jackieg

I chose to look at the poem My 71st Year. I liked this one a lot because Whitman seems to bring the War theme of his poetry full circle with his life. He describes himself as living three score and ten, which is seventy years. In saying that it seems to have a formal, military-like feel to it. He goes on to lament the things he’s experienced in his life, but I found it curious that he mentions “chances, changes, losses and sorrows”. Already the poem has a melancholy feel to it. It seems as though the sadness that accompanies war is also parallel with his life. He does not mention triumphs or victories; only “changes, losses, and sorrows”

This tone continues in the next line with him mentioning his parents deaths and the war. The one thing that might be positive in this line he turns into a negative by saying the “tearing passions of me”. This made me feel as though he were pulled apart by his passions and the things that made his poetry great. His passions are what set him apart from the norm and it seems here as though he were regretting that because society felt it was perverse.

In the next few lines he compares himself to a soldier, which obviously brings that war theme home. He’s comparing his life to a soldiers journey home from war. He is weak and tired, yet he still answers to his role call and salutes his officer. I really liked the last line because it gave the poem a last feeling of optimism. I felt as though he were regretting his life’s work in the beginning of the poem. However, in this last line, when he “salutes”, it feels like he is proud of his life and what he has done with it.