Comments on: YONNONDIO

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:25:05 +0000

Additional examples of asyndeton (ommission of conjunctions”) and alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sound):

Asyndeton: Line 8: “No picture, poem, statement, passing them to the future”

Alliteration and asyndeton: Line 10: “the cities, farms, factories fade”

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:19:47 +0000

Line 12, “Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost”: An example of polysndeton, the repetition of conjunctions. In this case, it is the repetition of “and”.

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:17:53 +0000

Line 6, “AS flitting by like clouds of ghosts”: A rare instance where Walt uses simile, to compare one thing to another, disimilar thing using “like” or “as”, in this comparing the “swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors” to “clouds of ghosts”

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:12:10 +0000

Line 5, “I see swarms of stalwart chieftains”: This is an example of alliteration, the repetition of an initial consonant sound, in this case the letter “s”.

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:05:29 +0000

Line 3, “tableaux”: 1 : a graphic description or representation : picture
2 : a striking or artistic grouping : arrangement, scene
3 [short for tableau vivant (from French, literally, living picture)] : a depiction of a scene usually presented on a stage by silent and motionless costumed participants

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:03:18 +0000

Line 1, “dirge”: 1 : a song or hymn of grief or lamentation; especially : one intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites
2 : a slow, solemn, and mournful piece of music
3 : something (as a poem) that has the qualities of a dirge

(M-W)

By: Whitman Country

Whitman Country — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:02:12 +0000

Line 1, “A song, a poem of itself – the word itself a dirge”: I would classify this as a chiasmus. Chiasmus literally means “criss-cross”, and is a variation of parallelism where words or phrases are repeated in inverse word order. I’m taking this to a more conceptual level, as I see “song” and “dirge” mirroring one another as musical concepts, while “poem” and “word” mirror one another textually. The repetition of “itself” chains it together nicely.