The document contains two passages of poetry. The first, by Walt Whitman, encourages the reader to find their own path in life and not rely on the perspectives of others or what they read. It suggests this path may have been there all along without the reader realizing it. The second, shorter passage by Wallace Stevens describes a man playing a blue guitar who is told his music does not reflect reality, but he responds that through his blue guitar the nature of things is transformed.
The document contains two passages of poetry. The first, by Walt Whitman, encourages the reader to find their own path in life and not rely on the perspectives of others or what they read. It suggests this path may have been there all along without the reader realizing it. The second, shorter passage by Wallace Stevens describes a man playing a blue guitar who is told his music does not reflect reality, but he responds that through his blue guitar the nature of things is transformed.
The document contains two passages of poetry. The first, by Walt Whitman, encourages the reader to find their own path in life and not rely on the perspectives of others or what they read. It suggests this path may have been there all along without the reader realizing it. The second, shorter passage by Wallace Stevens describes a man playing a blue guitar who is told his music does not reflect reality, but he responds that through his blue guitar the nature of things is transformed.
shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor
look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self… Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.
It is not far, it is within reach, Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know…
Walt Whitman: From Song of Myself (1855)
The man bent over his guitar, A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, "You have a blue guitar, You do not play things as they are."
The man replied, "Things as they are Are changed upon the blue guitar."
And they said then, "But play, you must, A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar Of things exactly as they are."
First stanza of The Man with a Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens (1937)