Thursday, May 1, 2008

Theory Questions for "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

I believe that "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," by Walt Whitman, could be veiwed from a deconstructionalist theory. This is because the poem can be read from at least two different vantage points. One being the poem is about the little boy who encounters death for the first time, and therefore his loss of innocence. Another way the poem could be read is from the vantage point of the adult male looking back at the point in his life where he first encountered death. You could read the poem from the vantage point of the poet remembering one of the experiences in life that led the man to become a poet. If you wanted to you could also read the poet from the mocking bird's point of veiw. The poem contains a lot of binaries, a few examples are life and death, the moon and sun, and so on and so forth, the poem contains many.

1.) What ideas or concepts do the binaries in bring to the poem?

2.) Can you look at the poem in a different way if you approach the binaries in the poems another way?

3.) If the poem can be read two different ways, how do these two different ways work together or work against each other?

1 comment:

Rachael91087 said...

Isnt a loss of innocence kind of a part of encountering death for the first time?