missing me one place search another...

 Studying Whitman and his poetry wasn't what I expected when I accidentally sat in the wrong class the first week of the spring semester. Things happen for a reason and I couldn't be more pleased for this accidental twist of fate. Through this  class I have become much more familiar with American poetry and its roots. I hadn't heard of Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg or Allen Ginsburg before this class; shameful, I know, but I wasn't an English major till this semester so pardon my negligence.

The hybrid format of this class definitely influenced me to work with various types of media for the assignments. The diversity of assignments helped me stay focused and facilitated my adaptation to social and digital media, which is constantly becoming more relevant to communication and work in any industry. This class was definitely a great success for prof. hanley's, students and the class as a whole.

A Whitman EXPERIENCE!!!

Wow talk about a graphic portrayal of the American youth. Ginsberg, to me, seems to really capture the messy, dirty, young and beautiful hipster experience in Howl. The young love getting fucked, fucked up and creative; Ginsberg captures this lifestyle perfectly along with all the violence, withdrawals and side effects.

My work experiences hasn't ever been particularly dull or exciting. Generally, work is something that isn't fun while it's happening and is exciting when it's over. I've had had many odd jobs and those are usually the closest to being fun.

When I lived in London I used to work as an admin and a librarian alongside the Dean. He went by numerous names ( dr. Jambi, dr. Johnson, dr. Allen etc.) it was part of my job to memorize these named according to how other people knew him. He was an odd character, to say the least, a man of a very heavy built and poor hygiene. His weight made trips up and down stairs to the restroom a feat. As a result the mugs in the staff room were used at greatest peril, due to their frequent use for relief. Dr. Johnson was a married man and despite the fact that his wife was the bursar, the staff weren't allowed to acknowledge this or pay any attention to any of their intercom fights. This overview is definitely a euphemism of my most odd job thus far.

Rukeyser

I find that Rukeyser is directing the tragic event at Hawk's Nest towards the public and is asking
for people to recognize and reflect on those who suffered. Rukeyser works on putting the readers into the danger that the workers at Hawk's Nest faced, and depicting the feelings that lingered during the event. Whitman, on the other hand,  is using a much more personal  and distanced tone in "When Lilacs Last..." he is talking about how the event of Lincoln's death effects him personally rather than directing it at anyone else. Whitman does seem to focus on himself and his own feelings more than on anyone's, yet this trend in his writing doesn't stop him from successfully and beautifully communicating with others, it actually helps to draw people in.  Despite the difference I find both poets equally effective in depicting how the tragedy will permanently be a scar on American history.

I feel that both poets come to a similar conclusion in the end. Both speak of a future much different from the past, yet they both acknowledge that the memory of the past will stay with them wherever they go. I feel that this type of ending is most fitting for a poem that serves as a memorial, since there isn't much that people can do to honor the dead besides remembering them. 

Poems of 9/11

The poems of 9/11 and Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last..." capture two tragic events that have occurred in our countries history. Walt Whitman portrays Lincoln's death as an event that has cast a permanent shadow on America's history, just like spring and stars return so will Lincoln's death keep coming back to haunt him for the rest of his life. Whitman stresses the permanence of the tragedy, the impact it has had won't go away with time and will always come back to haunt him. The writer's of 9/11 poetry also recognize that September eleventh will forever carry with it a tragic memory of the loss America suffered on that day.

Walt Whitman's style uses metaphor's which appear to act as simple melancholy euphemism's for the tragedy of Lincoln's death, however, after a closer reading the words take a much more grievous form; his implications are quite haunting. A poem by Frank Bidart titled "Curse", had a similar haunting affect on me. Although, "Curse" was a lot more explicit about the anger and the terror of the event, with no metaphors of flowers or the night. Whitman's methodology in comparison to Bidart's has shown me that euphemism's can have a strong and even stronger affect than blunt exposition of emotions.
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Project

For my project I plan on researching how Whitman has influenced culture, specifically the influence he's had on artists and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. This portion of my project will be written I will also add pictures. The second portion of the project will be a short video in which I will ask random people to read their favorite Whitman lines, explain their interpretation of them, as well as the effect Whitmans poetry has had on them.

I believe that this will broaden my knowledge of Whitman's poetry by presenting me with new perspectives for looking at his work. In addition, the ways in which Whitman has influenced other people will demonstrate the ways in which he continues to influence society.

The English Whitman

Martin Tupper was many things: an Oxford man, a devoted Christian, a chauvinist of the Anglo-Saxon race, a barrister and constantly in close proximity to high society people in both America and the United Kingdom. With such qualities, why was he ever compared to Walt Whitman? In his paper "Martin Tupper, Walt Whitman, and the Early Reviews of Leaves of Grass" Matt Cohen explores the similarities and differences of the two poets. 

When Leaves of Grass was first published it wasn't read by many people due to the unusual style of the book: it didn't have a title or the name of the author. However, many of those who did have a chance to stumble upon Whitman's masterpiece were quick to compare it to Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. Many critics who read Whitman's blank verse compared in to Tupper's style of writing. Tupper became popular in both the UK and America, however, like Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Proverbial Philosophy took several decades to become popular. When it did become popular, Proverbial Philosophy, was part of Walt Whitman's collection of books; today the same copy with notes from Whitman can be found in the Library of Congress.

Even though the two characters seem to be people of very different interests, Tupper the upper class-man and Whitman the wannabe b'hoy, their writings have some striking similarities. After reading some of Tupper's poetry it becomes evident how Whitmanesque his writing is, or is Whitman's writing Tupperesque since the later came first?

"Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen;

Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions:

For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will,

But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance."

-Tupper.

“this is thy hour o soul, thy free flight into the wordless, 

away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson 
done, 
thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the 
themes thou lovest best, 
night, sleep, death and the stars.” 

- Whitman. 

SD: Ferries

Before the Brooklyn Bridge and the metro connected New Yorkers from various boroughs, the ferry system was a convenient and infinitely useful tool of transit. The Fulton ferry got it's name from Robert Fulton who established the Fulton Ferry Company in 1814. Today, a neighborhood in Brooklyn is named after the place where the ferry docked.

Whitman mentions the importance of ferries in his daily life, he tells us that he himself identifies the Fulton ferry as an important characteristic of those days: "Indeed, I have always had a passion for ferries; to me they afford inimitable, streaming, never-failing, living poems."

The ferry inspired and captivated Whitman, it connected him  to rivers, nature and the city. Whitman could have taken the ferry to the Battery to have a drink with some b'hoys or to Long Island to spend some time by the sea. In those days ferries and steam boat were also important ways of transporting goods around New York City, up the Hudson or down the Mississippi. In the 19th century they have had an undeniablyvast impact on society and industrialization.

PopWhitman

Edward Norton paid an ode to Walt Whitman by producing and staring in modern film version of Leaves of Grass. The plot is centered around a set of twin brothers who lead two very opposite lives: Bill is a professor dedicated to all things academia, Brady is a hick dedicated to all things marijuana.  Bill is told that Brady was killed with a crossbow, so he goes to Oklahoma to pay his respects, when he gets there he finds Brady alive and well. Bill meets a local girl who tells him a thing or two about poetry:

 

The movie has many themes that appear in Whitman's poetry: the dignity of any sort of labor, freedom granted to us  by nature, the connection that grass has created for all living things, the beauty and wholeness of life and the incredible gift of being alive. The use of twins as main characters demonstrates the unnatural nature that people have created for mankind. The nature of being twins suggest that all humans share a likeness due to the fact that we all come from the same place and walk the same earth; however, the difference in the twins character shows how society manifests unnatural borders that separate people from one another and nature.

 The other day was my friends birthday, as one of her present she got a gay mug. When not in use the mug looks has doors around it. When the mug is filled with hot coffee or tea, the doors fade away and magically reveal the portraits of some legendary men and women who happened to be gay. Among them Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and of course Walt Whitman. 

 

Many musician's have been inspired by Walt Whitman Poems. These include Bob Dylan, The Smiths, and Billy Bragg & Wilco. Billy Bragg & Wilco wrote a nice little bluegrass tune about Whitman's niece. The lyrics are reminiscent of Whitman's poems with innuendos duality and loafing. The song is lacking any type of meter or rhyme scheme like  most of Whitman's poetry.

Reviews

The first review that interested me was Edward Everett Hale's for The North American Review.

The first part of the review discusses the unique style of Leaves of Grass. Hale is fond of the poetic prose but is at odds with the arrangement of the book because the first edition didn't have any mention of a publisher nor the author which was so unusual that the bookstore clerk didn't even know the book existed. Hale assures the reader that if the clerk wasn't able to find the book the first time it was worth coming back a second time. It seems that Leaves of Grass made a good impression on Hale, yet, he is confounded on how to receive a work so different from the standard style of poetry. Whitman changed the rules by publishing Leaves of Grass, some praised the originality of the work, others were struck off guard by the change.

Later in review Hale assesses some of the writing from "Song of Myself". This part of the review was especially interesting because Hale was able to make connections between some verses and events of the 1850's, a connection few modern day readers could make.

"Here is the story of the gallant seaman who rescued the passengers

      on the San Francisco:—

'I understand the large heart of heroes,

The courage of present times and all times;

How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steamship,

      and death chasing it up and down the storm.'"

Even though the verse above makes it implicit what had happened, the 1850's reader would have been touched more by this reference. Also, Hale draws our attention to the vividness of the the text, the certainty with which Whitman describes eventsmakes it seem as though he was present when they happened. However, in the 1850's being in as many different places as Whitman describes was rare for any one person, so Hale questions the validity of the observations. Eventually Hale comes to the conclusion that the validity isn't what matters, what does matter is the visual Whitman can put into a readers head. The way Whitman describes events takes the reader to the meadow, to San Francisco, to New York city; Whitman's writing takes the reader across a continent which is a luxury most people in those days couldn't afford otherwise.

Hale, Edward Everett. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." The North American Review 82 (January 1856): 275-7. 

 The next review i found really confused me because I hadn't  realized that Walt Whitman himself wrote the review. I  found this odd for several reasons. For one,he author of the review is calling Whitman an arrogant and egotistical person. Next it seems that the review is mocking Whitman's proximity to nature, the poetic prose and Leaves of Grass as a whole.If I am correct and Whitman did indeed write this review than it kind of makes  Whitman seem like a bipolar masachyst. Why else would he write a book of poem in which he spills his heart out, finds tranquility with himself and the world, only to have disdain for it in the end?

Perhaps this is how the poet "grows". Whitman became his own worst critic. This duality of thinking, being the poet and the critic, is what creates Whitman's bipolar style of writing in which he constantly contradicts himself.

This next review shows the interest and excitment with which Leaves of Grass was greeted by some. Charles Eliot Norton describes Walt Whitmans's poetry as,"a compound of the New England transcendentalist and New York rowdy".  Whitmans poetry seems pretty subtle in it's style to today's readers but I imagine that over a hundred and fifty years ago the public received the text with some shock. Whitman described nature in a different way than his contemporaries had, he used words and ideas that were unfamiliar to the public at that time. "... but that he was a kosmos, is a piece of news we were hardly prepared for. Precisely what a kosmos is, we trust Mr. Whitman will take an early occasion to inform the impatient public."
Today we have a much better grasp of the existential and transcendential ideas Whitman was speaking of becuase we are familair with them now but in the 18th hundreds they were just beginning to formulate. 


 Norton, Charles Eliot. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Putnam's Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Arts 6 (September 1855): 321-3.

SD: A VISIT, AT THE LAST, TO R. W. EMERSON

It turns out that Walt Whitman was fortunate enough to have a slumber party at R. W. Emerson's house. United by a common love for ponds, Ralph and Walt have been inspiring people to take a walk through the wilderness ever since. The two buddies spent their time chatting and reading letters from Ralph's friend Henry Thoreau.




These three men have an incredibly positive influence on America. The only person missing from the party is Abraham Lincoln,  had he not been assasinated fifteen years prior I'm sure he would have participated as well.
Walt Whitman's close proximity to these men can be seen through out his poetry. Thoreau's revolutionary ideas of civil disobedience against a government that stops working for the people can be seen throughout Whitman's "A Song for Occupations", in passages such as:


"The sum of all known reverence I add up in you whoever you are,

The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you          who are here for him,

The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not you here for them,

The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you,

Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities, the
         going and coming of commerce and mails, are all for you." 


All three of these men are renounced for their unique literally contributions and a transcendental view of life and culture. There can never be enough people like Walt, Ralph and Henry.

Fanny

 

This is the first time that I've heard of Frances Wright which is unfortunate because she is a hero that should be paid tribute to in American history. Fanny is an exemplary American; an abolitionist, entrepreneur and free thinker. She lived the American dream by coming to the States from Scotland as an orphan and eventually becoming an influential and popular figure in American society. She became known through her written work for the press, concentrated in solutions for creating a slave-free society. Wright also participated in the establishment of a "utopian" community. Wright didn't believe in organized religion, still a controversial subject.

Walt Whitman was a fan of Fanny's work. He called Wrights novel A Few Days in Athens his "daily food". The novel is a translation if a Greek work about a young man, Theon.

All in all, Wright was an influential woman who challenged common ideology and proposed radical and transcendental ideas for the transformation of society.

Chants Democratic

 Top Row: Whitman, You, Me, Whitman, Whitman, You, You, Me, Me,
Whitman, Whitman
Middle Row:  You, Me, Whitman, Whitman, Me, Me, Whitman, You, Whitman, Me, You, Me, Whitman, Whitman, You, You, Me, Whitman, Whitman 
Front Row: You, Me, Whitman, Whitman, You, You, Me, Me,
Whitman, Whitman, Me, You, Whitman
Left Most: Whitman, You

The loafer empowers the working man! The working man is the loafer? Or is the working man the working man? 
Whitman says "it's all good, I'm not gonna judge you, don't judge me, we are all in this together, you my friend are what makes the world go around."


I think this poem is another look at how dynamic Whitman was.
"Come closer to me..." has a different name for it in every edition of Leaves of Grass. The poems location in the poem also vary.




1856 "Poem of the daily workmen and work women of the United States"  2nd poem in Leaves of Grass.
1860 "Chants Democratic "  appears near beginning.
1867 "To workingmen." appears middle closer to end.
1872  "Carol of Occupations" midway through the edition.
 1881- 1882 "A song for Occupations" middle of the edition
1891-1892  "A song for Occupations" middle of the edition.






 As the poem shifts further into the reading, it can be argued that it's importance becomes less significant. I say this because of the way our memory works, people are more likely to remember the beginning and end of a sequence rather than the middle. So if someone happened to read the book cover to cover the poems in the middle would probably resonate less with the reader. 


On the other hand, Whitman constantly changed the name of this poem so it must  have some special significance to him. Maybe it was because he as, the loafer, found a special balance in this poem by addressing
the working man and woman.

 This poem goes through some serious changes between 1855 and 1882. Many lines are added which add a significantly stronger address to the worker.


for example:
"If you stand at work in a shop I stand as nigh as the nighest in
         the same shop"

Perhaps, as Whitman got older he became more interested in his community rather than himself and nature.
 Or maybe since he wasn't a laborer he felt more grateful and passionate about the work of others. Historicaly, after the Civil War workers rights became one of the central concerns in cities. In the 1870's strikes and riots began to occur in major cities like Boston, New York and Chicago. The 1880's and 1890's saw several massacres due to workers striking, including the 1887 strike in Chicago of more than 50,000 workers. 300,000 workers assembled to strike across America on May Day ( May 1st. 1886) for the 8- hour work day.

The Haymarket massacre of 1886 fallowing a strike in Haymarket Square, Chicago:

(Looks like Whitman was on top that day)



This poem shows how unconditionally patriotic and passionate Whitman was in the affairs of American people. I feel that this poem would have worked best in the end of the book because it would have been the perfect inspiring and patriotic ode to the average American woarker. 


"We consider the bibles and religions divine . . . . I do not say they are not divine,

I say they have all grown out of you and may grow out of you still,

It is not they who give the life . . . . it is you who give the life;

Leaves are not more shed from the trees or trees from the earth than they are shed          out of you. "

Blue Book

I find it interesting that Walt Whitman, a poet who hardly used rhyme, focussed so very much on the

rhythm of his work. In the Blue Book this can be seen through all of the punctuation changes that Whitman made. In some places these changes seem to hardly make a difference (using a semi-colon instead of a coma). But, to Walt these had to be important since there were so many alterations of this kind. Also, Walt took the letter "e" from lots of words, I'm not sure if this was meant to change the rhythm as well or if it was supposed to be some sort of statement. Also some sentences were deleted and capitalization changed. 

Mainly I found it interesting how much he focused on the area which talked about all of the different types of American people and States. This can be seen in "Walt Whitman" pages 44-46, as well as the poems before it. I think that the notes in the Blue Book show that Whitman's interest in 1960  was centered around the States. 

1855 vs 1860

Leaves of Grass underwent some serious changes in just a matter of five years. The 1855 version begins with Song of Myself and the line, "I celebrate myself". In contrast the 1860 version of leaves of grass begins with, "Elemental drifts".  Also the format of the later is different from the earlier version. In the 1855 version Whitman writes in longer sentences, using many "...". The later version contains longer sentences with more commas. One of the most apparent differences is that the later version is about five times longer in length than the first, and the poems have titles.

The theme of Whitman's writing hadn't changed much. Whitman's love for nature and unity can be read between the lines in either version. It seems that the later version speaks more about the crowds, at least in contrast to song of myself. This makes the 1860 version feel more like a metropolitan mans tale than that of a loafer in the woods. Perhaps, Whitman's ideas are more centered around crowds in 1860 because of his rising zeal for Democracy. As the States moved closer towards Civil War the subject of freedom began to gain more of a political influence in Whitman's writing.

One(ida community)

If Prince, 20th centuries ultimate pop star, can become a Jehovah Witness and change his name to:

Then why didn't Walt Whitman, the ultimate 19th century pop writer, join the Oneida Community? And change his name to:

Maybe Walt heard about the Community and decided not to join because of the Stripculture which aimed at more perfect breeding of human (how could breeding be any more perfect if Walt's own flesh that sticks to his bones was as perfect as it gets, as perfect as the next guys). Or, perhaps Walt was bothered by the sight of post-menopausal women "teaching" teenage boys about sex.

It's hard to say what exactly turned Walt off, but it is easy to imagine what turned him on. Heaven on earth, perfection on earth, democracy and community. After reading Song of Myself it becomes apparent that Walt was in love with the idea of an all inclusive world, shared by everyone. I'm not sure if Walt Whitman had ever read the Communist Manifesto which was published in 1848, less then a decade before Leaves of Grass; but, the confluence of the two works and the Oneida Community sure is interesting. The two works and Oneida share an idea of a world governed by laws which guarantee equal perfection for everyone on earth. Oneida and the Manifesto especially share the idea of a perfect community.

Unfortunately, so far we have learned that the dynamics of human nature ultimately prevent peace and perfection, poor Karl Marx must be turning in his grave. So, before we can create a perfect community, people need to find individual perfection within themselves. That's what Walt told us, that is what he did.

The Contemporaries

The difference of style is obvious between Whitman and his contemporaries. Systematic rhyme scheme is apparent in Elizabeth Oak Smiths poem "An Incident", in which she uses the standard English Sonnet format. Instead of fallowing a rhyme scheme or sonnet format Whitman's writing elegantly rebels against the system by creating its own rhythm guided by imagery and content, a style that creates its personalized form. Figurative language is common to most poems; animals and nature scenes are also present in most poems of the era. However, Whitman tells us about his oneness with nature, where as his contemporaries speak of their longing to be a part of it. It's as if Whitman's contemporaries are looking for answers but he already knows them. In this manner Whitman gives us a more enlightened view of existence.



 In addition, Smith kind of looks like a snob:

 

Walt Whitman kickin' it:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, battle of the beards:

SD: Central Parks Walks and Talks

Whitman spent much of his life in New York City, a place notorious for its history as a melting pot of cultures and ideas. In such a busy place, with thousands of things happening all at once, I would imagine that there would be countless distractions and things of interest. So why does Whitman and so many of his transcendentalist contemporaries have such a strong urge to leave the big apple and spend some time loafing in the woods? Flowers, trees, animals, bugs, dirt and rivers all have their appeal, but these things can be found in the city too. Whitman feels that everything is at harmony but somehow he feels more harmonious in nature. Why does it have to take grass to realize that we are all part of the same? What about grains of sand in cement walls, don't they connect us as too? At least in respect to modern cultures... "Song of Myself" finds unity between human kind and nature, but I feel that the emphasis of harmony for humankind is an ideal that gets left behind for the woods. This theme, however, isn't as apparent and adds to the duality of Whitman's views. It's quite frustrating really, because Whitman is so partial and objective at the same time that any argument for or against his writing has an equally valid counter argument. Perhaps, the young New York City of the mid 18th hundreds hadn't quite the level of diversity that was very evident at the turn of the 20th century; still, I wish Whitman's poetry spoke more on the subject of people finding harmony in their life together on a busy little island, as well as with nature.

Barnum's Museum

After learning about Barnum's museum of attractions and curiosities it becomes easier to understand the twisted mind of Walt Whitman. A museum full of monkey fetuses, birds, beasts and other curiosities would spark the imagination of most people. Some could view curiosities as odd things that separate people, yet Walt thought otherwise. I believe that Walt saw bizarre artifacts as unifying objects of our bizarrely fortunate existence. This is why he put himself in the center of the exhibit (Barney). He sat in front of the window inside the museum and observed the motion of the city with the same curiosity that people observed the oddities inside the museum.

Being a meticulous observer became a trait that had helped Whitman create such a profound view of the world around him.His observations, through each  of the different senses, must have had a huge inspiration to Leaves of Grass.

SD: A July Afternoon by the Pond

I can't decide whether I enjoy or am frustrated by Whitman contradicting himself. It feels as though he does it on purpose for us to see the singularity and duality of what he talks about, however, I don't think this works in all cases. He shuns the perfumes of full rooms but embraces those of nature, this can be understood. However, his relationship with people is what confuses me. He talks about not wanting to be a part of society, but when he is away from it he misses people. His love hate relationship with the world is more enough to confuse the hell out of me.

Feet!

And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare stript heart, And reached till you felt my beard and reached till you felt my feet

• In this passage feet are used as a sensual organ. When someone touches another persons feet a unique connection is formed because feet carry our bodies, they are incredibly sacred.

Selling all he possesses and traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother and sit by him while

he is tried for forgery:  

• Feet are a means of labor for vindication.

Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and dumbly

smoking, they had moccasin to their feet

 and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders

•  The original Ugg's. 

 

She had long eyelashes an, her head was bare, her coarse

straight locks descended upon her voluptuous limps and reach'd her feet

•  Once again their location is sensual.  They add to the beauty of our bodies when emphasized, yet they are usually unnoticed and hidden. Feet are taboo. 
 

 

And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,

And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and bruis'd feet.  

• Reference to a sacred act (Jesus washing feet).

It sails me . . . . I dab with bare feet . . . . they are licked by the indolent waves,

I am exposed . . . . cut by bitter and poisoned hail,

Steeped amid honeyed morphine . . . . my windpipe squeezed in the fakes of death,

Let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,

And that we call Being

• Sense of touch is extra special with the feet, it is a rarer sensation than with the hands.

My ties and ballasts leave me . . . . I travel . . . . I sail . . . . my elbows rest in the sea-gaps,

I skirt the sierras . . . . my palms cover continents,

I am afoot with my vision....

• The vision is in motion, feet are what move us.  

Coming home with the bearded and dark-cheeked bush-boy . . . . riding behind him at the drape

of the day;

Far from the settlements studying the print of animals' feet, or the moccasin print;

•  Feet can tell us so much about where someone has been and who they are. Feet leave our imprint on the world and touch more than we realize. People leave their imprints on the world through feet and pick up pieces without any notion of it.
 

 

We are about approaching some great battlefield in which we are soon to be engaged,

We pass the colossal outposts of the encampments . . . . we pass with still feet and caution;

Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruined city . . . . the blocks and fallen

architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

• Our feet express our feelings
 

 

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.

• Everyone turns to dust and will be under someones feet. If we look under our feet in nature we will find dirt, dust or sand. This is not only a connection with the natural world but also everything that has ever lived on this planet.

We all have feet (unless something horrible happened that cost us our precious limbs). Our feet are something that have taken us everywhere we've been and can take us to new places, they are sacred and one of our most useful tools. Our stories are the stories of our feet, feet are beautiful and prized possessions that connect us to the  Earth, to other feet and to everything else. Whitman uses this motif because of the strong connection that feet have with Earth and with our bodies. They are the Herald of our senses and stories, they are the closest organ to grass, and the ultimate connector. 

SD: Sunday with the Insane

In "Song of Myself" Whitman repeatedly talks about the nature  of people and things and how we are all the same. The thought of it all is very peaceful, romantic and comforting; it paints a harmonious image in our minds. However, as soon as we step out of our niche and are confronted with a disorderly bum on the street who is foaming from the mouth and smells of urine the image fades away and we are face to face with truth. In this situation I think most people would turn away and run back to safety; but a true believer would look into the pair of bloodshot yellow eyes facing him or her and see truth, and maybe say hello.

Whitman spent his Sunday in a mental institution, he didn't see anything frightening or ugly.  He merely saw a group of his brothers and sisters listening to prayers and congregating in a fashion no different than that of a church down the street or a mosque an ocean away. All people are people, I believe that some are worst than others but Whitman would we are all made of the same thing and therefore the same. Whitman's  ideas of oneness and equality make me question whether he truely believes that there aren't ANY differences between people and that virtue and vice embody everyone the same.

Wilmot Proviso

The Wilmot Proviso was a call to stop slavery in it's tracks. Historically it would have prevented states, acquired from Mexico, from having  slavery. The proviso didn't pass in the Senate, instead a compromise was reached that allowed slavery to still exist in some of the newly acquired states. To Whitman, the passing of the proviso would have meant a large step towards the unification of people. It would have reinforced his belief in the unity and oneness of all men and women.

The fact that the proviso wasn't passed was a big slap in the face for people like  Whitman who believed in the equality of people. The proviso was introduced in 1846, nearly a decade before the publication of Leaves of Grass. This historic event surely had an effect on Whitman and influenced the the theme of unity in "Song of Myself". As a result, it can be assumed that Leaves of Grass wasn't only a poetic work but also a source of revolutionary propaganda, with a call for the liberation of slaves as well as unity of  the States.

20

Having pried through the strate, analyzed to a hair, consule'd 

                    with doctors and calculated close,

I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones

In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley

                    corn less,

And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them. 

I know I am solid and sound,

To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually

                  flow, 

All are written to me and I must get what the writing means.

I find these lines interesting because they show the dual meaning of Whitman view of himself and others.
He looks at himself and sees perfection, he believes that what he has to offer is as good as it gets. At the same time Whitman believes that all other people and things possess the same traits as he does, so the effort he puts to describing his perfection can  also be attributed to everything else. Which makes me question the point of describing the beauty of something specific if the same beauty can be attributed to everything else?

I admire Whitmans style of writing, which has some very transcendental and Buddhist themes within it. Song of Myself definitely places a lot of emphasis  on the dual nature and unity of all things.The last three lines mentioned above emphasize the mystery that comes with understanding the unity of all things, the ultimate question comes to mind "What is it all about?". Whitman believes that he can find the meaning of life through close proximity with nature; it's simple and out there for us to figure out if we can get to that level of thinking.