Spontaneous Me Lit. Resp.

Spontaneous Me, written by Walt Whitman, was a very metaphoric poem. Throughout the entire poem, he compared a human’s (man) sensuality to the beauty of nature. In the very first line in the poem, it says “Spontaneous Me, Nature”. I think he purposely made that the first thing the audience knew about the poem. As the audience continues to read, it is apparent that he is comparing two types of nature: the sensual human side of nature to the beauty of non-human nature.

Whitman definitely appealed to pathos throughout the whole poem. This poem is about the passion in a man. Whitman grabs the audience’s attention by the abundance of emotion within the writing. He focuses on the sense of touch the most. For example, the quote “Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other” implies a sexual experience between the two lovers and explains the way they touch.

Throughout this poem, there is an ample use of figurative language. This poem basically consists of metaphors, or it can even be said that there is a use of personification. Nature is compared and is given human characteristics. For instance, the line “The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down, that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and hold himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied” shows sensuality in a human-like way.

Whitman used diction to show imagery in his poem. Every noun in the poem was described by many adjectives. The audience got the exact picture and knew what happened and how it happened just by his choice of words. “Dead leaf”, “Hairy wild-bee”, “limpid liquid”, or “vigilant eyes” are all examples of the way he thoroughly described things to keep his audience’s attention.

This is a really passionate poem and I think it is even better because it was written by a man. It shows the softer and more sensual side of a man and not just the hard core. Whitman got his message through to his audience well because of his use of diction, which painted a visual picture. This is an easy piece to read and I found this poem to be very interesting.