Specimen Days: Death of President Lincoln

Whitman's eulogy of President Lincoln really shows how, in some sense, patriotic he remains towards America as an immortal Nation.  He praises Lincoln's moral characteristics but most importantly the idea of unionism that Lincoln brought to America.

To us, we have studied the Civil War probably in High School and thank goodness the Union vanquished, but it's also something we take for granted, at least most of us do.  Whitman lived through this time in American history, so for him it was crucial for the North to succeed and that the President supported the North and the emancipation of the slaves.

Work that we do

In A Song for Occupations (1855) Whitman brings up some relevant points about work and the American public in general.  The "workman and workwoman, charitable proprietor, or the wise statesman, the boss employing and paying you, servant or master", these are all examples of workers or work people do.  To Whitman these occupations are indiscriminate not amounting to one being superior over the other.  However,  he later takes a political turn in saying that "we thought our Union and Constitution grand", and "the President is up there in the White House for you... it is not your who are here for him..."  which implies that people need government in order to ultimately have stability in their lives, and also means that the authorities who run the government have the most  important jobs.  This conflicts with his notion that all occupations are indiscriminate.  It's interesting to think about it though since he was a supporter of Democracy despite the social and political upheaval going on at the time with slavery then the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination.  The 1856 version was not altered except for the title which he changed to Poem of the daily work of the workmen and workwomen of these states.  I guess he really wanted to exemplify the work aspect of daily American life and that work is just a part of living in general even if one works for free like an unpaid internship.
 

Bowery b'hoy

The Bowery people were working class icons in New York who specialized primarily in entertainment.  They attracted a working class crowd at Barnum's American Museum that became known as the "Bowery Crowd".  Bowery b'hoy was an act or character "type" based on the actual mannerisms of New Yorkers and the transition of "commercial culture" and the "decline of status in skilled trades".  Entertainment included "cheap dancehalls, dime museums, billiard saloons, rowdy theaters, performing animals, and boxing".  The Bowery experience contributed to the working class culture as a whole since it was this distinct group of people who were attracted to Bowery
.http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/searchlm.php?function=find&exhibit=bowery&browse=bowery

Oneida community

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community]]

The Oneida Community was a religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus had already returned in the year 70, making it possible for them to bring about Jesus's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this world, not just Heaven (a belief called Perfectionism).The Oneida Community practicedCommunalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), Complex Marriage, Male Continence, Mutual Criticism and Ascending Fellowship. There were smaller Noyesian communities inWallingford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Putney and Cambridge, Vermont. ^[1] The community's original 87 members grew to 172 by February 1850, 208 by 1852, and 306 by 1878. The branches were closed in 1854 except for the Wallingford branch, which operated until devastated by a tornado in 1878. The Oneida Community dissolved in 1881, and eventually became the giant silverwarecompany Oneida Limited.^[2]

So basically John Humphrey created the Oneida Community with the intention to form a utopian society with a religious edge to it, which to me really emphasis the cult aspect of it.  One must also know that 19th century was a period in which religious and political fervor appealed to the masses, or at least a minor percentage of the masses.  In Europe, political thinkers, theorists, and philosophers, the most obvious being Marx and Engels though they weren't the first to postulate a theory based on socialistic endeavors like communal sharing and stuff, shared ideas on how society should function.  Such political ideas were radical in the largest sense of the word.  Cross the Atlantic and enter the good ol' USA, it turns out that the fad of a spiritual awakening is sweeping across the land.  I know all this stuff is rather complex and can be viewed from different perspectives, but for the sake of this assignment, I interpret this weird fucking phenomenon as a way for people to express themselves in all ways.  With that being said, what's up with Whitman at this time.

Leaves of Grass is a poem that is experimental, innovative, and radical.  By writing Leaves of Grass, Whitman explored new ways of expressing inner being and thoughts on paper and thank goodness this didn't  lead to a cult following, which I think he would have been against anyway.  The whole transcendentalist movement headed by Emerson and Thoreau is relevant to the spiritual awakening going on in America.  I mean spiritual as opposed to religious and didactic.  But now it seems like being in touch with nature for a long period of time would result in some kind of revelation about the self, nature, society...  The topic of sex is Leaves of Grass takes on a very liberal agenda for lack of a better word just like complex marriage in the Oneida Community was counter to the institution of marriage.  Just by observing Whitman's photo and body language in our edition of the book, one can see his unrestrained licentious pose .  His shirt is partially unbuttoned showing his chest hair, and he's standing leisurely with one hand in his pocket and the other against his hip.

This is all I could come up with for now.

So here's my little reading of Leaves of Grass.

Specimen Days: Growth-Health-Work

In this passage from Specimen Days, Whitman talks about his youth, stuff he liked doing for leisure, and some jobs he performed.  At age 16 or 17 he participated actively in "debating societies", which relates to a certain intellectual trait innate in him, not to mention, the importance of debate in a democratic society like America.  Then he goes on to say that he was an "omnivorous novel- reader".  To me, Whitman was the type of person who loved to learn about anything in general and life through experience, taste, seeing, smelling, touching and hearing. Whitman also went to the theater in New York and sometimes witnessed some "fine performances".
     
  I would guess that attending the theater was a luxury for the wealthy and middle class.  Whitman, being white and middle class, took advantage of this opportunity, and why shouldn't he?  Despite the economics factor of middle class priviledge, he probably went more so for the desire to be moved by a "fine performance" rather than for the sake of being able to afford a pricey seat.  And attending the theater is a sensual experience in ways that we see and hear the actors on stage and interpret the performance.  Also, in Leaves of Grass, the 5 senses is a motiff scattered throughout the poem.

Barnum's American Museum

It may be a bit unusual for a person to go to a museum and pay more attention to the people than the actual work being displayed.  But despite this type of eccentricity, it tells us something unique about Whitman's own character since he wrote it anyway.  In Leaves of Grass and No Dainty Kid-Glove Business passage, Whitman tells of an account or experience while at the museum but he's also telling us about how observant he is which relates to Leaves of Grass because nearly everything in it is an observation of life in one way or another.  At the museum he writes about the faces he sees and  names of some famous people as well as middle class working type people like the young ship-builders only adding to the diversity.

It's like when you go to a show, concert, or some kind of big event with lots of people and your eyes and mind pays more attention to these people than to the actual event.  Not so much as being curious but rather attracted to something new and being fascinated by it.  Whitman was lucky enough to observe such a wide range of people including the all the presidents he names quite casually as if it's not the first time seeing them. It's like how many of us have ever seen the big political fat cats let alone the president and ex presidents at public places?  Actually I did see the governator in SF once...

Specimen Days

My First Reading--- Lafayette


This entry in Specimen days talks about Whitman's family moving to Brooklyn and his experiences with reading novels and poetry.  I'm so used to reading about an artists or writer's adversities that he/she must overcome that by reading this particular entry it's nice to know that his childhood was rather pleasant despite the housing incident.  He spent many days reading, working and visiting the library, which is something I'm sure all of us can relate to.  But then thinking of about Leaves of Grass in relation to this entry makes me inquire about just to what extent, if any, his childhood influenced his adulthood in writing Leaves of Grass.  As opposed to loafing on the grass, as a boy Whitman did contribute to being productive.  Obviously as a child one doesn't have much control over the choices he/she makes and that's just part of growing up.  But some of the choices he did make like the desire to read literature easily influenced his to aspire to be a writer.  It seems like a very rare thing for a young child to be reading novels and poetry let alone Arabian Nights and Walter Scott's novels as Whitman claims to have done and also noble just because he read these texts in his leisure.  

Motifs

The constant need to list things to me is like a motif within a motif, and this occurence is constantly repeated throughout the poem.

In vain the speeding or shyness,

In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach,

In vain the mastadon retreats beneath its own powdered bones,

In vain objects stand leagues off and assume manifold shapes,

In vain the ocean settling in hollows and the great monsters lying low,

In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky,

In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs,

In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods,

In vain the razorbilled auk sails far north to Labrador

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied . . . . not one is demented with the mania of owning things,

Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

In utilizing the approach of listing things through repetition, Whitman is able to capture a motif and really dig into it but at the same time extrapolate bigger ideas or images.  The first motif starts " in vain the speeding or shyness"... and the last line ends "in vain the razorbilled auk sails far north to Labrador".  These are two unlike things that are given equal weight and significance because they're in a list.  Another thing I like about the list is simply the way it brings together a bunch of images by having two or three words like in the above example "in vain" and "they do not".  Much of the poem is written in such a way that jumps around as if there are gaps making it difficult to follow, at least for me, so the list is a solid place to stop and think out where is the poem headed now.  The second example does a good job in clarifying the bigger point that the poet is attempting to make.  "They do not" is referring to the animals which the speaker observes for "half the day long".  This motif expresses an indirect mistrust upon people because obviously people are the one's who "whine about their condition" "weep for their sins" make other people sick by ranting about "their duty to God"...  In this context it is the animals who are peaceful and equal, and when animals are not eating, they loaf all day long, which seems to be what Whitman enjoys most.  I'm sure Whitman would not want to be anything or anyone else but himself, yet he aspires to a greater good only found in nature.  He's susceptible to seeing equality in nature, but can he do the same for society?  To me it seems like he does have faith in democracy as the only system to offer and support equality based on individual rights despite the slave problem at the time he composed this poem.