Long, Too Long Since My Last Post Oops

"Long, Too Long America" by Walt Whitman

Long, too long America, Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only, But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not, And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are, (For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)

I just really like Walt Whitman and his poetry. Maybe it is because of his descendant, May Whitman, being a very good actress (her?), or maybe it is because of how he lived his life. Either way, I really enjoy his poetry, so I picked another of his poems for this week. The title of this poem is "Long, Too Long America." By this the speaker is saying that America has prospered and seemed perfect for too long, so now they are suffering from it. The denotations of the word "too" is in addition; to an excessive extent or degree; more; extremely. So the time that America has spent just going along like everything is great is excessive. The speaker is criticizing America, telling them to take on greater tasks, to try harder, not to just cruise along. "Traveling roads all even and peaceful," signifies how easy America's reign had been so far in the past. "Even" has a denotation of level; flat; free from variations; uniform in action, character, or quality, equal in measure or quantity. So everything that America had accomplished so far was not difficult, there were not great mountains to climb over or any other difficulties in their attempts. "Peaceful" which means not argumentative, also solidifies this idea that America just went along with the flow and accepted all off the good things that were coming to them without really trying to get the good things. They did not fight for what they wanted, they were just lucky and it came to them. "You learn'd from joys and prosperity only," here the speaker continues to comment on how easy America has had it so far. In the next line the speaker says, "But now, ah now". These few words show a complete tone shift from the firs line. The first line seemed to be more joyful and thankful, while this line starts out with the speaker seeming bitter and sounding more like the speaker knew it all along. He seems much more stuck up in these few words than he did before. "To learn from cries of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not." In these next lines the speaker seems to have a bitter tone, like he is thinks America is getting what it deserves. The denotation of "anguish" is excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain. This word contrasts highly with "peaceful" in the first line. The speaker is saying that America has completely fallen down and are now suffering as badly as they can. The speaker seems a little smug about this because he thinks that America deserves to feel what many of it's citizens feel. Not every American is prosperous, and the speaker claims that in the next line, saying "show to the world what your children en-masse really are." "Really" gives off the feeling that America has been lying about or masking what has actually been going on with their people. They have just been putting up a front of glory and prosperity, when really many of their people are suffering. "En-masse" just means together, as a group, so all Americans are feeling this pain because the government refused to admit that anything was amiss before everything went downhill, or at least that is what the speaker is saying. Then in the next line the speaker seems to say that he is at a higher loevel of understanding than most people, claiming that only he has fully realized how badly Americans are suffering. So, in this poem the speaker calls America out for acting like they were great for so long that their people ended up really hurting.