Are You The Person Drawn To Me?- Whitman

I read the poem Are You the Person Drawn To Me by Walt Witman, and I thought it was a very interesting story. I really liked this poem because it was different then all of the different poems that I had read of Walt Witman's. I think I liked this poem, because it was one that I could break down and understand myself. Also, I think that I can relate to this poem, because I think as you read this you realize that he is talking about what people think of you and wondering if you ever meet people's expectations for you.

ARE you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what
you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade, this smooth and tolerant
manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real
heroic man?
Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?

Are Your The Person Drawn To Me is a poem about how Whitman was questioning someone and asking them if he was really what they thought he was. I think he was wanting to know if that person that he was writing this poem to really thought that he was who they wanted him to be. I really like what Whitman was trying to say here, because we always wonder what people are thinking of us, and we of course wonder if what we are is good enough for them or if we reach their expectations. I think that this is also showing us an example of self, which is what Whitman is always writing about. He is wondering about his self and wondering if what he is is good enough to that people, or at least what those people are expecting from him. "To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;: (Whitman). I think that this statement that starts of this poem really says a lot, because he is stating that he can not really believe that what he is inside and out is really the self that the people he is delivering this to are expecting. I think I could relate this to something that might be about a love relationship. I think this might be something that someone would say that is not expecting to be in any kind of relationships. He can not believe that the way he is is really going to be good enough for anyone. Because then he later says "Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?" (Whitman). He therefore thinking that it will not be easy for a guy like him to fall in love.

Whitman had good points in every line. Each one of those lines we think of at some point in our lives. I think we all want to be the close to perfect image for other people's opinions, and we always want others to like us.

Whitman, Walt. "ARE YOU THE NEW PERSON DRAWN TOWARD ME? (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. .