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Week - 13 2
Week - 13 2
” – Matt Brundage
American poets to be successful with irregular meter and rhymeless poems. Rhyming,
in a highly nominal and list-oriented poem such as "Salut" would be impossible or at
the least, cumbersome.
"Salut Au Monde!" is a mostly informal poem. Formalities are sparse, but two stand out
to me: "I see plenteous waters, I see mountain peaks…" (page 139), and from page 137,
"What myriads of dwellings…" Both lines could have easily been retold in a more relaxed
format. "Salut Au Monde!" is written in a mostly loose, unrestrained format. When read
aloud, it sounds as though Whitman had merely transcribed his thoughts as they
popped into his head. Furthermore, it sparks the imagination. "Salut" is filled with
geographic terms (cartography jargon), ethnic terms, locations, cities, rivers, etc.
Whitman mentions the "Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts…the giant pinnacles of
Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi…" (page 139) These geographic terms are not described or
mentioned elsewhere; Whitman is relying on the reader's prior knowledge of these
places to spark their memories. There are over 300 proper nouns in "Salut Au Monde!",
most are names of places or ethnic groups. When this frequent usage of proper nouns
is combined with a conversation-like diction, Whitman creates a poem that uses variety
without being overwhelming and repetition without being boring.
The one organization style that stood out to me was Whitman's question and answer
technique, which he employed for the first four sections. Section One is basically a
collection of questions, which are answered in Section Two. For example, Whitman asks,
"What widens within you…?" (page 137) The opening line of Section Two answers that
question: "Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens…" (also page 137) In Section
Three, Whitman asks of himself, "What do you hear…?" and promptly lists eighteen
'sounds'. There is no organizing principle in place as he lists his sounds. Whitman goes
from wild horses of Australia to French liberty songs to Mexican mule drivers all in a
single sentence! (page 138) This, I believe, is further evidence that Whitman is simply
writing, verbatim, his thoughts. In Section Four, he asks of himself, "What do you
see…?" and for the next six sections, he lists what he sees. Whitman is semi-organized
here, grouping together subjects into clusters. His list of mountain ranges grace page
139, nautical places on page 140 and rivers take up half of Section Five: "I see the long
river stripes of the earth, I see the Amazon and the Paraguay, I see the four great rivers
of China, the Amour, the Yellow River, the Yiang-tse and the Pearl…" (page 141) On a
larger scale, "Salut Au Monde!" is shaped into two parts — the subjective (Sections One
through Ten) and the objective. (Sections Eleven through Thirteen) Throughout the subjective part,
Whitman is constantly talking of what he see and hears. For the rest of the poem, he
shifts his focus; the majority of the lines now start with 'You' instead of 'I': "You,
whoever you are! You daughter or son of England! You of the mighty Slavic tribes and
empires! (page 145) It should also be noted that the frequency of exclamation points
increases when he shifts the focus from himself to others.
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28/12/2023, 23:54 Analysis of Walt Whitman's “Salut Au Monde!” – Matt Brundage
Whitman's sentences in "Salut Au Monde!" are rarely complex, in fact, he opts more for
simple and compound, run-on sentences, such as Section Three (which consists entirely
of one 280-word sentence). Whitman also uses sentence fragments effectively, such as
this passage from Section Eleven: "You Sardinian! You Bavarian! Swabian! Saxon!
Wallachian! Bulgarian! You Roman! Neapolitan! You Greek!" (page 146) There are very few
adjectives in the poem; for this reason, it cannot be considered a true descriptive work.
The proper nouns, though, sometimes act much like adjectives themselves and provide
plenty of artistic spice. "Others pass the straits of Dover, others enter the Wash, other
the firth of Solvay, others round cape Clear, others the Land's End…" (page 140) This
excerpt, while containing no adjectives, still brings to mind visions and memories of the
sea: sailboats, the cry of seagulls, the smell of the salty air, etc.
"Salut Au Monde!" is highly stylized and is one of the best examples of distinct poetic
style that I can recall. I learned quite a bit in preparation for this assignment, mostly in
the area of word choice. I found his diction to be mostly informal and almost always
interesting. I deem this poem a stylistic success, save for the over-use of lists: "I am
Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brussels…" (page 144) As I continue to study
Whitman, I am interested in finding out whether or not "Salut Au Monde!" is stylistically
representative of his body of work.
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28/12/2023, 23:54 Analysis of Walt Whitman's “Salut Au Monde!” – Matt Brundage
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Work Cited
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Eds.: Bradley, Sculley and Harold W.
Blodgett. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1973.
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28/12/2023, 23:54 Analysis of Walt Whitman's “Salut Au Monde!” – Matt Brundage
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off.” –David Bazan
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