My Final not a Paper: The Hat and the Beard

Hey Professor Hanley, Check this out man. http://www.glogster.com/that1otherguy/the-beard-and-the-hat/g-6lhlchhbshvkpcud2buqoa0

I don’t have a song that particularly fires me up but Nowhere Man by the Beatles has always been one I’ve my favorite songs. I’ve listened to it since I was a kid and I’ve never really tired of it. My worst job experience had nothing to do with the actual job. In 2008 I was working for a family friend in construction, and helping him build and add on to his house out in the hills. That was the summer when there were a number of fires in northern California. I had to dig under his house to make a tunnel to hold cement that would make for a better foundation. It was stifling hot dirt was everywhere and smoke blanketed the county like a heavy fog. Under the house it was difficult to breathe as the combination of dirt and smoke and heat were filling my lungs. The work was better once I had finished under the house, but that was a truly awful experience. So after reading the two poems from What Work Is, as I’m not terribly familiar with Levine, I get the sense that the poet is processing outside experience through an individual; that experience becomes encapsulated in the poet persona of the poem, and doesn’t attempt to discharge into a greater collective conscience. For instance in “My Grave” the poet persona describes how after his death none of his physicality remains, “Not one nightmare/ is here, nor are my eyes which saw,” his physical state is mixed with those of his emotions, memories, and thoughts of loved ones, but they go with him and nothing really seems to remain for anyone else. The death has no greater sway on the fabric of reality or collective memory but instead is stored in box in some common area. Whitman on the other hand focuses the collective through the individual, I know we’ve been over this many times in class, but it keeps arising as a major difference between Whitman and his successors. As time passes the notion of the individual in American society changes ever so slightly. In his poetry Whitman, and in any number of his works, seems to be saying the individual is a key aspect of America in so far as he perpetuates the culture and his station as well as those around him or her. Levine takes in a approach that seems more individualistic. Instead of the individual’s experience in America, Levine illustrates the American experience on the individual.

Los Dos Lincolns

Take a closer look at section 57 and notice how Sandburg introduces Abraham Lincoln into his poem and what sort of role he gives to him. Having considered the differences and similarities between the objectives of “The People, Yes” and “Leaves of Grass", how would you describe the methods by which the two poets represent Lincoln, and ultimately, their ideas? How may those processes be representative of their own worlds? What possible effects would these have on their readers? Whitman and Sandburg both idolized President Lincoln. While looking at section 57 (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxkM7d2fD2tPRUFYZHJSdFg0cWc) of Sandburg pay attention to how the poet represents Lincoln, or what is represented through or by Lincoln. Compare this with how Whitman represents Lincoln (http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/192) and how through such metaphors do the two poets shape the notion community? Why does Sandburg include Lincoln’s own voice in his poem and how might that shape the idea of community?

When Lilacs...

I am not that sure how Whitman’s poetic strategy for collective loss may work but one aspect of it did stand out. Whitman presents the idea that sorrow and loss sink into the very land, “Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,/ Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep'd/ from the ground, spotting the gray debris.” The lilacs stretch out across all terrain and dot the nation with a feeling of loss. This idea was carried into at least one of the 9/11 poems, Billy Collins’ “The Names.” The names of the victims of the attack are etched into the very core and fabric of everything written across leaves, rocks, and stones or inked on skin. In Whitman’s poem however there is a sort of acceptance of death, “Come lovely and soothing death,/ Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,” he presents death as many poets have, it is a thing of necessity that happens to all people. He laments the tragedy of Lincoln’s death and uses love, as lilacs are seen as a symbol of love, to cope with the feeling of lose. The nation loved Lincoln and mourned his passing and honored his memory, that is at least how Whitman saw it. But the 9/11 poetry comes out of a different feeling. There is no singular character to attach love to, as “The Names” describes in its listing of the dead there were many that were loved by others but collectively there is only a deep sense of loss; the feeling of which is now etched in our memory as described in Richard Howard’s “Fallacies of Wonder” “Did some three thousand die for us to call/ remembered towers, wonders, beautiful.” The poem brings into question the idea of representation of a feeling would any object association do the dead justice? Can we find something to represent the pain of loss as Whitman has done with his lilacs? No there are too many dead, too many individuals with different lives and memories attached, but still we are brought together as a nation by the deep sense of loss that we all share.

tweet-of-the-week: Peter Doyle

Now isn't that an adorable couple. I'm sure I'm not the only one to post this photo. I have discovered through extensive research that Peter Doyle was Walt Whitman's boyfriend, and therefore has a very direct relationship with the poet. Doyle was born in Ireland and came to America to take residence with his family in Alexandria, VA. Doyle worked as a blacksmith there and would have been very familiar with the type of labor Whitman praises in his poem. He was also a confederate, and his artillery company, the Artillery Fayette, was named after one of Whitman's heroes Marquis de Lafayette the revolutionary war hero. He was also present for the tragedy that would haunt Whitman's poetry, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Post redo

I think I would like to expand upon the flower blog I posted in a while. I would like to see if his inclination for flower anatomy continues. I would look at some of the other poems to see what's in them and maybe look at some pretty pictures of flowers. I'm not entirely sure.

ONLY A NEW FERRY BOAT

This is another visually descriptive passage from specimen days. You can tell Whitman appreciates just about everything in life. Man-made objects are in no way unequal to the natural in beauty. In this passage he makes it clear that the new ferry boat has, for the moment, out-shined nature with its brilliance. He is connecting the technological with the natural and melding them. He uses the imagery of clouds dressed in a, "golden profusion of beaming shaft and dazzle," in much the same way that the ferry is draped in, " flags, transparent red and blue, streaming out in the breeze." The comparison is a simple one but pleasant, and I don't think there are many that would argue that either would be an ugly sight to behold

Tweet of the Week: Martin F. Tupper

I would like to start this blog post by saying married his cousin, just an interesting fact I thought we all might enjoy. Also when you Google Martin F. Tupper the first three selections that come up are in fact the tweet-of-the-week. But all inane facts aside Tupper was an interesting fellow and had quite the direct relationship with Whitman. I have found an essay online by one Matt Cohen who links the two through the early reviews of Leaves of Grass. The essay is titled “Martin Tupper, Walt Whitman, and the Early Reviews of Leaves of grass” in it he goes on to say why Tupper came up so often. I’m not really going to go in to what he sees too much, I’m merely mentioning to credit Mr. Cohen as my source for discovering this nifty little fact. Anyway Martin F. Tupper wrote a series of morally didactic proverbs titled Proverbial Philosophy. It is filled with nifty lines like, “A man too careful of danger/ Liveth in continual torment,” when they first came out in1837 they were widely unpopular, especially in America. Over time, however, they slowly began to worm their way into people’s hearts and by 1867 nearly a million copies were sold in the U.S. and all of that I got from Wikipedia. But back to the topic of Whitman and Tupper, I went over are reviews of Leaves of Grass and found three that mentioned Tupper.
In “Our Book Table” the anonymous author simply mention that Whitman’s style is similar to Tupper’s. He or she doesn’t go into much more detail than that; to be fair though the author does mention such Emerson as a second influence to Whitman.
In the "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." from The Literary Examiner the other anonymous writer brings in Tupper as though he were speaking to English audience, saying something along the lines of, “Oh that Whitman fellow is much like a young Martin Tupper,” I’m paraphrasing of course. His own words described Whitman as a “Tupper of the west.” He’s making Whitman out to be a moral and didactic compass of the American citizen, so that we might escape the tradition of the Tupper of the east; which is all fine and good, but now that we have our own guy we don’t much need the other one.
The third and final review, which by no means desires to remain anonymous, was written by George Eliot in which he says, “like the measured prose of Mr. Martin Farquhar Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy, or of some of the Oriental writings. The external form, therefore, is startling, and by no means seductive.” It is very clear that he doesn’t like either poet.
All the reviews point to stylistic similarities as well as similar goal orientations. Tupper was trying to be a didactic poet for England while Whitman was attempting to establish himself as a great American poet. I didn’t read much Tupper so I’m not sure how successful he was, but I can say Whitman did very well indeed.

Whitman Culture

I was really surprised to find this ad by Old Crow Whiskey. The ad depicts Whitman, after a long hard day writing poetry, sitting down to enjoy a glass of whiskey. The poster is trying to (depict) Whitman as a classic American writer enjoying a classic brand of American booze, never mind the whole temperance thing. In this scene Whitman could really have been replaced by any other classic American writer: like Twain or Thoreau, but not Poe they don't want to frighten their demographic. Whitman becomes, in this ad at least, an interchangeable part of Americana.

The second representation I found in a very short lived TV show called New Amsterdam. I couldn't find a clip to show because nobody seemed to care about the show. Anyway the series is about an immortal man who has recently joined the homicide branch of the NYPD. In this particular episode the detective, John Amsterdam is dealing with a suspect who has PTSD. Like in modern detective show the protagonist has a special ability, John Amsterdam’s ability is to remember, not that he has a photographic memory, but he remembers his own experiences in the past. In the episode he reminisces back to the days when he was surgeon in the civil war. He recalls a conversation with another surgeon about PTSD, or as they called it "soldier's heart." It turns out by the end of the show that the other surgeon was, you've probably guessed it, Walt Whitman. In the show Walt has his beard fully grown and he seems to be a man of great wisdom, he was the one to first refer to PTSD as "soldier's heart" as though he could delve into the depths of the soldiers' soul. Whitman is very connected with all the people around him, and unlike the other surgeons he attempts to make relationships with his patients while John is complaining how awful everything is. The shamanic Whitman gives very good advice and lifts john’s spirits and the show ends with Whitman giving a first edition of Leaves of Grass to John.

http://soundcloud.com/myrobotfriend/walt-whitman-zombie-nation

The link above will transport to a website containing a song called Walt Whitman by My Robot Friend. The song’s lyrics are attempts at asking questions of Walt Whitman and attempts to speak to him directly.

“We wash your clothes but the dirt won't come out
and no one knows what the hell your all about

Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman”

It also incorporates the poem itself and attempts again to directly contact the poet.

“What rivers are these
What forests and fruits are these
What persons and cities are here
What myrids of dwellings are they filled with dwellers
What widens within you Walt Whitman”

The song itself is a remix of a remix originally made by Zombie Nation. Both are DJ’s who work mostly in the electro techno genre. I don’t really know what that is nor do I have any idea who these guys are but My Robot Friend has done a very good job of incorporating Whitman into the song. How does this tie into Whitman you may ask. Well I’ll tell you, Whitman’s poetry is itself a remix. Whitman goes back to his own work to change things around adjust the flow and diction in much the same way one artist does to another. By incorporating Whitman My Robot friend is remixing to different artists, melding them to fit together.

Whitman's critics

I looked over three criticisms they are as follows:
Norton, Charles Eliot. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Putnam's Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Arts 6
He was quite positive towards Leaves of Grass.
Hale, Edward Everett. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." The North American Review 82 (January 1856)
He was very positive towards Leaves of Grass.
Dana, Charles A. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." The New York Daily Tribune
He had nice things to say but was, ultimately, negative in his response to Leaves of Grass.
I choose these three because they each bring up with in the first paragraph the way in which Whitman’s collection is presented. All three point to the anonymity of the work’s author, and some like Dana and Hale find that aspect a tad lacking. They find it this way for different reasons however. Hale believes it is a shame to have had it published this way as it makes it more difficult to find for the average reader. He truly enjoyed the collection and noticing the self-publication points to the desire Whitman holds in getting away from conventional poetry. All draw attention to this aspect, but Dana in particular makes its use abundantly clear. He draws attention to the picture describing it as the perfect image of the “loafer.” He does make it clear that there are good points in Whitman’s collection, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Dana has at least some admiration of Whitman’s work in it’s own as he says, “the taste of not over dainty fastidiousness will discern much of the essential spirit of poetry beneath an uncouth and grotesque embodiment.” He is pointing to the innovation Whitman has in his move from the overly eloquent and poetic and his use of various forms of speech. Still Dana finds issue in a number of the poems claiming that they aren’t quite up to snuff, but this claim is repeated by the other two critics in a more positive light. Hale was particularly pleased with Whitman’s use of language claiming he was, “one of the roughs,—no sentimentalist,—no stander above men and women.” He really did enjoy the poems and their use of language which leads me to believe that many American critics would have found Whitman’s use of vernacular at least intriguing; as it points to some aspects of the American experience. Norton also has an appreciation for this claiming that, while one might not want to read the book in mixed company it is still a delightful read. This in turn relates back to the picture of Whitman and the way in which the first copy was published. Whitman was greatly interested in finding the best way to get his name out there yet these critiques suggest that in the first publication he had no idea what he was doing. The picture and form of publishing then evoke the question of, who is the author. Each critic I have read had no real interest in attacking the author out right and, even in the negative criticism, found something enjoyable in the text. This suggests that the book itself may have simply sprung out of American soil.

Specimen Days: Entering a Long Farm-Lane

I am not entirely too sure how much walking down country lanes is a hobby. Yes it’s quite nice and lovely way to spend an afternoon, but as a hobby I don’t know. I do admire the way in which he has described the farm lane, being from the country myself I wish I had the ability he has for description. His use of natural characteristics in juxtaposed periods of the year such as, “apple blossoms in forward April,” and “pigs, poultry, a field of August buckwheat,” suggested that he has been walking and will be walking down farm lanes for some time. It also speaks to the many variations of beauty found in the natural setting. In one season the roadside is awash in apple blossoms, and in another the livestock and wheat strut out their own. This also is a little similar to the various descriptive lists in his poetry, and hints at how he may go about find inspiration for the various natural imagery that can be found in Leaves of Grass.

Tweet-a-Week: Frances Wright

Frances Wright was Scottish, but she was also so much more than that. She was a lecturer, feminist, abolitionist, social reformist,. She believed in many things like: freeing the slaves, birth control, and sexual freedom for women; she didn’t much care for other things like: organized religion, and capitalism. She became an American citizen in 1825 when she also, like many other Americans, founded a communion. This commune was not purely about the ideas of shared marriages and the adoption of new religious ideas, like some other ones we learned, but was instead designed educate and emancipate slaves. It was known as the Nashoba Commune centered in Germantown, Tennessee which in many ways makes sense, it wouldn’t do much good if it were in New York. Her ideal would have been the complete freedom of the society within the commune. This would have included the idea of “inter-racial” marriage as she was a believer of equality and, sexual and romantic freedom. This was, however, one of the reasons the commune was abandoned. Sadly Ms. Wright had to return to Europe after contracting malaria. The people she left in charge were very strict about everything particularly “inter-racial” marriage as they claimed it affected their funding. A tie in with Whitman is their shared interest of the written word. Wright herself was an essayist and co-founder of a newspaper the Free Inquirer. Here you have another rather amazing believer of freedom of education, freedom, social reform, feminism, and sexual freedom who also happens to be a writer and critical thinker. And in her publication Views of Society and Manners in America Wright addresses the topics of humanitarian ideas in the context of the democratic world.

The Mystery of the Floating Passage

While reading “A Song for Occupations” I have discovered, through no small amount of deductive reasoning, that the passage beginning with, “When the psalm sings instead of the singer,” and ending with, “Of them as I do of men and women like you,” moves twice. By no small amount of deductive reasoning I mean to say I read the various poems, and discovered that in the 1860 and 67 versions it has been moved from the end to near the end of the poem after the lines, “Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees from/ the earth, than they are shed out of you.” Then they are moved again, in the 1881 and 91 versions, back to their original positions except this time they succeed the lines, “You workwomen and workmen of these States having your own/ divine and strong life,/ And all else giving place to men and women like you.”
Why might these lines change? What is Whitman’s reason for confusing his future readers who are going over his poems? Well every preceding line to the passage is somewhat similar to the original order from 1855, “All I love America for, is contained in men and/ women like you.” The men and women he is referring to are the laborers it is a: song, carol, chant for occupations. In one way or another Whitman is admiring the working man and woman. He says they are America, or that the world is there’s and sheds its “leaves” on our their behalf, or the “States” have given them a wonderful place to live and work. Whitman sticks to that theme the idea of work and labor representing the democratic. He renames it “Chants Democratic” to further the idea that the laborer makes the democratic system. The President “Is up there in the White House for you… it is not you who are/ here for him,” throughout the poem he speaks to the laborer reminding him and her that they are all equal, and that they are the ones with power in a democracy. Still what has this got to do with the mystery of the floating passage.
Upon closer look at the passage it is one of Whitman’s famous, infamous, lists of things. These are objects replacing the laborer. For instance, “when the psalm sings instead of the singer,” Whitman says he will, “intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of/ Of them as I do of men and women like you.” Of course it’s pretty much impossible for all of these objects to actually perform any sort of task. They don’t provide the warmth, strength, or skill needed to produce themselves, but they are important to the community nonetheless. In earlier versions Whitman leaves us with a rather open ended reading of this final passage. It is up to us to decipher his secret code. Later on though he follows up by explaining himself a little more by following up with, “The sum of all known reverence I add up in you,/ whoever you are;/ The President is there in the White House for you.” But he puts it back again as though he realized he’s not singing to idiots. This all returns to the title in some way. Every time the title is changed it carries with it the significance of song. He calls it “Chants Democratic,” “To Workingmen,” then “Carol of Occupations,” and then back again to “A Song for Occupations.” He starts with song as that is what many people do when they work. They whistle, or sing, or chant, or hum it helps the work go by. He strays from that for a bit but returns, just as he returns to the passage at the end, because song is something that connects. The laborer is strong in force, and he or she is only in force when he is bound together with a common goal. Whether that worker is a preacher or blacksmith they are all working towards the advancement of America.

Bowery B'hoys

These Dashing young lads are bowery b'hoys. The bowery b'hoys, and g'hals, were symbols of the high spirited working class. They like, many youths in their individual time periods, were recognized for their sense of fashion. They were the image of hip, young, urban New Yorkers. The b'hoys themselves were recognized for their stovepipe hats, and their long sideburns known as soaplocks, a style still common among days hip, young, urban San Franciscans.



But I digress, the b'hoys and g'hals came from the working class, and had a penchant for the finer things. Things like cheap dancehalls, dime museums, billiard salons, rowdy theaters, performing animals, and boxing. These rough and rowdy characters filled the streets and like any youthful democratic generation lived life as though it were meant to be enjoyed. And like any symbol of youth he came to be mocked on stage. The bowery b'hoy and his g'hal became character types representing a commercial culture, as these characters spent there money more on wants than needs.

What then is the appeal here for Whitman. Well in short everything. Here was a man off the day who enjoyed whatever pleasure struck his fancy. Even if he was being mocked and ridiculed on stage his image was out there. It was commercialized and sold, and these were rough men who appealed to other such men and so on and so forth. To Whitman these characters were the perfect models to study if one wished to include the high and the low. They may not have been depicted in high theater, but they were on stage. They may have been from the working class, but they spent their money freely. To Whitman these would have been the bathers who gallantly showed their nakedness to whoever happened to be in the vicinity

Since I am easily confused, and not entirely sure how to find passages from the various editions, I have chosen to focus on the beginnings of each.
1855: “I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”
1860: “ELEMENTAL drifts!/
O I wish I could impress others as you and the waves
have just been impressing me.”
1867: “THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look'd upon, that object he be-
came;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a
certain part of the day, or for many years, or
stretching cycles of years.”
These three opening lines, If they are indeed the edited opening lines I assume them to be address the idea of Whitman’s expansion of self in various ways. In the first is the one all of us in the class are familiar with as Whitman has rather familiarized himself with us by saying, “You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me./ And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my barestript/ heart.” He passes through the second person singular pronoun “you” and first person “I” to make the point that the two are connected as our tongues are fastened to his heart. Because he can, “know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,” then so can we. We at first are with him and experience his experience through his narrative eye.
The second edition strays a bit. Instead he introduces us to his home: the great Paumanok, Long Island, his home. The reader is then subject to his beautiful descriptions of the island where, “the sea ripples wash you Paumanok/ where they rustle up hoarse and sibilant.” Here we get a greater understanding of Whitman as our guide. He shares with us the world that molded him into the poet he became. Instead of expanding himself to us the reader he expands outward to become part of his city and surroundings.
“I perceive Nature here, in sight of the sea, is taking
advantage of me, to dart upon me, and sting me,
Because I was assuming so much,
And because I have dared to open my mouth to sing
at all.” Showing us his insolence he opens himself to criticism and scorn even from his own home. He opens himself but does not come to us. We must go to him out on his “Fish-shaped” island. He melds the elements together with such metaphors and similes. By doing so he is able to combine his surroundings into one whole. He brings himself into the mixture and towards the end attempts to convey that he is not yet complete. As he becomes closer to Paumanok, who he refers to as his father and the sea his mother, he refers to himself as we until he finally finds us, “Whoever you are—we too lie in drifts at your feet.” He surrounds us and becomes part of the landscape pointing back to the idea that we will always find him beneath our boots.
In the final edition in 1867 Whitman examines the point of view of the child. Instead of warming us up to the idea that Whitman himself surrounds us. The poet persona immediate assaults us with the concept that the child becomes one with what surrounds him. “The first object he looked upon, that object he became,” shows that the child is an empty vessel, empty and vast. Whitman uses the child to point to the simplicity with which man could accept his surroundings, but as he grows older he becomes stuck. When the child becomes his parents he takes on the duality of gender roles. The mother is kind and gentle while the father is harsh and rough. They are stuck as what they are as all objects are, but through the child they transcend beyond one simple role and are added to the many that reside within the child. Whitman steers clear of the first and second person and stays in the encompassing third that is the child. He points to the innocence of everything. Instead of expanding outward the poet persona focuses inward saying, “These became part of the child who went forth every/ day, and now goes, and will always go forth/ every day.” These lines focus on the passage of time going from day to every day. The symbol of child is present and future and all encompassing, instead of expanding outward all collapse in the self to make a whole.

The Oneida Community

The Oneida community seems to have been another one of those rather odd things to come out of the empire state. Founded in Oneida, New York by John Humphrey Noyes, and based on the theory that the community could bring about Jesus' Millennial Kingdom as well as the principles of Perfectionsim. Perfectionism is based on the idea that man could reach a state of being without sin at conversion, this mostly came from Noyes own view that he himself was sinless and therefore capable of throwing stones. The community itself followed four unorthodox, for the time, practices: Male continence, complex marriage, ascending fellowship, and mutual criticism all of which were based around sex, except for that last one. All three sexual practices were practiced to impede any chance of romantic relationships as these were considered "idolatrous," and so everyone was basically married to everyone else, if I have worked the math out right. This commingling among each other sharing bodies and experience, older women were chosen to induct virgins, would be fascinating to Whitman. This is shown in passage like the 28th bather or when he says we states the we have, "plunged your tongue to my barestript heart." But there is something else that Whitman may not have been so excited about regarding the Oneida community. The practice of mutual criticism in which all members participated in criticizing other members, pointing to their bad traits. This may not seem so bad, even somewhat democratic, but the practice was used primarily to enforce the morality of Noyes' doctrine. The critcism points that Noyes' way is the only way. I simply cannot see Whitman backing such a ridiculous idea, when such a group already goes so beautifully against normal societal constructs of sexual relationships; and then ruins that practice by stating there's is the only way.

My little captain

MY PASSION FOR FERRIES

I quite like trains. The way their wheels clack against the tracks. Their smoothed exteriors sliding by the landscape while short bursts of bells echo from their cabins. Whitman's passion for ferries in some ways dwarfs my own fondness for certain facets of public transportation. He has taken the time in his life to really know the ferries. He appreciates the aesthetic sense and inclusiveness of various images such as the "sail'd schooners" and "marvelously beautiful yachts." His words flood with good feelings and you sense that any day on a ferry is, as he puts it, "a fine day." The aspect that Whitman is a part of everything truly shows in this passage. Through the ferry he is connected to Staten island and the Hudson and the water and the boat and his old pilot friends. Public transportation pilots and drivers must have been a lot more friendly back then or perhaps Whitman is just that amicable.

Tweet-a-week: Barnum's American Museum

Barnum's American Museum was in a way an early introduction into the entertainment industry for P.T. Barnum. The museum was on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street and ran from 1841 till it burned down in 1865. He combined lowbrow and highbrow attractions in order to bring in a wider crowd of paying customers. The museum included such things as "sensational oddities" like giants, dwarfs, and albinos. It also included educational exhibits such as whales.

This relates to Whitman in a very direct sense as he at one point lived and worked in the area where the museum was housed. Surely he had visited at least once and would have seen the multitude of oddities, attractions, works of art, and educational platforms all stored in the one building. This must have interested him greatly as Whitman is all about mixing things up.

Specimen Days: THE CAPITOL BY GAS-LIGHT

This is a very brief account of Whitman wandering through the capitol. Instead of focusing on the sights or the mall or the various other things one could see in D.C. he speaks only of the house and the senate. He most likely finds them to be the most important as they are the representatives of the people and the states they. These offices are the ones with the most direct contact to the people. Whitman is giving importance to the democratic process on the level that allows for more participation by the general populace. That is why, perhaps, for him when visiting the capitol it is more important to check in on this process and show that you are a part of it.

Whitman's Flowers

Over the growing sugar, over the yellow-flower'd cotton plant

Over the western persimmon, over the long-leav'd corn, over the/ delicate blue-flower flax

Fetch stonecrop mixt with cedar and branches of lilac,

And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each/ other,

Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled underbrush,/ Lighting on every moment of my life,

Many plants flower including ones we think wouldn’t. Corn, for instance, is a monoecious flowering fruit meaning they include both the male and female sex organs on the flower. Every other plant mentioned, except for the persimmon, is monoecious meaning they have male and female flowers on the same plant. I am unsure of Whitman’s botanical prowess but he most certainly knew that from flowers come the fruits of a season’s labor. The lines “over the yellow-flower’d cotton plant” and “over the/ delicate blue-flower flax,” are mentioned among a wide list of things Whitman sees as he travels across the land. Each of these things are extremely individualistic yet share similar properties, such as the “yellow-flower’d cotton plant” and the “blue flower flax.” These two flowers are mentioned together with the term flowers. One, the cotton, becomes a consumable product while the other is a pretty thing to look at by doing so Whitman creates equal significance between the two. One is not more important than the other simply because it can be used. And in that same line with the blue flax he places the fruit before the flower. Blending the senses of something that can be tasted and with something to see and smell. He takes these highly individualized creations of nature and spreads them throughout the world he sees, as flowers are in almost every corner of the world so is Whitman and so are we. It is in the lilac, perhaps a favored flower of the writer, that he celebrates what I as a reader did not expect to see. He celebrates science, “Hurrah for positive science! long live exact demonstration!/ Fetch stonecrop mixt with cedar and branches of lilac,” from this arises Whitman’s inner botanist. He sees the beauty in studying the every essence of the flower to come to a more in-depth understanding of it. Like poetry the scientist delves deep into the breast of nature to touch all knowledge that can be got and to see what comes from mixing flowers and trees or other such things. He celebrates science for its own goals of melding the high and the low and transmogrifying things of beauty into things of use, and things of use into things of beauty. Until we come to his lovers who call for him “from flower-beds.” These lovers being from indiscriminate beds of flowers are comingled and interwoven through their thoughts of him. He is the focal point of this natural scene. Whitman’s flowers.

OMNIBUS JAUNTS AND DRIVERS: Specimen Days

This piece from specimen days was nostalgic. That was the sense I got from it any way. He is looking back as he says, "The Yellow-birds, the Red-birds, the original Broadway, the Fourth avenue, the Knickerbocker, and a dozen others of twenty or thirty years ago, are all gone." From there the writing has that very nostalgic feeling and all the positive memories that go with it. I myself have met a rare handful of bus drivers that I have liked, but Whitman loves them all in this passage. He loves them for their half true stories or carnal desires as he ponders on the conversations he has had with them.
He then puts them in the context of great writers like Cervantes Homer and Shakespeare, claiming they would be great subjects for such artists. The driver as subject with his stories and character provides more of that Whitmanian tradition of celebrating the low and the high together. The driver provides subject matter and becomes a muse for great art, and in turn great art is created for and around the driver.

Vivas to those who have failed

"Vivas to those who have failed, and to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea,/ and those themselves who sank in the sea,/ And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes, and numberless/ unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known."

We often remember heroes more for their deeds than for their deaths, and understandably so. We like to remember them for what they did not how they died. But I find their is a certain beauty in the last moments of hero. His struggle before the fall as he stands for one last round prepared to defend his beliefs. Whitman captures the essence of that beauty in this section. He raises the memories of forgotten heroes "equal to the greatest heroes," the one's who's resolve and beliefs were equal to that of the victor. And in this passage is that sense of melancholy grace that the loser of battle exudes, such as the felling one gets from Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." As an aesthetic sense I find it greatly moving, and as a celebration of life through loss I believe these lines have touched on an important subject that Whitman does not fear to celebrate.

Whitman's celebration of these fallen and losers is a celebration of himself and through him it is a celebration of ourselves as we struggle daily and constantly lose. That is my favorite part about these lines. The sense that even though we suffer constant losses, for not everyone can win all the time, we should be glad to have them. It proves we are living and that there is still a chance to improve from their. The Fallen "Heroes" of this poem teach us about resolve as they put their lives on the line for their beliefs they should indeed be celebrated.