Life

Identity

• born into artisan family
• lived in New York City
• journalist, poet
• never married
• came from Quaker background
• didn't hold strong Christian beliefs
• interested in Eastern religions
• seemed interested in a unifying religion that took into account Christianity, Eastern religions, mythology, and others; see "Chanting the Square Deific" and Section 41 of "Song of Myself"

Chronology

• 1819: born on Long Island, New York
• grows up in Brooklyn, New York
• 1831-1832: apprentice to a printer
• 1835-1845: journeyman printer, compositor, freelance writer, editor, teacher
• 1842: Franklin Evans (temperance novel)
• 1846: editor of Brooklyn Eagle
• 1848: leaves Eagle because of his free-soil beliefs; works for New Orleans Crescent; returns to New York, where he frequents operas, museums, and streets and appears as a "rough" in bohemian circles
• 1848-1849: editor of Brooklyn Freeman
• 1850-1855: carpenter; reads and keeps notebooks
• July 4, 1855: Leaves of Grass
• 1857-1859: editor of Brooklyn Times
• 1863-1864: nurse in Washington, D.C., during Civil War
• 1865: clerk in Indian Bureau of the Department of Interior; dismissed by official who thought Leaves of Grass was obscene; clerk in Department of Justice
• 1870: publishes Democratic Vistas, which incorporates essays published in Galaxy in 1867 and 1868
• 1873: suffers a stroke and retires in Camden, New Jersey
• 1879: travels west to St. Louis, Topeka, Rockies, Denver
• 1881: 7th edition of Leaves of Grass is banned in Boston
• 1892: Leaves of Grass (Deathbed Edition)

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Themes and Issues

Class

• acted as a bowry rough: a swaggering, masculine, unconventional social type recognized in the 1840s
• was more voyeur than participant
• spiritualized, idealized lower classes

Critical approaches

• literary form
• politics
• identity: psychological, national, sexual
• marginal figure
• sexuality
• working class

Emerson as influence

• Emphasis on individual
• Celebration of America
• Form as product of meaning
• See parallels in Whitman's preface to Leaves of Grass and Emerson's "The Poet"; both writers strive to justify and to define poetry, and both say the poet possesses something all men have, but is different in his ability to express that something.

Influences on poetry

• Sea ("Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking")
• Music, especially opera (even though he did not know Italian)
• Oratory
• Bible: Whitman's poetry shows characteristics of Hebraic poetry.
• Reform movement: Whitman and his major contemporaries "recognized the immense cultural influence of reform movements and, as part of their effort to create culturally representative texts, they repeatedly used reform images. They were intent, however, on transforming these images in various ways" (Reynolds 92).

Liminality

• In poems such as "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and "Prayer to Columbus," he is traveling from one place to another; he is in between worlds.
• Many of his poems, such as these and "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" and "To a Locomotive in Winter," also suggest movement, passage.

Periodization

• Most of Whitman's greatest work is done before 1865.
• Critics struggle to locate later work.
• To determine which poems in Leaves of Grass were written later, see Collected Works, edited by Gay Wilson Allen.

Reactions to Whitman

• Contemporary reactions: Some considered Leaves of Grass a joke in 1855, while others were outraged by the mysticism and earthiness.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career . . . . I find incomparable things said incomparably well."
• William Dean Howells, apparently referring to Whitman's treatment of sex, says he "has told too much"; he also says Whitman is too personal, too vague, and too journalistic.
• Henry James says Whitman is too much of an egotist; he needs to put his ideas ahead of himself; James permits deviations from conventional form, but says one needs a better reason than Whitman has; James says Whitman does not add enough meaning to the naked experience of war
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Algernon Charles Swinburne celebrate him in England.
• He slowly achieved a larger readership, but never the wide popularity among the masses that he desired.
• For reactions to Whitman in the twentieth century, see Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song.

Revision

• Whitman dramatically changed and even deleted poems in Leaves of Grass in the various editions.
• The poet Galway Kinnell argues that many of these changes harm the poems because Whitman, who originally wrote the poems in state of wild inspiration, later forgot what he was doing (Kinnell 5-6).
• Whitman betrayed his original intent of creating a "language experiment" by revising the poems to make them more polished and literary (Kinnell 8).

Sexuality

• Whitman almost certainly became involved in homosexual activity.
• It's difficult to define him in terms of his sexual identity, however, because there was no homosexual cultural identity at that time.
• Whitman was defensive about his sexuality with some people, including Swinburne, and often puts on a heterosexual mask in his poetry.
• Oscar Wilde claimed that Whitman did not hide his homosexuality and suggested that Whitman kissed him: "The kiss of Walt Whitman is still on my lips."
• Perhaps Whitman, like Melville in the "A Squeeze of the Hand" chapter of Moby-Dick, was merely pushing the envelope of metaphor in his attempt to celebrate human companionship.
• Whitman wanted to celebrate the beauty of sexuality and sought to distance himself from the sensational novels of the period (Reynolds).

Sources

• Unlike Longfellow, Bryant, and Cooper--whose borrowing of established forms of expression has earned them the nicknames "the American Tennyson," "the American Wordsworth," and "the American Scott"--Whitman borrowed so widely that he cannot be pigeonholed as an imitator; rather, he is an eclectic borrower (Salska 2).
• Among these sources were native elements: ". . . Spencer throws light on two processes continuing within American Romanticism: the first that of sifting and selecting compatible European directives, the second that of tapping and assessing the native resources . . . . In the American Romantic poetry, the work of Longfellow crowns the one while that of Whitman and Dickinson brings to fulfillment the other" (Salska 4).
• D. Mirsky likens Whitman to Brigham Young and Mary Baker Eddy, individuals who also broke with the past to proclaim their own individual visions (Salska 2).
• "The fact is that from the start Whitman had experimented with popular genres which had themselves taken on subversive and progressive qualities. The greatest poetic innovator of nineteenth-century America was nurtured by a popular culture that carried seeds of a new thematic and stylistic rebelliousness" (Reynolds 104).
• associated with reformers in New York (Reynolds 104).
• attended lectures by rabid abolitionists John P. Hale and Cassius Clay, as well as temperance advocate John Bartholomew Gough (Reynolds 105).
• Whitman himself wrote on agrarianism, labor reform, temperance, and abolition (Reynolds 107).
• Whitman found sources for his sensational images in reform literature (Reynolds 107).
• "It was not so much the moral content as the brash spirit of reform that intrigued Whitman" (Reynolds 108).

West

• "The movement of Americans and expansion of the United States across the western portion of the country was a hot topic for many of Whitman's works. First of all, Whitman was in love with, and even seemingly obsessed with, the outdoors and nature. Wstern expansion fits right in with his love of nature because it was all done outdoors and across the American countryside. It also represented an opportunity to discover and explore all the new natural settings of the West that no one to this point had seen. Whitman was also very concerned with friendship and brotherhood, which is very evident in the westward movement. During these times, groups of people began to grow very tightly together as they faced the new, open land and its many dangers as one big family. Lastly, Whitman was very interested in looking toward the future and what it holds. He thinks the future is very important to all of us and expresses that in his writings. Westward expansion epitomizes the future. It was the country's future at that time. The move was a very important step in determining the development of the country and what it would become" (Jakeman 9/24/96).
• "A theme expressed very openly and often by Whitman is connection to one's fellow man, as well as to all of society. This feeling of connection, which Whitman so often emphasizes, must have been strong for those brave souls who abandoned their homes in the East to start a new life in the West. The idea that homesteads were to be given to those who could first physically claim them was the reason for the tremendous migration and explains why many families were willing to sacrifice nearly all they owned for the possibility of claiming one of these large chunks of land. The sense of connection between fellow families would have been strong because they were all venturing out into the unknown, and in such a case, it is human nature to look for some type of security. This security could have been found by knowing that there were others venturing out into the same, unknown territory. Although the families and heads of families were compteting against one another, the sense of security generated by having others pursue the same path helped create a strong emotional bond, similar to the connection between neighbors that Whitman so often preached" (Butler 9/24/96).
• "The western movement influenced Whitman a great deal in his writings. From watching some of The West, I recognized several themes that I had seen before in Whitman's works. The most obvious connection was that of the Americans coming in contact with the Indians. Before, the people had been afraid of the Indians, but during the westward movement, some were beginning to try to relate to them and become 'friends.' In The West, I recall hearing about a man . . . that immersed himself into an Indian tribe in order to really understand what they were like. This showed the gradual acceptance of the Indians. Relating to Whitman, he frequently wrote about accepting all people. In many of his poems, he spoke of Indians, and in them they were portrayed as good. In most of Whitman's 'tangents' when he went off about accepting all different types of people (prostitutes, sinners, etc.), Indians were almost always included and spoken of in a good light. Also, when he makes lists of common people and objects that he believed to be beautiful, he also included the Indians" (Smith 9/24/96).
• "Yet, despite all the expansion that came before Whitman, he is not satisfied with what was discovered. He still looks outward, even from the shores of California, "Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound" (Lasher 9/24/96).
• "I think that Whitman uses the West in his works because during his lifetime, there was so much going on in the world around him involving the expansion of the West. . . . This was the time period of the Manifest Destiny. And also, this was the time of the Gold Rush. Therefore, I think that he incorporated the West in his writings because it was the talk of the time" (Patterson 9/24/96).

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Technique

Alliteration

• "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking": "'And thenceforward all summer in the sound of the sea.' This use of alliteration of the s's creates a sound of the sea . . . which is very effective. This is by no means the only use of alliteration in the poem. Other groupings such as 'sterile sands,' 'briers and blackberries,' 'Listen'd long and long,' 'sweetest song and songs,' and 'singer solitary' occur throughout the poem" (Kimmel 9/16/96).

Anaphora

• Anaphora: repetition of words or phrases at beginnings of lines.
• "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": "'Others will enter . . . / Others will watch . . . / Others will see' and also 'Just as you feel . . . / Just as you are refresh'd . . . / Just as you stand . . . / Just as you look. . .'" (Barham 9/17/96).
• "One of the first cases in which he uses anaphora extensively in Drum-Taps is in the section titled "Poet," in which the first four lines begin with 'I hear,' and lines 8-12 begin with 'I see,' while the entire first 13 lines begin with 'I.' He is creating one large audio and visual image in those lines, with each line being a separate image, but all tied together by their common beginning. In this case, lines all beginning with the same word also help to set up a rhythm, as the reader is inclined to read all of the 'I's with the same amount of stress, like reading off items on a list. Through the use of anaphora in this way, Whitman can express one theme in several different lines, with several different ideas, while having a definite link between each thought. In the first section of 'Give Me the Splendid Sun,' Whitman begins the first eleven lines with 'Give me.' Although in each line he is asking for a different thing, the entire thought expressed in the lines together is his desire for 'nature's primal sanities.' With the common beginning in these lines, he is expressing all of his values at once in eleven lines, with eleven different ideas" (Minis 9/17/96).

"Free" verse

• Definition: verse that, while free of rhyme and a consistent rhythm, may employ other structural and sound elements, such as anaphora and chiasmus.
• Whitman may have picked up on Emerson's line in "The Poet": "For it is not meters, but a meter-making argument that makes a poem."
• But he also may have found models in "Proverbial Philosophy," a free verse poem that Tupper published in 1838, and in a poem by George Lippard (Reynolds).

Catalogs

• "In many of Whitman's poems, like Children of Adam, he lists many things at once. In Children of Adam, section 9, he lists over 80 parts of the body, both male and female. He does this listing technique again in Song of the Open Road, when he tells of all the things he passes and sees on his journey" (Baldwin 9/17/96)
• They show a childish joy in naming things (Matthiessen 518).
• Perhaps they also betray a desire to incorporate everything in a poem, as Melville tried to do in Moby-Dick.
• Whitman may have borrowed the idea from contemporary travel literature, including books called Mississippi in Gobs and New York in Chunks (Reynolds).
• "In 'Drum-Taps' the smaller passages which make up the whole poem seem to give all different perspectives of the war. The perspective of the mother, father, child, wound dresser, slave woman, and even a banner are all given. In turn, the reader is fed a catalog of various feelings about war. Also, in 'Drum-Taps' and particularly in the passage 'First O Songs for a Prelude,' there is a catalog. Whitman lists and lists all different people with varying occupations and how they are getting ready for war. Thy lawyer, the mechanic, and salesman are all mentioned. It would be easy to see Whtiman's use of the catalog as simply 'show[ing] childish joy in naming things' (Matthiessen 518). However, I see it as Whitman's way of presenting universality. Everyone is going through this same event, and everyone is feeling emotions about the war. The catalog shows common links among humans" (Plonk 9/19/96).

Chiasmus

• Definition: a mirror pattern in words, sounds, or other elements.
• See "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," lines 71-74: "SOOTHE! Soothe! Soothe!" / CLOSE on its wave soothes the wave BEHIND / And again another BEHIND embracing and lapping, everyone CLOSE, / But my love SOOTHES not me, not me."
• See "By the Bivouac's fitful flame": "By the Bivouac's fitful flame . . . / A procession . . . / A solemn and slow processsion . . . / By the Bivouac's fitful flame" (Daigneault 9/20/96).
• See Psalm 124:7: "Our soul is ESCAPED as a bird out of the SNARE of the fowlers: the SNARE is broken, and we are ESCAPED."

Circles and Cycles

• Drum-Taps: "He begins the poem with a short prelude and then begins telling of the year 1861 and how all the men were having to leave their jobs and wives to go fight in the war. Then he starts telling about the war itself. He describes cavalries crossing fords and army corps marching to battle. In one section, he speaks of a soldier who watches his friend get fatally wounded. The soldier holds a vigil all night for his friend and then buries him when he dies. In another section, he describes a soldier's family--his mother, father, and sister--when they receive a letter telling them that he has been injured in battle. Whitman brings out the true emotion of the families during this time. After describing all of the different parts to the war, at the end of the poem, Whitman comes full circle as he does in all his works by declaring that the war is over and that there is peace throughout the country. In this manner, Whitman completes his poetic story, and the reader is fulfilled" (Jakeman 9/19/96).

Envelope

• "Passage to India": "O...Of you...Of you...Of you...O"
• Psalm 70:1-5: "Make haste .... Let ... Let ... Let ... Make haste."

Genre

• Whitman had written sensational stories, visionary works, nationalistic works, biblical stories, and works on social issues.
• "If Leaves of Grass was the era's most expansive poem, continuing the largest variety of voices and topics, it was largely because it was written by one who had unabashedly tried his hand at virtually every genre that had been popularized by previous American writers" (Reynolds 106).

Grammatical mood

• Section 9 of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a mirror image of Section 3, except that mood of Section 9 is imperative, and that of Section 3 is indicative.

Imagery

• Still pictures suggest immortality of images, as on Grecian Urn, and may reflect interest in photography.
• Whitman uses unpoetic objects and makes them poetic.
• He also uses outrageous analogies: "the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue" resembles Thoreau's description of the "cheap and natural music of the cow" in Walden.
• Drum-Taps: "Whitman uses [phrases] like 'the young men falling in and arming, / The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the blacksmith's hammer, tost aside with precipitation).' This use of imagery allows Whitman to make descriptive scenes that the reader can attach himself to and see" (Aron 9/19/96).
• "Another technique Whitman makes use of is that of imagery: 'We primeval forests felling, we the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within . . . we the virgin soil upheaving . . .' The extensive use of imagery serves to widen the reader's scope of comprehension for the picture that Whitman is painting. The content is driven by the images like still photographs coming together to form a film" (Premakumar 9/17/96).

Line length

• Lines in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" suggest tides.
• Length of lines in Section 1 suggests flood tide because each is longer than the one preceding it.
• Sections also suggest flood tide because they grow longer in groups of three: a, a+b, a+b+c, d, d+e, d+e+f, g, g+h, g+h+i
• Elsewhere, Whitman often achieves an aural effect by writing increasingly longer lines, suggesting expansion of thought.
• "In most of Whitman's poems, the pattern is not rhythmic, yet the pattern lies in the length of the lines. In one verse, the first line is of typical length, and the second line is extended a little longer than the first. The pattern continues with the third and fourth lines each becoming longer than their predecessor. The reason seems to be to build up a climax in each of Whitman's verses, and the fifth and final line is the conclusion of the verse. This style puts a greater emphasis on each verse and provides the reader with various miniature climaxes" (Atkinson 9/12/96).

Musicality

• Whitman was inspired by opera.
• He portrays himself as a bard, singing for the common people.

Onomatopoeia

• "Beat! Beat! Drums!": "Throughout the poem, he not only repeats, 'Beat! beat! drums!--Blow! bugles! blow!' but he uses the words in the stanzas that incorporate some kind of sound. He uses words like 'burst,' 'pound,' 'rumble,' 'rattle,' and 'thump.' I can associate sounds with each of these words. I can hear the drums drumming and the bugles blowing" (Patterson 9/17/96).
• "One example of this can be seen in 'Song of the Banner at Daybreak' when the flag expresses its voice by 'Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping . . .'" (Daugherty 9/19/96).

Oratory

• Whitman lived at a time of great orators, such as Daniel Webster.
• He may have been influenced by grass-roots reformers' oratory (Reynolds).

Parallels

• Definition: variations on a theme, often linked by anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of lines).
• "Song of Myself 2: "Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much? Have you ..."
• "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": "I see. . . I see. . . I see..."
• See Ecclesiastes 3:2-...: "A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted ..."

Persona

• "'Persona,' as defined by A Handbook to Literature, is a mask created by an author and through which a narrative is told. Intrinsic in the concept of persona is that the author's own views are masked by the implied author through which he/she speaks (385). Another interpretation of 'persona,' the Jungian view, is that persona is a set of attitudes adopted by an individual to fit himself for the social roles he sees as his (Simpson 598). . . . Both of these explanations of persona are applicable to Whitman's works" (Hundley 1).

Punctuation

• "Section 9 of "Passage to India" includes 29 lines. Twenty-five of these lines end either in a question or exclamation mark. The effect of this punctuation is that Whitman depicts the deep emotion that he pours into his writing" (Lasher 9/17/96).
• Whitman "uses exclamation points frequently, creating extra emphasis on lines. The beautiful things in life become magnificent, and sad become tragic" (Minis 9/17/96).

Repetition

• "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": Images of people leaning on rail, seabirds, halo around speaker's head, and ships appear at the beginning and again near end of the poem.

Symbolism

• See "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."
• "Drooping star in the west": Lincoln was sign of greatness in Western civilization.
• "O powerful western fallen star!": But Lincoln has fallen because of an assassin.
• "...yet the star holds me": speaker still feels influence of Lincoln and love for him and has a hard time letting go.
• Lilac bush sugggests renewing effect of nature, which offers hope.
• "Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green": Despite this dark time, the lilac bush is alive, vibrant, full, and beautiful.
• "...with the perfume strong I love": bush has the potential to fill speaker with joy and love despite circumstances.
• Singing bird suggests a poet, perhaps Whitman himself.
• "Solitary the thrush ... Sings by himself a song": poet's soul independently sings of itself, as in "Song of Myself"; this line also suggests the loneliness Whitman sometimes expressed in other poems; and it echoes "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking."
• "If thou wast not granted to sing thou would'st surely die": Expression lessens the agony.
• "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking": "The title in itself, through symbolism, suggests birth (out of the cradle) and its continuing cycle (endlessly rocking)" (Plonk 9/17/96).
• "The use of these techniques can also be noted in other poems. In 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,' the ferry becomes a symbol of continuous motion in the universe because it goes back and forth across the water" (Plonk 9/17/96).

Case study: "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

• Perpendicular alliteration
• Alliterative chain in present participle
• Directional words (out, over, down, up) at beginnings of lines
• Dactyls alternating with trochees: "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking"
• Oratorical rhetoric: balanced clauses, with meaning suspended to last word
• Oratory of Shakespeare's blank verse
• Elements borrowed from French and Italian opera: overture, recitative, musical meditation, song of bird as lyric, concluding finale
• Organic rhythms reminiscent of waves on the seashore
• Twins or opposites

"To a Locomotive in Winter" as allegory of Whitman's artistry

• The "beat convulsive" suggests the rhythm of poetry.
• The "parallel and connecting rods" suggest the parallels and other devices that Whitman uses to hold his free-ranging lines together.
• "Thy great protruding head-light fix'd in front" suggests that Whitman is leading the way into unchartered territory, into the recesses of the soul.
• "Thy train of cars behind, obedient, merrily following" points to readers.
• "Fierce-throated beauty" suggests a poet who combines beauty and power.
• The "lawless music" suggests Whitman's free verse.
• But "thine own track firmly holding" suggests that the poet retains some control over his verse, perhaps through devices such as anaphora and chiasmus.

Work

Children of Adam

• Why Adam? What associations does this figure conjure?
• What kind of garden is he describing in "To the Garden the World"?
• In addition to love and physical nature, what associations do Whitman's sexual images--such as those in Part 5 of "I Sing the Body Electric"--have? (See 7 and 8 of same poem and see "A Woman Waits for Me" and end of "Spontaneous Me.")
• What is the tone of "Facing West from California's Shores"?
• What images struck you when you read these poems? Why?
• Why do you suppose Whitman chose to focus on "laughing flesh," physical contact with other humans, the odor of men and women, and other material things in "I Sing the Body Electric" and other poems?
• What do you think Whitman means by "curious sympathy" in 9 of "I Sing the Body Electric"?
• Why does Whitman say, "I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough"?
• How do you interpret "I am He That Aches With Love"?
• How does the persona choose a companion in "Native Moments"? Why?
• Would you say Whitman values common people or not? Why? See Part 6 of "I Sing the Body Electric."
• Why do you think Whitman asks so many questions? See Section 8 of "I Sing the Body Electric."
• What relationship does he establish in "Whoever You Are Now Holding Me in Hand"? What does this poem say about language, reading, and communication?

Calamus

• Why did Whitman package these poems in this way? Do you see any persistent themes?
• Who is the speaker in "Whoever You Are Now Holding Me in Hand"? What clues do you have? Do you see any allusions?
• The American philosopher William James said Whitman was a pathological optimist. How might a poem such as "On the Terrible Doubt of Appearances" cause us to rethink this notion? What is the nature of Whitman's optimism?
• How does Whitman define happiness?
• What is calamus?
• What are the "trickle drops," and what do they suggest?
• What patterns do you see in Whitman's imagery? What might these patterns mean? See "When I Heard at Close of Day."

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

• What is Whitman trying to do in this poem? How does he forge connection between himself and readers? What aspects of his technique help him make this connection?
• How do the images of this poem work?
• What patterns of sound and images do you see?
• Citing details from this poem, analyze Whitman's technique. How does he create meaning and effect with his words?
• "The tide of the water is metaphorically seen as a bridge that carries people from one era to another, and Whitman sees himself being carried along with i t" (Daugherty 9/17/96).

"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

• What is going on here? Who are the two "speakers," and how can you tell their words apart?
• Why is it significant that this poem is a conversation?
• What does the speaker learn? How does he grow over the course of the poem?
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, a powerful influence on Whitman, wrote in his essay "The Poet" that poets articulate universal feelings. In other words, all humans have transcendental feelings, but the poets are distinctive in their abilities to express those feelings. Where does this idea emerge in this poem?
• What is an aria? What is the significance of this word in the poem?
• Analyze the speaker's relationship with nature.
• Near the end of the poem, the speaker says: "I awake." What do you think he means?
• A literary scholar has used a phrase from this poem, "singer solitary," in the title of his biography of Whitman. What do you think is the significance of this phrase for the poem and for Whitman's life?

"Passage to India"

• What does Whitman say about the past? How does this comment fit themes you have seen in his other works?
• What does the speaker say about voyagers, explorers, engineers, and architects? How do these people fit in the poem?
• What does the image of the train suggest in Part 3?
• How many of you have been to the West? Do you recognize any of these sites? Why do you think Whitman chose to use them here? What associations do they have? How did they affect you?
• What do you think Whitman means by "inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention" in Section 5?
• What is the "Passage to more than India," and what is making it?

"Pioneers! O Pioneers!"

• Do any of you recognize the title of this poem?
• What similarities do you see in this poem and "Passage to India"?
• Whitman "embraces and exalts the pioneers of the West in 'Pioneers! O Pioneers!' Many critics accused him of being to optimistic about life because that was not reality. Whitman did nt ignore the bad times; he just chose to focus on the promising and exciting times. The West also had some bad memories linked to it, but, like Whitman, many people chose to view it as a free and happy land of new opportunities and adventures" (Catt 9/19/96).

"Song of the Open Road"

• Why a road? What does Whitman mean when he writes: "Here a great personal deed has room"? What does Whitman say about libraries and enclosed spaces? How does this attitude contrast that of Poe?
• What do all of the questions and invitations suggest?
• Who is travelling on this road?
• See the opening stanza of Part 5. What does "ordain" mean? What is the nature of the speaker's relationship to others in this stanza? Do you see any parallels in what we have said about the Transcendentalists, particularly Emerson and Thoreau?

"I Sit and Look Out"

• How does the tone of this poem compare to the tone of "Passage to India" or "Song of the Open Road"?
• Does the speaker arrive at a resolution?
• Why is he silent?

"Drum-Taps"

• What positive consequences does Whitman see in the Civil War? See the early poems, such as "First O Songs for a Prelude." See also "Long, Too Long America." What negative consequences does he see?
• What techniques does Whitman use to convey these impressions?
• What does the banner represent in "Song of the Banner at Daybreak"?
• What does Whitman mean by "no mere parade now" in "First O Songs for a Prelude"?
• What does Whitman say about Manhattan in "City of Ships"? How does this poem help us to understand his ideas about New York City, America, democracy, and humanity?
• What is Whitman trying to do in "Cavalry Crossing a Ford"? How does he do it?
• How would you characterize the overall movement of Drum-Taps? Do you see patterns in tone and subject matter?
• What specific details struck you in these poems? What effect did they have on you?
• Whitman "especially seems to respect the soldiers a great deal and makes it clear that the soldiers are more powerful than the writer. It is an interesting aspect to look at the Civil War as just a commoner because it is difficult to recall a story on the Civil War that was not written by someone with a good standing in his or her community" (Atkinson 9/17/96).
• "Just as the farmer, bridegroom, and other people in the poem are affected by the beating of the drums, so is ther eader of the poem. . . . These drums might also be thought of as a symbol of the state that the country was in at the time. In 1861 the country was definitely in an alarmed state. No one in the country went anywhere without hearing the sound of the 'drums' and 'bugles'" (Kimmel 9/19/96).
• "Whitman no doubt had regrets about the death of so many in the nation, but he thought that this was necessary in order to achieve a new and improved country. I believe that this might be the way that Whitman perceived the ongoing battle of the westward expansion" (Kimmel 9/23/96)
• "Even Whitman's sexuality is seen in such a collection of war-oriented poetry. At the end of 'Wound-Dresser,' he talks about the 'burning in his soul' and how his lips were blessed with many kisses from the soldiers he cared for. This could simply show the closeness of their camaraderie, as intimacy is as close as you can actually get to another human being, or it could be referring to the burning sexual desires that seem so prevalent of an issue in Whitman's poetry" (Ryan 9/20/96).
• "The use of anaphora in 'First O Songs for a Prelude' emphasizes many elements of a war: 'the young men falling in and arming,' 'the mechanics arming,' 'the lawyer leaving his office,' 'the driver deserting his wagon,' 'the white tents cluster in camps,' 'the flags flung out,' 'the tearful parting,' 'the unpent enthusiasm,' 'the artillery,' etc. The repetition of the word 'the' at the beginning of many of the lines is like a faint drumming . . ." (Catt 9/24/96).

"While Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

• Who is the "powerful western fallen star" Whitman mentions at the beginning of section 2? What is the significance of this description?
• How does Whitman unify the disparate elements of this poem?
• What is Whitman describing in sectiosn 5 and 6? How does he bring this scene to life?
• How does Whitman depict death? What motivates this description?
• How would you describe the tone of this poem? Cite passages to support your characterization.
• Use details from this poem to interpret Whitman's vision of America.
• What symbols does Whitman use? What do they represent? Why do you think he chose those particular symbols?
• How do you interpret the role of the bird in this poem? Why is singing so important in this poem and many other poems in Leaves of Grass? How might the medievial notion of a bard apply to Whitman's poetry?

"Song of Myself"

• What function do the numerous scenes of America--such as the references to farmer, hunter, and sailor in Section 9 and Section 10, as well as all of Section 15--serve in the poem?
• Whitman's expansive poetry can make reading his poetry difficult. If you are feeling overwhelmed, try this technique of reading "Song of Myself" and other poems: Focus on striking lines, stanzas, or images and look for connections between these small units and the overall scheme of the poem. For example, how might each of the following statements serve as a motto for the poem? "To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow, / All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means." (Section 20); "I accept Reality and dare not question it, / Materialism first and last imbuing." (Section 23); "My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach / With the twirl of tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds" (Section 25); "My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-gaps, / I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents, / I am afoot with my vision" (Section 33); "I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name" (Section 48).
• Some of Whitman's most famous lines appear at the beginning of this poem: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." What does he mean? In what way are these lines a justification for what follows? Consider this statement in light of Thoreau's words in the first chapter of Walden: "I should not talk so much about myself if there were any body else whom I know as well."
• Where does Whitman talk about beginnings in this poem? Why would beginnings be important to him?
• Section 2 contains the lines "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 your self." Read the first paragraph of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Nature. What might have inspired Whitman and Emerson to take this stance? What do they want humans to do?
• See Section 46. What does the speaker want the reader to do? Where else in Leaves of Grass have you seen a similar sentiment?
• Which lines did you find weird, unsettling, funny, or surprising? Why? How might they function in the poem?
• How did this poem affect you? If you experienced moments of exultation, when did they come? How did Whitman arouse these feelings?
• How is the speaker of the poem "Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it" (Section 4)? Consider these lines in light of Section 11.
• Section 19 ends with the lines "This hour I tell things in confidence, / I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you." How do these lines fit in Whitman's general approach to readers?
• Who is the speaker?
• How does the speaker make his exit? Consider the meaning of the following lines: "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, / If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles" (Section 52); "Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, / Missing me one place search another, / I stop somewhere waiting for you" (Section 52).
• How many sections does the poem contain? Why does this number suggest?
• Note the references to smell in this poem, particularly in Section 2. How do these references complement the meaning of the poem's words?
• Look at the second stanza of Section 3. What technique is at work in these lines, and how does it amplify the words' meaning?
• How does the speaker go about describing grass in Section 7?
• Reread Section 6. How does Whitman create interesting rhythms without writing in a structured meter?
• What are some of the ugly images and scenes in the poem? How does Whitman treat them? Why do you think he put them here? In particular, see sections 33 and 34.
• "I also say it is good to fall," Whitman writes in Section 18, "battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won." How do you interpret these lines?
• What does this poem say about God? In what ways is Whitman both conventional and unconventional in his religious ideas?
• What does the poem say about animals? See Section 32. How does the characterization fit in the scheme of the entire work?
• Why do you think Whitman titled his book Leaves of Grass?
• Think of the other poems we have read in this unit on Whitman, particularly "Song of the Open Road" and "Passage to India." What parallels do you see? How does an understanding of these poems help you to understand "Song of Myself"?
• What is contemporary about this poem? What is universal?

Bibliography

Life

• Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. 1980.
• Reynolds, David. Beneath the American Renaissance.
• Reynolds, David. Walt Whitman's America. 1995.
• Zweig, Paul. Walt Whitman: The Making of a Poet. 1984.

Themes and Issues

• Allen, Gay W. A Reader's Guide to Walt Whitman. 1970.
• Asselineau, Roger. The Evolution of Walt Whitman. Vol. II of The Creation of a Book. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.
• Butler, Chris. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Catt, Cynthia. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• ---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Faner, Robert D. Walt Whitman and Opera. 1951.
• Folsom, Ed, ed. Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song. 1981.
• Jakeman, David. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Kinnell, Galway. "Introduction." The Essential Whitman. New York: The Ecco Press, 1987. 3-12.
• Lasher, Todd. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Mirsky, D. "Poet of American Democracy." Walt Whitman Abroad. Ed. Gay Wilson Allen. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1955. Reprinted in Walt Whitman. Ed. Francis Murphy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Critical Anthologies, 1969. 238-239.
• Patterson, Kathleen. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Smith, Jenny. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 24, 1996.
• Spencer, Benjamin T. The Quest of Nationality: An American Literary Campaign. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1957. 89-90.
• Woodress, James, ed. Critical Essays on Walt Whitman. 1983.

Technique

• Allen, Gay W. A Reader's Guide to Walt Whitman. 1970.
• Aron, Chad. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• Atkinson, Thomas. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 12, 1996.
• Baldwin, Kara. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Barham, Susan. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Daigneault, Ralph. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 20, 1996.
• Daugherty, Walt. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature.
• Hundley, Ann. "Whitman Paper." English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fall 1996.
• Jakeman, David. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• Kimmel, Jeremy. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 16, 1996.
• ---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• Lasher, Todd. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Minis, Sarah. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Patterson, Kathleen. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Plonk, Sara. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• ---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 19, 1996.
• Premakumar, Raj. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Reynolds, David. Beneath the American Renaissance.

Interpretation of Works

• Atkinson, Thomas. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Daugherty, Walt. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 17, 1996.
• Kimmel, Jeremy. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 23 1996.
• Ryan, Cory. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 20, 1996.