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Lesson Plan/Teaching Notes
Whitman and T. met in 1856 or so. T. wrote to a friend “Whitman . . . is apparently the greatest democrat the world has seen” (qtd. in Harding 374).
In another letter about Whitman, T. wrote “I have just read his 2 nd edition (which he gave me) and it has done me more good than any reading for a long time [. . . .] As for its sensuality, --&it may turn out to be less sensual than it appeared – I do not so much wish that those parts were not written, as that men & women were so pure that they could read them without harm, that is, without understanding them[ . . . .] On the whole it sounds to me very brave & American after whatever deductions. I do not believe that all the sermons so called tha thave been preached in this land put together are equal to it for preaching—“ (qtd. in Harding 375)
Whitman on Emerson: “I was simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil”
Whitman represents the ecstatic, prophetic voice in American poetry. Thoreau writes a form of a jeremiad in Walden. He tries to scare us into reform by showing what we’re doing wrong. Whitman points out what we’re doing wrong, but focuses more on making what he thinks is right appealing.
James Miller argues in Leaves of Grass: America’s Lyric-Epic of Self and Democracy that the Song of Myself forms a spiritual narrative, and thus shows a movement from the opening to the closing (45). Is this true?
From Backward Glance O’er Well Traveled Roads
believes in a transendental view of the Nature, but admits its irrationality "While I can not understand it or argue it out, I fully believe in a clue and purpose in Nature, entire and several; and that invisible spiritual results, just as real and definite as the visible, eventuate all concrete life and all materialsm, through Time. (670).
Terms/People to know
Lyric: Short, personal poems which present a unified examination of a particular topic.
Epic: Long poems, which tell a grand story – i.e. the founding of a nation (The Aneiad) or the warrior’s return home (The
Odyssey) – by following the career of heroes (or a single hero). Usually impersonal, with an elevated diction and episodic in nature.
Eros: Freudian term (from the Greek) suggesting the psychological and social aspects of conjugal love.
Thanatos: Freudian term (from the Greek) suggesting the psychological ramifications of death (which, oddly enough for Freud, may include sexuality).
Abolitionism: The movement to repeal slavery in the U.S. (i.e. to "abolish" slavery).
Fugitive Slave Act: Part of the Compromise of 1850, this federal law made it a crime to assist a runaway slave. This transformed those Northerners who helped run the Underground Railroad into criminals. Both Thoreau and Emerson -- who were abolitionists -- felt that both the Missouri Compromise and the Fugitive Slave law were immoral and wrote against it.
Original 1855 text. Published and revised throughout his lifetime. Final revision 1881. “Death Bed” edition published in 1892.
Why is the book published without an author – but see line 499?
Why the picture? How is the person dressed? Why is he dressed as a “rough”?
Why “Leaves”
How is his treatment of his work throughout his lifetime indicative of the title? SUGGESTS IT’S ORGANIC – CONSTANTLY GROWING.
Opening – Introductory questions
lines 1-29, what word is used the most?
lines 6-19: which words involve air?
what is the speaker's view of time? 930, 934,1047+
How is the poem a lyric?
How is the poem an epic?
How is the poem a mystic/visionary?
Why the catalog? HOW ELSE TO QUANTIFY AMERICA? WANTS THE STYLE/WORDS TO MATCH WHAT HE SEES AS THE HOPE/VISION OF THE NATION
Why “Song”? Why not “Poem”?
Why “celebrate”? Why not, for example, “praise”?
Why a "yawp" (1321)
Body and Soul
I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is, (lines 1260+)
Transcendentalism
Thanatos
101, 121, 366+;
Eros
36 “procreant urge”; 130-135 omni-sexual; “Who need be afriad of the merge?” (Line 136); male fantasy about the bathers Line 193+ voyeur; 338-446
Who/what does he make love to in lines 338-447?
Water imagery/The Awakening
451-456
Eros&Thanos
Democracy
“runaway slave” (Line 183). What does he admit here? Why is this dangerous? 1850 FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT Why “my firelock leaned in the corner” (Line 193)?
Science
Body and Soul
The body= line 270
Why the animals? (Line 230)
Why the balanced lines? “I am the poet of the body, / And I am the poet of the soul.”
Lines 422-23
Emphasis on the body 518-527
Growth/organic/nature
Definitions
Line 369 "embouchures" 408 "carlacue" 1194 "accoucheur"
Style
How does 381 “Do you guess I have some intricate purpose?” do to the reader?
Why not “I am the poet of the body,/and of the soul”? (2160) Stylistic, what does do?
How does he bring in the reader?
Contrast the first 12 stanzas in the 1855 edition with the first 12 stanzas in the 1881 edition (2232)? What’s the difference?
What purpose do the ellipsis dots fulfill?
What does the use of present participles do to our understanding of the poem?
Individualism
Why refer to himself in the third person? 499 Why a “kosmos”?
“Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from” 526
“The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer” 527 BOTH FUNNY AND PROFOUND
Walt Whitman: "Song of Myself" Discussion #1 Questions
Need quotes and line/page numbers for each answer.
• Whitman famously wrote “I was simmering, simmering, simmering: Emerson brought me to a boil.” Emerson himself, after reading the first edition of Leaves of Grass , “I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed” (637 Norton Critical). So, Mr. Transcendentalism feels this is the best of America – why? What would Emerson (and, as noted in class, Thoreau), find congenial in Leaves of Grass ? (________ is another connection between transcendentalism and Whitman.)
• As you might have noticed, while Whitman celebrates life, he often includes stark images of death. Why? What does death signify for Whitman? (For Whitman, death is __________. )
• What is it with Whitman and “the merge”? Why does he celebrate it? (For Whitman, sex is __________.)
• Okay, how can a poem that starts off with “I celebrate myself” really be about the power of democracy? (consider this as For Whitman, democracy is _________.)
• When first (and second, and third) confronted with this work, a common reaction is “Huh? This is just a bunch of random thoughts.” Is this true? Argue that ________ is one unifying feature of “Song of Myself.”
Discussion Questions (#2): Whitman
Need quotes and line/page numbers for each answer.
Discussion Questions (#3): Whitman
Need quotes and line/page numbers for each answer.
Emerson from “Self-Reliance:” “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (1164)
Whitman:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then . . . . I contradict myself;
I am large . . . . I contain multitudes.Do they reveal any intrinsic quality of Transcendentalism?
Voices from the Past
Haswell, Chas H. Reminiscences of an Octogenarian of the City of New York (1816-1860). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897.
Bowery Boys
"The Bowery, at this period, had become perhaps the most interesting street in the city, and so it remains, though with characterisitcs much altered from those of 1840. That date is about the mid-period of its peculiar notoriety as a native rpduct, before the vast incursion of foreigners had given it its present cosmoploitan distinction. The "Bowery boy" (or b'hoy) and "Bowery gal" were at the height of their development as represented on the theatrical stage, with not overmuch exaggeration, by Chanfrau in the well remembered types of Mose, Sikesy, and Lize. The "bowery boy" flourished in his own proper time, and departed, never to return. He was the outcome of conditions that will not exist again, being primarily a product of the volunteer fire department system, and appearind in an age when the comparative smallness fo the icty allowed marked soical peculiarities to become prominent, which would be lost amid the mass of people and the whirl of htings in which all forms of singulairty now appear and pass, with but a moment's notice anc comment. "Bowery boys" were not wholly admirable beings, but they had some qualities that were admirable, and were much to be preferred to an later varieties of the genus ""rough." In their combats they were content with nature's weapons, avodigin murderous implements; they wer mostly men of regular occupations and industyr, the Boweryism being only their form of amusement in leisure hours; they wer comparatively sober, and cultivated certain trait os manliness, especiallya a respect for women, which was traditional with them; and they were intensely American." this around 1840.
The New World. November 1842 "First American Edition" American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens. Extra Series. Published complete. Vol. II numbers 8,9. 12 1/2 cents
On last page, an advertisement:
Friends of Temperance, Ahoy!
Franklin Evans,
or
The Inebriate.
A Tale of the times -- By a popular American Author.
The novel, which is dedicated to the Temperance Societies and the friends of the Temperance Cause throughout the United States, will create a sensation, both for the ability with which it is written, as well as the interest of the subject, and will be universally read and admired. It was written expressly for the New World, by one of the best Novelists in this country, with a view to aid the great work of Reform, and rescue Young Men from the demon of Intemperance. The incidents of the plot are wrought out with great effect, and the excellence of its moral, and the beneficial influence it will have, should interest the friends of the Temperance Reformation in giving this Tale the widest possible circulation.
Terms: It will be issued as an Extra New World (octavo) on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 12 1/2 cents single; ten copies for $1, or $2 per hundred. J. Winchester, 30 Ann Street, N. Y.
Whitman, Walt. "A Memorandum at a Venture." Complete Poetry and Collected Prose. Library of America, 1982: 1030-1036. An apologia for "Childern of Adam" first published in NAR 188?.
on the repression of sex in culture "non-scientific, non-aesthetic and eminently non-religious condition" (Whitman 1031)
"the sexual passion in itself, while normal and unperverted, is inherently legitimate, creditable, not necessarily an improper theme for poet . . ." (Whitman 1032)
"No, it is not the picture or nude statue or text, with clear aim, that is indecent; it is the beholder's own thought, inference, distorted construction" (Whitman 1036)
Pictures from the Past
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This is a letter from Emerson to Whitman welcoming the presence of a new poet.
(Click to enlarge)
(From http://memory.loc.gov.mss.mcc.012.0001.jpg)
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Autograph page from a late edition of leaves of grass |
 Whitmanesque poem from a weekly newspaper (Click to enlarge) |
Quotes from critics
Specific Links
The Walt Whitman Archive
Quite simply, the best page on any American writer. Scholarly yet accessible, it contains the kind of information that scholars would have to travel for months and do years of research to obtain. And it's all there for you with the click of a mouse. This is the real potential of the web.
Library of Congress Whitman Homepage
Facsimile Autobiography (written in Whitman's own hand)
Last Revised October 2006
David Bordelon
