For my explication, I was assigned Whitman’s poem “Osceloa.” This particular piece describes the death of the Seminole Chief Osceloa, an event that haunted Whitman for many years of his life, and according to scholar David S. Reynolds, Whitman owned Caltin’s painting of Osceloa as a reminder of the chief’s demise at the hand’s of the American military. In “Osceola,” Whitman simultaneously combines the both the aesthetic beauty of Native American art and culture as well as Osceola’s humanity such as his poignant emotions and the demise of his fatherly strength and masculinity.

The complete explication can be downloaded at the following link: http://rachmill.lookingforwhitman.org/files/2009/11/ExplicationFinal.doc