Once More, America, Before I Go Essay

The explication of poetry demands close reading of a single short poem or several stanzas of a longer work. Its goal is to unearth the hidden meaning/s of the poem by using the poetic techniques and elements employed by the author. Some of these techniques and elements include â€Å"diction, stanza and line structure, meter, rhythm and imagery (â€Å"Poetry Explication,† n. d. ). Walt Whitman’s poem, â€Å"Once More, America, Before I Go,† benefits from the use of explication due to its abstract nature, as it lacks concrete and specific imagery. To offset this problem, an in-depth look at the way Whitman uses rhythm and language will help to expound on the theme of the American democracy, of which he was an outspoken supporter. For Whitman, rhythm and language are intertwined, as the rhythm of the poem is inevitably linked with the type of language used. The work begins with the lines from which the poem takes its title: â€Å"One song, America, before I go / I’d sing, o’er all the rest, with trumpet sound, / For thee—the Future (Whitman, 1872). † This first stanza is notable: it establishes and introduces the readers to Whitman’s radical departure from traditional poetics. Note that the stanza seems like one continuous line, as if it were written in prose. Yet, this prose unit is broken in erratic intervals to form lines and not one continuous sentence. Whitman’s experimentation encapsulates perfectly his view of the democratic American society. This society, he believed, was the best form of society because it allowed for the individual’s self-expression and self-formation. Written as if spoken from his deathbed, as signaled by the first line, he tells American that it is the â€Å"Future. † The first letter of future is capitalized, which indicates it to be a proper noun. As such, future was become synonymous with future, and, at the same time, it implies the American democracy is the future, the mold for everybody to follow. Words such as these pepper the work, as can be seen in succeeding stanzas. In the second stanza, he elaborates on the other things he would do for America before dying: â€Å"I’d sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality; / I’d fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul; / I’d show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish’d (Whitman, 1872). † Nationality, ensemble, body and soul, and union all have their first letters capitalized. Again, Whitman’s unique use of language here gives the poem a deeper meaning. By using the same technique he used with the word â€Å"future† in the preceding stanza, he again turns these abstract concepts into concrete proper nouns. Furthermore, through such technique, he emphasizes the America will inevitably be the paradigm of all these because of democracy. In the second line, three words are capitalized: ensemble, body, and soul. All of these points to Whitman’s desire to form the perfect citizenry of America. In order to do this, he had to start with perfecting the individual person, a goal that can easily be reached because of democracy. The third stanza is different from the rest of the poem, being set off in parenthesis. It indicates a plan he will only start, but not accomplish, unlike those tasks he mentioned initially: â€Å"(The paths to the House I seek to make, / But leave to those to come, the House itself. ) (Whitman, 1872)† Here, Whitman is broaching on the continuation of time from the past to the future, and the fact that the experiment in democracy will see its final form in the future. He will only blaze the trails, but the final form will be for the future. The poem ends with an assertion of his belief. However, he says that simply believing will not bring results – they must also prepare: â€Å"Belief I sing—and Preparation (Whitman, 1872)† Both must act together to fulfill the goal not only for the present but also for the future: â€Å"Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present only, / But greater still from what is yet to come, / Out of that formula for Thee I sing (Whitman, 1872). † He believes that the present is already good, as emphasized by the words life, nature, and present having their first letters capitalized. However, he believes that with the coming of future comes the fulfillment of the promise afforded by democracy.