I Thought I was Not Alone, and I was right because everyone else is blogging now too

I Thought I Was Not Alone by Walt Whitman
I thought I was not alone, walking here by the shore,
But the one I thought was with me, as now I walk by the shore,
As I lean and look through the glimmering light--that one has utterly
disappeared,
And those appear that perplex me.


Okay so I just really have a thing for Walt Whitman. Whether that is because of his wonderful poetry that I am very in love with, or his wonderful granddaughter who I equally adore ( May Whitman (the actress (her?))), or his wonderful life story that makes me very happy (at least what I know of his life), it does not really matter because he is the only poet that I ever want to blog on and the AP board can just deal with that and maybe they might even throw some of his poems in on the test. Or maybe the entire test might just consist of Walt's poems (look at me calling him by his first name like we are old friends (I wish we were old friends, or new friends)). Is he even that AP lit worthy? Is googling 'Walt Whitman love poetry' for every blog really making me a good AP lit student? Is it good to ask so many rhetorical questions to the higher powers of AP Litland? I do not know, but honestly probably not. Anyhow, there is a poem upon this blog that needs to be analyzed! So here we go (epic music playing in the background)! *Movie commentator voice* In a world where only Walt Whitman poetry exists and it all needs to be analyzed lives a girl who is having too much distracted fun. Okay the poem yes the poem.

The whole poem gives off a very confused, sort of saddened tone, making me question why this was on a love poetry website. The most important part of this very very short five line poem seems to be the "by the shore" line since it is repeated twice in this short poem. "Shore" can be defined as: the land along the edge of a sea, lake, broad river, or other water formation; some particular country; land, as opposed to sea or water; the space between the ordinary high-water and low-water mark; or of, pertaining to, or located on land, especially land along the edge of a body of water. So there does not appear to be really any double meaning in this repetition, he was probably just honestly writing about walking along the beach. Beaches, however, have some connotations that come to mind like romance, renewal, or even disaster. So this might be a long winded connection to romance and disaster.

The "one" that the speaker thought was accompanying him along this relaxing walk along the beach may symbolize a lover that has recently left/betrayed him. It seems as though the speaker was relying on this person and then they left without a trace. The fact that this person has "utterly disappeared" leaves a feeling of bewilderment, surprise, disappointment, and maybe even a little dash of anger. It is totally reasonable for the speaker to be feeling all of these things because his loved one has just left him, out of the blue, seeming to have left no trace as to where he has gone except for a "glimmering light" from where he evaporated. Maybe this lover was in fact water that has now turned into steam in the air and that is why the light is glimmering because there is a bunch of water particles floating around in the air, but probably not.

The line "And those appear that perplex me" really perplexes me honestly. What are "those"? Are they people? Are they the water particles? Are they sharks and little fishes in the water? It's probably just other people (although it would be more fun if it were sharks and little fishes with little fish faces). These people probably feel foreign and unwelcome to the speaker because he has lost his rock. The speaker has just been left and now all of these people are just appearing in front of him. Like that's rude and they should leave him alone to mourn his heart in peace!