jennyandwalt

Jennica’s Bib Essay

Now, before you start jumping into questions like what in the world a canary has anything to do with America’s Good Gray poet, first think about what it means to be loved and admired. Just like in today’s pop culture, where famous stars would be flocked about with roaring fans and paparazzi, back in the day, Walt Whitman also had admiring followers of his own. One of the more popular groups was the aficionados in Bolton, England.

The Bolton group was a small body of twenty-some men and woman who devoted their Sundays to admire and revere Whitman and his works. However, they were not just there merely to read and discuss his works. Their affections for Whitman grew into a type of idolization of Walt Whitman. They nearly thought of him as a “kind of god,” “the new Messiah” (Reynolds 583). Led by two of Whitman’s British friends, Dr. John Johnston and J.W. Wallace, their camaraderie revolved around a sense of “excessive adulation and cloying nostalgia” (Reynolds 583). During that time, Whitman and one of America’s leading agnostic figures, Robert Ingersoll, had been exchanging a clash of thought with regards to the question of afterlife. Though these two individuals had an affinity for each other since they “both rejected formal religion and espoused a humanistic faith that owed much to modern science,” “saw Darwinian evolution as a source of hope, not pessimism,” and “were boosters of American industrial expansion,” at the same time, they disagreed when it came to the question of afterlife (Reynolds 580). Therefore, during this time, when Whitman came across Johnston and Wallace, they were not only able to bring him a sense of religious consolation, but Whitman in turn, became a personal comfort for the recent death of Wallace’s dear dead mother. In this sense, Wallace seemed to feel a stronger connection to Whitman.

Johnston

Soon thereafter, Wallace and Johnston had influenced another devotee of Whitman to formulate another Bolton group even in other continents like Australia. Like Wallace and Johnston, Bernard O’Dowd led a group of men and woman in celebrating the works of Whitman with religious intensity. In the end, with the help of Whitman’s admirers, it led to the founding of a Whitman “church” (Reynolds 581).

Wallace

So now that we’ve touched upon a bit about the star, Walt Whitman, now we must observe how the fans had “[celebrated] the birth of Walt Whitman” (Reynolds 584). Like today, as many fans would dedicated personalized fan-sites, shrines, and create certain days that would celebrate their idols’ birthdays, Whitman’s admirers were not any less different.

Four of the major dedications they came up with are the following:

1. The Celebration of Walt Whitman’s Birthday, May 31
2. The Whitman Collection
3. Mazinaw Rock
4. The Stuffed Canary

May 31^st

Like all true fans, one must know their idol’s birthday. Becoming the most famous day within the calendar of the Boston Fellowship, May 31^st, Whitman’s followers to this day, celebrate Walt Whitman’s birthday in an atmosphere of an open tea party. They pass around Whitman’s Loving Cup as a symbol of dedication and homage to Whitman. In 2008, the Whitman Fellowship celebrated 25 years of continued meetings where the celebration will continuously take place annually (“Walt Whitman and Bolton”).

Whitman's Cup

The Whitman Collection

Even after the death of Walt Whitman, the Bolton Archive and Local Studies Services have continued to collect publications dedicated to Whitman to this day.

Mazinaw Rock

Located in Bon Echo Park, Ontario, Canada, Mazinaw Rock was a rock with an inscription dedicated to Walt Whitman to celebrate the Centenary of his birth in 1919. The inscription reads as thus: “’Old Walt. 1819 – 1919 Dedicated to the democratic ideals of Walt Whitman by Horace Traubel and Flora Macdonald. ‘My Foothold is tenon’d and mortised in granite, I laugh at dissolution and I know the amplitude of time’.”

Mazinaw Rock

The Stuffed Canary

Last but not least, one of Whitman’s highly prized devotion was for his pet, canary. The bird was stuffed following its death, and now a spot in the Whitman Collection at Bolton Museum, the largest archive outside the United States.

The Actual Stuffed Canary

Whitman had even dedicated a poem to his canary, which was published on March 2, 1888 in the New York Herald:

***

My Canary Bird

Did we count great, O soul, to penetrate the themes of mighty books,
Absorbing deep and full from thoughts, plays, speculations?
But now from thee to me, caged bird, to feel thy joyous warble,
Filling the air, the lonesome room, the long forenoon,
Is it not just as great, O soul?

Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

Canary

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Works Cited

Reynolds, David S.  Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

“Walt Whitman and Bolton.” Bolton Museum and Archive Service. Bolton Council. 10 June 2009 <http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/bolton-archives/walt-whitman/>.

“With Walt Whitman in Bolton – Spirituality, Sex and Socialism in a Northern Mill Town.”  Little Northern Books <http://littlenorthernbooks.co.uk/with_walt_whitman_in_bolton_book.php>.

Since I get the honor of breathing in Whitman not once, but twice a week, yesterday, for my Whitman class #1 we digested semiotic analysis— a type of critical theory that involves a system of signs. Not only does this critical analysis interest me, but when I read “Two Rivulets” by Walt Whitman, the theory stood out even more. For instance, observe Whitman’s “Two Rivulets” with semiotics in mind:

Two Rivulets side by side, 
Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, 
Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. 
 
For the Eternal Ocean bound, 
These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life,
Object and Subject hurrying, whirling by, 
The Real and Ideal, 
 
Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights, 
(Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.) 
 
In You, whoe’er you are, my book perusing,
In I myself—in all the World—these ripples flow, 
All, all, toward the mystic Ocean tending. 
  
(O yearnful waves! the kisses of your lips! 
Your breast so broad, with open arms, O firm, expanded shore!)

If you notice, there are not only signs that symbolize for something. But in one of the process for performing semiotics,
one must look for contradictions and/or binaries. Look once more at the poem above and try to see if you can find any
sets of binaries or opposites. For instance, there are several: "streams of Death and Life," "Object and Subject,"
"The Real and Ideal," "Days and Nights," "Future, Past."

However, what's even more interesting is that Whitman begins with parallelism and sameness: 

Two Rivulets side by side, 
Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, 
Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. 

I think one of the beauties of Whitman's poems is his use of contradictions and oppositions,
but what's even more amazing is how he makes those binaries into balance and parallelism.
Because if you think about it, oppositions such as night and day, death and life, etc. are what
gives balance and keep the world in equilibrium... Amazing.

After reading through Drum-Taps and Memories of President Lincoln, one of the poems that caught my attention was “Delicate Cluster.” Though many, if not all, were dedicated to the war, this poem in particular made me curious as to whom the work was truly dedicated to. The last line intrigued me the most:

Delicate Cluster

DELICATE cluster! flag of teeming life!
Covering all my lands —all my seashores lining!
Flag of death! (how I watch’d you through the smoke of battle pressing!
How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth definant!)
Flag cerulean —sunny flag, with the orbs of night dappled!
Ah my silvery beauty —ah my woolly white and crimson!
Ah to sing the song of you, my matron might!
My sacred one, my  mother.
(Whitman 454)

If you read the poem, clearly on the surface, it seems like Whitman is showing his love, dedication, and reverence towards the American flag. I loved all of his different usage of descriptions in describing the flag. It is teeming, full of life; yet, at the same time, a “[f]lag of death.” (I just love his uses of contradictions.) The flag is also decorated in “cerulean,” “orbs of night dappled” with “silvery beauty” in “woolly white and crimson.” Last but not least, the great American flag is Whitman’s “matron mighty.” However, Whitman finishes off by calling the flag his “sacred one,” his “mother.”

This puzzles, yet interests me the most. At first, when I read the poem, I automatically assumed that either the flag would be an “it” or at least, male. (Could this be the work of cultural/political brainwash done to me? Sadly I have automatically assumed the flag to be male instead of female.. Feminists, please spare me..) But Whitman surprisingly personifies the flag as female. Better yet, his mother. Now I read the poem a second time. Then a third. Then I realized how Whitman somehow personifies the flag as female. For instance, diction such as “teeming life,” “seashores lining,” “orbs of night dappled,” “silvery beauty,” “woolly white and crimson.” If you think about it, these words do resonate well with females. However, in Whitman’s case, the woman is strong, mighty, and a warrior.

But what I really want to know is what underlying connections might he have had with his mother…

I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
The keptwoman and sponger and thief are hereby invited
. . . . the heavy-lipped slave is invited . . . . the veneralee is invited,
There shall be no difference between them and the rest. (Whitman 44)

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After looking through a couple of variations of “kept woman” on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), I was not successful. However, when I typed in “kept,” here is what showed up:

kept, ppl. a.

In various senses derived from KEEP v.; spec.    

1. a. Maintained or supported by a paramour. Also of a man or boy maintained or supported in a homosexual relationship.
b. Financially supported by, and in consequence under the private control of, interested persons.

 So what exactly is a kept woman?

According to thefreedictionary.com, a kept woman is “an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man” (“kept woman”). In other words, this individual is someone who smooches off another financially (most likely through a sexual relationship). Therefore, this goes back to definition b of the OED.

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Most interestingly enough, I thought this was perfect for one of the readings we had to do for our class: “Woman as a Theme in Whitman’s Writing“. This article by Sherry Ceniza speaks about the different voices that spoke out during Whitman’s time through 19th century women’s perspectives. Some praised Whitman’s representation of women of “the new woman, the democratic woman” in his writings (Ceniza 797); however, a few criticized him for his “lack of representation of woman working outside the home” (Ceniza 798). Still,the author claims that during Whitman’s time, “[t]hough Whitman’s representation of women in his writing is not consistently in touch with contemporary feminism, it must be put into its historical perspective;” “it is difficult to view Whitman’s literary representation of women as anything but positive” (Ceniza 797). So far, my take on this is neutral. Though I agree with Ceniza in some aspects, on the other note, I can’t say wholeheartedly that Whitman wasn’t biased towards women in every line of his works. Often times, he does portray women with a condescending overtone using specific diction or descriptions of women. For instance, in the Children of Adam poems, “A Woman Waits for Me,” Whitman makes women sound like some sort of baby-machines.

 Then, going back to my image gloss of a kept woman, Whitman is saying that even kept women are valued as equals. “There shall be no difference between them and the rest”. But if you think about it, what made me curious was his linking of kept women with spongers, thiefs, and heavy-lipped slaves. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but what may have been Whitman’s intention of grouping these individuals together?

Here are some interesting things I found on the web:

Want to become a kept woman? Transform Me!

 

“kept woman.”  The Free Dictionary.  Princeton University, Farlex Inc.  2003-2008  <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kept+woman>.

“The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate into a new tongue” (46)

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As Whitman also inscribes within these lines, life can often shed moments of heaven and hell at the same time. How, you ask? Well, take a look at the picture above for instance. It may seem like a mere snapshot of a couple grown adults with a bunch of children. However, have you thought of what might be there beneath these smiles? In fact, if you take an even more meticulous look, notice how most of the kids are not smiling. Perhaps, one or two of them may be staring at you with a rather weak grin. These faces who are staring at you from your computer screen as we speak are a few of the many lost, abandoned children of South Korea.

This past summer, I flew to Korea for the first time and spent about three months eating, sleeping, and teaching English to orphans from remote areas of South Korea. Technically, I was asked to teach them English. However, after a couple weeks living and breathing with them under one roof, I ended up teaching them more than mere English. I taught them self-confidence, self-esteem, survival skills. But that wasn’t all. I wasn’t the only teacher there. They taught me life.

We ended up teaching each other life. Humanity.

If you wonder what it’s like to experience heaven and hell in one particular space and time, try flying  yourself to an orphanage and look into the eyes of one lost child. (Apparently, I think I’m beginning to sound like some sort of quack advertiser for a junk product…) but really, you’d feel heaven through these kids’ smiles and laughter. Then a moment later, hell, through their tears, empty eyes and fake laughter.

This picture was the day I had to leave Korea. As the child I am holding hands with looks up and asks me, “Mommy, where are you going,” at this moment in time, I’d say was one of the epitomes of Hell-experiences I’ve had to face in my life.

The readings for the first of October were certainly things I have never read for any other previous October firsts’.

And just when I thought Whitman knew what he was talking about when he touches his pen to his paper…

Now I’m beginning to think, does he really know what he’s talking about? Does he really “think” before he writes? Or was he just a horny beast during the time he wrote Children of Adam and Calamus? I can see his true, honest, maybe too-honest, open respects and appreciation for the body and how the body works, but never have I read more of a porn in a book known to have been produced in the 19th century.

Since it was pretty much hard to find anything not related to sex or …more sex…  in these readings, I will simply comment on one of the poems from one of his greatest works (C.o.A.):

O Hymen! O Hymenee!

O HYMEN!  O hymenee! why do  you tantalize me thus?
O why sting me for a swift moment only?
Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease?
Is it because if you continued beyond the swift moment  you would sonn certainly kill me?

At first, I told myself: no, he can’t be serious. He couldn’t have seriously written something about the hymen… a complete poem dedicated to a female organ? So I did some research. I looked up the word on OED and there were a couple definitions.

The first definition stated:

1. In Greek and Roman mythology: The god of marriage, represented as a young man carrying a torch and veil. Hymen’s band, etc., marriage, wedlock. Hymen’s temple, fane, etc., the church at which a marriage is solemnized.
2. Marriage; wedlock; wedding, nuptials. Now rare.
3. A wedding-hymn, hymeneal song. rare.
(“hymen1”)

That’s the first part. The second definition would be the more well-known today:

1. Anat. The virginal membrane, a fold of mucous membrane stretched across and partially closing the external orifice of the vagina.
(“hymen2”)

So there it is. A whole poem dedicated to just the hymen. If we look at the two different definitions we know Whitman wasn’t (I think) talking about the god of marriage or a wedlock. He seems to be talking about the female organ. However, there is something unique about this poem. Although he’s talking about the latter definition, the way in which he presents his piece is in a song-like or ode, even, to a Greek god.

Anyhow, here is a picture of the Greek god of marriage, Hymen, and Eros:

Greek Marriage protector and guardian of fidelity.

“hymen1.” OED Online. 2^nd ed 1989. Oxford University Press. <http://ezproxy.tcnj.edu:2147/cgi/entry/50110181?query_type=word&queryword=hymen&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=6vmU-VCYSug-4240&result_place=3>.

“hymen2.” OED Online. 2^nd ed 1989. Oxford University Press. <http://ezproxy.tcnj.edu:2147/cgi/entry/50110182?query_type=word&queryword=hymen&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=6vmU-VCYSug-4240&result_place=3>.