I liked this poem a lot and one of the parts that stood out to me was when Whitman says in like 89-92 "If you were not breathing and walking here where would they all be? The most renowned poems would be ashes...orations and plays would be vacuums." Whitman is showing his equality and sameness to every reader by pointing out that he would not exist in the identity of a poet if we didn't exist. Therefore, we are just as important, if not more, than Whitman himself which seems to be a central theme in the poem.
In lines 1630-167 Whitman says,
I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile...I do not
advise you to stop,
I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,
But I say that none lead to greater or sadder or happier
that those lead to.
I found these lines to be very beautiful and I think what he is saying is that it doesn't matter what it is that leads you in life or gives you purpose or what you look forward to that gets you through each day, but instead it is the action of purpose that is important.
The main differences I noticed in this poem throughout the various editions were a shift from using ellipsis to using dashes to connect ideas and sentences. In addition, the dashes that already existed in the 1855 edition became, for the most part, commas. This is similar to Whitman's changes in "Leaves of Grass." I think it further proves the ideas discussed in class regarding the increased anxiety that came along with a larger audience. Instead of the readers being people Whitman knew personally, there was suddenly a mass audience that he had less and less control over. So these grammatical changes, in addition to changing the look and style of the poem, also seem to suggest that he is attempting to take more control over how his text is going to be interpreted.
The most interesting change I noticed between the 1855 and the 1856 edition was in the lines:
The wife, and she is not one jot less than the husband!
The daughter, and she is just as good as the son!
The mother, and she is every bit as much the father! (36-39)
In the 1855 edition the commas were dashes and the exclamation points were commas. The use of the exclamation points really stood out to me, although I'm not entirely sure why.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
tweet of the week
bowery b'hoy: the comedy of a culture in rapid transition
The Bowery b'hoy and his g'hal were iconic symbols of working class spirits in the two decades preceding the Civil War in New York City. During the 1830s the "Bowery was best known for its entertainment possibilities, which included cheap dancehalls, dime museums, billiard salons, rowdy theaters, performing animals, and boxing." This icon was based upon the culture and dress of the real working class people of New York and eventually became a character type "depicted in print and onstage, a symbolic figure that represented the rise of commercial culture and the decline in the status of skilled trades that were altering social relations."The American Museum, under Barnum's ownership in the 1840s and 1850s, put on exhibitions that attracted the working class Bowery crowd. However, due to his desire to bring in more respectable patrons, he replaced much of these exhibitions with moral stage dramas.
"B'hoy and g'hal are meant to evoke an Irish pronunciation of boy and gal and were commonly used slang words used by the Bowery crowd. The Bowery Boys gang were prominent in New York City's Five Points district. They were a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish gang that are even written about in Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York.
The Bowery b'hoy and his g'hal were iconic symbols of working class spirits in the two decades preceding the Civil War in New York City. During the 1830s the "Bowery was best known for its entertainment possibilities, which included cheap dancehalls, dime museums, billiard salons, rowdy theaters, performing animals, and boxing." This icon was based upon the culture and dress of the real working class people of New York and eventually became a character type "depicted in print and onstage, a symbolic figure that represented the rise of commercial culture and the decline in the status of skilled trades that were altering social relations."The American Museum, under Barnum's ownership in the 1840s and 1850s, put on exhibitions that attracted the working class Bowery crowd. However, due to his desire to bring in more respectable patrons, he replaced much of these exhibitions with moral stage dramas.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Specimen Days: "Only a New Ferry Boat"
Jan. 12, '82. -- Such a show as the Delaware presented an hour before sundown yesterday evening, all along between Philadelphia and Camden, is worth weaving into an item. It was full tide, a fair breeze from the southwest, the water of a pale tawny color, and just enough motion to make things frolicsome and lively. Add to these an approaching sunset of unusual splendor, a broad tumble of clouds, with much golden haze and profusion of beaming shaft and dazzle. In the midst of all, in the clear drab of the afternoon light, there steam'd up the river the large, new boat, "the Wenonah," as pretty an object as you could wish to see, lightly and swiftly skimming along, all trim and white, cover'd with flags, transparent red and blue, streaming out in the breeze. Only a new ferry-boat, and yet in its fitness comparable with the prettiest product of Nature's cunning, and rivaling it. High up in the transparent ether gracefully balanced and circled four or five great sea hawks, while here below, amid the pomp and picturesqueness of sky and river, swam this creation of artificial beauty and motion and power, in its way no less perfect.
Whitman's ability to perfectly describe what seem like unimportant events is how he is able to so thoroughly engage the reader in his poetry. In "Song of Myself" it is his emaculate attention to the details in his descriptions of events that works as the vehicle for for submerging the reader in the experience.
Whitman's ability to perfectly describe what seem like unimportant events is how he is able to so thoroughly engage the reader in his poetry. In "Song of Myself" it is his emaculate attention to the details in his descriptions of events that works as the vehicle for for submerging the reader in the experience.
Myself in "Song of Myself"
Occurrences of myself in "Song of Myself"
I celebrate myself, and go bathe and admire myself, but they are not the Me myself, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself, adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me, in all people i see myself, I dote on myself, I went myself first to the headland... my own hands carried me there, where the pear shaped balloon is floating aloft... floating in it myself and looking composedly down, I help myself to material and immaterial, I turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself, I myself become the wounded person, I discover myself on a verge of the usual mistake, and henceforth posses you to myself, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes, putting myself here and now to the ambushed womb of the shadows!, I acknowledge the duplicates of myself under all the scrape-lipped and pipe-legged concealments, and would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself, it is time to explain myself, it is you talking just as much as myself, nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself, I contradict myself.
"Where the pear-shaped balloon is floating aloft... floating in it myself and looking composedly down Where the life-car is drawn on the slipnoose... where the heat hatches pale-green eggs in the dented sand, Where the she-wale swims with her calves and never forsakes them..."Whitman creates this persona of "myself" that is both the narrator and Whitman and yet exists outside both of them. In doing so, the reader is interacting with "myself"/persona that represents anyone and everyone. This persona brings in the reader through these detailed occurrences so that it goes beyond just relating to the poem; the reader and "myself" evolve into inspiring the reader.
"I help myself to material and immaterial, No guard can shut me off, no law can prevent me."
"I do not ask the wounded person how he feels... I myself become the wounded person, My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe."Because the persona of "myself" is neither Whitman or the narrator, or completely separate of them, as the relationship between the reader and "myself" develops, the reader becomes entranced by the poem and is able to interchangeably become "myself" without even realizing it. So while reading this line, the reader feels as if this is something he/she is doing.
Summary
I found the repetition of this motif to create a pattern within the poem as a sort of contraction and expansion of consciousness. The word "myself" represents more than just the narrators voice; it becomes its own persona that is connected to Whitman but also exists outside of him. The persona as represented through"myself" goes through a development that is mapped throughout the poem with the paralleling development of the reader. The reader's involvement with "myself" becomes integral in this evolution. Whitman created broad lists or catalogues in which "the persona dissolves into an astounding range of particulars, are the heights of consciousness" as Ken Egan describes in his essay, Periodic Structure in "Song of Myself." Whitman is breaking past simply allowing the reader to identify into the realm of inspiration. The persona of "myself" works by bringing the reader into catalogues of experiences so that both the persona and the reader are living out the experience as opposed to simply talking about it. These catalogues are "both vivid in detail and massive in geographic and social scale, ranging from city, to farm, to wilderness, and again, ranging through all occupations and races"(Egan). John Mason describes this as "the reader, through a process of skimming and condensation, forms a single image of each catalogue and finally a single image of that unnamable reward which awaits the poet and the reader."
Poetry of the Future
"To-day, something else is wanted. For us the greatest poet is he who in his works most stimulates the readers imagination and reflection, who excites him the most himself to poetize. The greatest poet is not he who has done the best; it is he who suggests the most; he, not all of whose meaning is at first obvious, and who leaves you much to desire, to explain, to study, much to complete in your turn." Whitman beautifully quotes Sainte-Beuve in his "Poetry of the Future"(1881) published in the North American Review. A very interesting, although slightly long, read that explains much of what Whitman felt poetry and the poet was.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
"CONVULSIVENESS"
As I have look'd over the proof-sheets of the preceding pages, I have once or twice fear'd that my diary would prove, at best, but a batch of convulsively written reminiscences. Well, be it so. They are but parts of the actual distraction, heat, smoke and excitement of those times. The war itself, with the temper of society preceding it, can indeed be best described by that very word convulsiveness.
I found this entry to be to be incredibly relevant to "Leaves of Grass." Whitman believed that the ultimate source of poetry came from within the individual artist and this flowing of words as poetry onto a piece of paper is perfectly described in the the word convulsiveness. The dictionary sites cataclysm, earthquake, paroxysm, storm, tempest, tumult, upheaval, and uproar as synonyms to convulsion and I think that is what Whitman experienced when writing poetry; a complete outpour of emotion. I also found the parallel between the society that precedes a war and a life that precedes an individual really striking.
I found this entry to be to be incredibly relevant to "Leaves of Grass." Whitman believed that the ultimate source of poetry came from within the individual artist and this flowing of words as poetry onto a piece of paper is perfectly described in the the word convulsiveness. The dictionary sites cataclysm, earthquake, paroxysm, storm, tempest, tumult, upheaval, and uproar as synonyms to convulsion and I think that is what Whitman experienced when writing poetry; a complete outpour of emotion. I also found the parallel between the society that precedes a war and a life that precedes an individual really striking.
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