The World Below The Brine Poem analysis

The world below the brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick
tangle openings, and pink turf,
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the
play of light through the water,
Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes,
and the aliment of the swimmers,
Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling
close to the bottom,
The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting
with his flukes,
The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairysea-leopard, and the sting-ray,
Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths,
breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do,
The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed
by beings like us who walk this sphere,
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.

By Walt Whitman

(I'm shall we say unpracticed at poetry analysis more so than other english fields so forgive any silly mistakes)

The poem centres on a creating an image of a beautiful underwater sphere of life. Where there exists a kind of world or society with sharks and walruses, turtles an other sea creatures. These creatures are human-like and with a social structure which has "passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes."

I would suggest the poem is one of the first attempts at imagining other worlds or spheres different from our own. The final line 'The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres' is driving at this point. The poem was published 1860s before this idea of 'other spheres' got started. Today most obviously similar to the poem we have the realms of Nemo and Shark Tale about the realm of fish. But this idea also expands to the other world of science fiction where writers imagine aliens and entirely other universes eg. Star Wars.

The techniques used in expressing this other world in the poem characterise the new world making it feel calm, beautiful and peaceful. Whitman does this by making the poem free verse and and consistent rhythm so as reading we feel comfortable flowing smoothly through the verses. If Whitman wanted us to feel uncomfortable or scared of this different sphere he could have used a fast, jerky pace so we couldn't find any real rhythm. Also creating this feeling is Whitmans use of listing in almost every verse creating an image of so many different parts to this world. Using listing is effective in the poem because it is combined with the easy flowing rhythm mentioned above so we feel like we're smoothly surveying all the beautiful aspects of this other world.

In this poem Whitman seems to be reaching out to a future genre, perhaps like Capote reached out to the new genre of novelistic non-fiction. He makes a commendable effort of reaching out by carefully crafting a beautiful scene of a different sphere beyond our own.