walt whitman turn your face towards the sun origin

The tide, the cloud, and the sun become integral characters in this spiritual drama between the poet and the elements. The poet is on the bank, and he observes the ferry as well as the passengers, whom he expands to symbolize the large united self of mankind. This first section establishes the setting of the poem. The poet first addresses the elements - the tide, the clouds, and the sun - saying, 'I see you face to face.' He next observes the crowds of men and women on the ferryboats: 'How curious you are to me' he says, for he thinks of these people in relation to those who 'shall cross from shore to shore years hence.' The poet meditates on the relationships between the various generations of men. The coming together of these men and women symbolizes the spiritual unity of men in this world. It is also associated with the groups of men and women who ride it, who have ridden it, and who will ride it. The ferry symbolizes this spatial and temporal movement.

In this attempt, man tries to transcend the boundaries of space and time. Man, in Whitman's world, while overcoming the duality of the universe, desires fusion with the spirit. His world is dominated by a sense of good, and evil has a very subservient place in it. In Whitman's view, both the mind and the spirit are realities and matter is only a means which enables man to realize this truth. From a moral point of view, it means that there are two mutually antagonistic principles in the universe - good and evil. Dualism, in philosophy, means that the world is ultimately composed of, or explicable in terms of, two basic entities, such as mind and matter. The circular flow from the physical to the spiritual connotes the dual nature of the universe. Land symbolizes the physical water symbolizes the spiritual. Land and water thus form part of the symbolistic pattern of the poem. The ferry moves on, from a point of land, through water, to another point of land.

It symbolizes continual movement, backward and forward, a universal motion in space and time. The major image in the poem is the ferry. This poem was originally called 'Sun-Down Poem' (1856), and the present title was given it in 1860. Whitman: The Quintessential American Poet.When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?.

Walt whitman turn your face towards the sun origin