Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

In "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," Walt Whitman uses the image of death to represent the transition from childhood innocence and individualism to emotional maturity and universalism. The young boy listens to the sad song of a bird calling for his female mate who never returns. In the midst of the bird's great anguish, the boy demands to know from nature "A word...superior to all," and nature replies in swirls in the sea, "the low and delicious word DEATH; and again Death-ever Death, Death, Death" (Whitman 1). This analysis will explore the meaning of this image provided by Whitman in "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking."

The young boy is moved to tears by the pain an anguish of a male bird whose plaintive calls for his mate go unreturned. The boy experiences emotional development in his relationship with the bird and, ultimately, nature. The boy must come to confront death before he can become emotionally mature as an adult. When he confronts death or loss the boy is able to go beyond thinking

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