The narrator addresses readers by referring them to a hawk. Whitman also provides a specific structure to this poem by the repetitive use of the pronouns “you” and “I” while addressing the speaker and readers. This is due to the poetic devices like slant rhyme or internal rhyme used in the poem along with the systematic use of alliteration.

Despite being written in this form, the poem maintains a slight cadence and rhythm. The poem, like most of Whitman’s experimental writings in “Song of Myself,” lacks a standard and regular rhyme scheme and metrical pattern, making it a free-verse poem. Whitman’s “The spotted hawk swoops by” consists of sixteen lines that run along almost the same length. People who walk over him or pass his grave will certainly be blessed with paramount excellence and health.

Although they cannot really know who he is when they finally locate him, he will shower his wisdom on them, regardless. This prominent idea of brotherhood and affection gives Whitman’s poetry a definite edge.Įven if readers cannot locate the author, they are encouraged to continue looking.

Even if they have never met him, he will be beneficial to them. Readers need to look at the earth beneath their feet if they want to find Whitman. This symbolic imagery links together the idea of dead bodies being buried. He, in this sense, surrenders to the earth, giving himself up even to the other elements of nature. Hence, by the end of the day, the poet is persuaded away, and he floats farther with the wind, discarding his flesh. The next pit stop in Whitman’s journey is centered around this very idea of the cycle of life. This transition to darkness is an appropriate reflection of death. The poet then continues with the same tendencies and describes in laced metaphors how the day patiently waits for him to be fully prepared and only then does the sun go down. He perfectly executes the merger of human harmony with nature this coexistence comfortably runs throughout the poem’s space. Moving along, Whitman dives right into the comfortable essence of nature like any other transcendentalist poet of his time. There is a sense of familiarity that Whitman uses to further build his poem. Just like the hawk, the narrator feels that he is “untamed” and just as “untranslatable” as the hawk’s cry is. He draws a parallel between himself and the hawk since, according to him, they are both traveling in the same boat, experiencing the same emotions. Whitman, the recognized speaker of the poem, on finding out about this hawk, immediately identifies with it. It begins with a hawk swooping down on the narrator, owing to his excessive rambling and loitering about. Whitman’s “The spotted hawk swoops by” from its very onset reads like a poem that is addressed specifically to the readers.

Song of myself poem