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October 25th, 2009:

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by Reverend.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by Reverend.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by Reverend.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by Reverend.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by Reverend.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Walking Tour

Oct 25th, 2009
by cellatreis.
Comments are off for this post

         Last class was a very interesting one. Our class went on a mini scavenger hunt looking for the many places Whitman would have been throughout Brooklyn. We went on a walking tour in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting to know the different areas Whitman would go to eat, work, explore nature etc.

          During our walking tour our first stop was at the Camden Plaza. Whitman walked through this place daily to arrive at Prince Street where he worked on the first edition of Leave of Grass. This is the place Whitman was when he gathered his thought and creatively put them into a collection of poems that would inspire the people to look at the world in a whole different perspective.

LOVE 002

          We arrived at our next location, Plymouth Church. As our tour guide, Jesse Merandy talked about how the Plymouth church was well known for assisting in the Abolition movement. During 1847, that church was the only one available and many people from all over the city went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach, including Walt Whitman. Beecher often shed light on encouraging anti-slavery that would grasp the focus of the congregation. One of the ways the church helped with anti-slavery was to hold mock auctions to bid for slave’s freedom. Walt Whitman was inspired by Beecher’s preaching and his style of writing. I think that is why Whitman had such a powerful impact in his writing as he directly spoke to his audience.

LOVE 009

          I really enjoyed visiting the Plymouth Church and how polite the speaker was that was enlightening us on the history of the Church. There were many famous people during the earlier years that went the church including George Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. The church amazingly is still standing and is in good shape. This was the first time in a long time that I heard an interesting story about a popular historical place. I liked hearing about the Plymouth Church because before this trip I never knew how popular or important this church was too many people, but after our discussion, there I finally understood.

          My tour experience was worth the time because I learned something new while doing it for school. I never thought I would say nor do that. One of the memorable places that we went to was the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. Although it was blocked off the day we went as a class I went there the day before and noticed that there were writings on the rails of the terminal. It seemed to be something that Whitman would write, but I wasn’t too sure. It turns out that those writings were actually Walt Whitman’s on the Fulton Ferry landing. I didn’t find this out until my class went on this tour.

LOVE 038

          This tour taught me a lot about the appreciation of art, to not take things for granted that are around you and appreciate the things which are in front of you, and to not be afraid to explore the past because it can reveal a lot about yourself and your surroundings.

Natalie for Oct. 27

Oct 25th, 2009
by nataliesayth.
Comments are off for this post

Erkkila states that in “Lilacs,” “the poet . . . places a sprig of lilac on the coffin as a sign presumably of perpetual renewal and the unity of life” (231).  I saw the lilac a bit less romantically, as indicative of the magnitude of grief– both the reminders of a death that never completely disappear (those enforced and those unexpected), and the shared experience of mourning someone who had such widespread appeal and impact.  I focused on death and resounding grief less as part of a “regenerative cycle” of life that Erkkila references (233) and more as its own kosmos because part of said cycle seems too clean and simple a position for death/grief to occupy given Whitman’s writings about and emotions toward Lincoln.

I do think that when Erkkila writes, “It is unclear whether he is memorializing the death of the president with pictures of the republic that he preserved or burying an American republic that was, along with Lincoln and the lives of 600,000 soldiers, the major casualty of the war” (233), the connection between Lincoln’s death and “the real war” is paramount as Whitman tries to get Lincoln’s death “in the books” as much as is possible.  After all, Whitman himself states in Collect, “Oft as the rolling years bring back this hour, let it again, however briefly, be dwelt upon.  For my own part, I hope and desire, till my own dying day, whenever the 14th or 15th of April comes, to annually gather a few friends, and hold its tragic reminiscence” (1061).  As he goes on to celebrate Lincoln’s fine traits, we see his efforts to preserve the memory of a life, to grieve, on a regular schedule.  There Whitman enforces the reminder of a death so capacious he’s made it a priority to (try to) place its reality in the books.

Whitman further emphasizes the residual effects of the death of a great national figure when he says, “I repeat it–the grand deaths of the race–the dramatic deaths of every nationality–are its most important inheritance-value–in some respects beyond its literature and art (as the hero is beyond his finest portrait, and the battle itself beyond its choicest song or epic.)” (1070).  The explicit words “I repeat it” demonstrate his intent to make and the form in which he ingrains this man’s memory in the minds of readers and citizens.

“Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song, / Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe[.]” (“Lilacs” 463)–Whitman himself warbles on forever in this poem about the lingering agonies of grief, and I have trouble finding signs of “acceptance” Erkkila mentions of death as a part of life.  I’m not saying Whitman didn’t come to a deeper understanding for death’s convoluted place in the world, but I think his grief is too persistent (or he is too persistent in his grief, however you want to look at it) to make “acceptance” a feasible word to use about Whitman’s conception of death.  Grief isn’t contained in a cycle like the repetitive meter of “O Captain!,” a poem that Whitman regretted writing even though it was a motion to commemorate a man for whom he had a unique respect.  Grief is sprawling and irregular.

“And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages,

And the streets how their throbbings throbb’d, and the cities pent–lo, then and there,

Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,

Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail,

And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.” (464)

Reminders of death appear sometimes in un-monumental circumstances, like when we’re staring at something ordinary and then remember that some parts of life continue without another particular life.  That can be relieving or it can be distressing.  It just seems to me that Whitman didn’t want to leave Lincoln out of the continuation of the world and the connections he felt we all have to one another.  So Whitman tried to put Lincoln in the art he, Whitman, also declared actually may never measure up to the “inheritance-value” of a nation’s deaths: “O what shall I hang on the chamber walls? / And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls, / To adorn the burial-house of him I love?”

Whitman didn’t know Lincoln personally, and that makes the former’s infatuation with the latter more accessible/relatable/perhaps-even-credible to us and all his other readers.  The fact that these writings are beautiful and real and stem from a person’s death makes this poetry in a sense grotesquely formed, and that, I think, poses a more serious question–does death/destruction make the most beautiful/compelling/meaningful poetry/art and if we love poetry/art what does that say about us and masochism?–than whether Whitman was unhealthily obsessed with Lincoln.

Natalie for Oct. 27

Oct 25th, 2009
by nataliesayth.
Comments are off for this post

Erkkila states that in “Lilacs,” “the poet . . . places a sprig of lilac on the coffin as a sign presumably of perpetual renewal and the unity of life” (231).  I saw the lilac a bit less romantically, as indicative of the magnitude of grief– both the reminders of a death that never completely disappear (those enforced and those unexpected), and the shared experience of mourning someone who had such widespread appeal and impact.  I focused on death and resounding grief less as part of a “regenerative cycle” of life that Erkkila references (233) and more as its own kosmos because part of said cycle seems too clean and simple a position for death/grief to occupy given Whitman’s writings about and emotions toward Lincoln.

I do think that when Erkkila writes, “It is unclear whether he is memorializing the death of the president with pictures of the republic that he preserved or burying an American republic that was, along with Lincoln and the lives of 600,000 soldiers, the major casualty of the war” (233), the connection between Lincoln’s death and “the real war” is paramount as Whitman tries to get Lincoln’s death “in the books” as much as is possible.  After all, Whitman himself states in Collect, “Oft as the rolling years bring back this hour, let it again, however briefly, be dwelt upon.  For my own part, I hope and desire, till my own dying day, whenever the 14th or 15th of April comes, to annually gather a few friends, and hold its tragic reminiscence” (1061).  As he goes on to celebrate Lincoln’s fine traits, we see his efforts to preserve the memory of a life, to grieve, on a regular schedule.  There Whitman enforces the reminder of a death so capacious he’s made it a priority to (try to) place its reality in the books.

Whitman further emphasizes the residual effects of the death of a great national figure when he says, “I repeat it–the grand deaths of the race–the dramatic deaths of every nationality–are its most important inheritance-value–in some respects beyond its literature and art (as the hero is beyond his finest portrait, and the battle itself beyond its choicest song or epic.)” (1070).  The explicit words “I repeat it” demonstrate his intent to make and the form in which he ingrains this man’s memory in the minds of readers and citizens.

“Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song, / Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe[.]” (“Lilacs” 463)–Whitman himself warbles on forever in this poem about the lingering agonies of grief, and I have trouble finding signs of “acceptance” Erkkila mentions of death as a part of life.  I’m not saying Whitman didn’t come to a deeper understanding for death’s convoluted place in the world, but I think his grief is too persistent (or he is too persistent in his grief, however you want to look at it) to make “acceptance” a feasible word to use about Whitman’s conception of death.  Grief isn’t contained in a cycle like the repetitive meter of “O Captain!,” a poem that Whitman regretted writing even though it was a motion to commemorate a man for whom he had a unique respect.  Grief is sprawling and irregular.

“And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages,

And the streets how their throbbings throbb’d, and the cities pent–lo, then and there,

Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,

Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail,

And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.” (464)

Reminders of death appear sometimes in un-monumental circumstances, like when we’re staring at something ordinary and then remember that some parts of life continue without another particular life.  That can be relieving or it can be distressing.  It just seems to me that Whitman didn’t want to leave Lincoln out of the continuation of the world and the connections he felt we all have to one another.  So Whitman tried to put Lincoln in the art he, Whitman, also declared actually may never measure up to the “inheritance-value” of a nation’s deaths: “O what shall I hang on the chamber walls? / And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls, / To adorn the burial-house of him I love?”

Whitman didn’t know Lincoln personally, and that makes the former’s infatuation with the latter more accessible/relatable/perhaps-even-credible to us and all his other readers.  The fact that these writings are beautiful and real and stem from a person’s death makes this poetry in a sense grotesquely formed, and that, I think, poses a more serious question–does death/destruction make the most beautiful/compelling/meaningful poetry/art and if we love poetry/art what does that say about us and masochism?–than whether Whitman was unhealthily obsessed with Lincoln.

Sam P. for Oct. 27

Oct 25th, 2009
by s-words.
Comments are off for this post

Song of the Bleeding Throat

           Fitting, how the shocking and premature death of the President, like the untimely demise that had just come to hundreds of thousands of young Americans before him, should provoke Whitman to confirm the absolute naturalness of death, its beauty and inevitability.  In “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” he dramatizes this process of reclaiming death from its seemingly undue wartime circumstances by establishing a dichotomy of “the knowledge of death” and “the thought of” it (464), presenting the conflict between Whitman’s old, sublimely encompassing sense that “to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier” (32) and his more concrete awareness of how much suffering the war’s deaths have caused.  The clanging convergence of these two attitudes crucially undercuts the joyous “carol of death” at “When Lilacs’” climax (464), indicating the profound limits of such cathartic death-celebration.

            In fact, Whitman frequently slams home the morbidity in moments calculated to subvert the poem’s sweeping elegiac tone, inflicting a kind of figurative violence on the reader in order to confront him/her with death’s inescapability.  One single-stanza section renders this tension with terrifying clarity:

 

5

         Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,

         Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the  

              violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray debris,

         Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing

              the endless grass,

         Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its

             shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen,

         Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the

             orchards,

         Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,

         Night and day journeys a coffin. (460)

 

The broad reach of Whitman’s vision of the physical America, fraught with resurrection’s promise as “every grain” emerges “from its shroud,” crashes down at the stanza’s end in a death without obvious corresponding rebirth, the image of a “corpse” that stifles and mocks the speaker’s vaulting naturalistic outlook.  Thus Whitman activates the symbolic healing of the natural American world, a convenient and familiar trope in the context of a nation whose “soils” themselves must reunite, while forcing that symbolic material to share narrative space with the ugly fact of Lincoln’s body, indicating the distance between the nation’s figurative reunion and the ineradicable physical damage that reunion has required. 

             Whitman conveys a similarly double-edged understanding of death in the thrush’s exultant “carol of death,” or at least the version of the song recited by “the voice of [the speaker’s] spirit” (464).  In terms that uncannily recall the poem’s fifth section, the song calls out to “lovely and soothing death”: “From me to thee glad serenades, / …And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting, / And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night” (465).  The “carol’s” elevated tone and enveloping scope seem, for a brief moment, to definitively “answer” the problem death poses in the wake of the war, countering misery with a saturating joy. 

           However, Whitman immediately complicates this relief by again turning to corpses, the physical artifacts of the war’s misery.  The poem’s speaker describes the “battle-corpses” and “white skeletons” he has seen during the war, observing that “the slain soldiers… suffer’d not,” while “The living remain’d and suffer’d, the mother suffer’d, / And the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffer’d, / And the armies that remain’d suffer’d” (466).  Just as Lincoln’s body troubles the symbolic natural renewal through which it passes on its way to be buried, the troops’ corpses tacitly question the extent to which death can be “lovely and soothing,” and still inflict so much misery on those left living.  Again Whitman’s sense of death as a cold reality (for the living) squeezes in alongside his treatment of death’s broader, more abstract significance, obliging the reader to consider Lincoln’s death as a specific physical fact before lifting the president up into the position of, in Whitman’s phrase, America’s “first great Martyr Chief” (1071).

Sam P. for Oct. 27

Oct 25th, 2009
by s-words.
Comments are off for this post

Song of the Bleeding Throat

           Fitting, how the shocking and premature death of the President, like the untimely demise that had just come to hundreds of thousands of young Americans before him, should provoke Whitman to confirm the absolute naturalness of death, its beauty and inevitability.  In “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” he dramatizes this process of reclaiming death from its seemingly undue wartime circumstances by establishing a dichotomy of “the knowledge of death” and “the thought of” it (464), presenting the conflict between Whitman’s old, sublimely encompassing sense that “to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier” (32) and his more concrete awareness of how much suffering the war’s deaths have caused.  The clanging convergence of these two attitudes crucially undercuts the joyous “carol of death” at “When Lilacs’” climax (464), indicating the profound limits of such cathartic death-celebration.

            In fact, Whitman frequently slams home the morbidity in moments calculated to subvert the poem’s sweeping elegiac tone, inflicting a kind of figurative violence on the reader in order to confront him/her with death’s inescapability.  One single-stanza section renders this tension with terrifying clarity:

 

5

         Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,

         Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the  

              violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray debris,

         Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing

              the endless grass,

         Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its

             shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen,

         Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the

             orchards,

         Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,

         Night and day journeys a coffin. (460)

 

The broad reach of Whitman’s vision of the physical America, fraught with resurrection’s promise as “every grain” emerges “from its shroud,” crashes down at the stanza’s end in a death without obvious corresponding rebirth, the image of a “corpse” that stifles and mocks the speaker’s vaulting naturalistic outlook.  Thus Whitman activates the symbolic healing of the natural American world, a convenient and familiar trope in the context of a nation whose “soils” themselves must reunite, while forcing that symbolic material to share narrative space with the ugly fact of Lincoln’s body, indicating the distance between the nation’s figurative reunion and the ineradicable physical damage that reunion has required. 

             Whitman conveys a similarly double-edged understanding of death in the thrush’s exultant “carol of death,” or at least the version of the song recited by “the voice of [the speaker’s] spirit” (464).  In terms that uncannily recall the poem’s fifth section, the song calls out to “lovely and soothing death”: “From me to thee glad serenades, / …And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting, / And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night” (465).  The “carol’s” elevated tone and enveloping scope seem, for a brief moment, to definitively “answer” the problem death poses in the wake of the war, countering misery with a saturating joy. 

           However, Whitman immediately complicates this relief by again turning to corpses, the physical artifacts of the war’s misery.  The poem’s speaker describes the “battle-corpses” and “white skeletons” he has seen during the war, observing that “the slain soldiers… suffer’d not,” while “The living remain’d and suffer’d, the mother suffer’d, / And the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffer’d, / And the armies that remain’d suffer’d” (466).  Just as Lincoln’s body troubles the symbolic natural renewal through which it passes on its way to be buried, the troops’ corpses tacitly question the extent to which death can be “lovely and soothing,” and still inflict so much misery on those left living.  Again Whitman’s sense of death as a cold reality (for the living) squeezes in alongside his treatment of death’s broader, more abstract significance, obliging the reader to consider Lincoln’s death as a specific physical fact before lifting the president up into the position of, in Whitman’s phrase, America’s “first great Martyr Chief” (1071).

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