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.