Exploring Whitman

Womanly Whitman

Film Location: Sunken Road in front of the original stone wall where the Battle of Fredericksburg was fought. In the background is The Angel of Marye’s Heights monument. Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black clouds? (428) During this reading the wind certainly was!

“I announce a man or woman coming, perhaps you are the one, (So long!) (610) This line from Whitman’s final poem in the deathbed edition of Leaves of Grass, So Long!, can be interpreted in a countless number of ways. So, after this weeks readings, I feel that each of the poets are striving to […]

As I have argued in previous posts, I classify Walt Whitman as a perfectionist. Viewing Whitman’s journals and notebooks up close at the Library of Congress, we saw the blotches of ink that had crossed out words and phrases and places where Whitman scribbled new ideas over the paper. Even in his letters to his […]

Starting off October 3rd at the Fredericksburg Visitors Center, our tour guide made a statement that I have scribbled down in my notebook, “The lay of the land is important so generations to come can better understand” and next to this I wrote, “Whitman would like this!” So, I thought I would focus on this […]

Walking back to my apartment on October 24th, 2009 after twelve hours of “Whitman Searching” in the DC rain, my body was tired and aching but my mind was racing because I had discovered a new dimension to Whitman that I had never experienced before. Walt Whitman was once a name that I would glance […]

After viewing Whitman’s war journals and letters at the Library of Congress, I was taken aback at the extensive editing Whitman did. I even started to classify Whitman as a perfectionist. So, when looking at the 1891-92 Song of Myself compared to his first 1855 edition, I once again saw this perfectionist attitude shining through. […]

Obviously Whitman loved Abraham Lincoln. Countless lines of Whitman’s poetry, prose, journals, and lectures describe a deep admiration and love for the “Martyr Chief”. However, as I read Whitman’s expression of his love for Lincoln in the “Memories of President Lincoln” poems, I have to wonder if the love for Lincoln could be compared to […]

Bealeton, Va. Drum corps, 93d New York Infantry Throughout the Civil War, music played a significant part in soldiers’ daily lives. According to Aaron Sheehan-Dean in his work, The View From the Ground Experiences of Civil War Soldiers, songs persuaded men to enlist, comforted them during battle, entertained them in camp, supported them during drill […]

I feel that Morris truly brought alive the Walt Whitman that arrived at the Lacey House during the height of the Civil War. The description of Whitman that was portrayed throughout “The Better Angel” and Calder’s “Personal Recollections of Walt Whitman” was a man that was a selfless individual who felt a calling to assist […]