Lecture Notes, Whitman:

1. Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, brief bio.

• Born on Long Island.
• At 12, began work.
• During the Civil War, volunteered as a nurse (in addition to holding inconsequential government jobs).
• Self-published Leaves of Grass, 1855; in total, nine editions of Leaves of Grass were published, the final in 1892, the year of Whitman’s death.
• A great Romantic poet who expressed himself through verse. He was widely regarded in Europe.

General inquiries to consider while reading Whitman.

ü Does Whitman distinguish between the sexes?

ü Where do you see moments of American diction?

ü What does Whitman say about equality?

ü How is the city portrayed? Does this vary from the British Romanic writers?

ü How does Whitman view money?

Discussion quotes.

“Song of Myself”

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (chapter 1, 1).

“Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,/ I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait” (chapter 4, 15-6).

“And around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away” (chapter 7, 17).

“One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same” (chapter 16, 5).

“Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,/ A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,/ Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest” (chapter 16, 17-9).

“I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul” (chapter 21, 1).

“And I say it is as great to be woman as to be a man” (chapter 21, 4).

“Whoever degrades another degrades me” (chapter 24, 7).

“Not one is dissatisfied, not one I is demented with the mania of owning things” (chapter 32, 6).

“I tramp a perpetual journey” (chapter 46, 2).

“Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,/ You must travel it for yourself” (chapter 46, 10-11).

“Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go” (chapter 46, 36).

“Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes)” (chapter 51, 6-8).

“I am not a bit tames, I too am untranslatable” (chapter 52, 2).