Whitman and Dickinson

Facing West from California's Shores and The Dalliance of the Eagles are definitely my favorites of the Walt Whitman poems in our readings. The former is just interesting to think about. Whitman feels that people have come a long way around the world from the east, where he believes civilization began; yet that region is still so mysterious to him. I particularly like that he refers to himself as a child even in his mature age. Being older doesn't necessarily mean that we know everything about the world, where we're from, or where we'll go. The latter poem is just a great observation of nature's ferocious grace. The eagles locking claws and spiraling downward towards rocks or the sea and separating just before impact has always been an interesting thing to me. It's like some kind of war dance. It's both scary and beautiful.
Reading Emily Dickinson generally puts me in an odd mood. It's not necessarily a bad one, but I'm certainly not getting much hope or humor our of her poems. They're dark and rather depressing. Her obsession with death isn't a bad thing, but that's all I seem to get from her. Maybe I'm not reading far enough into her works, and a class discussion can help me flesh out some of the ideas she's working with.