[Poetry Appreciation] Leaves of Grass (some of it) by Walt Whitman

If one is quite advance in thinking in the period he exists, is it his fault? Should we blame him for his restless and outspoken thoughts during a period when religious and government leaders impose a structured set of norms and mores? (Mind you, these thoughts are not mere fancies about the material world.)

Well, to my modern mind, I don’t think so, yet negative criticisms were what American poet Walt Whitman got for putting out his “Leaves of Grass”, which I personally describe as a “relevant and realistic masterpiece”. Whitman was even fired by his boss who describe his work as “offensive”, which was horribly unfair. But that didn’t dampen his passion to release polished editions of Leaves of Grass later on.

What I admire about Walt Whitman is his ability to think clearly and put his thoughts just as clearly in poetry. To me, it appears that Whitman is in touch with his inner self and with the environment he moves about. He is a keen observer of nature and human predicaments, equipped with a good memory and developed the desire to speak for the voiceless.

An example is his “When I Read the Book”.

When I read the book, the biography famous,

And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life?
And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life,
Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,
Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections
I seek for my own use to trace out here.)

Whitman, reading his biography, appeared to be a good man. He saw first hand the harsh realities of slavery and wrote poetry about and against it. He came home to take care of his brother and mother. Although he was already struggling financially, he used some of his money for the needs of patients he cared for in the hospitals he stayed and worked in in Washington for more than a decade. He himself was a witness to the consequences of the Civil War. Most likely these experiences influenced his liberated thinking to speak for those who could not and moved him to create a poetic style that veers aways from the traditional structure, rhyming, and meter. He is clearly talented, especially when critics observed that Whitman was able to paint so many rich words to illustrate a scene without annoyingly repeating these words.

“I Hear America Singing” is considered as one of Whitman’s beloved poems.

I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
    singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
    at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
    the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
    robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Here is a favorite of mine, which tells Whitmans stand on slavery and other issues brought about by war:

As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
By Walt Whitman

As I walk these broad majestic days of peace,
(For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific Ideal,
Against vast odds erewhile having gloriously won,
Now thou stridest on, yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers,
Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others,)
Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce,
The announcements of recognized things, science,
The approved growth of cities and the spread of inventions.

I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories with their foremen and workmen,
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.

But I too announce solid things,
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing,
Like a grand procession to music of distant bugles pouring,
triumphantly moving, and grander heaving in sight,
They stand for realities—all is as it should be.

Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad and the divine average, freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
The rapt promises and luminé of seers, the spiritual world, these centuries-lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.

Still, despite Whitman’s love for America as clearly manifested in the above poem, criticisms came. I think there were three types of criticisms--one was of the structure, two was of the use of explicit words and sexual themes, and three was the combination of one and two. Whitman was (quite unfortunately) living in the 1800s when people were severely conservative.

Here’s an example of a sexual theme taken from his “Spontaneous Me”.

The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to
    fill my place when I am through,  

Here’s another (very open) example taken from “A Woman Waits for me”.

Sex contains all, bodies, souls,
Meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations,
Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the
  seminal milk,
All hopes, benefactions, bestowals, all the passions, loves,
  beauties, delights of the earth,
All the governments, judges, gods, follow'd persons of the
  earth,
These are contain'd in sex as parts of itself and justifications
  of itself.

Still, there were some people who appreciated Whitman’s work when the poet was still alive, saying that it is the cornerstone of American poetics. Leaves of Grass was a severely criticized body of work but now, Whitman is being remembered as a talented poet who (ironically through Leaves of Grass) helped shaped his fellowmen’s ideas of unity as a people and democracy as a nation.

Apart from the sampled poems, I’ve also read the following poems by Walt Whitman, which I now all consider favorites:

- A child said, What is the grass?
- A Clear Midnight
- A noiseless patient spider
- Among the Multitude

Have you read these poems? What do you think of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass? Which of his poems were memorable to you? Share them in this post!

Thank you to Jillian of A Room of One’s Own for recommending Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman to me.

Let me end this post with a line from Whitman’s “Spontaneous Me”, just something to think about this Valentine’s Day:

life that is only life after love