Beginners
Beginners - meaning Summary
Innocents and Public Misunderstanding
Whitman’s "Beginners" reflects on those just entering life or art and how society both cherishes and misunderstands them. The poem observes a paradox of youth and seeming age, the persistent misrecognition by others, and an inexorable cost attached to any great achievement. It frames public admiration as misplaced and inevitable suffering as part of the path toward distinction, situating these ideas within the larger democratic vision of Leaves of Grass.
Read Complete AnalysesHOW they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals;) How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; How they inure to themselves as much as to any—What a paradox appears their age; How people respond to them, yet know them not; How there is something relentless in their fate, all times; How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward, And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
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