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September 22nd, 2009:

Elizabeth’s Post for 9.24: Individualism

Sep 22nd, 2009
by lizmoser.
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Generation Y is very comfortable with its sense of individualism.

Nicknamed the ME, or millenium generation, each one of us has been taught to prize our own sense of self, often to the point of overindulgence.  Whitman is also a subscriber to individualism, but his poetry takes the concept far from its modern selfish bent.

Each of us is, in a sense, our own universe, encompassing a whole galaxy of senses and institutions.  Each world is unique, which means that each of us perceives everything around us differently.  Our common world is fractured into billions of singular variations, attuned to each man or woman’s view and experiences.

Although this may sound abstract, Whitman explains this individualism concretely in the latter part of Leaves of Grass (1855.) Not only are our legislative laws and world religions secondary to the great immortality and power of man, but even the laws of gravity and physics are subject to him.  Man is his own poem, and he holds a poetic power capable of god-like creation, as Whitman states, “leaves are not more shed out of trees or trees from the earth than they are shed out of you” (p.93.)

Without man, art, architecture, music, sculpture, would have no meaning.  History, politics and even civilization is dependent on the individual, and like the early sketches of the celestial bodies rotating around the earth, all of these institutions revolve around the individual.

We are not put on the earth by chance, Whitman claims, and we are not subject to fate or the rise and fall of fortune.  Divine powers do no exist to dwarf us or withdraw something essential from us at whim (92.)  The very fact that we exist on earth is heavy with significance.  Imagine a world with billions of souls, each capable of creating an entire universe to carry around with him through life and beyond death.

In the face of this great creative potential, in the powers we have with these universes in our pockets, the cohesiveness of the world seems to fall apart.  How is it possible that man can connect to his fellow man if what we experience is so different from person to person?  Would this not lead to certain isolation?  The concept of the mad writer trapped in his own head is not an uncommon figure in literature.  Is it still possible for us to get in touch with mankind?

Whitman assures us that these splinters of reality are drawn together with one look in the mirror:

Will the whole come back then?
Can we see the signs of the best by a look in the lookingglass?  Is there nothing greater or more?
Does all sit there with you and here with me? (p. 94.)

One look in the mirror shows us the perfect combination of the universe of our thoughts and experiences–we are met with the image of our own face.  Only we know the intricacies of the way we see the world, but everyone we meet is able to see our face: a highly condensed but nevertheless true symbol of our selves.

Adam L for 9/24

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adaml.
Comments are off for this post

I’m very interested in the anti-capitalist ideas in “A Song for Occupations.” Parallels between this poem and “Song of Myself” are drawn in their similar titles (though not designated by Whitman), first and second person voices, and pervasive egalitarian themes. The poem begins with a call for universal and personal human intimacy, but uses the key word “possess” to establish a dual political theme. The question asked in the first lines will become clearer as the poem unfolds: What is “the best I possess” or “the best you possess”? It becomes inarguably clear by the end of the poem that Whitman is no Material Girl, and I am left with suspicions that he may have been an avid reader of Marx at the time of writing this work.

In the very next line the dual ideas persist: “This is unfinished business with me.” While continuing the celebration of the essential self (“me as I am”), and the “contact of bodies and souls,” as he did in “Song of Myself,” Whitman also hints at the competing worldview value-system that he undermines in the lines that follow: Capitalism, the valuing of money over the essence of humankind, the viewing of people and objects of nature only in terms of enterprise. “Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?” The question implies Whitman’s own dissatisfaction with the effect money has had on the design of human relationships. He describes the inequality of a Capitalist economy as defining the human as either “servant” or “master,” and with “neither” of which does he choose to identify.

“I take no sooner a large price than a small price.”

“I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.”

He expresses a deep sympathy with the working classes and the underpriveleged, identifying with the “workman” and “workwoman,” calling for the self percieved social equality of the “drunk,” the “thief,” the “diseased.” Whereas Whitman addresses his own soul in “Song of Myself,” here he calls out to the “Souls of men and women,” in an attempt for this poem to be far more political, a rally cry to the proletariat.  (Side note: “or that you was once drunk” What’s this improper grammar about?)

One of the most obviously anti-capitalist lines is on page 91, where Whitman writes, “And send no agent or medium…and offer no representative of value–but offer the value itself.” Clearly the “representative of value” is money. Again, on page 92, one of the most revealingly anti-capitalist passages, which attacks the greed of enterprise and the mechanization of the human body by enterprise:

The light and shade–the curious sense of body and identity–the greed that with perfect complaisance devours all things–the endless pride and outstretching of man–unspeakable joys and sorrows,

The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees….and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever and each acre of surface and space forever,

Have you reckoned them as mainly for a trade or farmwork? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman’s leisure or a lady’s leisure?

These questions are direct, and starkly revealing of the impulses which were, before, underlying a continued conversation started in “Song of Myself.” In short, Whitman summarizes himself on page 93: “The sum of all known value and respect I add up in you.” To Whitman, the value of money, of business, of things one can own, of employees, is incomparable to the value of the essential individual, and the society he lived in clearly made him feel as though pointing this out was important.

Adam L for 9/24

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adaml.
Comments are off for this post

I’m very interested in the anti-capitalist ideas in “A Song for Occupations.” Parallels between this poem and “Song of Myself” are drawn in their similar titles (though not designated by Whitman), first and second person voices, and pervasive egalitarian themes. The poem begins with a call for universal and personal human intimacy, but uses the key word “possess” to establish a dual political theme. The question asked in the first lines will become clearer as the poem unfolds: What is “the best I possess” or “the best you possess”? It becomes inarguably clear by the end of the poem that Whitman is no Material Girl, and I am left with suspicions that he may have been an avid reader of Marx at the time of writing this work.

In the very next line the dual ideas persist: “This is unfinished business with me.” While continuing the celebration of the essential self (“me as I am”), and the “contact of bodies and souls,” as he did in “Song of Myself,” Whitman also hints at the competing worldview value-system that he undermines in the lines that follow: Capitalism, the valuing of money over the essence of humankind, the viewing of people and objects of nature only in terms of enterprise. “Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?” The question implies Whitman’s own dissatisfaction with the effect money has had on the design of human relationships. He describes the inequality of a Capitalist economy as defining the human as either “servant” or “master,” and with “neither” of which does he choose to identify.

“I take no sooner a large price than a small price.”

“I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.”

He expresses a deep sympathy with the working classes and the underpriveleged, identifying with the “workman” and “workwoman,” calling for the self percieved social equality of the “drunk,” the “thief,” the “diseased.” Whereas Whitman addresses his own soul in “Song of Myself,” here he calls out to the “Souls of men and women,” in an attempt for this poem to be far more political, a rally cry to the proletariat.  (Side note: “or that you was once drunk” What’s this improper grammar about?)

One of the most obviously anti-capitalist lines is on page 91, where Whitman writes, “And send no agent or medium…and offer no representative of value–but offer the value itself.” Clearly the “representative of value” is money. Again, on page 92, one of the most revealingly anti-capitalist passages, which attacks the greed of enterprise and the mechanization of the human body by enterprise:

The light and shade–the curious sense of body and identity–the greed that with perfect complaisance devours all things–the endless pride and outstretching of man–unspeakable joys and sorrows,

The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees….and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever and each acre of surface and space forever,

Have you reckoned them as mainly for a trade or farmwork? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman’s leisure or a lady’s leisure?

These questions are direct, and starkly revealing of the impulses which were, before, underlying a continued conversation started in “Song of Myself.” In short, Whitman summarizes himself on page 93: “The sum of all known value and respect I add up in you.” To Whitman, the value of money, of business, of things one can own, of employees, is incomparable to the value of the essential individual, and the society he lived in clearly made him feel as though pointing this out was important.

Adam L for 9/24

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adaml.
Comments are off for this post

I’m very interested in the anti-capitalist ideas in “A Song for Occupations.” Parallels between this poem and “Song of Myself” are drawn in their similar titles (though not designated by Whitman), first and second person voices, and pervasive egalitarian themes. The poem begins with a call for universal and personal human intimacy, but uses the key word “possess” to establish a dual political theme. The question asked in the first lines will become clearer as the poem unfolds: What is “the best I possess” or “the best you possess”? It becomes inarguably clear by the end of the poem that Whitman is no Material Girl, and I am left with suspicions that he may have been an avid reader of Marx at the time of writing this work.

In the very next line the dual ideas persist: “This is unfinished business with me.” While continuing the celebration of the essential self (“me as I am”), and the “contact of bodies and souls,” as he did in “Song of Myself,” Whitman also hints at the competing worldview value-system that he undermines in the lines that follow: Capitalism, the valuing of money over the essence of humankind, the viewing of people and objects of nature only in terms of enterprise. “Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?” The question implies Whitman’s own dissatisfaction with the effect money has had on the design of human relationships. He describes the inequality of a Capitalist economy as defining the human as either “servant” or “master,” and with “neither” of which does he choose to identify.

“I take no sooner a large price than a small price.”

“I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.”

He expresses a deep sympathy with the working classes and the underpriveleged, identifying with the “workman” and “workwoman,” calling for the self percieved social equality of the “drunk,” the “thief,” the “diseased.” Whereas Whitman addresses his own soul in “Song of Myself,” here he calls out to the “Souls of men and women,” in an attempt for this poem to be far more political, a rally cry to the proletariat.  (Side note: “or that you was once drunk” What’s this improper grammar about?)

One of the most obviously anti-capitalist lines is on page 91, where Whitman writes, “And send no agent or medium…and offer no representative of value–but offer the value itself.” Clearly the “representative of value” is money. Again, on page 92, one of the most revealingly anti-capitalist passages, which attacks the greed of enterprise and the mechanization of the human body by enterprise:

The light and shade–the curious sense of body and identity–the greed that with perfect complaisance devours all things–the endless pride and outstretching of man–unspeakable joys and sorrows,

The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees….and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever and each acre of surface and space forever,

Have you reckoned them as mainly for a trade or farmwork? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman’s leisure or a lady’s leisure?

These questions are direct, and starkly revealing of the impulses which were, before, underlying a continued conversation started in “Song of Myself.” In short, Whitman summarizes himself on page 93: “The sum of all known value and respect I add up in you.” To Whitman, the value of money, of business, of things one can own, of employees, is incomparable to the value of the essential individual, and the society he lived in clearly made him feel as though pointing this out was important.

Adam for Sept 22nd–Whitman mad libs

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adamb.
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click here to play Walt Whitman mad libs!

cover_grandslam_lgwalt_whitman

Adam for Sept 22nd–Whitman mad libs

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adamb.
Comments are off for this post

click here to play Walt Whitman mad libs!

cover_grandslam_lgwalt_whitman

Adam for Sept 22nd–Whitman mad libs

Sep 22nd, 2009
by adamb.
Comments are off for this post

click here to play Walt Whitman mad libs!

cover_grandslam_lgwalt_whitman

Emily for Sept. 22

Sep 22nd, 2009
by emilym.
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Looking at the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass as a whole, it is clear that many of the themes in “Song of Myself” carry over into the other poems in the collection.  I was able to find connections very easily, and for each one I found there are probably many other possibilities.

In “Song for Occupations,” Whitman writes, “Come closer to me,/Push close my lovers and take the best I possess,/Yield closer and closer and give me the best you possess” (1-3).  In “Song of Myself,” Whitman writes “I celebrate myself,/And what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (1-3).  The poet is creating an informal, welcoming introduction in both of these passages.  He celebrates himself and everyone else in “Song of Myself” and expresses the intimacy of equality in “Song for Occupations.”

Moving from the theme of intimacy and equality, Whitman also considers the theme of time as it relates to life and death.  In “To Think of Time,” the poet writes:

Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,

Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,

The whole universe indicates that it is good,

The past and the present indicate that it is good (116-19).

This is similar to the passage:

They are alive and well somewhere;

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,

And if there was it led to forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,

And ceased the moment life appeared (“Song of Myself” 116-19).

In the former passage, Whitman is discussing death metaphorically.  He is walking towards a future he can’t define, but he knows it will be good.  He knows this because he has seen the circle of life occur throughout nature—all around him, so he isn’t worried about where he’s going—in his life or his death.  The second passage actually helps explain the first (notice, it occurs first in the book):  The excerpt continues a discussion of death answering where the old people are.  “The smallest sprout” grows from the once dead, showing “there is really no death.”  This is part of the universe which “indicates that it is good.”   These excerpts echo each other as many of the lines throughout Leaves of Grass do.

Going back to the theme of equality, Whitman often saw himself in others.  As a poet he often writes in multiple personas—shifting from race to race and gender to gender.  In “The Sleepers” he does this throughout the entire poem.  He sets up the premise in the following passage:  “I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers/And I become the other dreamers” (29-30).   He enters the dreams of those sleeping and becomes part of their dreams—part of the dreamers.  This is a good device to allow the speaker to switch between personas without confusing the reader too much.   After reading “Song of Myself” it is obvious that Whitman will write in this manner with relative ease.  In a passage that could be taken as an explanation for his ability and fondness for writing in various personas, Whitman writes, “In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less,/And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them” (“Song of Myself” 400-01).  The speaker considers himself equal with everybody; therefore, he has no trouble becoming them in his poetry.  He doesn’t care about “good” or “bad;” he writes it all the same, with the same energy and enthusiasm.

In short, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is consistent in its energy and thematic elements throughout the poems—with “Song of Myself” setting the stage.  Considering the length of “Song of Myself” compared to the other poems in this edition, it really isn’t too surprising that the themes would re-emerge in later poems.

Emily for Sept. 22

Sep 22nd, 2009
by emilym.
Comments are off for this post

Looking at the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass as a whole, it is clear that many of the themes in “Song of Myself” carry over into the other poems in the collection.  I was able to find connections very easily, and for each one I found there are probably many other possibilities.

In “Song for Occupations,” Whitman writes, “Come closer to me,/Push close my lovers and take the best I possess,/Yield closer and closer and give me the best you possess” (1-3).  In “Song of Myself,” Whitman writes “I celebrate myself,/And what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (1-3).  The poet is creating an informal, welcoming introduction in both of these passages.  He celebrates himself and everyone else in “Song of Myself” and expresses the intimacy of equality in “Song for Occupations.”

Moving from the theme of intimacy and equality, Whitman also considers the theme of time as it relates to life and death.  In “To Think of Time,” the poet writes:

Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,

Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,

The whole universe indicates that it is good,

The past and the present indicate that it is good (116-19).

This is similar to the passage:

They are alive and well somewhere;

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,

And if there was it led to forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,

And ceased the moment life appeared (“Song of Myself” 116-19).

In the former passage, Whitman is discussing death metaphorically.  He is walking towards a future he can’t define, but he knows it will be good.  He knows this because he has seen the circle of life occur throughout nature—all around him, so he isn’t worried about where he’s going—in his life or his death.  The second passage actually helps explain the first (notice, it occurs first in the book):  The excerpt continues a discussion of death answering where the old people are.  “The smallest sprout” grows from the once dead, showing “there is really no death.”  This is part of the universe which “indicates that it is good.”   These excerpts echo each other as many of the lines throughout Leaves of Grass do.

Going back to the theme of equality, Whitman often saw himself in others.  As a poet he often writes in multiple personas—shifting from race to race and gender to gender.  In “The Sleepers” he does this throughout the entire poem.  He sets up the premise in the following passage:  “I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers/And I become the other dreamers” (29-30).   He enters the dreams of those sleeping and becomes part of their dreams—part of the dreamers.  This is a good device to allow the speaker to switch between personas without confusing the reader too much.   After reading “Song of Myself” it is obvious that Whitman will write in this manner with relative ease.  In a passage that could be taken as an explanation for his ability and fondness for writing in various personas, Whitman writes, “In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less,/And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them” (“Song of Myself” 400-01).  The speaker considers himself equal with everybody; therefore, he has no trouble becoming them in his poetry.  He doesn’t care about “good” or “bad;” he writes it all the same, with the same energy and enthusiasm.

In short, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is consistent in its energy and thematic elements throughout the poems—with “Song of Myself” setting the stage.  Considering the length of “Song of Myself” compared to the other poems in this edition, it really isn’t too surprising that the themes would re-emerge in later poems.

Elizabeth’s Post for 9.24: Individualism

Sep 22nd, 2009
by lizmoser.
Comments are off for this post

Generation Y is very comfortable with its sense of individualism.

Nicknamed the ME, or millenium generation, each one of us has been taught to prize our own sense of self, often to the point of overindulgence.  Whitman is also a subscriber to individualism, but his poetry takes the concept far from its modern selfish bent.

Each of us is, in a sense, our own universe, encompassing a whole galaxy of senses and institutions.  Each world is unique, which means that each of us perceives everything around us differently.  Our common world is fractured into billions of singular variations, attuned to each man or woman’s view and experiences.

Although this may sound abstract, Whitman explains this individualism concretely in the latter part of Leaves of Grass (1855.) Not only are our legislative laws and world religions secondary to the great immortality and power of man, but even the laws of gravity and physics are subject to him.  Man is his own poem, and he holds a poetic power capable of god-like creation, as Whitman states, “leaves are not more shed out of trees or trees from the earth than they are shed out of you” (p.93.)

Without man, art, architecture, music, sculpture, would have no meaning.  History, politics and even civilization is dependent on the individual, and like the early sketches of the celestial bodies rotating around the earth, all of these institutions revolve around the individual.

We are not put on the earth by chance, Whitman claims, and we are not subject to fate or the rise and fall of fortune.  Divine powers do no exist to dwarf us or withdraw something essential from us at whim (92.)  The very fact that we exist on earth is heavy with significance.  Imagine a world with billions of souls, each capable of creating an entire universe to carry around with him through life and beyond death.

In the face of this great creative potential, in the powers we have with these universes in our pockets, the cohesiveness of the world seems to fall apart.  How is it possible that man can connect to his fellow man if what we experience is so different from person to person?  Would this not lead to certain isolation?  The concept of the mad writer trapped in his own head is not an uncommon figure in literature.  Is it still possible for us to get in touch with mankind?

Whitman assures us that these splinters of reality are drawn together with one look in the mirror:

Will the whole come back then?
Can we see the signs of the best by a look in the lookingglass?  Is there nothing greater or more?
Does all sit there with you and here with me? (p. 94.)

One look in the mirror shows us the perfect combination of the universe of our thoughts and experiences–we are met with the image of our own face.  Only we know the intricacies of the way we see the world, but everyone we meet is able to see our face: a highly condensed but nevertheless true symbol of our selves.

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