--Whitman was perhaps best-known during his lifetime for his attentiveness to sexuality in the poetry. Select a passage that seems to address a sexual experience and consider what Whitman is trying to say about it and how it relates to his broader attempt to bridge divides.
--Here are some moments that could be examined: section 5, 21, 22, 24, 27-30
It seems as though Whitman uses physical intimacy as a device to describe the merger of body and soul in section 5. It's clear in the beginning that the other being/entity/thing next to him on the grass is his soul and we never see any sort of transition between then and the point of intimacy to indicate that the act is being carried out with another person. This intimacy between what I assume is the body (or perhaps the day to day self?) with the soul (or maybe more spiritual self?) leads to a sense of inner peace. He then seems to indicate that this merger is what constitutes God. That God is within us all and by that notion we are all brothers and sisters. There are definitely some weird incestual undertones to all of this, especially when he says that a kelson of the creation is love. According to an internet dictionary, a kelson is a beam used to help keep a ship steady. So love is what helps to keep creation a float, or love inspires procreation. Procreation that occurs between brothers and sisters, even if those sibling relationships are only spiritual in nature. It's not full on creepy, just kind of uncomfortably strange. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the catalog at the end of the section is, I kind of assumed that the line about leaves being either stiff or drooping pertained to penises in some manner. There's definitely a phallic vibe to that line.
ReplyDeleteIn line 27 I really notice Whitman addressing a sexual experience. What I think he is trying to say here is that sometime people become a "callous shell", but when people (he) touches another human being, or has contact with them...sexually...the shell breaks away. People tend to hide but during sexual experiences all of that can be broken away and it simply you and and another human being. It almost seems as though maybe Whitman is stating people get lost, in a sense, maybe lost in the world or lost in certain aspects of life. I get this feeling whenever he states; "Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither." Whitman continues to state that he, however, does not live in this "shell." I also feel that he is trying to state that human contact is a good thing and the sexual encounter he is mentioning, is also a good thing. In a sense I think Whitman is saying that a sexual act is something that two people can do break down walls or break "shells."
ReplyDeleteFinally, I feel that Whitman clarifies my above reasoning about human contact in his final line; "I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy, To touch my person to some one else's is about as much as I can stand." In this line he is simply saying that human contact is something he finds extremely fulfilling and emotional.
-Jessica Lipp
Section 28 screamed SEX to me, even when I read it through just once the first time. The language is extremely suggestive and carries with it connections to one of the larger themes in the poem of identity, both of the "self" and the "other."
ReplyDelete28
"Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself,
On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,
Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,
Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture-fields,
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away..."
From this description, I learn that sex:
- can provide a "new identity;" it is something that makes the individual greater than he could be alone, and therefore is a way of bridging the divide between any two individual persons
- ignites a power that is housed in the body but lies dormant at times, with the "flame and ether" and the "lightning" of the flesh and blood, helping the individual to express the purpose for which it was created
- involves a communion between two like parts, "what is hardly different from myself," again finding a way to unite different bodies in one identity in a shared act
- is of the heart, and is able to release that which is "withheld" in us
- is something that cannot be denied by any who calls him or herself human
- has a purpose, to take that which is the "best" part of the individual and contribute it to the greater whole of human experience and life and birth and death
- is "licentious" and "immodest" at times, relating back to the lines in section 22 in which Whitman claims not to write simply of the good, but also of the wicked, and acknowledging the inability of raw human nature to be curbed by moral law and propriety
- carries with it a sense of peace, the "calm of the sunlight and pasture-fields" that comes from fulfilling one's purpose and forging that bond that bridges the divide between one individual and the next
The passage begins with a touch, the simplest act of human connection, which awakens passion and power and physical energy. This isn't fully understood, but allows for a connection, a bond, with another body, and allows the individual to reach his full potential as a needing, feeling human.
In section 21, the language of substitution runs rampant to examine the similarities between body & soul, man & woman, man & all other men, man & earth, earth & wind, before circling back to the similarities between earth & man. Although the sexual language is not present in all of them, the bridging acts as a stream of consciousness that connects all of the sections together. The narrator is chanting "the chant of dilation or pride"(428) but he is not chanting so that only the relations between women and men widen, or dilate, but so that the give and take of "unspeakable passionate love" (447) may open up to include all manner of internal and external relationships. Dilation is a term commonly used to describe childbirth, which links the third stanza to the last line of the second (“there is nothing greater that the mother of men”). This imagery creates a bridge between the later nature imagery in the section, reinforcing the idea of childbirth and sex as natural acts. In the latter half of the section, nature is personified: it presses, nods, slumbers, and swoops, easing the final bridge between nature and man to create an image of sex as a universal act of creation.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of section 22 is especially suggestive—when the narrator seems to have a rendezvous with the sea. However, though the beginning lines are sexual too: “your crooked inviting fingers,” “you refuse to go back without feeling me,” and “we must have a turn together, I undress,” it is only the final line of this stanza that I find almost out of place because of its overt sexual language. While the rest of the stanza evokes a certain softness, with the narrator becoming one with the ocean, the last line, “Dash me with amorous wet,” is jarring. This line seems out of place, not only because it is preceded by a sort of lullaby, “Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse,” but because it is a little too literal. The next stanza continues this way, with line 455: “Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,” but then switches back to the bigger picture, the idea that the narrator is one with nature, “I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases.”
ReplyDeleteThe following stanzas seem to be more about the idea to “bridge divides,” not through sexual imagery, but through a humanizing of Whitman, of the poet, who, as of the beginning of the section, seems a sort of mystical figure. In these stanzas, he invites the reader in a non-discriminating manner by saying that he is of both goodness and evil, and that he does not judge; he will “moisten the roots of all that has grown.” In this way, the beginning of the section, which could be off-putting to conservative readers during his time, becomes simply the metaphor of oneness, embracing all facets of life.
Whitman's use of sexuality in section 24 asserts that the act of sex and/or sexuality are pure, natural things, as holy as any religious doctrine, "no more rank...thank death". To me it seems like Whitman seeks to broach the subject at first in lines 501 and 502 "Unscrew the locks from the doors!/Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!"
ReplyDeleteCertainly these lines can be interpreted many different ways, but I feel like given the lines that follow, he is seeking to enter the doors (possibly the bedroom doors) of every reader and every person and begin talking about the things that go on behind them.
Whitman lets the reader know he doesn't find sex taboo or "rank". He says "through me forbidden voices". Whitman is allowing us all to discuss things that are not typically considered acceptable for polite conversation. In this way, he breaks down crucial barriers. One thing I've been able to glean through this poem is that Whitman seeks to push each and every boundary to its limit and make extreme statements because he believes that even the slightest reservations prevent us from truly joining him in the human experience.
To this end Whitman brings forward sexuality. It is present in each and every human and thus is broad and easily relatable. Whitman acknowledges this and therefore seeks to coax readers out from behind the taboo that has been placed on open discussion of it. Through astute comparisons to natural and pastoral imagery in lines 527-543 Whitman shows sex as something natural, earthly, and beautiful. In fact he goes so far as to claim "If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it". Through this and the lines that follow Whitman demonstrates the natural beauty of sex, and now through revealing this side of sexuality each human can feel fine, probably even pious (as Whitman would seemingly have it) in discussing sex.
I agree with Daniel that section 5 portrays a more physically sexual approach to describe the relationship between two people and their relationship with the earth. Whitman sees all people as equals, "And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers." In section 5, Whitman uses nature to fuse together the individual people described in this passage. He strips them of their gender, social class, etc. to reinforce the idea that everyone is equal according to nature. "Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat, Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not even the best, Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice." It is obvious in this section that the two people are having a sexual experience outside, on the grass. But it is one that goes beyond sexuality, rather, it suggests the larger idea that soul, body, and nature are one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Daniel and Rachael. Section 5 seems to be about oneness and unity, as well as equality. The love that is being described is one that directs inwards and bridges the divide between body and soul. Whitman does not explicitly mention another person. However, it does not seem far-fetched at all to assume that implicitly, he also refers to physical love between two people. What I find interesting, however, is that if one assumes that the act of love described is between the narrator’s (i.e. Whitman’s) body and soul explicitly and implicitly between two people, these two people would be male and thus, there is a homosexual connotation. It then almost seems like that kind of self-censorship that the article we had to read for last time talked about when he says “all men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers.”
ReplyDeleteIn any way, the love between body and soul – and thus uniting the two – is a godly experience.
Section 5 is very intimate and seems to be two bodies merging into one soul. The two bodies share a deep personal connection with one another and bond. It reminds me of a love when people say they are two bodies with one soul. I think Whitman is playing with the idea that two people could share one soul in an intimate setting. In a marriage God often has a role in the ceremony of bringing two people together. Section 5 mentions God and the promises of the narrators. In a marriage there is a promise to God and to one another. "And that a kelson of the creation is love" I think really makes it clear for me that this is a ceremony of love (maybe not so much a wedding, but something similar).
ReplyDeleteI see section 5 in dealing with two people, but I really like Daniel's idea that the physical body and spiritual soul are merging together for a single person to create inner peace. I think Daniel's idea is interesting and ties in with the relationship with God.
-Jatelle
In section 30 of Song of Myself, Whitman deals with sexuality, not only that but what results from sex, reproduction. The first couple of lines refer to the birth of truth and how it takes its time and does not need artificial tools to help speed up the natural process. While other sections in this poem deal with other forms of feelings and sexuality, like touch, this section reflects on what grows out of reproduction. There is a connection to people and nature in this passage and how something good can grow out of a relationship when he says “and they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific”. I believe what Whitman is trying to convey in this passage is that something rather small, like a touch or truth, can impress someone enough to the point that the feeling they get they will want to pass on and touch another person’s life. Sort of like a cyclical event in which something “insignificant” can reproduce into something wonderful given enough time.
ReplyDeleteWhitman starts out passage 24 by saying that he is "a kosmos" which is described as "sublime order of the universe" and thus unifies the known and unknown world. This self-understanding is also reflected in his description of sexuality. I don't think that his poem can be read as reflecting (only) homosexual desires, but rather as a bisexual desire as well as a sexual desire for nature and himself. Thus, he not only personifies nature, he ascribes nature sexual qualites and engages with nature in sexual acts. He portrays the fields as "broad" and "muscular" and the winds as rubbing it's "soft-tickling genitals" against him. Moreover, he considers himself being the spokesperson of the "forbidden voices" which underlines one more time his understanding of being a "poet of the woman the same as the man" and doesn't show a strong self-identification with either sex which also allows a bisexual desire. Therefore, it serves to show that he is interested in humans, not just men alone. He desires the human body which even includes the smell of armpits. Expressing an interest in men openly was socially not accepted which is why I think that he is referring to the gay in particular when he talks about giving "generations of prisoners" a voice. The interest in men includes a sexual interest in himself, worshipping his own body. Like a kosmos, his sexual desire doesn't have any borders. However, it seems to me that his desire serves more a mental satisfaction than a physical because he states that "copulation is no more rank to [him] than death is". Considering his self-understanding as a kosmos, it's safe to say that death is not of high importance to him.
ReplyDeleteThe footnotes explain that Section 5 is something of a dialogue between Whitman and the (his) soul. It is very odd to think of a sexual relationship between yourself and your soul, but it begins to make a little bit more sense once you are able to take the physical sensuality out of it. Obviously you cannot have physical sexual relations with your soul, but you can perhaps become attuned to it in an almost spiritually sensual way. You can allow yourself to become fully conscious of it. It seems that Whitman believes a sort of non-thinking has to be adopted in order for this to actually work, in order for you to reach inside of yourself and connect with the basest part of you. If you are not speaking (which is a human-developed means of communicating with others), and you are not thinking (which is often a way of rationalizing animalistic feelings or of contextualizing these feelings), you are allowed to just be, and in simply being, your vocalizations are reduced to orgasm-esque, animalistic, guttural noises. You are able to reach to the heart of being a living being (not a human being and especially not a specific gender or class or race of human being). Instinctual, primitive, natural feeling is the basest, most pure experience you can have. It pervades your being and, if allowed to do so, can mute the chaos of thoughts or obligations or prejudices that pollute the human mind. Sometimes you know or feel something that cannot be vocalized. Sometimes things are simply meant to be felt, just as sex is simply meant to be felt. The world (“God” and “all the men ever born” and “limitless…leaves” and “brown ants”…) is meant, at times, to simply be felt. I think that is perhaps the effect he is trying to achieve with his whole poem. It is too long to linger on every word, to elaborate on every thought; the poem itself is cyclical and expresses a redundancy of ideas; I think he wants more than anything to convey a feeling that will stay with you perhaps even without your knowledge of it doing so, as in his last stanza when he says: “If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles./ You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,/ But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,/ And filter and fibre your blood.”
ReplyDeleteSection 5 is sex. Whitman speaks about it as a metaphor which is about the soul and body and merging with the earth (as a few posts have mentioned so far). When I first read it, my reaction was "He wants it badly." I especially gathered that when he says, he doesn't want words or music...just sex (I paraphrased). My mind was on this idea until I turned the page and realized it was saying more than this. I like the same idea that Daniel and Jatelle had about the soul and body merging: the physical body and spiritual body are merging to create one. I think it could be also taken in another way. That we are all individuals working inside of one body and it is everlasting. He looks at the parts, and also the sum. In a sense, the earth and people all share one soul. I really gather this from the second half of the section. When he speaks about Brothers and sisters is the place that this really resonates.
ReplyDeleteIn response to what Daniel said: I also think Whitman is trying to make a connection between the body and soul. I think Whitman wants to show us that we are all the master of ourselves, and we can control what our body and soul do.
ReplyDeleteIn section 21 Whitman is very straightforward about introducing the body and soul. He beings with, "I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul." He goes on expressing that he, you, everyone has control over their own selves. He gives examples of how he goes about chanting, walking, and calling to the earth.
Whitman makes references to mother nature and the world in itself, and I think he does that because the next purest thing besides one's soul is nature. Whitman refers to the Earth in a very sexual way, "Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth!" I think he gives the Earth a sexual connotation because it is just as alive as he is. The Earth has a soul and needs, too, just like the body and soul of the people Whitman speaks out to.
Maybe it's because hardcore porn scenes come to mind when I think of the word "sex", but I don't get "sex" so much from section 5, as much as I get an romantic intimacy between the soul and the body. I think that it is very possible to "connect" without sex, and I would even take it a step farther and argue that because the connection is that central focal point of the section, that Whitman is talking about intimacy over sex—it's damned sure possible to have just sex without intimacy. Not to say that sex does not in some cases does bring about a deeper, spiritual connection, but I think looking at it as sex grossly (even though there are obvious illusions to sex within the section) simplifies what Whitman is trying to get the reader to understand here, which is the equalizing of mankind [on a broad, "macro" level], and the fusion of both the [external] physical and [internal] spiritual [on an individual, "micro" level].
ReplyDeleteSection 21 of Song of Myself has many instances of sex. The second line "the pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me." Though this is not explicitly sexual, you could say that there are both pleasures and pains in sex. The second stanza mentions both man and woman and says that "there is nothing greater than the mother of men." The term mother implies sex. Stanzas six and seven use plenty of metaphor and sexual imagery: naked summer night, voluptuous, liquid, far-swooping, rich apple-blossom'd earth... The term "dilation" comes up earlier in the section and is a reference to childbirth. This shows connections between the body and soul, man and woman and eventually circles back to the Earth and man. Everything is a cycle and this touches on the connections drawn in the critical essays we read abut merger and embodiment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hayley’s observation that the beginning of section 22 seems overtly sexual, and that it’s a relationship to the sea, to nature, that Whitman is exploring. I also agree with her conclusion, that the speaker is attempting to become one with nature, and this is expressed through a physical sort of intimacy. However, I think that a key part to this achievement is the speaker’s surrender of autonomy: He opens the ode with, “You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean”. The resignation of dominance is like the resignation of man’s power over nature. The speaker makes himself vulnerable to the sea by undressing and by acknowledging that he is “of one phase and of all phases.”
ReplyDeleteBut in addition to the homogenizing of man and nature, it seems like the speaker is ultimately looking for a balance. In his declaration, “I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also,” the speaker acknowledges that both intentions are present in his art. He reiterates this idea when he explains, “Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me.” But by ending this last sentence with “I stand indifferent,” the speaker surrenders his capability and or need for judgment. This mimics the speaker’s submission to the sea in the opening lines, aligning the poet’s artistic intentions with his physical desires.
For Whitman, sex seems a climactic event (no pun intended). In all seriousness, Whitman’s view toward sex is one of admiration and satisfaction. He feels that because sex is the vehicle which facilitates the creation of humanity, it must likewise be shown the fondest admiration. He refers to the act as the “finale of visible forms.” Ultimately, sex is the means by which Whitman’s ubiquitous “I” is perpetuated. The “heir-ship and heiress-ship of the world” accept the great responsibility of sex and are consequently the direct source of human continuance. Through sex, the linear aspect of time is manifested through the rise and fall of generations. In this way, sex is the pinnacle achievement of the human experience.
ReplyDeleteSex is such a powerful experience that it seems to connect the individual to something spiritual. For Whitman, through sex one is able to make a connection with divinity and gain understanding. For this reason he says, “Here the spirituality the translatress, the openly avowed.” Through sex, spirituality has been translated in some way. The mysteries of the cosmos are “openly avowed” and one is able to have a greater understanding of one’s self and their relationship with the divine. It is as if one has heard and understood the voice of God.
Whitman’s poem talks a lot, I’m just going to assume, about sex. Although it seems at times that he’s using sex as a tool to argue for a universality, a commonality between body and soul (which I don’t deny), I would also argue is a celebration of sex. Quite explicitly in sections 27-30 he describes tactile sexual experience. Although he describes the experience as “treacherous” and “immodest(ly)” and “you villain touch!”, he ultimately, through the spirit of the poem, celebrates sex. The treachery of the experience leads to a positive realization (the last stanza of 30). But in reality, he’s just talking about sex. Like most of the subjects in this poem, including “I,” he places sex within a universal connectedness. He celebrates sex as a part of life, but I don’t think it could be argued that he’s getting awfully deep when it comes to much of what he talks about. The grass may symbolize the lateral growth of the poem, but to me, it’s not exactly like he’s trying to make “soul, body, and nature” one. He quite clearly demarcates the lines between his subjects. In the sections we are suggested to look at above, the preceding and succeeding sections are not about sex at all really. When we come to these “sex” sections, we are suddenly immersed in the world of Whitman’s sex life. It’s quite jarring, but Whitman’s inclusiveness of this “taboo” subject helps to complete his grand project of recreating the Bible. (Maybe there should be someone who reads this poem in Speaker’s Circle once a season.)
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