--This is the image of Whitman he used in place of his name on the frontispiece of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. It portrays Whitman as a man of the working class, evocative of the democratic persona he sought to convey through the poetry.--As the two critical essays we are reading for next class suggest, the notion of merging with or embodying the American people was central to Whitman's vision of the work of his poetry. Select an example other than ones selected by the critics and explore the benefits and/or problems of Whitman's entering into, becoming or speaking for another person or people in "Song of Myself."
--As part of Whitman's project of countering divisions in American life (self/other, body/soul, nation/individual, etc.), "Song of Myself" also represents both city and country. How are the two kinds of landscapes represented here? What are similarities or differences? How does the poem work to bring them together?
--More so than most other poetry, Whitman's poems demand that its readers, especially its American readers, embrace it. Without that popular acceptance, Whitman felt that his poetry would be a failure. How do you see Whitman addressing this in the poetry? How optimistic, pessimistic, anxious or hopeful do you think he is about his success by the end of "Song of Myself"?
By the end of "Song of Myself", Whitman shows next to no anxiety about the reception of his own poetry. He ends "Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
ReplyDeleteMissing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you." These lines best characterize his attitude toward the reader's reception of Whitman's poetry. Namely, Whitman is confident enough that his poetry is so wide-reaching that even if they dont understand the poetry, they will learn, at least partially, what Whitman is ultimately trying to explicate. Whitman also says in the last section, "I too am untranslatable". Whitman doesnt want to be translated or understood, he wants to be felt through his poetry. His invention of a new kind of poetics was merely the vehicle which Whitman used to capture himself, as much as can be captured, on paper. You can feel his overwhelming optimism when reading certain lists, you can feel him move spatially throughout the poem. You can even feel time in a different way while reading his poetry. Frank O'Hara's essay entitled "Personism" is, ironically, the best explication of one of Whitman's main poetic goals; to put the poem "between two persons instead of two pages."
I think that Whitman has an optimistic view of his poetry by the end of the "Song of Myself." There are many optimistic views throughout the poem. When he says "I go with the slaves of the earth equally with the masters/And I will stand between the masters and the slaves/Entering into both sot hat both shall understand me alike," he implies that his poetry has the ability to unite radical extremes. Whitman can transcend great differences and relate to people who are complete opposites.
ReplyDeleteAgain, in the episode of the twenty-ninth bather, the narrator, presumably Whitman, and the woman become ambiguous. I think that this, in a sense, gives Whitman the ability to cross gender barriers. It is really irrelevant in the poem whether the twenty-ninth bather is the narrator or the woman. Although there are homosexual implications, it more about a sense of oneness than that.
I think it is also implied through the fluidity and honestness of his poetry that gives it a sense of vulnerability. Whitman simply wants people to feel his poetry, not just read it.
It is because of these reasons that I think Whitman was comfortable enough with himself and his poetry.
-Emily David
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ReplyDeleteWhitman describes the city by depicting the vast array of activities and events that may occur in a diverse metropolis. Through out “Song of Myself” Whitman effectively uses all of the five sensory perceptions to describe things and experiences, just as a human actually experiences them. In representing the city, Whitman focuses on the sounds that can be heard, emphasizing that it is a loud and busy environment. These sounds are generally a product of movement, another characteristic of the city. Whitman ends his description of the city by documenting his movement, “I come and I depart” (Whitman line 166). Much of the activity he describes is frightful or abrasive. This does not make the audience feel excessively afraid of the city, but it does give the impression that it is an exciting place where one will find adventure and drama. After representing the city Whitman follows with a representation of the country, allowing the audience to see the division between the two environments.
ReplyDeleteWhitman’s description of the country immediately takes on a much more leisurely and relaxed tone than his previous representation of the city. He characterizes the country as big and plain. A place for work, but a place which also possesses a lazy atmosphere. Whitman goes on to describe an even more remote country, the wilderness. The wild is also represented as an exciting place, but also possesses more of the calm than the abrasive city.
Whitman brings these contrasting environments back together by first describing different types of Americans, like the “red girl” (Whitman line 185) and the “runaway slave” (Whitman line 189). He then turns to affluent women and men, depicting the differences between the sexes. Next, he lists off many different people of different occupations, who we learn all live in different places, but who all sleep: “The city sleeps and the country sleeps” (Whitman line 324). Despite all our differences, and the differences of environments, people are still basically the same and we basically function the same, despite our differing environments and jobs.
Benefits and problems of entering into, becoming, or speaking for another person
ReplyDeleteIn section 33, Whitman writes:
"Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,
My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
I am the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken,..."
The passage struck me because of the strangeness of wanting to put on the “garment” of agony. Whitman embraces all aspects of human experience, despite his earlier pronouncement that pain and suffering have nothing to do with him—that the world was prepared for him. If the speaker has never taken suffering personally (I rule out any possibility that he has never experienced suffering, but I acknowledge that he could interpret his own misfortunes as incomparable to his blessings), then he is in a position to place value on the sufferings of others. By becoming “the wounded person” he is made able to experience agony vicariously. Living the painful experiences of others can be cathartic; it also makes the speaker sympathetic in cases to which he could not otherwise relate.
As a poetic technique, it lends the speaker universality, but it risks sounding naïve and artificial. If Whitman wrote as though each experience were his own, without presenting it as the experience of someone else whose persona he puts on, it might sound more authoritative. Instead this technique of telling us when he embodies somebody lays poetic technique naked and open to critique. We cannot trust the speaker as fully as we could, had he presented the agony as naturally his own; however, we can trust the poet, who reveals his methods. Ultimately, I think Whitman is writing as much about writing as about human experience. If it is a song of himself, it is fundamentally the song of a writer.
Walt Whitman addresses the public at the beginning in a forward manner, saying “What I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (2-3). This is an obvious attempt by Whitman to have his readers connect with him, or if not connect, then to hear him out as he explains himself. This brings in humanity in a broad sense, as he will state his beliefs as all humanity sees them, not just him ranting.
ReplyDeleteHe gives this an American flavor in Section 6 when asked what the grass is. Whitman creates this specific ‘Americanness’ by bringing together all of the ethnic groups that make up America. He states the grass is, “A uniform hieroglyphic, / And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, / Growing among black folks as among white, / Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same” (106-109), allowing all Americans to take part in what he has to say and why he says it.
This can also be seen a few lines afterward, as he alludes to the deaths of the soldiers in the Civil War, calling the grass, “The beautiful uncut hair of graves. / Tenderly will I use you curling grass, / It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men” (110-112). A distinct American event, all Americans can connect to this no matter what side they are on. Bu doing these things early in his poem, readers can relate to his subject matter because they have an idea of what Whitman is saying about America at that time.
Whitman appears to be hopeful, or at least content, that he has connected with his readers by the end. In Section 51, he responds to what he believes the reader’s response to him, stating that a reader wlll believe he contradicted himself. But, this assumes the reader read through the whole poem. The being the case, he knows that a reader followed his poem and similarly or differently connected back to his main point of the grass relating people from earlier on. Whitman states at the end, “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” (1339-40), relating all people together, but with differing experiences. Americans can understand and relate to him as an American, but by drawing them in he tries to show the bigger picture, and understands that some people may not agree with him. What he is ultimately hopeful is that people can realize what makes humanity interconnected is the fact that we all have experiences, and not so much that we are unique from others (i.e. “And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (2-3)).
Throughout the poem, Whitman identifies with the plight of the working class, women, slaves, children, and any facet of humanity that has faced a struggle. He is able to define his individuality by his relationship with others and does so by merging with them. This embodiment, despite its seeming contradiction to the ways in which Whitman might be defined (a poet, white, male), does serve Whitman's purpose of unification. Nature, humanity, urban life, and sexuality are themes in the poem without ever being defined. Instead, Whitman moves through each in a way that blurs the traditional views of each concept.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the embodiment of slaves and women seemed empathetic at first. I wasn't bothered that Whitman was using poetic devices to claim his place in humanity alongside mistreated and misrepresented Americans. It wasn't until I got to section 21 and the lines "I am the poet of the woman the same as the man/And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man" that I became defensive and found myself scoffing that of course a male voice could claim something so naive. Here, merging becomes problematic because although I realized I was probably being cynical and harsh toward his poetic purpose, being able to empathize with a person's plight will never equate experiencing those struggles. The first critical essay we read touched on this problem somewhat in regards to the slave versus master comparison Whitman makes. I understand and appreciate Whitman's understanding of humanity as one and feel like an increase in empathy is always welcome. It did make me wince a little though each time he claimed to feel or experience the life of a woman or a slave. It's not as though as a white, (homosexual?) male Whitman never experienced a struggle though and his message that everyone should be hurt when their fellow man is hurt overrides any possible offense.
I think Whitman seems characteristically optimistic in the last section of “Song of Myself.” The poem has a soothing, easy-going quality to it. Towards the end he remarks, “I do not know what is untried and afterward / But I do know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail” (69). Whitman seems to feel this way about his poetry as well. He often references the cosmos, believing in a sort of destiny, that fate will determine whether or not he is successful. The general impression the poem gave me was a sense of comfort, emphasized by Whitman’s lack of overall worry.
ReplyDeleteThis is underscored in the section when he first asks, “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” (77). This statement does not possess anxiety or apprehension, but a certain complacency. Whitman’s sole interest lies in reaching his readers, and if he achieves this goal, he will be satisfied. For Whitman, success is measured by a true connection with his readers, not commercial success. His poem takes on the form of a conversation, asking its reader to “Talk honestly” and simultaneously gather some wisdom by the end (77). It is this dual sense of relaxation and insight imparted by Whitman that has made him such a success.
http://fragmentsfromawritingdesk.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-i-taught-song-of-myself-after-15.html
ReplyDeleteThs 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!