If, as I maintain, a prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self, then both Whitman and Dickinson are essential poets.
-Harold Bloom
Tag: Walt Whitman
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As consequent from store of summer rains,
Or wayward rivulets in autumn flowing,
Or many a herb-lined brook's reticulations,
Or subterranean sea-rills making for the sea,
Songs of continued years I sing.
- Walt Whitman, Autumn RivuletsWhitman, Walt. The Complete Poems. United Kingdom, Penguin Books Limited, 2004. p.379
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An excerpt from Warble for Lilac-Time, by Walt Whitman
The maple woods, the crisp February days and the,
sugar making,
The robin where he hops, bright-eyed, brown-breasted,
With musical clear call at sunrise, and again at sunset,
Or flitting among the trees of the apple-orchard, building
the nest of his mate,
The melted snow of March, the willow sending forth its
yellow-green sprouts,
For spring-time is here! the summer is here! and what is
this in it and from it?It is Lilac Time. It’s flitting time. Flitting is such a Spring word, isn’t it?
Whitman walks us from February into March. Describes what the Maple and willow trees make, and shares that small image you might miss – the robin building his mate’s nest.
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No man who ever lived liked so many things and disliked so few as Walt Whitman. All natural objects seemed to have a charm for him. All sights and sounds seemed to please him.
– Dr. William James, from the Varieties of Religious ExperiencePlease.
Smith, Keri. How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum. United Kingdom, Penguin Publishing Group, 2008.
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Thanks in old age - thanks ere I go, For health, the midday sun, the impalpable air - for life, mere life, For precious ever-lingering memories, (of you my mother dear - you, father - you, brothers, sisters, friends,) For all my days - not those of peace alone - the days of war the same, For gentle words, caresses, gifts from foreign lands, For shelter, wine and meat - for sweet appreciation, (You distant, dim unknown - or young or old - countless, unspecified, readers belov'd, We never met, and ne'er shall meet - and yet our souls embrace, long, close and long;) For beings, groups, love, deeds, words, books - for colors, forms, For all the brave strong men - devoted, hardy men - who've forward sprung in freedom's help, all years, all lands, For braver, stronger, more devoted men - (a special laurel ere I go, to life's war's chosen ones, The cannoneers of song and thought - the great artillerists - the foremost leaders, captains of the soul 🙂 As soldier from an ended war return'd - As traveler out of myriads, to the long procession retrospective, Thanks - joyful thanks! - a soldier's, traveler's thanks.
Mr. Whitman covers it all. He’s even thankful for his unknown readers – love that.
The title of the poem is Thanks in Old Age, but these are things we could all be thankful for at any age.
Happy Thanksgiving gentle readers. I’m thankful for you.
Whitman, Walt. The Complete Poems. United Kingdom, Penguin Books Limited, 2004.
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Great is language….it is the mightiest of sciences,
It is the fulness and color and form and diversity of the
earth….and of men and women….and of all
qualities and processes;
It is greater than wealth….it is greater than buildings or
ships or religions or paintings or music.
Let Walt Whitman bring in 2020.
Happy New Year!
From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pgs.158
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The truth in man is no dictum….it is vital as eyesight,
If there be any soul there is truth….if there be man or
woman there is truth….If there be physical or
moral there is truth,
If there be equilibrium or volition there is truth…..if
there be things at all upon the earth there is truth.
O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined
to press the whole way toward you,
Sound your voice! I scale mountains or dive in the sea
after you.
Walt Whitman often speaks of balance in his poems by calling out life’s opposite forces.
If there be man or woman there is truth…
If there be physical or moral…
I scale mountains or dive in the sea…
Each example is an opposite. Each noun or verb needs the other to exist.
From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pgs.158
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Great is the greatest nation..the nation of clusters of
equal nations.
Great is the earth, and the way it became what it is,
Do you imagine it is stopped at this?….and the increase
abandoned?
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as
this is from the times when it lay in covering waters
and gases.
Great is the quality of truth in man,
The quality of truth in man supports itself through all
changes,
It is inevitably in the man….He and it are in love, and
never leave each other.
A bit about Whitman the man:
Whitman was a Brooklyn native. He was born in West Hills, Huntington Township, New York, but his father moved the family to Brooklyn in search of building work.
His background is a familiar one to writers of all generations.
He held down various day jobs – office boy, teacher, printer, freelance journalist.
He worked for a variety of papers in New York City – the Aurora and Evening Tattler (How could you not read a paper named the Evening Tattler?) among them. He even ran a housebuilding business.
Throughout this time though he was writing, publishing poems, literary prose and sketches.
Relentless.
From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pgs.157,158
and Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America) pgs. 1347,1348
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Wealth with the flush hand and fine clothes and
hospitality:
But then the soul’s wealth-which is candor and
knowledge and pride and enfolding love:
Who goes for men and women showing poverty richer
than wealth?
Expression of speech..in what is written or said forget
not that silence is also expressive,
That anguish as hot as the hottest and contempt as cold as
the coldest may be without words,
That the true adoration is likewise without words and
without kneeling.
Walt Whitman for Monday…
From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pg.157
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Day fullblown and splendid….day of the immense sun,
and action and ambition and laughter,
The night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep
and restoring darkness.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And thanks for reading!
From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pg.157
Floodlights and Goalposts 