Tweet-a-week: Frances Wright (1795 - 1852)

Born in Scotland, Frances Wright was a woman who supported the abolitionist movement and who possessed her own radical ideas that she aspired to share with the world (that's one thinking pose in the picture). In 1825, she founded her own utopian community called Nashoba where she had slaves work for money so that they would raise enough for their own emancipation. As part of the commune, she advocated for free love and sexual freedom, a decree that was quite controversial for the suggestion of interracial marriage -- an institution that defiled the marriage standard of the time. Nevertheless, her eagerness to promote equality among all connects well with Whitman's message that all are equally unique and of great significance. All should embrace each other and be open to "touch" (both literally and figuratively), regardless of anything that may label one inferior to the other. With that said, Wright was also a prominent advocate for women's rights. However, her stance and lectures were unpopular with many people (just look at this caricature from http://www.sparecandy.com/2010/07/in-history-frances-wright.html).

As a contemporary, Whitman even attended many of her lectures, and he had this to say:

"In those days I frequented the anti-slavery halls, in New York — heard many of their speakers — people of all qualities, styles — always interesting, always suggestive. It was there I heard Fanny Wright ... a woman of the noblest make-up whose orbit was a great deal larger than theirs — too large to be tolerated for long by them: a most maligned, lied-about character — one of the best in history though also one of the least understood. She had a varied career here and in France — married a damned scoundrel, lost her fortune, faced the world with her usual courage. Her crowning sorrow was when the infernal whelp who had been her husband tried in France, through the aid of a priest, to take from her her daughter, charging that the child needed to be protected from the danger of her mother's infidelistic teachings. Think of it! ... The scoundrel, through the aid of the French law, which is of all law probably the least favorable to women, got nearly her whole fortune, perhaps the whole of it, so that at the last, when she needed five thousand dollars or so, she had to beg it of him, he even then making the concession reluctantly. But my remembrance of her all centers about New York. She spoke in the old Tammany Hall there, every Sunday, about all sorts of reforms. Her views were very broad — she touched the widest range of themes — spoke informally, colloquially. She published while there the Free Inquirer, which my daddy took and I often read. She has always been to me one of the sweetest of sweet memories: we all loved her: fell down before her: her very appearance seemed to enthrall us. I had a picture of her about here — it is probably somewhere in the house still: a sitting figure — graceful, deer-like: and her countenance! oh! it was very serene."

He can related to her colloquial style of speaking and her open-minded views on many aspects of life -- all of which are characteristics of his own work in poems such as "Song of Myself" and "A Song for Occupations". He sympathized with the shared view of aiming toward a more Democratic America where equality reigns, regardless of race or gender. It is especially admirable that, even though there are people who do not agree with her and her radical ideas, she continued to press onward with getting her thoughts out there (the feminist movement of the 20th century used her ideas as part of their self-expression). She also possesses true benevolence for his fellow man, for, even though her project at Nashoba did not work out, she still had the remaining slaves transported to the freshly independent land of Haiti where they could live as free men and women -- a good Samaritan act that shares the same communal qualities as Whitman which can be referred to the treatment of the runaway slave in "Song of Myself".


After all, "She had all of Ingersoll's magnetism and perhaps more than his tact. ...She was a brilliant woman, of beauty and estate, who was never satisfied unless she was busy doing good — public good, private good." -- Walt Whitman

Sources:

"Frances Wright." eNotes. The Library Company of Philadelphia, n.d. Web. <http://www.librarycompany.org/women/portraits/wright.htm>.

"Frances Wright." Wikiquote. Wikiquote, 12 Aug 2011. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frances_Wright>.

"Fanny Wright." Spartacus International. N.p., 07 May 2002. Web. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwright.htm>.


"Portraits of American Women Writers -- Frances Wright." The Library Company of Philadelphia. The Library Company of Philadelphia, n.d. Web. <http://www.librarycompany.org/women/portraits/wright.htm>.

Specimen Days: Colors -- A Contrast

Colors -- A Contrast

This entry feels overall so poetic. The imagery plays with colors -- "such a play of colors and lights" -- and other art-related ideas ("faint-tinged", use of "lines", "landscape", "sapphire and gold", "dark green", "gray", "dull hues", "emerald", and "light yellow"; it's like, in addition to the scenes of nature, there's a blending of colors that contribute a whole new sense of self for each scenery, while still holding true to their beauty. Whitman creates his out masterpiece-of-a picture of nature of remarkable beauty with the simple features of details that hardly have the "purple prose" terms of fancy elitist writers. The appreciation of the world around him can be found through the actual experience of watching the sun set and from being among trees and other greens of nature -- any time, even for "another day" -- it will always be there as long as one goes out for oneself. 

In regards to colors, it seems as if most of the color words fit more along the lines of "dark" and "dull" colors. They may refer to the darkness that comes from after sunset; thus the lastly mentioned "light yellow" would then serve as a ending with the sun returning (either for the new day or "after rain). Of course, this cycle will repeat itself, much like how, in the evolutions of "Song of Myself" and "A Song of Occupations" include changes and returns of older ideas with the new -- or colors, if you will.

Investigation: The Evolution of "A Song for Occupations"

1855

The poem took on its first form as "A Song for Occupations", a piece of work that branches from the larger roots of "Song of Myself" and begins to let the idea of the "celebrated me" reach out to embrace and procreate with the hopefully-to-become the "celebrated you". It may be the time that this poem was read that may contribute to this, but the poem is refreshing in that it gives the reader a sense of uplifting and purpose, for it's a lovely reminder that, as proclaimed in "Song of Myself", that all are equally divine and wonderful in their own ways, and that it's important to remember that no one can be better than yourself.  This song is a verse of the message from "Song of Myself" that makes call and reference to many members of the working class (the misunderstood folks), and aspires to bring them all together along with the all aspects of life and with the speaker. ("I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women." (p.52))

1856 -- "Poem of the Daily Work of Workmen and Workwomen of These States"

It's only been a year, but Whitman, much like in "Song of Myself", polishes this poem into fitting the structure of a more formal poem. He cleans up some punctuation, replacing ellipses with dashes, commas, and semicolons. However, one part that strikes me in particular is the following section:
"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 as the
         father!"


As it is compared to the 1855 version:
"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 as the father." (p.46)

Here, besides the changes from arrangement of lines and boldness derived from the inclusion of the exclamation points, there is this new emphasis of "husband", "son", and "father" from the two changes that bring in a new perspective. The title refers to not just "workmen" but "workwomen"; Whitman acknowledges all people, regardless of gender, and makes this more clear with the alterations. Around this time and earlier from the late 18th century to the 20th century, the women's rights movement sought for women's suffrage.

In addition to referring to the working class in the title, the section that lists out many, many, aspects of working life, here in the 1856 version, has been expanded to include not only more features and types of labor, but some more details in regards to the mentioned task. Whitman is making sure to include all (or as many as possible) forces of the working class into the poem, and portraying details to exhibit a sense of sharing the task and sharing understanding and ability with the equally understanding and able people.

Whitman, in this poem as a whole, introduces and supports the notion that people ought to look beyond the social norms and structures created artificially by the elite and see that they, themselves, are worth more than they think. Just as Whitman arranges the male-figure words so that they're about parallel to the female-figure words, he maintains his original voice as he poses parallels throughout the poem to unite all among the communal universe.

1860 -- "Chants Democratic. 3."

The poem has become a member of a larger group of poems under "Chants Democratic and Native American". It feels as though, here, Whitman has stripped the individuality of the poem and has brought it into an almost anonymous being. Perhaps this is done to give the character of being "anyone" to the poem among a large "chant" of people banded together. Taking a Greek and Roman Mythology class, this, to me, also reflects Nietzsche's idea of the Dionysian, that, to be engaging, amorphous, irrational, full of emotion to channel through, there's the sense of giving up one's individuality to join oneself with the communal cosmic order -- to embrace madness to become one with a divine source, something that can't be achieved with artificial, stable, Apollonian rationality alone.

But beyond that (or perhaps related), Whitman has introduced a new beginning to the poem. Here, he adds stanzas beckoning "Male and Female!" before the lines "I pass so poorly with paper and types, I must pass with the contacts of bodies and souls"; he includes "American masses!" to introduce the lines "I do not thank you  for liking me as I am, and liking the touch of me -- I know that it is good for you to do so"; finally, he addresses "Workmen and workwomen!" before the lines that follow. Here, the voice of a chanting fellow is emphasized as one calling out, one calling for unity.

Which then raises an interesting note of the lines I quoted from before. In this poem, the lines revert to a similar punctuation as the version that comes from "A Song of Occupations", though maintains the new, formalized line structure (that creates parallels) of the 1860 version (though oddly this would only apply to the first and second lines). The exclamatory voice of 1856 has quieted as the chant leads into a almost chorus-like tone that is not just the speaker speaking, but a sense of many people taking on the persona of the speaker -- that coming together and merging that follows one person introducing the chant into becoming one with many to chant.

1871-72 -- "Carol of Occupations"

To me, a carol bears the connotation of more than one person singing to a song, and it's this collective participation that makes the song/poem give it's true meaning of bonds. In regards to its earlier source, "A Song for Occupations", it returns to the ideas of the working class who are occupied with their trades. As the 1856's title labels the poem's service to reach out to these people, a new line from this poem serves the same function:

"This is the carol of occupations;
In the labor of engines and trades, and the labor of
         fields, I find the developments,
And find the eternal meanings."

In addition to serving as an introduction, these lines do well to conclude and round up the essence of the poem's meaning -- the reader dives through the poem and take in the many details of labor, the ideas of being worth something more, and have them reverberate throughout to take in the words Whitman wants to share.

This poem, however, has strayed even farther from its roots, (even "Walt Whitman" a version of "Song of Myself" no longer follows the introduction). There's also the editing of "-ed" verbs becoming "'d" verbs, perhaps alluding to the old, widely respected texts and tones from poets such as Shakespeare. The lines of the gender figures now include a semicolon dividing the sentences, showing not only a separation of thoughts between them but also a new sense of organization in syntax that comes from a "higher" sense of writing -- being "learnt".

But a very noticeable change to the poem comes from the ending stanza of the previous aforementioned versions being moved to (and having one line completely changed) a section closer to the middle, with a whole new ending replacing it with another stanza:

Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this          place—not for another hour, but this hour;

Man in the first you see or touch—always in friend,          brother, nighest neighbor—Woman in mother,          lover, wife;

The popular tastes and employments taking precedence          in poems or any where,

You workwomen and workmen of These States having          your own divine and strong life,

And all else giving place to men and women like you.

Several of these lines come from version of the poems as earliest as the 1860 version, as if, over time, Whitman brings new ideas together to create this new ending, a new ending that refreshingly reaffirms his true message of every person, especially to the working class who may not see this, that there's this sense of being that is far greater than anything, within all.

1881-82 & 1891-92 -- "A Song for Occupations"

The cycling of thought brings us back to the original title after all these years. It's peculiar to note as well that these last two versions of "Leaves of Grass" are oddly similar, as if there was hardly any changes between the two. The poem is found close to the beginning middle of the entire collection, distant from it's roots, "Song of Myself" (which has also returned to it's former title).

The poems, here, strangely, revert back to the original ending, as if Whitman may wanted to return to the roots of showing that, regardless of anything, he'll be out there with open arms to all people. But he keeps the new ending as a penultimate lead into the ending, maintaining the conclusion's message. The cycle blends the exclamations of older versions, the higher use of poetic format from later versions, the chanting individualistic voice that beckons all from 1860, and the communal carol with all as one from 1871, essentially bringing all voices into this latest version, symbolically taking all parts into a new whole.

Tweet-a-week: Bowery B'hoy

The Bowery B'hoys, were a group of young men that hail from the working-class of New York in the Five Points District in the Bowery section. Their presence was prominent at around the late 1840s during the Pre-Civil War period. They dressed to impress; their suits, hats, cravats, and overall style resembled that of a gentleman, but their swagger and overall "badass" hook was in their "swing" in their walk and demeanor. They were not push-overs by any means and had pride for their independence and being able to do as he pleases for himself; they also were adventurous and daring, motivated to impress their equally flamboyant g'hals. After fulfilling their commitments to their jobs, family, and friends, they enjoyed unwinding in saloons and brothels and let loose.


It has been said that these men were "patriotically chauvinistic" (thought not nativists, per se, according to Tyler Anbinder) but, besides their "day-time" jobs lives, one could say they're also the rugged, city version of a countryside loafer. Their clothes, while seemingly aristocratic and maybe too tight for their skins, so to speak, are more like their red flag, calling all eyes on them and their swagger. Definitely a sort of character that can and possibly relate with Whitman. While there's the pleasure in being the rebel outside social norms who also enjoys grabbing some beer after working in the smith shop or farm and lying on the grass daring the world to look him in the eye, there's also that pride and freedom from being a slave to said social norms. Gangs and loafers aren't exactly the pretty picture history would like to share, but they're part of that time's (and even now) culture and story.

Anbinder, Tyler. Five Points: the 19th-century New York City neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections, and became the world's most notorious slum. New York: The Free Press, 2001. Web. <http://books.google.com/books?id=NbQa9adIJfkC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=bowery b'hoy&source=bl&ots=4ecV9ds4aX&sig=BAhNUmgZ-Pweegx02aU0fyN-sRE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zs5FT86NF8zciQK40M3tCA&ved=0CFcQ6AEwBg

Evolution of Leaves of Grass (1855, 1860, & 1867)

Wow, the 1860 volume of Leaves of Grass got a lot more Whitman into it. I feel like "Proto-leaf" -- like a prototype of "Leaves of Grass" -- served really well as an introduction into "Walt Whitman" ("Song of Myself") as it, in a way, summarizes and introduces what lies ahead in the adventures of his poetry. There's plenty of mentions of "Earth-based" elements -- soil, space, specific places, prairies, and just overall geographical features. Grass can be found just about everywhere, evenly spreading around to all places. O definitely Whitman, and a way to build up from the roots of what message he wants to get across and into the surface -- "to the leaves of grass".

I can't help but not notice the overall format change of "Walt Whitman" ("Song of Myself") -- the line arrangement, actually. The 1855 version seems to have sentences and phrases run off until they are complete or have complete thoughts and ideas (based on the pieces of sentences that can stand alone or are a complete fragment). Looking at it at first seemed almost overwhelming -- such long lines, I thought, that seemed similar in format to reading a book. Cue the 1860 version, however, and then the poem comes more alive. To me, Whitman changes the lines so that, not only do they seem "short", but his rhyme and rhythm come out at you and I was able to see what sort of musicality Whitman had in mind for the poem. While punctuation serves as the main "musical notes" in poetry as they tell you where and how to pause (and Whitman really does change from the long, drawn-out yawns of ellipses to the sort of curled but surely smooth commas and semicolons and the staccato snaps of hyphens), there's also the subtle pauses found at the ends of lines as you bring your eyes along to the next line down. Through the new arrangement of lines, Whitman brings out these new subtle breaks of silence that bring out a new meaning from the text. For example, from the passage that I read for the Youtube video assignment, I noticed that, from reading the 1860 version, that there are entirely different meanings just from small changes in line arrangement. It feels more breathy, as if one really is taking the time to slow down and take in the air, as opposed to long winded-ness that may have come from me not recognizing these subtle tones and pitches from the more extended lines.

From the blue notes etchings, I couldn't help but notice the seemingly small edits of some words. One small change original in the 1867 version is noted in the words "cool-breath'd", "elbow'd", and "apple-blossom'd". In his notes, Whitman marked of the "e"'s and kept them off in the newer remake of the poem. Why did Whitman opt for the "-'d" edit over the traditional "-ed"? There are many, many instances of this throughout the more recent version. The first conclusion that I reach is that the "-'d" is so much more "dude-ranch cowboy" like -- rugged. It breaks from the formal way of spelling and pronunciation and introduces the casual, loafer's colloquial dialect. I wonder why Whitman didn't go with this a lot sooner, especially since there's the play of the "German-French-Latin" distinction of language through his diction.

Specimen Days: A Winter Day on the Sea-Beach

A Winter Day on the Sea-Beach

This post is like a poetic experience of Whitman's account. There's lots of imagery (of course relating to nature) that gives emphasis to the beauty and splendor of nature. There's a lot of sensuality going on during that day; Whitman tastes the breakfast his sister makes and delights in the flavor, he smells the "sedgy perfume" of the meadows and prairies along the trail and the breezes of the beach's wind, the sound of the waves, and the sight of the overall scenery of the ocean and of, later, the "reception-room of an old bath-house range".

And yet, Whitman describes the sea and its shore as simple. While there is so much to experience and sense in the area, Whitman seems to comment that nature in itself is of a simple space that has no boundaries or definitions to it that ornament over its beauty -- no artificial perfumes (I thought it was odd that he described the grassy scent as a "sedgy perfume", but perfume does has more euphony and does connotate a lovely smell as opposed to just being something man-made), seasonings, spices, fancy decorations, etc. make nature what it is, and thus its simplicity is beautiful. There is the "absence of art, books, talk, elegance" -- nothing from man-established society that gives too verbose or too bland of a definition to the ocean and its experience.

Leaves of Grass is all about taking in the world around us through the senses and not having things defined for us -- seeing is believing, but what better is it than to experience it for yourself? The beach in itself is open range, and the even more expansive force, the sea, is with open arms and waves, beckoning to all to embrace its flexible bonds. Whitman spends his afternoon almost conversing with the water as he was "in sight of the ocean, listening to its hoarse murmur and inhaling the bracing and welcome breezes" -- getting to know the ocean and its "striking emotional, impalpable depths". Nothing can put it into words -- not even the man-made creativity found in poetry and music -- nothing is like the actual thing.

YouTubing Whitman

Tweet-a-week: Oneida Community

The Oneida Community, situated in Oneida, New York, was crafted to serve as an utopian society in the eyes of its founder, John Humphrey Noyes. The community upheld the values of self-perfectionism and communalism. This led to the larger, but few houses to accommodate the "group-family" and the overall practices that involved the entire community giving back to each other. Their economic base was agricultural and industrial, focusing on what they reaped from the land (farming, handicrafts, etc.) Diving further in, however, many criticize the community for its rogue approach to Christianity, but most of all, its doctrine of Complex Marriage (all are married to each other and may have sex with each other so long as no two people are attached to each other exclusively).

In some ways, the community upheld the idea of humanism. They sought to better themselves (self-perfectionism) by working together as a community. Ideally, this relates to Whitman's stance on celebrating oneself while also helping and appreciating others because we are all different, but equally divine. Everyone is assigned a task according to one's skills and abilities, taking advantage of one's personal contributions to the community in ways that also take advantage of one's potential. In particular, the doctrine, Equality of the Sexes, was drawn from the community's belief that all men and women were equal and shared participation in committees and activities -- women even wore pants under their dresses!

Such equality brings the community together as one while they banded to become live to be the best they could be.

And yet, the doctrine of Mutual Criticism, where someone is criticized by the community in hopes to remedy their "bad traits" for the sake of the whole of the people, while it seems to help improve oneself, also seems to strike at the self negatively in a way that cuts one down to size in comparison to others, maybe drawing a line within their union -- and this is probably not okay from Whitman's point of view. Nevertheless, most of community seemed to have appreciated the feedback so that they could better themselves.


Hillebrand, Randall. "The Oneida Community." New York History Net. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2012. <http://www.nyhistory.com/central/oneida.htm>


"The Oneida Story." Oneida. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2012. <http://www.oneida.com/aboutoneida/the-oneida-story/>.

Two peers of Whitman: Elizabeth Oakes Smith and William Cullen Bryant

The first things I notice from Elizabeth Oakes Smith's "An Incident" and William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" are strong feels of images of nature, especially so in Bryant's poem. The speaker in Smith's poem encounters a force of nature -- the noble eagle -- that drops a part of itself (a feather) that she finds. There is a sort of disconnection between the speaker and the eagle, for she is unlike the creature and "would not soar like thee, in loneliness to pine". She herself feels that she cannot be as expansive, which is a contrast to Whitman's open, great reign to be one with nature and himself.  In Bryant's poem, he personifies nature and mentions how one may bond and "hold Communion with her visible forms". There is a familiarity with nature, just like how Whitman advocates one to embrace nature for him/herself by submerging oneself with it and experiencing it all for oneself; to let the Earth supply one with a state of being not found outside of its grasp, as "Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth, to be resolved to earth again, and, lost each human trace, surrendering up thing individual being, shalt thou go to mix for ever with elements,  to be a brother to the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain turns with his share, and treads upon."

In regards to form, both poems, like Whitman's "Song of Myself," possess a form in which the first word of every (complete) line is always capitalized. Perhaps this was the standard norm for poetry, as it begins a new idea/image/thought/etc. within the text. Smith's and Bryant's poems have some sort of rhyme scheme taking place; while Smith's is more prominent and straightforward (following that of a Shakespearean sonnet; meter is similar to that sonnet as well following some iambic pentameter that's played straight), Bryant's resembles more like Whitman's with perhaps more rhyming to appear -- yet there's no pattern, just the prevalence of some rhyme. Free verse, something that is more common in the present, suggests the openness to freedom and perhaps reflects that bond between open nature and oneself.

Tweet-a-week: Barnum's American Museum

Behold the unusual, the strange, the wondrous, educational, and surely exciting and fun realm of Barnum's American Museum! By no means did it reflect the sort of museums that we see today -- in addition to exhibits of wax scenes, strange oddities/specimens, and live "freak shows", the museum had its own lecture hall and space for performers such as acrobats, jugglers, and magicians for acts. It was a very popular attraction in New York and became a hot-spot for the time it stood before it fell to a fire.

Whitman not only interviewed the man behind the museum, Phineas T. Barnum before, but he at least frequented the place from time to time either living, visiting or working there. Museums were places to learn interesting things about life's mysteries and strangeness, and the American Museum was full of unusual things that may have been interesting and inspiring. While the museum may not have had the reputation of having definitely true displays (it seemed to have catered more toward entertainment and urban culture, though it did yield some things to education), the museum garnered curiosity and interest for unexplained phenomena, something that Whitman may have found to be exciting to behold. In particular, it is said that the museum had some exhibits where one could approach and touch things (as mentioned in Barney's text, one attraction allowed people to "touch the [bearded lady's] beard"). To be able to fully embrace and understand these strange things, Whitman may have felt close to the museum in that he was allowed to get the full experience of live specimens or anything there -- to fully experience for himself the strange creations of the universe that is offered to the public here at Barnum's American Museum. "Song of Myself" is all about engaging with nature, after all.

Barney, Brett. "Walt Whitman: Nineteenth-century Popular Culture." DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Faculty Publications, UNL Librarie, 02 Apr 2006. Web. 9 Feb 2012. <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=libraryscience>.


"The Greatest Attraction in New York City: The American Museum, Phineas Barnum's famed establishment in New York City.." About.com - 19th Century History. n. page. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. <http://history1800s.about.com/od/americanoriginals/ig/Images-of-Phineas-T--Barnum/Barnum-s-American-Museum.htm>.

Specimen Days: Gifts -- Money -- Discrimination

Gifts -- Money -- Discrimination

That good ol' Whitman. Being kind and friendly to his fellow (great) man and following the democratic ideal of being a good Samaritan. He provides for the weak and wounded soldier and felt as if he had some kinship with them -- either parental or sharing the exact same blood. This is echoed in the passage in "Song of Myself" about the runaway slave whom is nursed back to health (given bed, bath, food, etc.) by the speaker until the slave is ready to continue his escape to the North. While the soldiers may not be bounded by masters and are deprived of their freedom due to their status, due to the conditions of their battle (though perhaps not as brutal in the case of Confederate soldiers), they are almost just as tarnished, exhausted, and broke from serving their Union.

Money so happens to be a coveted luxury wanted by all, though only a few out of the many people in the world can and have acquired vast amounts to spend. From there comes the idea that many of the rich are greedy, only spending on themselves or hoarding their wealth so that the money does not get used at all. Thus, as Whitman says, it is really heart-warming to know that there are those benevolent, philanthropic people who are willing to offer large sums of money (and with free reign at times) to Whitman to be used to help those in need. I wonder why these benefactors choose to be confidential. Is it not deemed fitting for them to do so? Nevertheless, I suppose it's the deed itself that matters -- that there is a sense of willingness to share and be happy to help others prosper. This fits and is admired and aspired by Whitman to be perhaps that close sense of kinship (as he felt when tending to the soldiers) and care which he hopes for all to attain -- to look out for each other to bring the best out so that all can recognize themselves as being great beings.

Motif: God (the relationship between God and self)

Beyond humankind is the divine world of the heavens. There resides God, the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Father of Heaven and the Eye of the world/universe. Most people connect with God through prayers, church sermons, speaking to a priest...anything that has been considered holy doctrine and practice by a fellow human being who has the authority to share "the word of God." Throughout the poem, Whitman goes through three types of connections to God: a connection of familiarity with God, a connection with God via other human beings or as a human being distanced from Him, and affiliation through being divine(-like) as oneself directly. The first two serve, in some way, as a compare/contrast between being able to go beyond the surface of authority and dictated thought and to utilize one's own senses and the natural world around oneself to reach that celestial relationship with the divine, holy, and purity of the self and world around the self. The last one asserts the message of oneself always being grand and celebrated and that you and I are just the same and different because of said greatness and likeness to God. In essence, God is the otherworldly force that can be met through oneself, though to what degree one attains such a level depends on what kind of connection one can develop.

_______________________________________________________________________

Connection of Familiarity

1. "As God comes a loving bedfellow and sleeps at my side all night and close on the peep of day, and leaves for me baskets covered with white towels bulging the house with their plenty, shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and scream at my eyes, that they turn from gazing after and down the road, and forthwith cipher and show me to a cent, exactly the contents of one, and exactly the contents of two, and which is ahead?" (p.3)
2. "And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own, and I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own, and that all the men ever born are also my brothers...and the women my sisters and lovers, and that a kelson of the creation is love" (p.3-4)
3. "The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me, the first I graft and increase upon myself...the latter I translate into a new tongue." (p.14)
4. "I visit the orchards of God and look at the spheric product, and look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green." (p.26)
5. "And I slept while God carried me through the lethargic mist, and took my time....and took no hurt from the foetid carbon." (p.38)

Here are some instances where the speaker shares a relationship with God as equals. The speaker is sensual and embraces the divine being directly as a "bedfellow", "the eldest brother", and as a close companion with whom he may "visit the orchards of God", be carried "through the lethargic mist", and have even a rendezvous. Whitman chooses to live through nature to reach the expansive, out-of-reach experiences that distant tasks such as being indoors, busy, or under authority will always filter and dim out. In a particular regard to his preferred plan of loafing while being within nature and able to watch the "fruit" of God grow and develop into beautiful, natural sources of nourishment, beauty, and birth, he "slept" -- no rush, no worries, just being able to kick back and relax -- and there was God taking the sleeping self through "lethargic mist" -- even the mist moves slowly and lazily, still bringing in the idea of just enjoying oneself and one's senses to live peacefully and well with pleasure. All the while, he has attained a close bond with God. And through this bond, there is a connection to "all the men ever born" (and women). The relationship also introduces and maintains the idea that, even though he is still a man, he is able to feel "the pleasures of heaven" and "the pains of hell" -- feelings that many can only imagine because they possess a more distant bond with God and the divine, unknown world.

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Distant Connection through Worship

1. "Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, a scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark and say Whose?" (p.4)
2. "They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God" (p.22)
3. "Pleased with the primitive tunes of the choir of the whitewashed church, pleased with the earnest words of the sweating Methodist preacher, or any preacher....looking seriously at the camp-meeting" (p.25)
4. "I do not despise you priests, all time, the world over, my faith is the greatest of faiths and the least of faiths, enclosing worship ancient and modern and all between ancient and modern, believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years, waiting responses from oracles, honoring the gods, saluting the sun, making a fetich of the first rock or stump, powowing with sticks in the circle of obis, helping the llama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols, dancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession, rapt and austere in the woods a gymnosophist, drinking mead from the skull-cap, to Shastas and Vedas admirant, minding the Koran, walking the teokallis, spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum, accepting the Gospels, accepting him that was crucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine, to the mass kneeling or the puritan's prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew, ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me, looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land, belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits." (p.36)

In these quotes there is a considerable reference to how people are more distant from God. In the question of what grass is, the speaker gives "the handkerchief of the Lord" as one possible idea. The hanky is lost and missing from its Owner, and is now left to be wondered and beheld by everyone curious about the grass. It is but a small sign and small possession of God that is left to no direct lead to Him -- it's left open to interpretation, much like how His doctrine and words are. Because people look for His plans, those who claim to know become an authority (the church) that people flock to -- the library of God, if you will. People are confined inside and to listen to (perhaps weekly for Sabbath) the teachings and sermons of priests and other esteemed religious leaders. This is not how Whitman would probably want to feel close to God or any aspect of nature (and beyond). He wants to be connected to him directly without the channelings of other men -- those who "translate" things for others to accept without fully understanding or embracing their own thoughts of such words. As such, animals are seen as majestic beings free from such rules and ties and expectations -- and Whitman revels and admires their freedom and bond to nature; they do no embody the pathetic image of people being trapped within concern for the concept of "sin" and of people being led to do something for God that is outside the path of directly embracing Him. This may be why there's a sense of being "pleased" with preachers full of fervor and churches (albeit "whitewashed"; scrubbed "pure" to fit into a norm of what one ought to do as their duty to God) ringing of "primitive tunes". Nevertheless, Whitman chooses to embrace his own way of faith -- and in the 4th quote, there's a sense of the list of actions going from being ancient to modern, natural/closer to the divine to man-made and farther, outside and ascetic to inside and confined not by choice but rather by submission to doctrine (movement slows down as well, leaving less space to roam, loaf, and wander). By being distant from God, overall, one deprives oneself from the natural world and divine experience -- it's all about fully embracing Him head on through oneself.

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Being Great/Divine as Self

1. "I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth, I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself; they do not know how immortal, but I know." (p. 5)
2. "Divine I am inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from; the sent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer, this head is more than churches or bibles or creeds." (p.17)
3. "Magnifying and applying come I, outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, in my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved, with Odin and the hideous-faced Mexitli and every idol and image, taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent more, admitting they were alive and did the work of their days, (They bore mites as for unfledg'd birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves,) accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see, discovering as much or more in a framer framing a house, putting higher claims for him there with his roll'd-up sleeves driving the mallet and chisel, not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smoke or a hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation, lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no less to me than the gods of the antique wars, minding their voices peal through the crash of destruction, their brawny limbs passing safe over charr'd laths, their white foreheads whole and unhurt out of the flames; by the mechanic's wife with her babe at her nipple interceding for every person born, three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagg'd out at their waists, the snag-tooth'd hostler with red hair redeeming sins past and to come, selling all he possesses, traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother and sit by him while he is tried for forgery; what was strewn in the amplest strewing the square rod about me, and not filling the square rod then, the bull and the bug never worshipp'd half enough, dung and dirt more admirable than was dream'd, the supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes, the day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious; by my life-lumps! becoming already a creator, putting myself here and now to the ambush'd womb of the shadows." (p.33-34)
4. "Our rendezvous is fitly appointed...and God will be there and wait till we come." (p.39)
5. "And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is" (p.41)
6. "And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God, for I who am curious about each am not curious about God, (No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.) I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, in the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name, and I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever." (p.42)

You are Me, and I am You. In accordance to Whitman's main idea of him celebrating himself for being grand and also stating that the reader is both different and just as special, God becomes both a being that leads all to become divine, and a sort of marker that signifies that oneself can be even greater. At times throughout the poem as well, "Me" can be found capitalized, a sort of comparison to how any pronoun or word related to God is also capitalized. The self is just as great (if not greater) than He is because, not only does one (if one does) embrace the divine power and nature He possesses through one's own senses (and thus being in tune with nature and its origins),  but one also can be familiar with God (as mentioned before) -- the only difference is that, instead of just being a familiar, one is equal or even a superior. Thus, through nature, one becomes more holy (more so than from just following the man-made words of "churches or bibles or creeds." In addition to that, even if that may be so, one may always be connected to God and also have "something of God each hour of the twenty-four" (I believe it is said that humans are crafted in God's image, and so that and the idea of "in the faces of men and women I see God" sort of adds to that likeness of being holy and divine). A person can be considered both a mortal for realistic reasons and also immortal as the race has lived on for so long and it is possible for someone to be acknowledged and remembered eternally. While it may not be only God, the 3rd quote brings in other grand deities from different cultures and time periods; Whitman lists some out and explains how their influence and his beholding of their beings becomes a part of himself -- even to become "already a creator". It is a process described in detail of experience (through senses and with natural forces) of life until the point of epiphany and becoming familiar with that divine self -- worship yourself, but also remember to keep close ties with God and the divine, the natural, and the universal to achieve that bond and freedom and power -- and that all men are created equal in this regard so respect the "temples" of others. A sort of short aside that also comes up relates to the 4th quote; God is said to wait for the speaker and reader, a sign of familiarity. However, if one looks at the very last line of the poem, the speaker tells the reader that, "I stop somewhere waiting for you." (p. 44) The speaker now takes on the role God has previously and becomes a benevolent force aiming to help all and anyone (this also flashes back to other instances of helping others, such as the runaway slave). Now the cycle continues on, as hopefully the reader will learn to have embraced him/herself and follow the same route and path to become both closer to God and to worship him/herself in a way to remember that one is greater.