Comments on: Virginia for October 27th

By: pieruccm

pieruccm — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:22:10 +0000

Just to get it clear – are you suggesting that there was some kind of threesome going on between Whitty, Abe, and Mary?! That is some kind of creepy image that comes to mind…if that’s the case, she must not have been bothered by a lot of facial hair – they both had a lot of it with their crazy beards!!
Gross…

By: cirvine1965

cirvine1965 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:05:58 +0000

I think that your metaphor for Whitman’s love for Lincoln being like your feelings for your grandmother works really well. It’s sort of like how photos, stories, and home-movies of yourself as a little kid weave themselves in to your memory, even though you don’t actually remember it. The thing that I find strange though is that, while you could not possibly have spent more time with your grandmother, Whitman and Lincoln lived in the same city and moved in overlapping circles but never actually met. I can’t help but wonder why Whitman never reached out to Lincoln personally, especially since we learned about how open Lincoln’s White House was to people who wished to speak with the president.

By: meghanedwards

meghanedwards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:51:12 +0000

Virginia,

I really liked the way you touch on Whitman’s comparison to the “drooping star” here; I know a lot of us have spoken on it, particularly in reference to its Christ-like symbolism, but the way you do so here puts an entirely different spin on it. In this way, Lincoln never really dies; his idealistic legacy continues to evolve and grow long after Whitman or any of us go. And in this evolution, he grows and becomes just as useful, perhaps because he was mostly an ideal in the first place.

By: jpike1

jpike1 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:24:19 +0000

Virginia,
The information about dying stars makes the “drooping star in the west” line a much more intense image for me. Although I too believe that Whitman by no means thought about the white dwarf evolving into a black dwarf, I do think that Whitman found Lincoln’s legacy as an evolving and ever present goal for America. Also, I feel that Whitman knew that Lincoln’s death would never be forgotten and ever present, similar to the star in the west. Really interesting information, thanks!