There Was a Child Went Forth

Writing it in a free verse style, Walt Whitman wrote about the identity and individuality of a child. As he goes through his childhood, the child gets deeply influenced by his surroundings. "And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became", this quote explains how he will imitate whatever he sees. The "field-sprouts" and the "early lilacs" compares to the start of a new child. The metaphoric language in the beginning means that children have the purest and clearest mind before it gets contaminated with school and the society. The child starts off noticing objects, then nature, then animals, then people, then machines. As he starts branching off into school, he begins to differentiate people by their age, gender, race, and behavior. The negative influences of the society starts drilling in as he gets expose to "the old drunkard". Moving to the descriptions of his parents, he expresses his gratefulness for the mean strictness of his father and the mild love of his mother. As he gets older, the child begins to think about all things he viewed in the past and moves on to the "horizon's edge" of his life (college). With the closing line of the poem, "These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day", each experience of the child shapes his identity and character slowly in each day of his life.