Bardic Symbols

Whitman was a very symbolic writer who relied on several symbols and analogies throughout his works. Due to this several of his works have the potential to be misinterpreted as their literal meanings are often not analyzed enough. Although in the critics defense Whitman used some very odd topics to use as symbols in his work, and I mean really who uses kissing their father as an analogy for God. It's just kind of weird and creepy. So yeah the author of the criticism just talks about how nobody can really tell what the ulterior symbols of this poem are and that the literal meaning of the poems are just easier to see and that analyzing the poem itself would be too difficult. The critic just talks about how it's very difficult to analyze the poem and that all in all there is no message behind any of the words behind the poem. The poem is just a literal poem that has no deep symbolic meanings like any of his other poems. It is just a literal poem that Whitman was not able to insert any deep meanings into and thus it just turns out as a creepy poem about Whitman on the beach thinking about life and wanting to kiss his dad. Apparently instead of having an Oedipus Complex like any other male child Whitman got lucky and got the female equivalent in the Elektra complex which is just a bit weird. So all in all this poem was not successful in whatever the heck that Whitman was able trying to get across to the readers, instead he just came across as a creepy old man talking about making out with his dad. I mean that is just weird and I don't really feel like reading about something like this. Despite what people say the poem has no ulterior meanings and it is just a failure of a poem. That is the basic message he critic is trying to get across is that there are no hidden meaning and that the poem is just weird.