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Walt Whitman & Donald Hall, Whitman uses more of an informal voice and…

- - - - It feels like Hall uses the enjambment to make us think about what he is going to say before he even says it. He wants to create a reaction in us before even completing his thought.
- - - - Hall uses what feels like a more serious tone than Whitman. While the structure of his poems are anything but formal, the voice he uses in them feel very formal at times. This feeling and counterbalance between a formal voice and diction overall, and informal structure causes the reader to really think and question what Hall is trying to say. This was really apparent in the poem "Affirmation" where Hall used a formal voice but informal structure.
        
        Hall's way of writing in both his techniques and voice makes the reader feel like someone wise is telling a story imparting wisdom on us.
      - Hall uses a certain way of narration that feels like he is telling you the story rather than you reading it for yourself. His poems feel as if someone older and wiser is narrating trying to spread their wisdom. He uses a very philosophical tone in his poems.
        
        I felt this in the poem "The Things". This is because when reading, Hall is a saying that it isn't the most obvious memories or objects that you will hold dear to your heart but rather the obscure, small pieces of your life. The tone and word choice helps get this point acorss.
  - - - The poetic voice they use in their poems is more important than the techniques and forms they use like rhyme scheme and meter. This is because their word choice and delivery of those words are more important as their poems are written in free verse with limited structure.
- - - - Hall uses a central theme of life and its complicated simplicity heavily in his poems. In the poem "Ox Cart Man" for example, Hall talks about what a man does every year without fail when October comes. Hall shows this theme also in the structure of his poem. Hall uses 5 stanzas containing 5 lines to add more depth to his theme of life. Hall uses this structure with the number of stanzas and lines to almost show the cycle of life, and how life can oftentimes feel repetitive thus showing its simplistic nature at times.
        
        Unlike Whitman, Hall likes to use the theme of time instead of nature to help support his theme of life. The concept of time and time passing can be seen in every one of his poems. I like how Hall uses the passage of time in his poem "Affirmation". The poem is one long stanza and as the stanza goes on time passes by. Hall used only one stanza to show that life is just one long passage of time with no real breaks in between. The one long stanza shows that time is fluid and doesn't take a rest.
      - Both poets explore the theme of life in their poems, but it is how they support the themes that are different. Whitman uses nature to help support it while Hall uses the theme of time to help support their central themes of life.
        
        It is also important to note that both poets almost intertwine their themes into one fluid theme. This is why while Whitman's and Hall's poems might be about different ideas, yet they will still have the same feeling about them. This really help shows the similarities between the two poets.
    - - Whitman's theme of nature and its simplicity can definitely be seen in his poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer". Whitman talks about a man who is learning about charts and diagrams, and how to add and divide them. Eventually the lecture becomes unbearable and the man walks outside and finds perfect silence by looking at the stars.
        
        This is one example of how Whitman uses nature to support the theme of life in his poems. He often alludes to nature and tries to also personify it in many of his poems, such as "O Captain! My Captain!" Whitman does this to connect the two themes together. The personification of nature and the bringing of nature to life shows how Whitman connects the theme of nature to the theme of life.