Friday, February 12, 2016

What are some examples of images in Song of Myself, what senses to they appeal to?

Imagery is all over the place in Whitman's "Song of
Myself," and that imagery appeals to a wide range of the senses. Here are some quick
examples from section 2:


Sight: "The play of shine and
shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag"


Sound: "The
sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the
wind"


Touch: "A few light kisses, a few embraces, a
reaching around of arms"


Smell: "Houses and rooms are full
of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, / I breathe the fragrance myself and
know it and like it, / The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let
it."


Taste: "The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no
taste of the
distillation, it is odorless, / It is for my mouth forever, I am
in love with it"


Those examples are all from just one short
section of the poem! Imagery is all over the place in Whitman's "Song of Myself." He
definitely philosophizes and deals in abstract ideas in his poetry, but he always seems
to bring things back to the level of concrete, sensory details.

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