It's a battle of phallic flora: the calamus plant on the left and the live oak tree on the right.
--The relation of these two groupings of poems is a matter of some critical debate: for some critics, especially the textually-oriented scholar Hershel Parker, "Live Oak with Moss" is a more direct and positive expression of homosexuality. While others see "Calamus" as equally an expression of homosexuality, but more political. Which iteration do you find more interesting or compelling or more open in its exploration of homosexuality?
--Compare how any single poem that appears in both sequences is changed by its different relation to the poems around it in the different sequences.
The second poem in Whitman’s “Live Oak, With Moss,” also known as “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing,” in the Calamus sequence, comes at a time when Whitman is lonely, or despairs at the possibility of loneliness. He looks at an oak tree as, “solitary in a wide flat space, uttering joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near - I know very well I could not,” knowing that he could not take on that similar isolation. It is a poem of hope, hoping that he does not have to experience that type of solitude in his life. There is a need for humanity, in his case “Manly love,” as he hopes for passion to result in a search for love.
ReplyDeleteAs the second poem occurring in the “Live Oak, With Moss” sequence, it assumes that he has lost his lover or cannot find love. In the prior poem, the first in the sequence, he is on a quest to “seek my life-long lover.“ “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing” continues on the path of seeking love, and hoping that he does not continue to live in solitude. He cannot do this, as the oak tree does. His love requires someone to give it to. It is followed by a poem that begins with his struggles with loneliness, but the solemn tone goes away with the appearance of his friend. As he says, “And that night I was happy,” unlike the confusion and hope for not being lonely while looking at the oak tree in the previous poem. In this sequence it appears as a poem that he uses to hope for love, a crying out for some sort of passion with another human being. This occurs, it seems in the third poem of the sequence.
In the Calamus sequence, the poem is given the title “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing” and comes two poems after “A City of Orgies” where he describes Manhattan as a vibrant place of many potential lovers. It is directly followed by “Behold This Swarthy Face,” which describes (literally or not, I cannot tell) how someone actually “kisses me lightly on the lips with robust love,” sustaining the theme of unbridled passion. At this point, “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing” seems to be an afterthought to this free sexual expression in Manhattan, while also signaling a change in tone of the sequence. The following “To a Stranger,” almost appears to be him seeking out people with whom he can possibly love. There are no free expressions of love, just possible free expressions. The next poem, “This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful,” sees him alone, connecting his experience of yearning with that of other men whom he assumes can be his lovers.
In both sequences, the poem appears optimistic, if only because he does not appear to convey depression to the reader. He hopes for a lover, and hopes he does not end up like the oak tree, and does not say he has ended up like that or commiserates with its condition. Obviously, there are homosexual undertones, but this poem allows him to vent frustrations with not being able to find an outlet for his form of sexual expression.
In some ways, "Live Oak, with Moss" is more open in homosexuality, and in some ways Calamus is more upfront. Simply comparing "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" with the second stanza of "Live Oak, with Moss" shows how each poem expresses more homosexuality in different ways.
ReplyDeleteIn "Live Oak, with Moss," Whitman's first major change from "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" occurs in the fourth line. He says, "But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there without its friend, its lover - " This is an addition from the original, which simply left the line at "without its friend - " By adding lover, it takes the phallic imagery to an immediate outright sexual level. In the first poem, it was a more gradual assertion of the phallic imagery.
The change that reduces the homosexuality in "Live Oak, with Moss" occurs with the line "Yet it remains to me a curious token - I write these pieces, and name them after it." Whitman cuts himself off from the previous poem which expanded the line with "a curious token, it makes me think of manly love." His interruption stops a blatant homosexual reference that was present in the other poem, instead taking that space to explain why the poem is titled "Live Oak, with Moss."
These differences between the two poems disprove both critiques and views of homosexuality in the poems. "Calamus" and "Live Oak, with Moss" have an equal give and take of homosexuality, each portion choosing to represent it in different ways.
"When I Heard at the Close of the Day" is also (or at least is almost identical to) the third poem in "Live Oak, With Moss." In "Live Oak, With Moss," the poem immediately follows "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" which describes his views on loneliness. Whitman at first identifies with the large oak, as suggested when he states, "And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself." As the poem continues, he goes on to state their dissimilarities, believing he could never function in the isolation that the tree does. "When I Heard at the Close of the Day" expresses the unrivaled bliss Whitman feels after spending a night with his lover, compared to the detachment he feels after being honored at the Capitol. After the isolation expressed in the previous poem, here he finds happiness in love. Overall, the poem in this sequence is hopeful. The poem following this, resembling "This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful," seems to propose that he could find love wherever he traveled, that people are more alike than different. Whitman seems to believe he would be capable of finding love regardless of where he traveled. By following "When I Heard at the Close of the Day" with "This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful" (okay, these aren't really their titles in "Live Oak, With Moss," but the poems they resemble in "Calamus" - it just makes it easier to distinguish rather than referring to them as III and IV) Whitman positively suggests that the passion that he discovered with his American lover may be found anywhere.
ReplyDeleteIn the "Calamus" sequence, the poem does not seem as optimistic considering those with which it is juxtaposed. The poem preceding it, "Recorders Ages Hence," is filled with notions of uncertainty and distrust as Whitman writes, "Who pensive away from one he lov'd often lay sleepless and dissatisfied at night, / Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him." Though he discusses his happiest moments spent with his friend's arm around his shoulder, this poem seems to be filled with doubt about whether a lover's feelings are reciprocated. "When I Heard at the Close of the Day" again stresses the simple happiness that time spent with a lover can bring. The poem following it, "Are You the New Person Drawn toward Me?" also questions an admirer's feelings for him and whether they are genuine. He asks of this admirer, "Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?" Instead of following the poem with the hopeful notion of finding love wherever he may be, Whitman doubts the whether one's admiration for him is sincere. While the poem as it appears in "Live Oak, With Moss" suggests an enduring love of possibility and hope, it is conversely characterized by cynical feelings of disbelief by the surrounding poems in "Calamus."
Earth, My Likeness
ReplyDeleteThe differences between "Earth, My Likeness" in its original Live Oak With Moss version and its revised form in Calamus are slight: The "my likeness" portion is actually crossed out in Live Oak, and "ready to break forth" changes to "eligible to burst forth" in Calamus.
In Calamus, "Earth, My Likeness" follows a poem in which the speaker identifies with boatmen, mechanics, rough types, and all "natural persons old and young". In identity as well as fierce passion waiting to burst forth, Whitman allies his speaker with the earth. The poem that follows depicts a city invincible to all "attacks" suffered by the rest of the earth, because that city lives by love in speech and action. Whitman argues in this three-poem sequence that walking hand in hand with the rest of mankind is an obtainable ability--one that must burst forth fiercely and even terribly but that ultimately provides security through love.
The poems that precede and immediately follow "Earth" in Live Oak place it in a solely personal context. Instead of a sweeping statement about earth and mankind, the poem becomes a small digression and meditation on the necessity of "subtle electric fire" or "friendship hot and red".
In either sense, the poem gains power by those that surround it. It can also stand alone as a statement of the origin and importance of passion.
I found the section “This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful” in Calamus and section four of “Live Oak, with Moss” interesting with the changes involved between them. The biggest changes between these poems happen in the last couple of lines. In “This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful”, Whitman writes about the men in other countries saying that if he knew them, he “should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands” whereas in the “Live Oak, with Moss” this part is written as “should love them as I love men in my own lands”. In these examples it appears that the later shows much more openness in homosexuality while the “Calamus” version is a little more cautious with the topic by using the word “attached”, which sounds more like a mutual relationship and does not convey the same emotions that “love” does.
ReplyDeleteHowever the lines following this sort of swap these observations, with the “Calamus” version stating “we should be brethren-and lovers”, while the “Live Oak, with Moss” lines simply say “we should be brethren- I think I should be happy with them”. Again it is the use of the word lover, both versions use it, however I feel that the fact the word only appears once in “This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful” does not fully represent the feelings Whitman had towards homosexuality compared to section four of “Live Oak, with Moss”, which appears more accepting.
I feel that maybe this openness in “Live Oak, with Moss” has to do with the passage before, about being with his lover in bed, being happy and loved. This love continues into section four and it seems that Whitman is content. This is different with “To a Stranger” which comes before “This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful”, this poem suggests loneliness. In this passage Whitman is seeking someone rather than being with someone and instead of love, he is looking for an attachment to someone, whoever that might be.
I looked at "Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes" in "Calamus", which is also the opening section of "Live Oak, with Moss." In "Calamus," it is between "Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone" and "Trickle Drops." The preceding section focuses on a new love, in need of nurturing and warmth. It requires the other person to give what is necessary for the relationship to grow. "Trickle Drops," on the other hand, more about pain and sacrifice. It includes some violent imagery by focusing on words such as "bleeding," "red," and "scarlet heat." For me, in this context, the poem was less open and loving.
ReplyDeleteThe final line of the poem appears differently in "Calamus" than it does in "Live Oak, with Moss." In Calamus, it reads, "Wafted in all directions O love, for friendship, for you." In Live Oak, with Moss it reads "wafted in all directions, for friendship, for love." It is this change, and the fact that it is the opening section to Live Oak, with Moss that makes the difference. Live Oak opens with this declaration of undying love that is reiterated by the final words of the poem. Whitman's love for his "life-long lover" burns more than anything he can imagine.
Although the rest of the poem is the same in both contexts the placement as well as the final line makes it more impactful heartfelt, in my opinion.
This is from Hershel Parker, who responded to the blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://fragmentsfromawritingdesk.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-i-taught-song-of-myself-after-15.html
Ths may help someone. I would like to post on the tendency of professional gays--I mean those who teach Queer Theory and other such courses--to want to read a text that is homophobic instead of one that is heartening and encouraging. I am referring to the argument about "Live Oak, with Moss." I was the first person to put it in a major anthology and could not understand the hostility to the text as Whitman wrote it (as opposed to the texts of the individual poems as they were reordered and scattered in CALAMUS so as to disguise the open meaning of the original sequence). I am betting that I saved lives by printing "Live Oak, with Moss" in a widely-used anthology and think of that act as the best thing I did as a teacher. And this link may help some of you find a better way of teaching SONG OF MYSELF. Blessings from a true lover of Whitman!