of words resists the artificial; his poetry has a rhythm that is natural and American, a gregarious appeal to the common man. In Spring and All Williams creates a persona that is appealing, establishing a relationship and affecting the reader. Both Whitman and Williams create a harmony between themselves and the reader that suggests the universality of experience. The creation of an acceptable persona is essential to Whitman's poetic program. In "Song of Myself" this is accomplished through a congenial style that consists of unbridled enthusiasm, a friendly voice; an image emerges of Whitman shouting at the reader, saying "Look what I've discovered!": "Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,/ You shall possess the good of the earth and sun" (25). His poetry is often conversational, lacking a highly structured form. From the beginning of "Song of Myself" it is clear that the poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and reader. When Whitman writes "what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you" (23), he implies a meeting of minds; not only is he going to address us but he is going to persuade us' because, he argues, we are all the same. He establishes a persona by not only speaking to us, but for us. Whitman becomes one with his audience, the American people' by presenting himself as the "archetypal average American" (xxvii). The persona that one senses emerging from Williams in Spring and All is a justified arrogance, a writer that will completely ignore convention in order to establish a tone. His mixture of verse and prose suggests a pragmatic technique, a willingness to use whatever means necessary to connect with the reader. In "Flight To the City," he explores imaginative associations connected with the nig...
