The Rhythm That Rocks Walt's Cradle

Snodrass explores the works of poet Walt Whitman, citing, among other poems, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." The poem deals directly with his fears of isolation and abandonment that his beliefs had veiled and reveals a self emptied of meaning by the loss of love. During years of rev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Sewanee review 2008-07, Vol.116 (3), p.398-410
Main Author: Snodgrass, W. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beliefs
Cradles
Creativity
Emotions
Essays
Lexical stress
Literary criticism
Love poetry
Musical motives
Musical rhythm
Poetic meter
Poetic themes
Poetry
Poets
Rhythm
Stanzas
Syllables
Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)
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Summary:Snodrass explores the works of poet Walt Whitman, citing, among other poems, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." The poem deals directly with his fears of isolation and abandonment that his beliefs had veiled and reveals a self emptied of meaning by the loss of love. During years of revision and experiment, both poetic and personal, much of the transformative power of Whitman's beliefs had been replaced by an interest in the transcendent power of music. Whitman's deepening discovery of internal and personal rhythms finally led him to musics that charged his poems with emotional enrichments unavailable to others or to himself while he depended on traditional verse forms or on conscious visionary structures of belief.
ISSN:0037-3052
1934-421X
1934-421X
DOI:10.1353/sew.0.0059