Comments on: Erin for 10/27

By: Allison Crerie

Allison Crerie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:48:47 +0000

Aren’t we all a little obsessed with someone? Some musician? Some actor/ actress? As I sit here at my computer covered with Jason Mraz stickers, his music also playing, and looking at a poster of Tina Fey on my wall, I, too, identify with Walt’s crush/obsession/love for Lincoln. There are reasons other than physical that we find ourselves attracted to another. Even though some of my epic crush on Tina Fey has much to do with her adorable glasses, subtle, voluptuous body, and that endearing little scar on her cheek (creepy enough for you?), I really admire her as a woman. She’s intelligent, but not pretentious, totally hilarious in both realms of clever humor and goofy humor, and she seems to be a genuinely sweet person. Much of my crush on Tina Fey resides in the fact that I want to BE her. Similarly, I think much of Walt’s love was admiration for someone he identified as a great man.

P.S. Sorry, I got a little carried away with Tina there.

By: mscanlon

mscanlon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:36:36 +0000

Erin, I am obsessed with questions of addressees (as you will see again in class tonight), so I really liked that comment. Think about how overpowering that “you” can be for the reader even when it is technically diluted by being shared with all other Americans– here it’s like the power of that insistent, magnetic, intense love is coming through a magnifying glass onto Lincoln.

By: tallersam

tallersam — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:24:37 +0000

I really agree with you that Whitman’s treatment of Lincoln stands out so much because it contrasts with his previously-favored general address. When he focuses that world-spanning/uniting attention on one single person, what else CAN result but this (as we see it) over the top, fanboy-type of feeling?

Like the other two, I have to say that I really appreciate your factoid about lilacs. My previous interaction with the plant had been through “The Wasteland,” so I thought it was a funeral flower. Obviously, this would have fit with Whitman’s elegy, but it’s kind of one-dimensional. Throwing “first love” flowers onto the coffin of a man that’s never been met personally is so much more complex than throwing “funeral” flowers on. I think this shows a bit of a “pastoral” kind of feeling; even though Whitman was with Peter Doyle, or whoever, Lincoln was the muse that he looked at from afar.

By: jpike1

jpike1 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:17:57 +0000

Erin,

You make a good point, how when Whitman wrote Song of Myself, America was struggling, and that Lincoln wanted to fix America much like Lincoln. I too forgot this, and it makes sense that Whitman would be attracted to Lincoln’s goals for America.
Also, it was interesting to learn about the lilacs representing first love or early love. This “first love” that Whitman has for Lincoln is definitely different than the sexual physical lust he describes in his “Calamus” poems.

By: chelseanewnam

chelseanewnam — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:27:40 +0000

Erin,
Thanks for looking up information about the lilacs. The idea that they are typically associated with “first love” is a really interesting multilayer to the symbolism behind them in the poem. I think Whitman’s idealization of and infatuation with Lincoln is less “Calamus” than was his relationship with the soldiers or with Peter Doyle, not just because of his minimal contact with Lincoln, but because of his opinion of Lincoln as the embodiment of the Union. The intensity of his admiration for the president is matched by the intensity with which he reveres a unified America. “First love” is a good way to describe Whitman’s feelings about Lincoln: innocent, potentially unrequited, and intensely passionate, so it is entirely appropriate that they be a last memento of the president.