휘트먼의 시에 나타난 노인의 목소리

Abstract

Whitman’s poetry, two voices of the aged are sharply contrasted. One voice is dispersed in his early poetry written mostly during his highest stage of poetic achievement in which Whitman reveals his ideal characteristics of the aged person. The other voice is found in his later poetry written after he experienced his first stroke at the age of fifty-four. The former voice reveals Whitman’s concept of the aged and shows his idealistic qualities of an ideal old person. Whitman suggests that the ideal old person should be equipped with many realistic qualities, such as off-spring, good health, and sociability along with inner traits such as serenity, ripeness, and majesty.The purpose of this paper is to show that Whitman had a deep interest in old age and the quality of its life and to suggest the voice of the aged found in his later poetry is the most personal and heart-felt and it must be thought of as a vital element of Whitman canon. Since Whitman’s later poetry is the record of his personal life, it easily earns the sympathy of the readers. Moreover, the readers may find that the literary achievement of Whitman is directly related with his humane goal of achieving serenity and peace of mind. In short, Whitman’s sense of the aged revealed both in his early poetry and later poetry is significant in that it integrates the real and ideal dealing with his fundamental theme of life and death.