Disparate Objects in Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass Essay -- Walt Whit

Reconciling Disparate Objects in Walt Whitmans Leaves of GrassWalt Whitman begins this excerpt from Leaves of Grass by describing an elusive this This is the meal agreeably set . . . . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger. These two clauses that are set next to each other describe this as very different things. A meal pleasantly set, evokes a quiet table in a genteel household. In contrast, the meat and drink for natural hunger, recalls a more broken table at which the food will be consumed after strenuous activity. How can one thing--this--have such opposing properties? The entire excerpt is defined by the outward contradictions such as this one. Whitmans poetic rhetoric, however, attempts to create an internal unity from the contradictions. By unifying things that seem diametrically opposed Whitman emphasizes the possibility for reconciliation betwixt disparate objects. Whitman places two contrasting ideas next to each other at all levels of the excerpt. The most promine nt level at which he does this is in the images, as in the first line. H...