18 pages • 36 minutes read
The first line of the poem is the same as the title and a question addressed to another second-person character whom the first-person speaker addresses. The speaker questions, “Are you the new person […]” (Line 1). The second-person pronoun indicates the speaker addresses a specific individual, and the descriptor “new” identifies this individual as a stranger. The speaker asks this other individual if they are “drawn toward” them (Line 1). The verb “drawn” has a notion of passivity around it. There is the sense that the individual addressed has no control over their attraction to the speaker. They are pulled toward the speaker involuntarily, like a magnetic field. The interrogative tone of the first line shifts to the imperative in the second line. The speaker notes, “To begin with, take warning” (Line 2). Saying “To begin with” implies that there will be a long list of demands or commands the speaker has to give their addressee; what follows in the second line is only the first of many. The specific command of “take warning” hints at possible danger and uncertainty. The particular reasoning for this warning follows in the second half of this second line. The addressee should take warning because the speaker is “surely far different” than what the addressee “suppose[s]” (Line 2).
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By Walt Whitman