Facing+West+from+California's+Shores

Another poet from the 19th Century was Walt Whitman. His poem "Facing West from California's Shores" offers the argument that America has the potential to be the greatest nation in the world, but it comes at a cost. From reading the poem, one can notice that the poem is not metrically regular. The poem is written in free verse, which is what Whitman invented. In this poem, one can see that Whitman is talking about America with the line "I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land / of migrations, look afar," (lines 2-3). The speaker is offering a view and contrast between the New World and the Old World. Even though the land of America had been around long before the beginning of human civilizations, the land provided a fresh start for a new country. One can argue that the majority of the poem may be referring to Columbus and his quest to find the Indies. However, the last couple of lines propose a question "But where is what I started for so long ago? / And why is it yet unfound?" (10-11). At first glance one might conclude that the speaker is describing Columbus' failure to find the Indies. But there seems to be a deeper meaning into these last lines. A possible argument is the speaker's search for a land that is the closest thing to paradise. For in the New World, there were many wars between the Americans, Spanish, British, French, and Native Americans. Therefore, the speaker has not yet found the land of peace, for this new land has been won with blood.

=**Women Writers in the 19th Century**=

The most prominent female writer of the 19th century is Emily Dickinson. Her family can be described as a classic Victorian household with a patriarchal father who believed that men should very much be involved in the public sphere. Her mother on the other hand was very much representative of the way society viewed women of the era, she was very much in the domestic sphere where she was passive and supposedly nurturing. Dickinson, however rebelled against such views that society wanted her to conform.

In one of Dickinson's poems, "112", she addresses the idea of success and failure. One can argue that in this poem Dickinson is addressing her fellow female writers or future writers that may never realize the dreams of being publicly recognized by their artistic work. With the lines "Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne'er succeed" (lines 1-2), Dickinson is offering an idea that may perplex most readers. Here she is offering an explanation saying that even though one may not succeed on the grand scale that is determined by society, people should still love their work and take it for what it's worth. This may also bring out the idea that people who never acomplish high standards set by society deeply understand the full extent of what the struggle is to accomplish a goal. If the loser somehow accomplishes the goal at the grand scale, then that sense of accomplishment is the best feeling that one could experience.