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Walt Whitman UNIT 2 THE TEXT 1: WALT WHITMAN Structure Objectives Introduction Song of Myself Crossing Brooklyn Ferry When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloonzed Passage to India Let Us Sum Up Questions Glossary Suggested Reading 2.0 OBJECTIVES The primary objective in this Unit is to give you an idea of some of the major texts of Walt Whitman. While Song of Myself (1 855) shows the poet's youthful exuberance and figures prominently in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, Passage to India occurs in (1 87 1-72) edition of Leaves of Grass. 2.1 INTRODUCTION A- SOITSo,.~(\,.bt:!/-rs Lllc f;lrit-$cc,r text of Walt Whitman included in the krst edition of Leaves oj'Grass (1855). It did not bear the writer's name, had only the title Leaves of Grass and the date and place of publication: Brooklyn, New York: 1855. It is a long rambling poem preoccupied with the poet's unique self. It also seeks to establish rapport, comradeship and utmost communion with the reader. The self of the poet seems to embrace nature, civilization, men, women and children. In other words, the cosmos is assimilated by the poet who emerges as the bard of American democracy. The youthful exuberance and high spirits found in Song ofMyselfis also present abundantly in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (1856) in which the focus is on the river, the sunset, the ferry boat and the details of daily life, the poet's self and the crowd, the present generation and the future generation, and the I of the poet and the you of the reader. The you also stands for all the commuters of the past, the present and the future who want to reach home. The poet celebrates human brotherhood and fraternity as the core of American Republic. It was, however, the Civil War (1 861-65) that marked a turning-point in the history of ~ the American Republic. The North was able to subjugate the South and President Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as the supreme head of the Union. The assassination of the hero of the Civil War led to Walt Whitman's third major text, When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloorned (1965). It is a powerful elegy lamenting the martyrdom of Abraham Lincoln and also as a poem coming to terms with the assassination of the President. The poet is also able to picture death as a kind of prelude to national cohesion and reblrth and as the healer of the wounds of the Civil War. Passage to India (1871-72) 1s the fourth major text of Walt Whitman which was added to the 1871-72 edition of Leaves of Grass and it ties to fuse the technological progress of the New world with the ancient wisdom and love of the East. There is again a kind of soaring vision of the entire globe belng united into a compact whole transcending the barriers of geography, history and culture. Long American Poetry4 before globalization could become a reality, Whitman could see the glimpses of a unified world emerging in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 2.2 "SONG OF MYSELF" ' Song of Myself(1855) is a long, rambling poem which spans the poet's self, the reader, nature and the cosmos. The poet is thirty-seven years old and is in perfect health If. is the ea.rth consisting of rivers, mountains, wind that has nurtured him. Even within his house he is able to feel impact of all kinds of perfumes. What, however, he loves most is the feel of the world outside. It is the refreshing air, the rustle of grew !eaves, the silence of dry leaves, the sight of the sea-shore, and the sea-rocks that stir him deeply. They fill him with deep delight. One can see traces of Wordsworth's love of nature in Whitman's depiction of nature. There is, however, one important difference between Whitman and Wordsworth. While Whitman always refers to the reader and seeks involvement and communion with a like- minded soul, the poetry of Wordsworth is mostly that of a solitary man brooding and meditating. There 1s :>L> wondar that thc you is as important in Song of Myselfas the I. The poet asks the reader if he has an idda of the size of the earth. He also asks the reader, "Have you reckoned a thoiisand acres much? Have you reckoned the earth much?" In other wxds ~~nlessthe reader is able to respond to the sheer diversity and glory of the earth, he would not be able to grasp the full meaning of the text of Song of Myself: It is clear that the preoccupation wlth his own self does not turn Whitman into a hermit or a recluse. He wants to confinn if the reader would be able to measure up to Whitman's vision. In other words, the poet is as much pre-occupied with the celebration of his self as with the establishment of a community of like-minded people. The search for an ideal, healthy community is extremely important m Song of Myself: The poet is also aware of "the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news. = the fitful events; these come to me days and nights, and go from me again. But they not the Me myself'. It is true that by and large Whitman is an optimist and like Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau believes that man can make phenomenal progress but he is also aware of the evils of slavery, the North-South divide and growth of sectarian violence that posed a great danger to the ideal of human brotherhood and fraternity. One can, however, safely affirm that on the whole, Song of Myselfis a poem of hope and fulfilment. Song of Myself 1 I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume, you shall assume For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my Soul; I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy. 2 Houses and rooms are full of perfumes-the shelves are crowded with Walt Whitman perfumes; 1 breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it; The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it. The atmosphere is not a perfume-it has no taste of the distillation-it is odorless; It is for my mouth forever-I am in love with it; I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked; I am mad for it to be in contact with me. The smoke of my own breath; Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine; My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs; The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore, and dark-color'd sea-rocks#and of hay in the bam; The sound of the belch'd words of my voice, words loos'd to the eddies of the wind; A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms; The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag; The delight alone, or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill- sides; The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun. Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? Have you reckon'd the earth much? Have you practis'd so long to leam to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? Stop this day and night with me, and you shall possess the origin of all poems; You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books; You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me: You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself. 3 I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end; But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now; And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. Urge, and urge, and urge; Always the procreant urge of the world. Out of the dimness opposite equals advance-always substance and increase, always sex; Always a knit of identity-always distinction-always a breed cf life. To elaborate is no avail-leam'd and unleam'd feel that it is so. Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams, Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, I and this mystery, here we ctand. Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul.
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