Quicksand Years
Quicksand Years - meaning Summary
Self Endures Amid Chaos
Whitman confronts social and political instability and rejects transient achievements as unreliable. Against shifting schemes, public triumphs, and broken shows, he insists the enduring reality is the individual inner self or soul. The poem argues that external forms and events will elude and dissolve, but One's-Self remains the final, sure substance that persists when everything else has collapsed.
Read Complete AnalysesQUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither, Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way—substances mock and elude me; Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess’d Soul, eludes not; One’s-self must never give way—that is the final substance—that out of all is sure; Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life—what at last finally remains? When shows break up, what but One’s-Self is sure?
Feel free to be first to leave comment.