There Was a Child Went Forth

"There Was a Child Went Forth" is a poem written by Walt Whitman and included in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass . In the 1856 edition, Whitman titled it, "Poem of the Child That Went Forth, and Always Goes Forth, Forever and Forever". ^[1] The poem was given its present title in the 1871 edition, and was included in the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster in the 1881 edition. ^{[2] [3]}

The text of the poem suggests it is autobiographical with its vivid renderings of the impressions and experiences of a growing child. ^{[4] [5]} The poet presents a mixture of country and city scenes as he records his memories of early domestic life and his perceptions of the world outside. ^[6] Some critics have interpreted the poem not just as a metaphor of a child's journey from infancy to adulthood, but also as a metaphor of "the journey of young America from embryo to world power." ^[7]

References

1. Bradley, Sculley; Blodgett, Harold W., eds. (1973). Leaves of Grass. A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. p. 364.
2. "Cluster: Autumn Rivulets. (1891)". The Walt Whitman Archive. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
3. Aspiz, Harold (1966). "Educating the Kosmos: 'There Was a Child Went Forth'". American Quarterly. 18 (4): 655–666. doi:10.2307/2711388. ISSN   0003-0678. JSTOR   2711388.
4. Bradley & Blodgett 1973, p. 365.
5. Demirturk, E. Lale (Spring 1985). "Walt Whitman's 'There Was a Child Went Forth': The Image of 'Edges' in the Origins of Life" (PDF). Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 2 (4): 41–45.
6. Slattery, Margaret Patrice (June 1969). "Patterns of Imagery in Whitman's 'There Was a Child Went Forth'" . Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 15 (2): 112–114.
7. Tian, Junwu (2019-10-02). "Metaphor of Child Journey and America Growth in Walt Whitman's "There Was a Child Went Forth"". ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. 32 (4): 240–243. doi:10.1080/0895769X.2018.1543575. ISSN   0895-769X. S2CID   166191402.