before i go- is Whitman contemplating his own mortality or leaving his mother?
amid these songs- Whitman is immortalizing himself and his mother through poetry
lines 5-7 are set apart in parentheses. gives visual of a coffin. Although Whitman has many great memories the mother's death, her lifeless form is central to the poem
The use of alliteration
Memories, my, mother, maternity are like a baby calling out "ma ma ma"
Whitman is calling out one last time for his beloved mother
These contrasting images provide the reader with Whitman's sense of death's incomprehensibility
Webster's definition of "dim" is "not perceiving clearly or distinctly"
Whitman does not understand this supreme land without bounds
Whitman enters into an intimate relationship with the reader
Calling us to journey with him as he contemplates his mother's death and his own mortality
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