Now I choose my poem that I will be visually representing. The poem I have chosen is one that I enjoyed because it is very relatable in the way that I have had experiences that gave me the feeling this poem is speaking of. “To A Stranger” by Whitman speaks of seeing a stranger that could have been a lifelong friend, someone you could have grown up with, someone that you could have loved. Though, you do not know this person at all; they are but a stranger. Reading this poem makes me remember that feeling of dejavu or seeing a familiar person that really you do not know at all. I believe when this happens the eyes lock and you see a person’s soul that you think you recognize. Therefore, I choose to use an original drawing of an eye to visually represent what I felt when I read this poem. To me this poem is that feeling of seeing a familiar soul in a body that you have never actually met. If the body is the way for the soul to interact with the world around us, then one does not recognize a body, one would recognize a soul. Because of my spiritual beliefs I believe in many lives, and even though Whitman does not share my same beliefs, this is how I interpret his poem. It is speaking of when you see a person that could have been someone you knew your entire life, yet your paths only crossed this one time. Perhaps you never see them again after this. But somehow you feel connected as though you could have been so much more than strangers, or the stranger just seems familiar like you have known them, but you actually do not. That to me is saying perhaps you recognize their soul from a past life. Many people say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Likewise the eyes are what you look at when you meet someone. That is why I feel that a drawing of an eye is a great way to visually represent Whitman’s poem “To A Stranger”. I am thinking of my experiences with meeting strangers. I always make awkward eye contact and look away, then I look back and wonder about them. That is how it goes. You see them, and you think how they are seeing you. If I am to represent a poem about seeing a stranger and thinking about how your lives could have been connected, what is a better way to do this than using actual eyes. I think that visually representing a poem is somewhat difficult, but when I was reading this poem I thought of that situation and the eye contact and the vision that is needed for the experience. That is how I came to thinking an actual eye would represent what I saw in my head while I read “To A Stranger”. I also feel that the end line in the poem; “I am to see to it that I do not lose you”, is like a memory. You can not lose the memory of the passing stranger, it will be there.