[pdf format] Kurt Yun-Doyle & Jessica Lee Lamar Period 6

2. Jessica Lee
Kurt Yun-Doyle

3. Walt Whitman
1819-1892
• wrote “I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak
Growing” at about age 40, in the year
1860
• published in the third edition of Leaves
of Grass, Whitman’s only book of
poetry that he edited & republished
throughout his life
• Whitman worked for 3 months in
Louisiana, where he gathered
inspiration for his poems

4. I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the
branches,
Without any companion it stood there uttering joyous
leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of
myself,
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves standing
alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon
it, and twined around it a little moss,

5. And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my
room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear
friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think
of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in
Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend or lover
near,
I know very well I could not.

6. The poem contrasts the tree and the speaker and their
needs for compassion and friendship, revealing that:

7. ~THEME~

9. I Saw in Louisiana a
Live-Oak Growing
Stylistic
Language
Tone Tone
Tone Devices

10. Language
• simple diction
- “And I broke off a twig with a certain number of
leaves…” [6]
• everyday language
• powerful adjectives
- “…rude, unbending, lusty…” [4]
- “…joyous leaves of dark green” [3]

11. Tone
• calm
• thoughtful
- “…it makes me think of manly love;”
• awestruck
- “But I wondered how it could utter joyous
leaves…” [5]
• reminiscent
- “…remind me as of my own dear friends,” [8]

12. Stylistic Devices
• strong imagery
- “All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the
branches,”
• multiple uses of personification
- “…it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without
its friend near…” [5]
- “And its look, rude, unbending, lusty…” [4]
• reversed word order
- “All alone stood it…” [2]