land,/ With love, with love (Whitman 77-78). Therefore, this setting has the potential to give birth to a poet and provide the inspiration for a great work of art. Whitman also said that he intended to write a piece of prose or verse about the sea-shore exclusively but it somehow, unwittingly to him, happened that he never did but it was an underlying theme in all his works (Whitman 135).To summarize the analysis of this poem, one has to admit that this is definitely one of the masterpieces of not only American but the worlds poetry. The reasons for this are probably best stated by Davis and Wilson:

The choice of themes such as birth, death and resurrection is common to almost all the worlds religious and cultural myths and for those themes he was able to find appropriate atmosphere, symbolic imagery and rhythm. This is one of the masterpieces in which the poet transcends not only his personality but also the national consciousness. (Davis, Wilson 4)The impact of Whitmans work as a whole on the American culture is immense and if we were to ask if he succeeded in his goal to become a seer, a prophet, one of the fathers of the new nation the answer would probably be affirmative because nowadays he is viewed as one of the crucial figures in the formation of the American national consciousness. This is certainly even more so bearing in mind the idea that his influence is undisputedly present in the works of D.H Lawrence and Ezra Pound and many important modern American writers such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Michael Cunningham to name a few. Ezra Pound even said about Whitman that he is not only Americas poethe is America (Pound 8). Therefore, it would be impossible to talk about modern American literature if it had not been for Whitman.Placing Whitman in wider artistic context and bearing in mind the period in which he lived and created, he can be viewed as a figure which connects romanticism with modernism. His insistence on the importance of intuitive and sensual rather than rational is also one of the most important premises of the modernist movement and if we add that Lawrence and Pound who were among the central figures of the movement were strongly influenced by him, then it is not inappropriate to say that Whitman was one of the figures who formed the setting out of which the modernist movement sprang. References: Allen, Gay Wilson and Charles T. Davis. Walt Whitmans Poems. New York: New York University Press, 1955. Print. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays 1845. New York: General Books. 2009. Print.

Karanfilovi N. Practice Classes. University of Novi Sad. March, 2011. Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Print. Matthiessen, Francis Otto. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. London: Oxford University Press, 1941. Print. Paci, Brankica. The Big Ten Major Nineteenth Century American Writers. Ni: Univerzitet u Niu, 1991. Print.

Pound, Ezra. Walt Whitman. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962. Print.

Reynolds, David. Walt Whitman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print. Van Doren, Marc. The Happy Critic. New York: Hill and Wang, 1961. Print. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York: Modern library, 1993. Print. Whitman, Walt. Prose Works. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1892. Print. The number of editions varies from 6 to 9, according to what different scholars regard as a different edition.