Comments on: Erin for 11/4 (in which I get a little blubbery)

By: wordbreaker

wordbreaker — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:51:54 +0000

I have to concur with much that is being said. Hitting the deathbed addition feels a little like hitting the part at the end of the movie where you know the main character is dying and you can’t do anything to stop it. At some level though, the death bed edition garners so much respect from me in that we’ve seen how far these poems have come and how far Whitman has come as a poet.

By: chelseanewnam

chelseanewnam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:05:23 +0000

I think it is wonderful how attached we have all become to Whitman over the course of the semester. Just thinking back to the overall reaction of the class at the Library of Congress makes me recognize just how important this poet has become to our lives. Whether we admire his work for its meaning or find him completely exhausting and contradictory, I think it is pretty safe to say that we have all developed some sort of fondness for him. Reading the “Deathbed Edition” with a set of new eyes was a wonderful and new experience for me as well and I found myself wanting to underline things I hadn’t in the 1855 “Song of Myself.” Whenever I think on our attachment to him, I am also reminded of how this is just what Whitman wanted; we are a group of undergrads, many of us on the brink of figuring out how to assimilate into the world of “the man” and still keep our w(h)its about us. Whitman is giving us a big send off, a set of guidlines from which to rise and go out into the world.

By: bcbottle

bcbottle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:17:13 +0000

It’s interesting to think about how our perceptions of Whitman have changed as we’ve studied him more. Particularly considering that Whitman out forth the DB edition as the greatest of his works, the one which should be published from then on. I wonder if he would feel that his work is made more powerful by following him from 1855 to 1892 or if he would feel that his message would be lost. Personally I’m glad I’ve gotten to grow with Whitman. Thank you for the post, it has definitely got my Walt Gears turning.

By: meghanedwards

meghanedwards — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:54:02 +0000

Erin,

No lie-I was tearing up when I read the DB edition as well, and your post has gotten me all melancholy again. I really like your point about the speaker’s confidence, particularly where he speaks about God; I underlined the “Why should I pray?” line, because it struck me as so quintessentially older-Whitman. It’s almost as if now, when Whitman has seen all and done all that he’s done, that he feels no need to make allowances for the church. If anything, he’s more stable in his belief that it has to go. This is particularly interesting, since usually one hears stories of individuals turning to religion at the point of death. Whitman, though, true to form, defies every expectation one might have of him.