Poem Explanation When first saw the title “As I Pounded in Silence” I thought it was going to have a transcendentalist type of feel to the poem. Imagined that it would talk about walking through the woods as Whitman maybe thought back on his life. This poem starts off with the narrator looking back and possibly re- reading or editing poems that they may have done in the past. Then a ‘Phantom’ appeared before the narrator, and this phantom was described as “The genius to poets of old lands”.
The phantom says to the narrator that he as a different style of writing than the poets before his time.
Essay Example on As I Ponder’d In Silence Analysis
Poets before his time wrote traditional epics about war and the perfect soldiers who fought. The narrator says to the phantom that he does too wrote about war, a war that is more horrific and extended than any other war written about.
The narrator explains that the war that he writes about is the battle Of life. The narrator too says that they believe that they are living in their own war. Lastly, at the end of the poem, the narrator says “l above all promote brave soldiers”. When they say this I believe that they believe that a brave soldier is a common man, a man who is living the ultimate battle.
There are many metaphors in this poems, but not many of them are very obvious. Believe that a brave soldier is a metaphor for the common man.
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Also I think real War in the narrators mind is the life of the common man. In the beginning of the poem, I feel like there is an ominous tone because the narrator is seeing the phantom for the first time. Towards the end the poem has a prideful tone to it, believe. The narrator says that they promote brave soldiers and they classically say that they support themselves because the narrator, too, because they’re also in a battle.
There is a shift in the poem in the twelfth line when the narrator starts to talk. You can tell there is a shift because the tone is different and it’s showing a different perspective. I believe that the title has a little bit of irony to it because although it started off ‘silent’, the majority of the poem is dialogue. Or they could have actually been silent the whole time but imagined the phantom and had been thinking to themselves. The theme of his poem, believe, is about the imperfection and evolution of humanity.
And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles, The making of perfect soldiers. Be it so, then I answered, too haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any, Waged in my book with varying fortune, with flight, advance and retreat, victory deferred and wavering, (Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the field the world, For life and death, for the Body and for the eternal Soul, Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles, above all promote brave soldiers
As I Ponder'd In Silence. (2019, Nov 27). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-as-i-ponder-d-in-silence-explanation/
