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September 29th, 2009:

Elizabeth for October 1st: Passion and the Act-Poem

Sep 29th, 2009
by lizmoser.
Comments are off for this post

Is it fair to write Whitman off as merely bawdy?

If the highly explicit passages from Children of Adam and Calamus are noted, Whitman pulls no stops on shocking and exciting his readers with his revelations of the passion of lovers.  But Whitman makes an explicit reference to a higher purpose in From Pent-up Aching Rivers–not only does he sing the praises of the body, but he aims at a higher social purpose.

In the very beginning of the poem, Whitman states that sex is so consuming and essential to him that he will stand against social impropriety to proclaim it: “From what I am determin’d to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men/From my own voice resonant, singing the phallus” (p. 248-9.)  The passion defines his identity, “from that if myself without which I were nothing” (248.)  The joyful union of two lovers is one of the greatest compelling forces behind Whitman’s verse that it is difficult to imagine what his poetry would look like without its drive.

The passage is full of a constantly changing dynamic of yield and command, possession and submission.  The master to the pilot, the general to his men–Whitman details lovemaking by connecting it to other examples of trust and companionship between men.  This opens up the privacy of the lovers’ tryst to a more general spectrum of respect and love, which in turn is fed back in to develop the lovers’ relationship.

Most touching of all, Whitman calls the body an “act-poem” wherein lovemaking is nature’s poetry, a harmony of two voices.  The act is divine, blessed and not shameful.  The “divine father” is the seed of many generations of great children, just as Adam is the root of all of mankind.  In the conclusion of the poem, we are directed to celebrate the act of union and the children that it produces.  While working to undo all the deep-seated religious and cultural taboos associated with sex, Whitman describes the act beautifully, praises its worth and creates from it a pure image of its divine origin and divine works.

Jillian for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by jillians.
Comments are off for this post

I never realized how important a title was when it came to poetry.

Last semester, in a class with Dr. Sill ,we had a class conversation about titles of chapters in novels.  Some of the students did not feel a chapter title was necessary, while others liked it as a form of foreshadowing.  I fell somewhere in the middle of this debate.  Where novels are concerned, I don’t think chapter titles are necessary but I do enjoy them when they are included.

Poetry is an entirely different beast for me.  Without a title I felt lost.  Completely lost.  The funny thing is, for the most part even when they are titles, I struggle with understanding poems.  But I still find it easier to have one as a means of gaining a possible insight to what I will be reading.  In addition to that, a title is a mechanism to draw a reader into the poem.  I know that if I am given a choice, I am more likely to be drawn to a poem that it titled in a way that catched my eye.

So, imagine my relief when I discovered that there were titles for this weeks readings, Children of Adam and Calamus.  Of course, like with the previous readings titles, all of them are simply the first line of the poem; still, better late than never.

In Calamus, which I liked better than Children of Adam, the title I was most drawn to was Are You the New Person Drawn toward Me?.  This title made me want to read and moreover, after reading, it made me want to write.

As I have previously written, Whitman and poetry are both a bit of a struggle for me, so finding something to connect with means a great deal.  I connected to every line of this poem; it has been tough for me to understand how people relate so deeply to poetry…until now.

I have noted my thoughts in red.

Are you the new person drawn toward me? The title/first line sets up the scene for me.  It made me think of what I ask myself when meeting new people.  To some extent, it is much like this.  I wonder what I will be in this persons life and what they will be in mine.  Is this someone you will know for one minute, one day, one year?  A lifetime?
To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose; When meeting someone the first time, it is hard to be ones “real” self.  I feel like there are many different versions of me and in my life people, depending on who they are, know a certain version.  Some people get the surface, some get a little more and some get the whole deal, but in the first meeting it is all about first impressions.  And in my opinion, they don’t offer a whole lot in the long run.
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant
manner of me? These lines express further the idea of getting to know someone.  When I meet someone, it takes me time to let them in, to feel a trust and a love but for some this happens quickly.  It is difficult not to question ones reasons or motives.  It is hard to let down walls and build trusts.
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?  This last line really got to me.  It is easy to dream up a connection with someone that isn’t truly there and it hurts to find out that it wasn’t as real as you thought  I think here, this is the final warning…you can get to know him, but understand that you might get hurt.  What you see may not be what you created.  In a new friendship, and very much so in relationships, it is easy to only see the good and look past all the not so good.  When the real comes out past the surface, you may realize it had all been an illusion.

The older I have gotten the more important real relationships have become in my life.  It has become clear to me what I will and will not tolerate in friendships/relationships.  I think of myself as a very real and true person, but I am also guarded when it comes to letting people in.  I felt a personal relationship with this poem and for the first time this semester, I really felt connected with what Whitman was saying.

 

Jillian for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by jillians.
Comments are off for this post

I never realized how important a title was when it came to poetry.

Last semester, in a class with Dr. Sill ,we had a class conversation about titles of chapters in novels.  Some of the students did not feel a chapter title was necessary, while others liked it as a form of foreshadowing.  I fell somewhere in the middle of this debate.  Where novels are concerned, I don’t think chapter titles are necessary but I do enjoy them when they are included.

Poetry is an entirely different beast for me.  Without a title I felt lost.  Completely lost.  The funny thing is, for the most part even when they are titles, I struggle with understanding poems.  But I still find it easier to have one as a means of gaining a possible insight to what I will be reading.  In addition to that, a title is a mechanism to draw a reader into the poem.  I know that if I am given a choice, I am more likely to be drawn to a poem that it titled in a way that catched my eye.

So, imagine my relief when I discovered that there were titles for this weeks readings, Children of Adam and Calamus.  Of course, like with the previous readings titles, all of them are simply the first line of the poem; still, better late than never.

In Calamus, which I liked better than Children of Adam, the title I was most drawn to was Are You the New Person Drawn toward Me?.  This title made me want to read and moreover, after reading, it made me want to write.

As I have previously written, Whitman and poetry are both a bit of a struggle for me, so finding something to connect with means a great deal.  I connected to every line of this poem; it has been tough for me to understand how people relate so deeply to poetry…until now.

I have noted my thoughts in red.

Are you the new person drawn toward me? The title/first line sets up the scene for me.  It made me think of what I ask myself when meeting new people.  To some extent, it is much like this.  I wonder what I will be in this persons life and what they will be in mine.  Is this someone you will know for one minute, one day, one year?  A lifetime?
To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose; When meeting someone the first time, it is hard to be ones “real” self.  I feel like there are many different versions of me and in my life people, depending on who they are, know a certain version.  Some people get the surface, some get a little more and some get the whole deal, but in the first meeting it is all about first impressions.  And in my opinion, they don’t offer a whole lot in the long run.
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant
manner of me? These lines express further the idea of getting to know someone.  When I meet someone, it takes me time to let them in, to feel a trust and a love but for some this happens quickly.  It is difficult not to question ones reasons or motives.  It is hard to let down walls and build trusts.
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?  This last line really got to me.  It is easy to dream up a connection with someone that isn’t truly there and it hurts to find out that it wasn’t as real as you thought  I think here, this is the final warning…you can get to know him, but understand that you might get hurt.  What you see may not be what you created.  In a new friendship, and very much so in relationships, it is easy to only see the good and look past all the not so good.  When the real comes out past the surface, you may realize it had all been an illusion.

The older I have gotten the more important real relationships have become in my life.  It has become clear to me what I will and will not tolerate in friendships/relationships.  I think of myself as a very real and true person, but I am also guarded when it comes to letting people in.  I felt a personal relationship with this poem and for the first time this semester, I really felt connected with what Whitman was saying.

 

Jillian for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by jillians.
Comments are off for this post

I never realized how important a title was when it came to poetry.

Last semester, in a class with Dr. Sill ,we had a class conversation about titles of chapters in novels.  Some of the students did not feel a chapter title was necessary, while others liked it as a form of foreshadowing.  I fell somewhere in the middle of this debate.  Where novels are concerned, I don’t think chapter titles are necessary but I do enjoy them when they are included.

Poetry is an entirely different beast for me.  Without a title I felt lost.  Completely lost.  The funny thing is, for the most part even when they are titles, I struggle with understanding poems.  But I still find it easier to have one as a means of gaining a possible insight to what I will be reading.  In addition to that, a title is a mechanism to draw a reader into the poem.  I know that if I am given a choice, I am more likely to be drawn to a poem that it titled in a way that catched my eye.

So, imagine my relief when I discovered that there were titles for this weeks readings, Children of Adam and Calamus.  Of course, like with the previous readings titles, all of them are simply the first line of the poem; still, better late than never.

In Calamus, which I liked better than Children of Adam, the title I was most drawn to was Are You the New Person Drawn toward Me?.  This title made me want to read and moreover, after reading, it made me want to write.

As I have previously written, Whitman and poetry are both a bit of a struggle for me, so finding something to connect with means a great deal.  I connected to every line of this poem; it has been tough for me to understand how people relate so deeply to poetry…until now.

I have noted my thoughts in red.

Are you the new person drawn toward me? The title/first line sets up the scene for me.  It made me think of what I ask myself when meeting new people.  To some extent, it is much like this.  I wonder what I will be in this persons life and what they will be in mine.  Is this someone you will know for one minute, one day, one year?  A lifetime?
To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose; When meeting someone the first time, it is hard to be ones “real” self.  I feel like there are many different versions of me and in my life people, depending on who they are, know a certain version.  Some people get the surface, some get a little more and some get the whole deal, but in the first meeting it is all about first impressions.  And in my opinion, they don’t offer a whole lot in the long run.
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant
manner of me? These lines express further the idea of getting to know someone.  When I meet someone, it takes me time to let them in, to feel a trust and a love but for some this happens quickly.  It is difficult not to question ones reasons or motives.  It is hard to let down walls and build trusts.
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?  This last line really got to me.  It is easy to dream up a connection with someone that isn’t truly there and it hurts to find out that it wasn’t as real as you thought  I think here, this is the final warning…you can get to know him, but understand that you might get hurt.  What you see may not be what you created.  In a new friendship, and very much so in relationships, it is easy to only see the good and look past all the not so good.  When the real comes out past the surface, you may realize it had all been an illusion.

The older I have gotten the more important real relationships have become in my life.  It has become clear to me what I will and will not tolerate in friendships/relationships.  I think of myself as a very real and true person, but I am also guarded when it comes to letting people in.  I felt a personal relationship with this poem and for the first time this semester, I really felt connected with what Whitman was saying.

 

Elizabeth for October 1st: Passion and the Act-Poem

Sep 29th, 2009
by lizmoser.
Comments are off for this post

Is it fair to write Whitman off as merely bawdy?

If the highly explicit passages from Children of Adam and Calamus are noted, Whitman pulls no stops on shocking and exciting his readers with his revelations of the passion of lovers.  But Whitman makes an explicit reference to a higher purpose in From Pent-up Aching Rivers–not only does he sing the praises of the body, but he aims at a higher social purpose.

In the very beginning of the poem, Whitman states that sex is so consuming and essential to him that he will stand against social impropriety to proclaim it: “From what I am determin’d to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men/From my own voice resonant, singing the phallus” (p. 248-9.)  The passion defines his identity, “from that if myself without which I were nothing” (248.)  The joyful union of two lovers is one of the greatest compelling forces behind Whitman’s verse that it is difficult to imagine what his poetry would look like without its drive.

The passage is full of a constantly changing dynamic of yield and command, possession and submission.  The master to the pilot, the general to his men–Whitman details lovemaking by connecting it to other examples of trust and companionship between men.  This opens up the privacy of the lovers’ tryst to a more general spectrum of respect and love, which in turn is fed back in to develop the lovers’ relationship.

Most touching of all, Whitman calls the body an “act-poem” wherein lovemaking is nature’s poetry, a harmony of two voices.  The act is divine, blessed and not shameful.  The “divine father” is the seed of many generations of great children, just as Adam is the root of all of mankind.  In the conclusion of the poem, we are directed to celebrate the act of union and the children that it produces.  While working to undo all the deep-seated religious and cultural taboos associated with sex, Whitman describes the act beautifully, praises its worth and creates from it a pure image of its divine origin and divine works.

Emily for Sept 29

Sep 29th, 2009
by emilym.
Comments are off for this post

To continue with the playlist theme several of us have been riffing off of these past weeks, I will present a few of the many songs to which Whitman could relate.  As I was reading “Children of Adam,” I was listening to Judas Priest quite a bit, so that inspired the idea for tonight’s post.  I was sitting in Starbucks thinking “I have to read this stuff, and have something interesting to say/write about it,” when inspiration struck.  Something about the overtly sexual themes of the poems in “Children of Adam” and the sexually charged heavy metal music of Judas Priest blended really well in my mind.

So, I started thinking of songs that are obviously about sex, like Ted Nugent’s “Love Grenade” or Abba’s “Gimme! Gimme !Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” or Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover.”  Then I started thinking about the differences between the songs.  “Love Grenade” and “Turbo Lover,” like many songs of the “hair” metal genre, are considered vulgar and bawdy, and quite possibly very offensive to some women. (There must be something wrong with me as a feministic woman because I find “Love Grenade” hilarious and ridiculous, not offensive.)  Abba’s song, on the other hand, isn’t vulgar or bawdy because it doesn’t describe or illustrate a sex act in any way; it just alludes to one.  Because Whitman openly described sex acts, he was considered vulgar and bawdy in his day.  Artists who follow in Whitman’s footsteps, like the heavy metal bands, are shunned by the dominant culture and embraced by those interested in new, edgier art.

The hyperlinks lead to websites featuring the lyrics.  I apologize for the grammar and other issues that tend to offend us English major geeks.  These are due to errors in transcribing, not the artists’ writing.  Whitman would probably approve of the various deviations of language, but I don’t.

Now that we’ve looked at the contemporary songs’ treatment of sex, we can look at Whitman’s similar treatment.   In “A Woman Waits for Me,” Whitman’s speaker does two things that were unheard of in his day—describe sexual acts, and admit to having more than one partner in life.  Whitman writes, “I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and sufficient for me” (“Woman” 12).  In this line Whitman goes from a singular “woman” to a plural “women.”  This seems to be the single woman the speaker’s going to “love” in the time frame of the poem—and the other women like her, whom he’ll “love” in the future.  In any case, the speaker has no intention of marrying the woman, and the poem gives no indication of the speaker planning further nights with her.  This “one night stand” isn’t shocking anymore, but in the 19th century it certainly was.

The next shock within the poem is Whitman’s overtly sexual lines:

It is I, you women, I make my way,

I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you,

I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,

I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for these States, I               press with slow rude muscle,

I brace myself effectually, I listen to no entreaties,

I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated                within me (“Woman” 25-30).

These lines really don’t require much explanation.  “Pour the stuff” and “deposit what has so long accumulated within me” are obvious references to ejaculation.  The rest of the lines are aligned with the sexual theme.  Again, these lines are relatively shocking now, so it is understandable how shocking they were in the time they were written.

If you look at these lines and then look at the lyrics for the three songs above, you can see how sex continues to be a major theme in art—and can be done tastefully (Abba) or bawdily (Judas Priest and Ted Nugent).

Below are the videos for the three songs discussed.  Enjoy.




Emily for Sept 29

Sep 29th, 2009
by emilym.
Comments are off for this post

To continue with the playlist theme several of us have been riffing off of these past weeks, I will present a few of the many songs to which Whitman could relate.  As I was reading “Children of Adam,” I was listening to Judas Priest quite a bit, so that inspired the idea for tonight’s post.  I was sitting in Starbucks thinking “I have to read this stuff, and have something interesting to say/write about it,” when inspiration struck.  Something about the overtly sexual themes of the poems in “Children of Adam” and the sexually charged heavy metal music of Judas Priest blended really well in my mind.

So, I started thinking of songs that are obviously about sex, like Ted Nugent’s “Love Grenade” or Abba’s “Gimme! Gimme !Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” or Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover.”  Then I started thinking about the differences between the songs.  “Love Grenade” and “Turbo Lover,” like many songs of the “hair” metal genre, are considered vulgar and bawdy, and quite possibly very offensive to some women. (There must be something wrong with me as a feministic woman because I find “Love Grenade” hilarious and ridiculous, not offensive.)  Abba’s song, on the other hand, isn’t vulgar or bawdy because it doesn’t describe or illustrate a sex act in any way; it just alludes to one.  Because Whitman openly described sex acts, he was considered vulgar and bawdy in his day.  Artists who follow in Whitman’s footsteps, like the heavy metal bands, are shunned by the dominant culture and embraced by those interested in new, edgier art.

The hyperlinks lead to websites featuring the lyrics.  I apologize for the grammar and other issues that tend to offend us English major geeks.  These are due to errors in transcribing, not the artists’ writing.  Whitman would probably approve of the various deviations of language, but I don’t.

Now that we’ve looked at the contemporary songs’ treatment of sex, we can look at Whitman’s similar treatment.   In “A Woman Waits for Me,” Whitman’s speaker does two things that were unheard of in his day—describe sexual acts, and admit to having more than one partner in life.  Whitman writes, “I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and sufficient for me” (“Woman” 12).  In this line Whitman goes from a singular “woman” to a plural “women.”  This seems to be the single woman the speaker’s going to “love” in the time frame of the poem—and the other women like her, whom he’ll “love” in the future.  In any case, the speaker has no intention of marrying the woman, and the poem gives no indication of the speaker planning further nights with her.  This “one night stand” isn’t shocking anymore, but in the 19th century it certainly was.

The next shock within the poem is Whitman’s overtly sexual lines:

It is I, you women, I make my way,

I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you,

I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,

I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for these States, I               press with slow rude muscle,

I brace myself effectually, I listen to no entreaties,

I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated                within me (“Woman” 25-30).

These lines really don’t require much explanation.  “Pour the stuff” and “deposit what has so long accumulated within me” are obvious references to ejaculation.  The rest of the lines are aligned with the sexual theme.  Again, these lines are relatively shocking now, so it is understandable how shocking they were in the time they were written.

If you look at these lines and then look at the lyrics for the three songs above, you can see how sex continues to be a major theme in art—and can be done tastefully (Abba) or bawdily (Judas Priest and Ted Nugent).

Below are the videos for the three songs discussed.  Enjoy.

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Christine for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by pieruccm.
Comments are off for this post

I enjoyed reading both Children of Adam and Calamus but I do have to say that overall, I prefer Calamus and even further, I still like Song of Myself much better than these two texts.

From Calamus, I was particulary drawn to a couple of the sections. The first was “Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”. 

“Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”  – I find it quite amusing and realisitic that the veneer to which Whitman referes is quite exact to what a lot of people wear, especially when meeting new people. I wonder if there is something intrinsically position within each of our characters that forces us to put up some kind of guard around certain people? There can’t possibly be a moment when meeting someone new allows us to be completely open or honest…raw, even, as though we were with someone we’ve know our whole lives. Then again, is one ever really completely open with oneself? Are there not things that we shy away from within our own minds and spirits because of embarrassment, jealousy, or otherwise? These were some of the ideas that immediately popped into my head as I was reading. To be in complete contact with oneself is to be completely honest that there are masks that are worn not only with new people but around certain people, one mask; with other people, another. When Whitman asks this “new person” (or the reader) all of these questions, such as, “Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?” or “Do you think I am trusty and faithful?” I think he is really pointing out the idea that first impressions are everything, whether good or bad. The first impression something has of another is probably what is going to remain in the back of their minds forever and sometimes it may be hard to redeem onself from a nasty image that s/he put in some else’s head. Then again, who wants to be too perky or nice because then it just seems that personality is one of a “pushover.” First impressions seem to be so tough because one must get it “just right” and it is what all will base their possible potential they see in you on this first impression. Surprisingly, in Song of Myself, Whitman seems to be strongly, if not completely, against the idea of conforming and then actually caring what people think of him. He seems to be in a world of his own, one in a million, and his attitude reeks of “I don’t give a damn.” So, I came to the conclusion that these questions are more for the new person to ponder, not so much that he actually cares what the answers are; just as long as the new person considers how superficial a first impression/mask/illusion can really be and how only skin-deep interest can lead nowhere if the honest personality behind the illusion is contradictory. In essence, I would think it’s fairly safe to assume that any kind of relationship would be started out with a lie, from both parties involved because neither one would be him or her self, yet I don’t know that there would ever be any kind of escape from it!

Christine for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by pieruccm.
Comments are off for this post

I enjoyed reading both Children of Adam and Calamus but I do have to say that overall, I prefer Calamus and even further, I still like Song of Myself much better than these two texts.

From Calamus, I was particulary drawn to a couple of the sections. The first was “Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”. 

“Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”  – I find it quite amusing and realisitic that the veneer to which Whitman referes is quite exact to what a lot of people wear, especially when meeting new people. I wonder if there is something intrinsically position within each of our characters that forces us to put up some kind of guard around certain people? There can’t possibly be a moment when meeting someone new allows us to be completely open or honest…raw, even, as though we were with someone we’ve know our whole lives. Then again, is one ever really completely open with oneself? Are there not things that we shy away from within our own minds and spirits because of embarrassment, jealousy, or otherwise? These were some of the ideas that immediately popped into my head as I was reading. To be in complete contact with oneself is to be completely honest that there are masks that are worn not only with new people but around certain people, one mask; with other people, another. When Whitman asks this “new person” (or the reader) all of these questions, such as, “Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?” or “Do you think I am trusty and faithful?” I think he is really pointing out the idea that first impressions are everything, whether good or bad. The first impression something has of another is probably what is going to remain in the back of their minds forever and sometimes it may be hard to redeem onself from a nasty image that s/he put in some else’s head. Then again, who wants to be too perky or nice because then it just seems that personality is one of a “pushover.” First impressions seem to be so tough because one must get it “just right” and it is what all will base their possible potential they see in you on this first impression. Surprisingly, in Song of Myself, Whitman seems to be strongly, if not completely, against the idea of conforming and then actually caring what people think of him. He seems to be in a world of his own, one in a million, and his attitude reeks of “I don’t give a damn.” So, I came to the conclusion that these questions are more for the new person to ponder, not so much that he actually cares what the answers are; just as long as the new person considers how superficial a first impression/mask/illusion can really be and how only skin-deep interest can lead nowhere if the honest personality behind the illusion is contradictory. In essence, I would think it’s fairly safe to assume that any kind of relationship would be started out with a lie, from both parties involved because neither one would be him or her self, yet I don’t know that there would ever be any kind of escape from it!

Christine for 10/1

Sep 29th, 2009
by pieruccm.
Comments are off for this post

I enjoyed reading both Children of Adam and Calamus but I do have to say that overall, I prefer Calamus and even further, I still like Song of Myself much better than these two texts.

From Calamus, I was particulary drawn to a couple of the sections. The first was “Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”. 

“Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”  – I find it quite amusing and realisitic that the veneer to which Whitman referes is quite exact to what a lot of people wear, especially when meeting new people. I wonder if there is something intrinsically position within each of our characters that forces us to put up some kind of guard around certain people? There can’t possibly be a moment when meeting someone new allows us to be completely open or honest…raw, even, as though we were with someone we’ve know our whole lives. Then again, is one ever really completely open with oneself? Are there not things that we shy away from within our own minds and spirits because of embarrassment, jealousy, or otherwise? These were some of the ideas that immediately popped into my head as I was reading. To be in complete contact with oneself is to be completely honest that there are masks that are worn not only with new people but around certain people, one mask; with other people, another. When Whitman asks this “new person” (or the reader) all of these questions, such as, “Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?” or “Do you think I am trusty and faithful?” I think he is really pointing out the idea that first impressions are everything, whether good or bad. The first impression something has of another is probably what is going to remain in the back of their minds forever and sometimes it may be hard to redeem onself from a nasty image that s/he put in some else’s head. Then again, who wants to be too perky or nice because then it just seems that personality is one of a “pushover.” First impressions seem to be so tough because one must get it “just right” and it is what all will base their possible potential they see in you on this first impression. Surprisingly, in Song of Myself, Whitman seems to be strongly, if not completely, against the idea of conforming and then actually caring what people think of him. He seems to be in a world of his own, one in a million, and his attitude reeks of “I don’t give a damn.” So, I came to the conclusion that these questions are more for the new person to ponder, not so much that he actually cares what the answers are; just as long as the new person considers how superficial a first impression/mask/illusion can really be and how only skin-deep interest can lead nowhere if the honest personality behind the illusion is contradictory. In essence, I would think it’s fairly safe to assume that any kind of relationship would be started out with a lie, from both parties involved because neither one would be him or her self, yet I don’t know that there would ever be any kind of escape from it!

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