My Job Does Not Define Me

I believe that the following lines from Whitman’s A Song for Occupations capture the essence of the poem as a whole: “Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?/ Were I to you as the boss employing and paying/  you, would that satisfy you?”(45). I interpreted these lines to represent Whitman’s rejection of materialism. When I left my decent-paying job at Ernst & Young to pursue a career in teaching, I often felt disconnected from the final product that I was producing at my job. Ultimately, this disconnection led to dissatisfaction and me turning in my letter of resignation. The joy that I felt while writing the letter and submitting it to the Human Resources department is what I believe the answer to the questions that Walt’s speaker asserts. Getting paid well was no longer satisfying and I needed more. I had reached the proverbial glass ceiling. Whereas Whitman’s Song of Myself was a celebration of occupations, places and all things American, I believe Whitman is rejecting the idea of being defined by any occupation.

Whitman destroys the notion of any one profession being more prestigious than another by asserting:

Because you are greasy or pimpled – or that you was once drunk, or a thief,/ or diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute – or are so now – or from frivolity or /impotence – or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print…./ do you give in that you are any less immortal? (46)

In making this assertion, Whitman has essentially dismisses the idea that some professions are more valuable than others. While I believe that Whitman does appreciate every occupation, it seems that he values equality amongst professions more. I believe evidence of this can be found with the placement of the poem in the 1856 version of Leaves of Grass. Whitman places the poem after A Poem of Women and Poem of Salutations and changes the title to Poem of The Daily Work of The Workmen and Workwomen of These States. While this subtle change may seem insignificant, I believe the title change and placement location reveals the positions that each subject holds within Walt’s own value hierarchy. Walt moves from self to women to greeting and then occupations. In the same vein, I believe that Leaves of Grass moves from the internal Whitman to the Whitman that exists within all of us.  

Tweet Of The Week

Walt The B-Boy?

Please don’t tell me that “b-boys” have a connection to Whitman’s “Bowery B’hoy.” In his book, Slumming in New York: From the Waterfront to Mythic Harlem, Robert M. Dowling suggests that Whitman “discovered in the B’hoy a refreshingly American articulation” (57). Furthermore he cites Whitman as being referred to by 19^th century reviewers as the “Bowery B’hoy of Literature.” What this all add up to for me, is Walt being the American Disc-Jockey poet. Whitman seems to have been fascinated by the theater and the idea of creating arts that were distinctly “American.”

Musically, I believe that the “b-boys” of the Hip-Hop generation play a similar role to Whitman as a poet. Both Whitman and b-boys employ free verse as strategy of expressing their respective thoughts. Whereas Whitman writes, the b-boy utilizes dance as a medium of expression. 100 years after Whitman’s death, b-boys were reaching their zenith. Adidas tennis shoes, leather jackets and a mash-up with rock and roll launched Run DMC into stardom and brought prominence to innovative b-boys who articulated the culture via dance. A recent review of The Roots’ album Undone by Melophobe of www.melophobe.com asserts that MC Black Thought, of The Roots, is “the Walt Whitman of contemporary Hip-Hop” as he expands his barbaric yelp to supreme effect” in the last verse from the song One Time MC Black Thought states: “Then I went missing looking for the sublime/ A nigga stayed low left the ladder unclimbed/Time after time, verse blank, the line unrhymed” capturing what I believe is the essence of Whitman’s Song of Myself; specifically, the search for the sublime? 

Dashes, Ellipsis' and Punctuation

Five Years Later

After scanning through the 1860 version of Leaves of Grass while comparing it to the 1855 version, Whitman’s subtle switch from the use of elongated ellipsis’ became very noticeable. The ellipsis and the dash, utilized in the 1855 and 1860 versions, carry distinctly different connotations: specifically, the use of a 4-period ellipsis that usually indicates “a partial quote that is nonetheless a complete grammatical sentence,” whereas the dash is utilized “to set off an interruption that is closely relevant to the sentence but not grammatically part of it.”

I will not get off into appositives and the mechanics of writing, as I am nowhere near an expert and dread the though of teaching grammar to my future high school students—however, I do recognize, identify, respect and appreciate properly punctuated pieces. With that being said, I believe that Whitman’s subtle switch represents a nearing of completion for the poem and reflects the theme of expansion that runs throughout the poem. 

In almost every instance that I have observed in Song of Myself, the switch from an ellipsis to a dash (or comma) creates the tone of a cataloging of observations rather than a collection of incomplete ideas. For me, the poem is moving forward and expanding. 

Specimen Days v.1.2 Nights On The Mississippi

Scattered All Across America

Whitman’s Nights on the Mississippi from the Specimen Days collection reminded me of Langston Hughes’ poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers. I remember reading awhile back somewhere that Hughes was inspired by the work of Whitman and Carl Sandberg. When the speaker of Hughes’ poem asserts that he has heard “the singing in the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln/went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen it’s muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset” it echoes the same sentiments expressed by Whitman as he characterizes the river as “structure of perfection and beauty unsurpassable.”

When Sandburg describes his Chicago as the “player with railroads and the nation’s freight holder,” it reveals the common thread amongst the three poets and their poems: namely, expansion. Bridges that crossed the Mississippi River made it possible for Hughes to travel from his home state of Illinois to New York and Harlem. In fact, Hughes’ early travels are almost identical to the route of the Mississippi River.  In the same vein, I believe Whitman’s bridge represents expansion.

Ultimately, I think that both Hughes and Sandburg’s poems connect to Whitman and Song of Myself by way of the shared theme of expansion. Whitman begins by spreading himself into atoms that belong to everyman (1). Hughes’ soul has “grown deep like rivers” and Sandburg proudly asserts that he is “the Nation’s Freight Handler;/Stormy, Husky and Brawny.” Expansion and Modernity are inextricably linked. Trains, planes and automobiles. I believe the connecting thread for all three pieces are the Mississippi River, boats and another form of expansion in addition to the railroad, which is generally associated with modernity. I believe that Hughes, Sandburg and Whitman spoke to American modernity: Americana, so to speak. 

reading Walt...

Here is my humble reading of Walt (pg. 40)

Appreciation of Simplicity

The poems that I read by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Village Blacksmith), Elizabeth Oakes Smith (An Incident) and Thomas Bailey Aldrich (I vex me not with brooding on the years) all seem to share a sense of appreciation for simplicity. Longfellow’s poem, The Village Blacksmith, provides a catalogue of the characteristics of a blacksmith. Longfellow, much like Whitman, provides great detail in his description of the blacksmith noting details that are often overlooked. The speaker of the poem reveals the role of the blacksmith to the community when he asserts that “children coming home from school/Look in at the open door;/They love to see the flaming roar.” In making this assertion the speaker has elevated the blacksmith from the lower portion of the professional hierarchy to a spot closer to the top. Whitman does the same in Song of Myself as he reverses the knowledge hierarchy when he suggests that he knows isn’t “any more than he” (7) referring to a child.

After reading Elizabeth Oakes Smith’s poem several times, I believe that she is questioning why we miss people, places or things through the lens of a bird of prey. I am still uncertain how this connects to Whitman, but I think it may be related to seizing the moment. When the speaker of the poem states “I would not soar like thee, in the loneliness to pine” it suggests that flight should be an uplifting occasion rather than one that evokes feelings on longing.

The last poem that I read, I vex me not with brooding on the years, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich seems to be a jab at death. The speaker of the poem asserts early that “brooding on the years” will not vex him and establishes the defiant tone of the poem. Whereas Whitman was celebrating life throughout Song of Myself, I believe that Aldrich is also celebrating life by rejecting the notion of “pondering things that lay beyond” his “kin” and accepting the idea that a “still lovelier life awaits thee.” Ultimately, both poets, I believe, are suggesting that we (the reader) seize the moment. 

Which eye? No. Not those eyes, but rather I.

I believe Whitman’s Song of Myself provides the reader with tools to construct the identity of the poem’s speaker, Walt Whitman: or, conversely, begin to identify the elements that make up themselves as readers. The opening lines emotionally connect the reader to the “I” through a shared need to “celebrate” with “every atom” (4) of their being. This simple, subtle connection allows for the poem to be interpreted in numerous ways: specifically, the (I)deal America that Whitman is striving to create within the poem.  As a result, the matter of which “I” is being celebrated morphs into the project of cataloguing the ideal characteristics that the speaker engenders in both.

Evidence: “I am enamored of growing outdoors” (9). 

Expansion and the great outdoors arguably make up the backbone of Whitman’s Song of Myself. The speaker takes inventory of his observations in a manner similar to a cartographer sketching an early map of the United States of America.

Evidence: “I play not a march for victors only…I play great marches for conquered and slain persons” (12) & “In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less” (14).

These passages provided me with explanations for several other passages I would encounter throughout the poem. I believe that this line is significant because it points to a sense of balance that must exist between reader and poet, man and country and mankind and earth.  

Evidence: “I become any presence or truth of humanity here” (30)

When the speaker makes this exertion, I interpret it to be a commentary on the need for fluidity regarding the state of mankind and the expanding United States. Just as the states were experiencing growth and expansion, man must also be open to growth and expansion of the mind.