18 pages • 36 minutes read
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
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Themes
People See What They Want to See
Walt Whitman’s fellow writer Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “People only see what they are prepared to see.” People have a tendency to try and make the outside word fit the ideals they have formed in their own minds. They want to make the outward narrative, what is “real,” conform to their “ideal.” The speaker acknowledges this tendency of the stranger to see only what they want to see and warns, “I am surely far different from what you suppose” (Line 2). The supposition of the addressee is that the speaker fits their “ideal” (Line 3). What the addressee wants to see in the speaker is “friendship” and love replete with “unalloy’d satisfaction” (Line 5). Where the stranger hopes to see someone who is “trusty and faithful” (Line 6) with a “smooth and tolerant manner” (Line 7), the speaker implies that they are quite the opposite. The image of a “real heroic man” the stranger wants to find in the speaker is unfounded. It is “all maya, illusion” (Line 9). What the “dreamer” hopes to see and find was never really there in the first place. The stranger was merely projecting their idealizations onto the person standing before them.
Humans are Drawn Together
Whether humans come together for genuine or disingenuous reasons, one fact remains the same; humans are drawn to one another like moths to a flame. As humans need food and water, so do they need connection. In the opening line of the poem, the speaker asks the stranger before him, “Are you the new person drawn toward me?” The descriptor “new” (Line 1) implies that this is not the first person who has come to the speaker attempting to fulfill their hopes and dreams. They are simply the most recent individual whom the speaker has encountered. The verb “drawn” is also significant in that it implies a sense of passivity. The addressee has no choice but to be pulled toward the speaker by some sort of invisible string. It is as if they don’t have a say in the matter but rather need the human contact to continue living. Even though the speaker knows the stranger has false notions and aspirations regarding them and their potential relationship, they don’t send the stranger away and reject them immediately. Rather, the speaker simply tells the addressee to “take warning” (Line 2). Instead of casting off the human connection before them, the speaker appears to be preparing the stranger for what they may be getting into and for their hopes to be diminished. As the stranger steps forward, the speaker doesn’t retreat but stands their ground in their belief of “maya” (Line 9).
Be Careful Who You Choose to Lead
One interpretation of Whitman’s poem is reading it as though the addressee desires to be in a romantic relationship with the speaker. This is evident when the speaker asks the stranger if they assume that they will “become your lover” (Line 3). “Friendship” is also another possible relationship between the speaker and the stranger that is conveyed in the poem. However, some have interpreted the poem as representative of the relationship between a leader and their follower. In this scenario, the leader is not what the follower supposes. Whereas a leader is supposed to be trustworthy and dependent, the speaker comes across as deceptive. They question whether the stranger assumes they are “faithful” (Line 6), “smooth and tolerant” (Line 7), and “heroic” (Line 8). All are, indeed, traits a leader is supposed to have. Yet, the speaker’s command to “take warning” leads readers to infer they may not embody these traits after all. If read in this manner, the poem serves as a warning to readers to be careful whom they choose to put faith and trust into and whom they choose to lead.
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By Walt Whitman
