By: Janelle and McKenzie
Summary
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 The main idea and speaker’s message of “I Understand the
Large Hearts of Heroes” is that heroes always suffer, and
everyone is a hero in their own way.
 Throughout Whitman’s poem, there were examples of
different heroes. For instance: the skipper that saved his
crew, the dying martyr, and the fireman. “How the skipper
saw…Death…How he knuckled tight and gave not back an
inch, and was faithful of days and faithful of nights.”
(Whitman lines 3-6) This shows the skipper’s heroism.
Sound Devices
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 Some poetic devices that we found in this poem were
parallelism, catalogue, alliteration, and assonance.
 For example: “Again the long roll of drummers, again the
attacking cannon, mortars, again to my listening ears the
cannon responsive.” (Whitman lines 39-41) Here, Whitman
uses the word “again” repetitively. This emphasizes all that is
going on all around the speaker.
 We found alliteration in lines 26 and 27. “I mash’d fireman
with breast-bone broken, tumbling walls buried me in their
debris.” (Whitman lines 26 and 27) In this quote, the
consonant “b” is repeated throughout.
Imagery
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 Sensory details are found everywhere in “I Understand the
Large Hearts of Heroes.” They help paint scenes, project
noises, and give off smells. “The mother of old, condemn’d
for a witch, burned with dry wood, her children gazing on.”
(Whitman lines 13 and 14)
 Another example is “The riders spur their unwilling horses,
haul close, Taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over
the head with whip-stocks.” (Whitman lines 21 and 22)
Metaphors
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 “They show as the dial or move as the hands of me, I am
the clock myself.” (Whitman line 36)
 This metaphor is comparing humanity to a simple clock.
 In this metaphor, the hands on the clock are the heroes of
the world and they stand out among everyone else.
 This connects to the main idea by showing that anybody can
be a hero. Common people can be heroes in small ways.
Themes
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 Some themes that are reflected in this poem are unity and
diversity.
 Unity: “I understand the large hearts of heroes, The courage
of present times and all times…” (Whitman lines 1 and 2)
This shows the theme of unity by bonding heroes together
by giving them all large hearts and making them all
courageous.
 Diversity: “The skipper…Mother of old…I am the hounded
slave…I am the mash’d fireman…I am an old
artillerist…My dying general…” (Whitman lines 3, 12, 16,
26, 37, and 48)
The End
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