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.