Are you the new person drawn toward me?

Walt Whitman

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1860

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Are you the new person drawn toward me?” is a single-stanza poem of nine lines. There is no rhyme scheme in this particular Whitman poem, and the line lengths vary between longer and shorter lines. The first three lines shift from shorter, to longer, to shorter, as do the next three lines. However, the last three lines get progressively shorter. The line lengths can be drastically different from one another, and there doesn’t seem to be any significance to the line lengths other than the fact that each line ends with a hard stop, a form of end punctuation, that allows the line to stand alone as a comprehensive thought. Just as there is no rhyme scheme or set form, there is also no set meter in the poem. The stressed and unstressed syllables in each line vary significantly from one another, with no repetitive sequence. This gives the poem a conversational feel, as if the speaker were speaking “naturally” to the addressee rather than in any affected manner. Since there is no rhyme scheme or meter in the poem, Whitman’s work can technically be labeled as free verse. Free verse can be defined as “Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition. Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman explored the possibilities of nonmetrical poetry in the 19th century” (“Free verse.” Poetry Foundation, 2022). This particular Whitman poem serves as one of those examples of experimentation with free verse.

Repetition

Repetition occurs on two different levels in Whitman’s poem. On the syntactical level, the poem repeats the interrogative tone and sentence structure throughout. All but the second line end with a question mark and feature the inverted subject/verb order typical of interrogative sentences. For example, the first line reads “Are you” as opposed to “You are.” The repetition of the interrogative structure enhances the conversational aspect of the poem and makes readers feel as though they are getting an inside view of a private exchange between two individuals rather than simply reading lines on a page. On a more verbal/word choice level, six out of the eight questions asked in the poem begin with the same words, either “Do you think” or “Do you suppose.” Lines 4, 5, and 6 all begin with “Do you think” while lines 3 and 8 begin with “Do you suppose.” Line 7 is an outlier with the phrasing “Do you see.” The repetition of sentence structure and word choice serves a variety of purposes, helping to propel the readers forward through the poem and compounding the different questions one on top of the other to drive home the final point the speaker makes: We live in our own illusions.

Rhetorical Question

SuperSummary defines a rhetorical question as “a figure of speech where a question is posed not to elicit an answer but to emphasize a point or create a dramatic effect” (“Literary Elements and Devices.” SuperSummary). Whitman’s poem “Are you the new person drawn toward me?” features eight questions posed by the speaker. Because the speaker is the sole perspective readers receive in the poem, there is no response recorded from the addressee or no time given for the addressee to even respond. The accumulation of all of these questions build upon one another. The warning that the speaker is “far different from what you suppose” (Line 2) shifts into a confession by the speaker that they put on a “facade” (Line 7) and then shifts even further into a declaration that all of life is “maya, illusion” (Line 9). The point of the unreality of the world is made even more impactful and dramatic through the repetition and utilization of rhetorical questions.