Question

Read the passage.

These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,
If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.

How does Walt Whitman’s use of anaphora in this passage from “Song of Myself” emphasize the ideas he is expressing?


They contradict themselves to throw the reader off balance.


They ask the reader to suspend personal opinions for a moment.


They cause the reader to pause and reflect with each line.


They confront the reader again and again with his ideas.

Answer 1

They confront the reader again and again with his ideas.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

How does Walt Whitman’s use of anaphora in this passage from “Song of Myself” emphasize the ideas he is expressing?

The correct answer is, They confront the reader again and again with his ideas.

• They confront the reader again and again with his ideas because it is the purpose of an anaphora to emphasize an idea. This is done by creating an emotional effect with the anaphora, these repetitions grow the final meaning of the sentences in which they are used. They also help us to conclude the idea that is expressed during the whole sentence in a very artistic manner. The repetition of the word nothing has a radical meaning that indicates us, the concluding effect the thought of all men in all ages and lands have.