Animals- Central Idea & Style of the Poem

Animals

By– Walt Whitman

Plot/ Theme / Central Idea of the Lesson/ Literary Analysis of Animals/ Main Idea

The poet Walt Whitman tells frankly that he feels more comfortable and at home with animals rather than his fellow human beings. He has lost so much faith in the race of man that he wants to `turn’ and change his position with animals. Human beings have become mad running after material possessions. They are a bundle of complications, contradictions and confusions. Their conscience is not clear and so they suffer from nightmares and weep for their sins. Animals, on the other hand, are calm, self-contained and contented. They don’t run after material things other than their food. They don’t need to worship God as they never suffer from any sense of guilt or sin. Ancestors of human beings shared those tokens of love and understanding in the remote past. Unfortunately, humans have lost those virtues and tokens of love and understanding completely forever.

Style

Like the best poetry of Walt Whitman, the poem ‘Animals’ is also written in irregular verse or the blank verse. This poem reflects Whitman’s ‘animism’. It is the spirit of animals that are meant to reflect the truth in humanity. He respects animals because they have retained those values and `tokens’ which humans seem to have already lost.