I Contain Multitudes!

Welcome to Hall of Imagination. - in your previous episode I mentioned my suspicions that I would be having some more episodes dealing with Walt Whitman very soon. Well that time has come, and I'd love to talk a little bit more with the wax figure of Walt Whitman

Walt, are you prepared to speak to me tonight?\

Certainly George, you know it can get rather boring up here on this pedestal and I welcome the chance to just simply communicate with someone who is appreciative.

Well Walt, you can certainly put me in that category. I would like to ask you if you had just one thing to say or tell the listener who listening to this podcast what would it be?

George, I would like to believe that my writing helped to capture and define the spirit of the growing United States during the challenging 1800s - and yes they were most definitely challenging times. I would like to think that I had a bold and unusual way of writing that created a new artistic style for America.

Transcript

Walt Whitman–text in bold
George Bartley– Plain text

Welcome to Hall of Imagination. - in my previous episode I mentioned my suspicions that I would be having some more episodes dealing with Walt Whitman very soon. Well that time has come, and I'd love to talk a little bit more with the wax figure of Walt Whitman

Certainly George, you know it can get rather boring up here on this pedestal and I welcome the chance to just simply communicate with someone who is appreciative.

Well Walt, you can certainly put me in that category. I would like to ask you if you had just one thing to say or tell the listener who listening to this podcast what would it be?

George, I would like to believe that my writing helped to capture and define the spirit of the growing United States during the challenging 1800s - and yes they were most definitely challenging times. I would like to think that I had a bold and unusual way of writing that created a new artistic style for America.

Walt, would it be fair to say that you were a different kind of poet?

Yes, George, in many respects - I believed that I was not only an American, but one of the roughs, a cosmos. I called myself "an American, one of the roughs, a Kosmos, and I must admit that I carefully created my public image TO match the bold and rebellious style of my writing. I presented myself as a "rough working man,” and this wasn't just a part of my life story. It was a key part of my art. It showed I was rejecting the old European rules for poetry to create a new, truly American style.

Walt, Could you give me an example-or better yet several examples?

Certainly George, In the mid-1800s, poetry was still mostly stuck with the old rules from Europe. Poems were supposed to have a regular beat, rhyming words at the end of lines, and certain structures. I attempted to change all that with my book, Leaves of Grass, which was definitely a big break from the past. And perhaps my most important contribution is being called the "father of free verse.”

Yes Walt, free verse would be a major change in poetry!

Exactly, George. Free verse wasn't just a way of not following the rules. It was a purposeful choice to free poetry from its limits so I could express feelings and thoughts in a more natural, direct way. I purposefully avoided the regular rhythms and rhyming of older poets. Instead, I used a flexible style that sounded more like a person talking. This was a protest against strict poetry rules and a way to embrace the democratic ideas that I so dearly loved. Free verse allowed me to write about big ideas such as democracy, being an individual, and how all life is connected, with a sense of ultimate freedom and personal feeling.   

You know Walt, there are still some people who think that free verse has no rules.

George. That is an extremely erroneous belief.  I found that I had to be very deliberate and practice great skill in creating this new style of poetry. I used what you might call clever writing tools instead of old-fashioned rhythms for the purpose of making my poems flow well.

Walt, could you give me an example?

George - For example, I often tended to utilize cataloging. 

Walt, what is cataloging?

AH George, cataloging is when I listed many different scenes, things, and people to show how big and diverse America is, celebrating everyone in it. 

Let me see if I can remember an example–Ah yes, from the very beginning of song of myself–

The smoke of my own breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine,

My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,

The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-color’d sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch’d words of my voice loos’d to the eddies of the wind,

A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,

The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,

The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides,

The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.

SUCH cataloging is used frequently in the King James version of the Bible– In both the Old Testament and New Testament - as well as by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey - are you familiar the last two pieces of literature I mentioned?

Walt , Perhaps if you mentioned Homer several years ago, not too many people would've heard of any of his works– But his Odyssey seems to be enjoying a renewal in popularity, largely due to a motion picture version.

That is good to know.  But what is this you say– Motion picture?

Walt, never mind, what other techniques did you use?

George, I tended to use anaphora a great deal.

Walt, the word sounds somewhat familiar, but what Is ANAPHORA?

Ah George, ANAPHORA is repeating a phrase at the start of several lines, to create a strong, rhythmic beat, especially in my poems of celebration. I also used enjambment, which is when a sentence continues onto the next line. This created a feeling of "movement and continuity", unlike traditional poems where each line ends a thought. 

Walt,You certainly had things thought out!

Yes, George, I would like to think of my writing as being carefully crafted–even though it often did not have a rhyming pattern. I also used a great deal of alliteration and consonance—repeating the same sound at the start or in the middle of words,  So you see, my poems were carefully crafted.

For example, in a portion of "Song of Myself,," I used alliteration with the words "bathe" and "by" to make them stand out. it was a reinvention. It gave later writers a new model for how to "experiment with language, structure, and themes" in ways that were once not possible.   

So Walt, you definitely had many stylistic innovations!

Yes, George, and those stylistic innovations were inseparably linked to my groundbreaking thematic and philosophical concerns. I must admit that I was profoundly influenced by the American Transcendentalist movement, particularly the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I believe that this philosophy is a foundational element of my work, shaping my embrace of the inherent goodness of both humanity and nature. 

I know this is getting heavy– Excuse me if this seems rather intense–but what were your feelings about the divine?

AH, George, I believe that I championed the belief in the divinity within the self. I also championed the idea that spirituality could be found through personal exploration and a deep connection with nature. This conviction led me to promote a sense of self-reliance and the rejection of conformity, encouraging my readers to trust their own instincts and inner voices.   

Well overall, Walt, how would you describe your poetry?

I would like to believe that I was the ultimate poet of democracy. My poetry celebrated the "inherent worth of every individual"  and championed democratic ideals across all social strata. I intentionally broke down social hierarchies by celebrating the "common man" and elevating the experiences of working-class Americans, from farmers to mechanics, to the status of epic poetry. My vision of democracy was all-encompassing, advocating for equality across "class, race, and gender".   

I know that your attitude towards the human body and sexuality was rather controversial for the time, Walt.

Yes, George– In a way I pioneered the frank and unapologetic treatment of the human body and sexuality. I challenged the era's pervasive "puritanical norms"  by celebrating the human body and physical experiences as "natural and sacred aspects of life". 

SO I think it is fair to say that you didn't treat sexuality as something to be ashamed of!

Yes George, some may say my utilization of sensual and erotic imagery was a radical act, presenting sexuality as a joyful and integral part of the human experience rather than something to be ashamed of and suppressed!   

Walt, Did your philosophical core ever undergo what one might refer to as a transformation.?

George, most definitely yes. My philosophical core underwent a profound transformation due to the defining event of my lifetime: the American Civil War. My initial view of democracy, as expressed in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, was characterized by an "ideal optimism". I believed that I possessed a simple, almost naive faith, and that the war's experience would chasten humanity, leading to a "reborn race" and a perfect world. However, my direct experience as a "wound dresser" in Washington, D.C. hospitals  exposed me to the visceral horror and suffering of a nation tearing itself apart. This lived reality shattered my earlier idealism. 

Walt could you give me an example?

Certainly, George. In works such as Democratic Vistas, published after the war, my conception of democracy evolved from a mystical, spiritual idealism into a more "realistic, comprehensive, and matured notion". This direct exposure to the war's "atrocities" forced me to recognize that democracy was not an assured outcome but a "dynamic process" that required continuous effort and a daily practice rooted in a society's culture and spiritual life.

From what I understand, Walt, your Leaves Of Grass might be best to described as a living text.

Precisely George– In fact, Leaves of Grass is perhaps most remarkable for being an unfolding, living text rather than a static publication. Icontinuously revised and expanded the collection throughout my life, ultimately producing nine editions between 1855 and 1892. Each new edition was a thematic reordering and expansion of my poetic vision, functioning as a "chronology of a life" and an autobiographical record of some of the most tumultuous decades in American history. The first edition of 1855 contained only 12 poems, but by the end of my life, the collection had grown to nearly four hundred. Later editions would add clusters of poems on specific themes, such as the sensual love poems in "Enfans d'Adam" and the poems of male comradeship in "Calamus," as well as works reflecting my Civil War experiences.   

What was the initial reception to Leaves Of Grass?

AH, George, the initial reception of Leaves of Grass was tumultuous and deeply controversial. Critics and readers alike were unnerved by mystyle and subject matter. An anonymous review from 1856, for instance, launched a series of specific, scathing attacks. The frontispiece portrait of myself at the beginning of the book was lambasted as the "true impersonation of his book—rough, uncouth, vulgar," a man who "scorns the delicate arts of civilisation". My verse was dismissed as being "innocent of rhythm" and resembling "the war-cry of the Red Indians". The content was condemned for its "indecencies [that] stink in the nostrils," with the reviewer going so far as to declare that the author of one page "deserves nothing so richly as the public executioner's whip". This hostility led to the book being banned multiple times for obscenity.   

Was such condemnation, Walt, universal among all critics?

No, George, this condemnation was not universal. The famous Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson privately praised the first edition as "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed". I must admit that I used this endorsement to promote later editions without Emerson's permission, an act that effectively created the "modern book blurb". This critical endorsement from the most respected intellectual of his time helped to legitimize my otherwise controversial work.   

Walt, I think it is Interesting that your first draft of "O Captain!  Oh captain" is not rhymed, but rather written in free verse. But whatever its source or style, O Captain! My Captain! has become one of the most well-known of all America poems - could you favor us with a rendition of  oh Captain my captain -a poem in which the captain represents the fallen Abraham Lincoln

Certainly,George

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;                     

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

Walt, what would you say was your main gift to American poetry?

George, I would like to think that brought into poetry the heightened prose of nineteeth-century political orators and preachers, an Abraham Lincoln, and even the King James translation of the Bible.  Instead of a regular rhyming scheme, I aimed to WRiTE likethe common man spoke but in a slightly elevated sense.

Walt, for some reason, I believe that you're writing style is exemplified by another poem that deals with the Civil War– Your classic work–come up from the fields, father.  Would you share that poem with us?

Certainly George.

Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete,

And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter from thy dear son.

Lo, ’tis autumn,

Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,
Cool and sweeten Ohio’s villages with leaves fluttering in   the moderate wind,

Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and grapes on the trellis’d vines,   

(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?

Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?)

Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds,   

Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well.

Down in the fields all prospers well,

But now from the fields come father, come at the daughter’s call,

And come to the entry mother, to the front door come right away.

Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous, her steps trembling,

She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor adjust her cap.

Open the envelope quickly,   

O this is not our son’s writing, yet his name is sign’d,

O a strange hand writes for our dear son, O stricken mother’s soul!

All swims before her eyes, flashes with black, she catches the main words only,

Sentences broken, gunshot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital,

At present low, but will soon be better.

Ah now the single figure to me,

Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all its cities and farms,

Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint,

By the jamb of a door leans.

Grieve not so, dear mother, (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs,

The little sisters huddle around speechless and dismay’d,)

See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better.

Alas poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul,)

While they stand at home at the door he is dead already,

The only son is dead.

But the mother needs to be better,

She with thin form presently drest in black,

By day her meals untouch’d, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,

In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing,   

O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and withdraw,

To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.

Walt, that is extremely moving.  Well in conclusion, Walt, how would you describe your importance to American poetry?

AH, George, my importance rests not only in the poetry that I produced, but also in the new possibilities for poetry that that I opened up. My free verse lines stretched across the page like long breaths, unconfined by regular rhyme or rhythm. I strove to speak in the cadences of ordinary American speech, yet infused them with grandeur and spiritual intensity. In doing so, I believe that I liberated poetry from strict formality and showed that it could contain the full sprawl of American life.

Walt, do you believe that you carried a new vision of what poetry should do?

I saw myself as a democratic poet, a voice for every worker, soldier, mother, and farmer. The carpenter and the fisherman were as worthy of poetic celebration as the president or the general. In this sense my poems were a vast chorus, where no one voice is higher than another. When I declared, “I am large, I contain multitudes,” I was not simply speaking about myself but also about the country and the human condition. My poetry makes the claim that to sing the self is to sing the world, and that a true American poetry must embrace the whole nation, in all its contradictions and diversity.

Thank you for listening to Hall of imagination– This has been George Bartley