Background Information
There Was a Child Went Forth is a poem by an American poet Walter Whitman. He composed this poem in 1855 with the initial title of "Poem of The Child That Went Forth, and Always Goes Forth, Forever and Forever" which later appeared in his poetic collection, Leaves of Grass 1860. This poem is autobiographical as many scholars associate this poem to Wittman's actual life of his childhood. The poem revolves around the past memories of a child which are pleasant and unpleasant simultaneously.
Situation & Development of Themes
The poem opens with a child, inspecting and cataloguing things around him. Some objects also dwell their stay "for many years or stretching cycles of years" while other objects do see their life for only a day in the mind of the child. After he finishes cataloguing, he considers his catalogue to be a part of himself.
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes and will always go forth every day,
And these become of him or her that peruses them now.
The most prominent theme of this poem is the growth of a child from a child to an adult. A child is a keen observer of his surroundings. He makes notes of everything his eyes like to capture but only some of those things remain permanent in his memory when he grows up.
The second theme focuses on the auto-biographical harshness during childhood. "The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure." purely indicate towards Whitman's dismal childhood because of the ill-treatment of his father. That is why, Whitman was more inclined towards his mother than his father.
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust;
Use of Figurative Language, Setting and Imagery
The most prominent use of figurative language spotted in this poem is of personification. Take a look at these lines
The schooner nearby, sleepily dropping down the tide
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
The animation of inanimate objects strikes a perfect personification to intensify the overall meaning of the poem.
The overall setting of this poem is both rural and urban because the speaker recalls his childhood. The images used in this poem are very concrete and obvious. The images like "Winter-grain sprouts, light-yellow corn, apple-trees cover’d with blossoms, "
Structural Analysis
The poem boasts 39 lines and is made of three irregular stanzas (The poem I have is divided into three sections so I am counting these sections as stanzas). The closest rhythm is trochaic pentameter.
Conclusion
Conclusively, this poem is "the most innocent thing" Whitman "has ever did". It beautifully groups a child's want to go forth and the way he goes forth in the form of a catalogue.
Sources and Suggested Readings
- https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Leaves-of-Grass/there-was-a-child-went-forth-summary/
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1slzZZ-kh791943dR3-Sdd4aw874-0gbq/view?fbclid=IwAR3xiUOQ83VsBhbf0Nipu8KpOJ2XZvcjEDM9lRsaeohNRq8cdUFMW3lQ3Yc
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_a_Child_Went_Forth?oldformat=true
- https://poets.org/poem/there-was-child-went-forth-every-day
- https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_58.html
- https://keytopoetry.com/walt-whitman/analyses/there-was-a-child-went-forth/
- https://prezi.com/8dlprdumzir3/there-was-a-child-went-forth/
