Specimen Days: Answer to an Insisting Friend

Answer to an Insisting Friend

From a glance at the title, it would appear that there is some sort of awkward strain from a "friend." The “insisting friend” must have demanded much work from Whitman by seeking information of such the nature of “genealogy and parentage”. Such information, I feel, seem to relate to the orderly, working nature of “civilized” society almost. To research, configure, and collect them to plot out the details probably would take so much time of being confined to books, an office, and most of all, old information (“far back Netherlands stock”).

Interestingly, however, Whitman goes to say that such details can only be discovered and understood “by exploring behind, perhaps very far behind, themselves directly, and so into their genesis, antecedents, and cumulative stages.” It seems as if he’s saying, instead of going through the labor of directly and literally researching and learning one’s roots, he insists that there is an otherworldly approach to it. By using one’s senses, one can reach into the mind of one’s self and go beyond their natural means to access such information for themselves – through such enlightened senses. I think it’s funny how he says that he gives the offer of telling such things in his own way (“garrulous-like) that “save labor”; it solidifies his idea of not needing to conform to the typical “business” of learning such information and that such knowledge can be found within the self.

I wonder why such information would serve as background information necessary for “Leaves of Grass.” Does the “friend” wish to learn more about Whitman to compare his ideas? Wouldn’t that be somewhat against the point of trying to understand the poem (by taking on the “orderly” approach to compare such a self to the “loafing” individual who, in the end, is the same, and great version of one’s self?) I suppose it’s not too surprising though, since the poem is trying to teach readers such ideals before they may be ready or sure of such a message.