Tue 15 Sep 2009
Something that I feel I cannot connect with Whitman is the information we have about his family. As I recall, he was the breadwinner for his family, his mother and siblings, for much of his life. However, I don’t see this affecting his work. Also, with his emphasis on family and children to increase the US, he never had any. His sexual preferences may have had a role in that, but how does he reconcile that with his poetic message that he is, himself, this virile, baby-making man?
September 19th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Whitman did support some of his family for many years– his mother, his mentally ill elder brother (whom he eventually institutionalized because of increasing violence) and his disabled youngest brother. But several of the other siblings also had serious complications in their health, in very poor marriages, or both. His brothers Jeff and George, and their wives, were emotional and literal supports for him at other points. As for the family and children– well, I think you found your answer already. Fertility/virility can still be a vibrant, rich metaphor for the new life he brings to the US, for him as the founder-father of a refreshed nation or people.