"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.