Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
Whitman's new explosive visions of:
poetic language
common man and woman
America as a subject of poetry
the nature and power of the body
strange beauty and appeal of the ……………………………
ubiquity of death as and informing …………………………….
bond with the reader, merging with his subjects
democracy itself - there is a place for everyone in his work
presenting voices never heard before
Whitman is gregarious, extrovertish, available, fluid, almost unstoppably fluid
“Leaves of Grass” (1855)
do-it-yourself project
Emerson admired the poems and wrote famous letter of congratulations
Poetic language
Whitman creates American idiom, an actual language that is homespun yet powerful and fresh
he uses slang and common speech, it's colloquial, the way we talk, avoids highfaluting terms
his poems resemble that of oratory, Whitman believed that his poems should ………………………. much as orations were, they should be chanted and intoned
there is no restriction and rules of traditional stanza and rhyme forms
his so-called “long lines” contain a variable number of unstressed syllables and no strictly fixed meter
his stanzas are organized into what he called “verse paragraphs”
he composes in units, clauses and sentences, stressing not one vowel necessarily but using “hovering accents” that distributed emphasis on a word or grouping of words
Whitman is able to replicate thought and feelings by fusing rhythm and tone while at the same time introducing time/space dimension
music was his guide (opera) - immense ranges of tones floating
repetitions, images, inner rhymes and rhythms account for the intensity and emotional value of the dramas enacted
Whitman uses famous “lists” - everything is brought together in a kind of staccato fashion
Whitman
he has a journalist's eye and ear for how people talk and what they look like as they go through the actions of their life
Whitman has a wonderful sense of physical grace of human work and labor
this inclusiveness is brave and spiriting and new, it is moral and social: the outcast of pariahs, the ones who have never been voices in poetry, never been thought of
the spectrum of his poetry is wide - from stars to dung
Whitman bonds with its own subjects, the speaker becomes the things he describes, he is able to fuse with the groups and individuals he presents
he makes people equal: politically, morally and emotionally
“The Sleepers” one of the most remarkable pieces within “Leaves of Grass”
it provides lists of sleepers: here in America at night, it is a night-time version of Whitman's bonding with the people
he's entering other's dreams sharing and choreographing their dreaming lives
the poem has dark moments, offers visions and disaster, we sense the helplessness of dreams powerlessness of the dreamer
sleep as the ultimate peace and reconciliation, we are all “one” (democratic version)
the poems end with the image that night embraces and contains day
he becomes ABCDE, how credible is his posture?, how elastic can you be?, how much can you stretch?, how much empathy is possible?, how much empathy is credible?
Whitman - Poet of the Body
he depicts the human body, it seems to be the core of his vision
he shows the power of the body (he is sensationalist and indulgent but philosophical about it)
the body is equal to the soul
he finds new, shocking ways to “say the body”: invents the terms and images to represent the body and its elastic life, i.e. depicts the body as a landscape, as a place that interacts with natural forces
body is shown in motion
the male sex organ is represented in poetry, affection, masturbation, life of senses, “touch” becomes theme of life, the actual linkage between the human subject and the world “who touches this book touches the man”
reaction - anger and outrage
Whitman was attracted to men (a friend of coach drivers, ferry boat pilots, and soldiers) “Calamus” and “Children of Adam” - deal with male friendship and attraction, they offended many readers
“In Paths Untrodden”
During the Civil War Whitman is the wound dresser at hospitals in Washington
“The Wound Dresser” - one the Whitman's most moving poems about the carnage of war the sanctity of healing, about the scale of destruction
“The Sight in Camp” - conveys the sacramental character of tending the dying
he lifts the blankets to see what is there: elderly man, sweet boy, Christ himself; the routinized massacre is the story of the crucifixion
Whitman - Poet of the City
he is like a reporter, a journalist walking through the city; he has the sharpness of detail and focus
Whitman discovers the beauty, the interest, the excitement, the vitality of the city
the stories move from childhood to youth and passion, death from desperation, conflicts, crisis; he implements city sounds
city - mysterious place, unpredictable encounters, interactions, the human being is placed in a large container than he can measure or understand
“Broadway Pageant” - an image of New York, the melting pot, New Yorkers watching the parade together; there is a wonderful sense of energies that flow here
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” - the ferry as a site of encounters rather than a source of transportation; he looks at New Yorkers who are on this ferry crossing but also he talks to the reader and to the others who will come
“Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun” - Whitman appreciates both the urban and the rural
“Sparkles from the Wheel” - creation of beauty from the simplest elements of daily life
Whitman - Poet of Death
“Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die. And I know it.” How does he know it?
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” - death as the generative force of poetry, love and fidelity of two birds, human drama of the animals; there are two birds: one does not come back, the other he bird sat the lone singer, wonderful, causing tears
there is a sense of desperation that everything the one sees might be the missing loved one
the boy's recognition of death as the secret of nature and origin of poetry
“Scented Herbage of my Breast” - death as being the truth of life, the final ………………… last act
“When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”
1865 - Abraham Lincoln's assassination, a dreadful national wound; Lincoln is not named in the poem, it could be anyone, a sign of national mourning
an introduction to the players: lilac, star, thrush
the thrush's song is the “the bleeding throat”, poetry is like hemorrhage
the coffin travels to Springfield, across the land (like in our life); he makes the offering “I give you a spring of lilac”; the poem is the offering, too, but not only for him; it is a public healing; those who are dead are at rest, those who remain suffer but this has to pass
the dead are gone; we pull them out of the dark, out of the grave, out of the night, and for moment we ………………………….., we revisit them; we make …………………………. so that we can finally allow them ………………………….. in peace and move on with life
moving beyond destruction and butchery and death, passing, moving on
Whitman - Poet of Nature
“Bare-bosomed night” - phrase expressing his ecstatic intercourse with nature
“When I Heard the Learne'd Astronomer” - differentiates between learned real beauty
“The Dalliance of Eagles” - the nature and passion perfectly fused
God's signature is everywhere - Grass “the handkerchief of the Lord”
Whitman - Poet of the Soul
soul is carnal - sexual fashion of fusion of the body and the soul
“Passage to India” - America on the march, seeking to fulfill global destiny
“Song of the Open Road” - we make our future, we are mobile and free; he if the poet of experience and not salvation accepting the souls we meet along the open way as they live their lives, not trying to save them
Literary Farewell: last lines in the “Song of Myself”
he is still with us, under our boot soles, as we take our leave