To A Stranger

I really liked the poem, "To a Stranger" by Walt Whitman just because I was able to analyze it just like the poems we did in class. What I was able to get from this poem was that no matter who you meet on the street or anywhere, you have more than likely met that person, whether you realize it or not. I find that very thought provoking because there are so many people out in the world, and even if I am just walking around the State Fair, I have met at least one or two of the people around, if not more. I had just not subconsciously realized it, until now. Plus, it is not just the people in our immediate area, either. While hiking the Grand Canyon in 2007, we came across some people that my dad ended up knowing. We were in the middle of a desert, and ended up finding people that my dad knew. That just goes to show how small a world it really is.

Walt Whitman goes on to talk about how even though he has ever met many of the people, if he was to just pass them by wherever, he would not necessarily acknowledge them, but he does remember them from some place, whether he realizes it subconsciously or not. That is something I have found happens with me. I was at band camp this past summer at Eastern University, and I swear I had seen some of those people before. However, I know I never actually got to know them exactly, but they either looked familiar, or something weird was going on in my brain making me think I actually had seen them before.

As I have said before, however, I am not entirely positive as to how or when I met these people, maybe it was in another life if you believe in such things, but it was kinda of weird. Whitman is talking about the subconscious it seems like, and getting his readers to think about the people we meet, even for a second, and the kind of impressions we will make on them, no matter how much time we are given. During track, I am in awe of so many of the runners, many of whom I will never see again. However, because of their amazing running capabilities, they make an impression on me, and I do not even know how they act as a person. They could be the world's biggest jerk, and I would have no idea. My opinion is based off of only what I see when I watch them run. According to Whitman, I might actually see those people again someday, but I will never know until it happens. That is pretty much why I liked reading this poem so much. I was able to relate to it for a variety of reasons, and it game me time to think about who exactly I might meet in this life, and the many different types of people. To quote Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know whatcha gonna get." Being both applied to life, and people, I find that saying appropriate. You never do know who you are going to meet, or when.