Stirred, Not Shaken

What I Don’t Know About Whitman . . .

brady on 15 Sep 2009 07:48 pm

. . . could fill books. But I’m a little embarrassed to say, one nagging curiosity about his personal life I have is: all the adhesiveness and historical context aside, did he really get as close to other men as he seems to have, and never end up experiencing physical consummation with any of them? I guess that’s voyeuristic and petty, but I can’t get around it.

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3 Responses to “What I Don’t Know About Whitman . . .”

kevinv on 16 Sep 2009 at 6:27 am #

That’s a good question i never considered the possibility of it. I just assumed he did or didn’t and there wasn’t anything in between. Perhaps he did have feelings toward men and never acted on them… ?
Mara Scanlon on 18 Sep 2009 at 7:51 am #

Obviously I don’t know, Brady. But unless I parse and contextualize it into oblivion, it’s hard for me to take statements like the one he makes about the night he met Doyle without believing there is physical consummation.
jessicaa on 05 Oct 2009 at 9:10 pm #

I have a hard time getting around that as well. I pretty much just assume that he did have relations with men, and maybe dances around the subject so much because he was afraid to reveal that much. Obviously WHitman is quite bold, but maybe admitting that was going to far, so he just alludes to his relations in a vague way.