The readings of Whitman are becoming more and more in depth.  I love the use of Whitman’s personification in the opening passage of First O Songs for a Prelude.

First O songs for a prelude,

Lightly strike on the stretch’d tympanum pride and joy in

my city,

How she led the rest to arms, how she gave the cue,

How at once with lithe limbs unwaiting a moment she sprang,

O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steal!)

How you sprang-how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand,

How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife 

        were heard in their stead,

How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude,

                    songs of soldiers,)

How Manhattan drum-taps led (416).

This passage is so much more than Whitman describing his love for New York.  If we focus on this portion which says “you threw off your costumes of peace with indifferent hand“, one can see that Whitman is pointing out New York’s tendency to accept immigrants into its communities.  During Whitman’s times especially, New York was known for bringing in Irish and Italian families onto its shore. This is why today, New York is typically known as the melting pot of the nation.  Moving onward,  Whitman speaks about the beauties of Manhatten and speaks how it gathers on to fight unanimously. It seems as though this city, particularly Manhattan, is a safe haven for Whitman, almost like a mother to him.  In the next quote Whitman speaks more about how the people and Manhattan join in fight.

The mechanics arming…The lawyer leaving his office and arming…The driver deserting his wagon in the street…The women volunteering for nurses, the work begun…And you lady of ships, you Mannahatta, old matron of this proud, friendly, turbulent city, Often in peace and wealth you were pensive or covertly frown’d amid all your children, But now you smile with joy exulting old Mannahatta (418).

In this quote particulary, Whitman expands on who is going to war. He says that lawyers, women, men, mechanics, and just everyone is hanging up their coat and uniting together as human beings to stand up and fight.  It seems that this is the time of Yankees vs the Confederates which is known as the Civil War.  I like that the poor and the wealthy come together to save the day. It is interesting that Whitman is from the north east but complains about it because it is not liberal enough. At the same time, the north east to this day is the most liberal part of the United States.  But I am going to end on this note with a song by Alicia Keys and Jay Z singing the song “Empire State of Mind“.

I sing the Body Electric

 

I sing the body electric, 

The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, 

They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, 

And corrupt them, and charge them full with the charge

     of the soul. 

Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies 

    conceal themselves?

And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?

And if the body does no do full as much as the soul?

And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?

 

I chose this section because I love how Whitman links all men and woman as children of Adam. This way Whitman says that no one should convict another. “Those who defile the living are as bad as those who defile the dead?” People who are considered criminals, felons, and most sinful are put in the same category as those who outcasts people and thinks they are better than them.  Whitman even puts himself on a pedestal and say he will “discorrupt them” and make them in other words feel immoral.  This way he will show that no one is better than the other and all men is created equal.

 

 

O my body! I dare desert the likes of you in other men

and women, nor the likes of the parts of you,

I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of

      the soul , (and that they are soul,)

I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems,

and that they are my poems,

Man’s, woman’s, child’s, youth’s, wife’s, husband’s,

mother’s, father’s, young man’s, young woman’s poems,

Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,

Eyes, eye-fringes iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking

or sleeping of the lids.

 

Then in this part of “Children of Adam”, Whitman uses a lot of imagery describing human beings by describing the beauty of the human physique to compare their equality. This is a more darker and upfront Whitman because he is combining things such as wife and lips and husband and wife. Later, although I did not post it, Whitman goes more indepth by discussing  jaw hinges and to even the throats of people. At the same time, to the readers of the time period this poem can seem very disturbing and inappropriate because not only does he discuss human equality as a whole, he brings in sexuality and physical characteristics to discusss equality. I can not get over how dark this is due to the fact that Whitman has not gone to such a level as to speak about the “unspeakable”. However, Whitman’s message is coming across because he is showing that we all have the same physical features overall , whether it be an eyebrow or fingers, or even lips.

“I saw the marriage of the trapper(fur trader) in the open air in the far west,
the bride was a red girl,
Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and dumbly smoking,
they had moccasins to their feet and large thick blankets
hanging from their shoulders,
On a bank lounged the trapper, he was drest mostly in skins, his
luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck, he held his bride
by the hand,
She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight locks
descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach’d to her
feet.“

 

I chose this piece because since there were no  highways during this time period trappers traveled across the unwandered parts of the United States and made money/survived by trading with the Indians. I think this is very significant because Whitman speaks about American standards and this time period represents the ability for America to expand its boundaries and find new ways to achieve great things. Besides that, the trapper’s union with the “red” indian girl symbolized somewhat of a peace between the natives and the American; which is something that gives hope.

As I was continuing my reading of Song of Myself I realize how much Whitman is one with nature. His personification of the nature demonstrates his appreciation of natural freedom. Many believe that Whitman is a cocky old man who only cares about himself but I think he just loves himself too much. This way. no one can cloud what he believes in. 

                            “I celebrate myself,

                           And what I assume, you shall assume,

                          For every atom belonging to me as good as it belongs to you

                          I loafe and invite my soul“

 

I can not get over the fact that this man who is from a time where people that are different are outcasted. The fact he is writing the things that he is writing proves that he does not care what others say off him. 

                                 “Who need be afraid of the merge?

                            I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush

                           away flies with my hand“

 

But regardless, I love how Whitman can put himself on a high pedestal to a low one. He does not think he is better than anyone but at the same time he understands what he is worth. He truly is a poet of democracy. 

                     “I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,

                       regardless of others, ever regardful of others,

                      Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,

                      Stuffed with the stuff that is coarse, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine“

 

This quote here demonstrates truly the character of Whitman. He is a friend to all  and considers himself to be part of the best or the worst. 

I do not know even where to being. In school and my early college years I took english and concentrated english genre classes, but did not truly study the rhetoric of Whitman. His writings are very influential and can be applied today and even can be projected to the times of the 1960s.  He is so much more than a poet, he is a “freedom writer”. His wit and eloquence battles the foes of his generation, and embodies his wishes for the furture generations to come. So far my first impressions of whitman is a man who is more than a poet, but truly a man that believes in the so sought after American dream.

I just started my reading and I am in pure shock. The fact that this writing is coming from a time before civil rights astonishes me because it addresses issues of equality and American standards. Continuously Whitman speaks about a new age where “men shall be his own priest” and the “churches built under…shall be the churches of men and women.” Whitman, specifically inserts that mood that he is not only talking about a liberty for men but for women as well.  Historically, men of that time period did not include women as heirs to freedom. Women’s roles were to tend to the children and watch over the house. I believe it is safe to say, knowing that this was written in 1855, that Whitman is a man before his time.  Beyond that, Whitman states that Americans can not over look this natural right of freedom. “No great literature nor any like style of behaviour…can long elude the jealous and passionate instinct of American standards.” What I like mostly is Whitman’s boldness. He has the audacity to state that this is “America’s standards”. By saying that, Whitman is including the entire nation regardless if they agree or not. Other than that, Whitman separates the poor from the wealthy. He says that a true poet knows that a man who put his life at risk did a lot worth mentioning, but a man who lives a long life did nothing worth mentioning. Overall, Whitman erases the mindset of his generation and replaces it “with a superior breed”.

Like Whitman says best:

“An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation…There is no fear of mistake…The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.”

 

Hi, my name is Jennifer and these are my favorite lines of song of myself

Vivas to those who have fail’d!
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes!
And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known!
This is the meal equally set, this the meat for natural hunger,
It is for the wicked just same as the righteous, I make appointments
with all,
I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited,
The heavy-lipp’d slave is invited, the venerealee is invited;
There shall be no difference between them and the rest.

I chose these lines because they cherish those who made mistakes or who were not always the winners. As you can see, Whitman remembers by saying “vivas” or in Spanish is a word of tribute, for fallen heroes, soldiers, and those that have died in war. This is something that stands out to me because usually people who win are cherished in society. Also, I appreciate being a minority myself, that he believes in equality. It is as though he is a man ahead of his time since he is from the time  before civil rights. Overall, these lines demonstrate his humility and caring for others.

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