To a Certain Cantatrice
To a Certain Cantatrice - meaning Summary
Gift for an Unexpected Recipient
The speaker offers a long-kept gift originally meant for a hero or leader but decides it belongs equally to the cantatrice. The poem collapses distinctions between political bravery and artistic accomplishment, asserting that a singer shares in the same public worth and civic ideals. Whitman’s voice democratizes honor, reallocating praise from grand historical figures to an individual performer, treating art as participation in progress and freedom.
Read Complete AnalysesHERE, take this gift! I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General, One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the race; Some brave confronter of despots—some daring rebel; —But I see that what I was reserving, belongs to you just as much as to any. 5
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