“If I Had A Choice” By Walt Whitan Essay

Wave resemblance in Walt Whitmans If I Had the Choice Although not cycle per secondically or metricly consistent throughout, Walt Whitmans verse form If I Had the Choice is truly consistent in its attempt to agree the characteristics, specifically the loops, of the sea whether read, heard, or seen, the verses adaptation to a waves nature is clearly apparent. Whitmans use of repeated, entirely not uniform, wheel in the poesy exposes the up and eat up nature of waves, while the sudden, drastic reassign in wheel helps depict the crashing of a wave. The metrical variation in the numbers similarly attributes to the resemblance of a wave, for it goes submit in hand with the length of individually key, giving the poem the physical characteristics of a wave.While the there is no metrical consistency throughout the poem (probably do because no two waves argon identically alike), there is a noticeable ensample and consistency in the rhythm of the poem. The full-strength us e of iambs in the archetypical tailfin atmospheres of the poem help to not just emphasize the steady motion of the sea, but more importantly to give the poem a sense of the up and drink down motion of the waves in the sea the conventionality of un distressed/stressed/ light/stressed syllables in e very(prenominal) puff is very similar to the up and down moving ridge of a wave.The shift from the iambic rhythm in creeses one through quin to a loud, sudden spondee in line six clearly depicts the image of a wave crashing. The spondaic rhythm (stress/stress) of the first two words in line six, These, these, is an unexpected, drastic castrate from the preliminary unstressed/stressed pattern. Similar to the crashing of a wave, this change was drastic, and loyal it does not last eagle-eyed, thence the reason for the poems quick return to an iambic rhythm. The poems last three lines atomic number 18 at once again consistently iambic they are back to the quiet, pacific motion of waves in the sea.Just as the height of a wave affects the power of a wave, the bar of this poem affects its rhythm. Although there is no specific pattern for the number of feet per line in this poem, the meter is still greatly significant. When broken up iambically, the number of feet increment steadily from line one to four, until we break line five, the longest (10 feet) line. The length of line five is significantly important in portraying the nature of waves it is representative of the amplitude of a wave before it is close to to crash. Line five is ten feet long because it is followed by line six, the line in which there was a sudden chantlike change, which portrayed the crashing of the wave. Once it crashes, the waves return to their prior size, just as the following lines of the poem go back to having the same scat of feet as they did before line five.The jump number of feet per line also spare the poems structure to gibe a wave no two waves are similar in absolute frequency (height) or amplitude (width), just as no two sentences of this poem are identical in length. As the lines onslaught the mettle of the poem, they get longer, and then begin decreasing in size later on they r individuallyed the longest prime, line five. Since line five, the midpoint of the poem, is the longest line, when held sideways, this line is representative of the middle of a wave, its highest point aright before it crashes.By using rhythm and meter skillfully, this poem is successful in imitating the rhythm of the sea, and the meter of the waves in the sea. In doing this, Whitman makes a very distinctive point rhythm and meter affect each other, just as the height of a wave affects its crash. This relationship is evident whether one reads, sees or hears this poem.