craddef

Notes for "Out of the Cradle..."

Note that the prepositional phrases pile up, but that this sentence is not completed until the end of the stanza. In many ways, this stanza is the poem in miniature as the poet, now adult, recalls the childhood experience in nature which he sees as the source of his creative powers as a poet. The cradle, as you will see later, is the sea.
Originally Whitman wrote "Out of the rock'd cradle"; I hope you can understand just how wrong that would have been, in terms of the major ideas of the poem and its rhythms.

Shuttle, in the sense of going back and forth to create sound, much as the tides go back and forth. This is the first of several back-and-forth images, which are echoed in the rhythm. Look for more of these.

September. A pregnancy lasts 9 months also; how might that be significant to the poem?

Why are the sands "sterile"? Is this in contrast to the bird and the sea, both of whom "speak" in nature's language to the boy?Note that the child is open to the elements, literally as well as metaphorically. How old would you guess that the child is?

The halo comes from the light of the half-moon. (Why isn't it a full moon?)

i.e. the mockingbird. Note that the bird is chanting (even as the poet does); what does that word (as opposed to singing) suggest?

uncountable multitudes

A word not to be revealed until the end of the poem.

This split voice--man yet child--is important in the poem, for the man is recreating his transformation as a child into what would become the poet.

This is his first definition of the poet; look for further descriptions, especially his role in translating nature into human terms.

the Indian name for Long Island. This is where Whitman grew up.

The month of May marks the beginning of the "reminiscence."

i.e. the male and female mockingbirds

These verbs (note that they are all in the continuing progressive tense, not finished past or present) describe how the poet relates to nature. Perhaps the fact that he is a child emphasizes even more his openness to experience, as well as his ability to relate to the birds. Look for other examples of -ing verbs.

The italicized passages all represent the song of the bird (the male bird, actually). It can be very useful to read through these passages continuously, to see the various modulations of joy, hope, and grief in the bird's song over the summer months.

The idea that the singer--bird or poet--must be essentially alone, though his song is going out to others, is very strong in Whitman; look for other places where solitary loneness is emphasized. This repetition also emphasizes the bird's loss of his mate.

Why does he call him his brother?

Carols are generally songs of joy. Is there joy in his sad song as well as grief?

In a sense, as Thoreau knew, this is what the great writer must do--translate the notes of nature. Do you think that Whitman doubts his ability to do that, as Thoreau came to do?

The song has become an operatic aria. What does that suggest? What clues does the speaker give about what the aria means to him?

This is the sea. Note the connection with the rocking cradle. Why is the sea characterized in this way? Is the sea also "mother nature"? How does this chracterization anticipate the messages that the boy must learn to be a poet?

conversation

an early term for "poet"

In what sense is the bird a demon? Note that one meaning of the word is "an attendant, ministering, or indwelling power or spirit, genius" (and that's the first definition in the dictionary, by the way) Is the bird also in some way "an evil spirit"? (the second definition

In what way does the bird "project" him? Is the bird aware of this? What does this show about the relationship between the boy-poet and the bird? What has nature done for him?

Is this how he interprets the bird's song? Could it be that this is also what he thinks is essential to poetry? Have you ever thought of poetry in this sense?

Who is this messenger?

Coleridge said that poetry is the reconciliation of opposites. This oxymoron is an excellent example.

clue to what? there must be something more the "outsetting poet" needs to learn than the bird can tell him.

The message is completed by the sea. Note that he is saying that nature is the source of his songs, his subjects.

This is the central paradox of the poem, for in what sense is death delicious? When one considers the role of death in nature, how it is essential to life and part of universal rhythms, it becomes something more than our human horror of our own "extinction."

Notice the use of past tense here, in contrast to the many verbs of progression (-ing verbs: rocking, peering, absorbing, translating....)