Whitman Poem Reflection

In Whitman's poem, he is stating that what children experience as kids will shape and impact them for the rest of their life. Whitman likes to connect to his readers, and by writing about the children, it is obvious that he wants to connect to the children. He wants them to know that what they do as children will impact the rest of their lives. In the poem, he covers a lot of things about children's lives that would affect them, like fathers coming home drunk, people they pass on the road, schoolmates, and even if they moved or where they lived. By doing this he is hoping to cover a wide range of topics and hopefully connect with as many children as possible. When the reader reads something that is similar to what has happened in his or her life, it becomes more in-tuned to that person, and he or she understands the poem better. He also says that the words and talk and language that they hear will affect how they talk, and that they need to realize that they way they talk is because of their childhood hearings. He is trying to say that all of those things that happen to a person are what makes them up, and no matter how bad or good those are, they will affect that person and help them grow in some way.