So far, out of all the poems I have read by Walt Whitman, "Life" is my favorite one so far. Life is a poem that pertains to all human beings.
Ever the undiscouraged, resolute, struggling soul of man; |
| (Have former armies fail'd? then we send fresh armies—and fresh again;) |
| Ever the grappled mystery of all earth's ages old or new; |
| Ever the eager eyes, hurrahs, the welcome-clapping hands, the loud applause; |
| Ever the soul dissatisfied, curious, unconvinced at last; |
| Struggling to-day the same—battling the same. |
In the first stanza, Whitman brings up the souls of everyone and identifies that all of us struggle inwardly and become discouraged at times. Whitman is suggesting that it is a part of our human nature for us to become discouraged. He also asks if former armies have failed. Which, they obviously have. And he says that we continue to send in fresh troops when armies fail. I think this implies that everyone fails, but we have to pick up again and keep moving forward and not get down about ourselves that things aren't working the way we wanted them to.
Then Whitman talks about a mystery of the earth. Some mystery that we all grapple with deep down inside. It is a mystery that society has forever struggled with and continues to. We all have eager eyes searching to see what the truth is and we watch others to see how they react to this topic, to see if they welcome it or not. I think that the mystery Whitman refers to is if God is for real or not.
In the third and final stanza, Whitman again brings up the dissatisfied soul. He remarks that it can be unconvinced, which I believe means unconvinced of God, and it be left unsatisfied. He also says that we all struggle over and over again with this topic.
This is my favorite poem by Walt Whitman so far because it deals with an issue that lies within us all. We all do grapple with the belief in God and how much we value that belief and what we think the consequences will be. That is human nature to struggle with that and to remain dissatisfied if we do not find belief and trust in God. I think this poem is very true of us all, and it is personal to every single person, which is why it is my favorite.
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