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5-1-1972
Why Walt Whitman explores amativeness and
adhesiveness in some of his poetry
Geraldine G. Thompson
Atlanta University
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WHY WALT WHITMAN EXPLORES AMATIVENESS AND ADHESIVENESS
IN SOME
OF HIS
A
THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE
POETRY
FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
THE
DEGREE
REQUIREMENTS
OF MASTER OF ARTS
BY
GERALDINE
G.
THOMPSON
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ATLANTA,
GEORGIA
MAY 1972
i
V
FOR
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
iii
INTRODUCTION
iv
CHAPTERS :
I.
II.
THE SHAPING OF A
POET
1
A.
Ancestral Heritage
1
B.
Walt Whitman's
8
C.
Walt Whitman-The Youth
10
D.
Walt Whitman-The Man
15
E.
Walt Whitman-The Poet
22
WALT WHITMAN'S
A.
Whitman's
Childhood
PHRENOLOGICAL BACKGROUND...
Early Interest
in
Phrenology
B.
C.
49
Walt Whitman's
with
the
Business Association
Phrenologists
Walt Whitman's
59
Intellectual
Relation
to Phrenology
III.
TWO ELEMENTS
A.
Amativeness
Cluster
B.
IV.
of
Adhesiveness
of
65
OF PHRENOLOGY
WHITMAN'S
49
IN WALT
POETRY
in
the
72
"Children
of Adam"
Poems
in
the
Poems
72
"Calamus"
Cluster
81
THE CONTROVERSY
93
CONCLUSION
113
BIBLIOGRAPHY
114
11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For
was
I
the
extended
patience
to me
throughout
am truly grateful
For
sense
of
the knowledge
direction
specifically Dr.
undaunted
for
the
that was
that was
I
Jarrett
understanding,
in me
to whom
Dr.
of
imparted
I
I
111
am
of my
to me
I
and
the
attended
Richard K.
generosity and
particularly
dedicate
thesis,
instructors,
and Dr.
the
this
that
Elizabeth Higgins.
provided me while
thank all
Thomas
confidence
my husband Wayne,
the writing
to my advisor,
Atlanta University,
And
and unbounding encouragement
this
Barksdale,
the
indebted
thesis.
to
INTRODUCTION
Walt Whitman's
controversial book.
be
and
traced
in
deliberate
attempt
of his
life
own
that he
Two
to Whitman's
adhesiveness
emotions
Leaves
for
poetry and
own
purpose
used amativeness
This will
be
to his
related
poetry.
The
assumed
or
that
of
and
this
accomplished
the
stressed
all his
the
study
is
by
to
poetry;
poems which
reflect
a
in
show why Walt Whitman
some
of his
poetry.
literally developing a
personality through biography;
influenced Whitman;
to specific
poems
in
"Calamus"
and
to show the
emotions
that were
expressed
and by discussing
poetic
to
poet
adhesiveness
adhesiveness
by showing how phrenology
Whitman's
aspects
personality.
of Walt Whitman's
poems;
this may
secrecy certain
directly
of his
either amativeness
of his
The
of
devastatingly
considered himself an extension of
deal with
picture
in
could be
subsequently many critics
facet
a
treatment of amativeness
of his
to shroud
in some
is
primary reasons
candid
some
that
treated
of Grass
the
treatment of
IV
by pointing
"Children of Adam"
in
these
clusters
controversy surrounding
these emotions.
CHAPTER I
THE
SHAPING OF A POET
A.
Ancestral
"No American
author better
theory of
the
and epoch
than Walt Whitman.
aware
of
adopted
sion
shaping
these
influences,
Not
the
only was Whitman himself
ambition
place,
nation,
own character and
talent
in
and
to give
the
them and
poetic expres
development
the midst and with
of his
the help of
forces."
The era
most
environment
he eagerly embraced
time,
these
illustrates Taine's
influence of heredity,
in his maturity
to his
Heritage
fateful,
history—the
through which he
exciting and paradoxical
nineteenth
countered materialism;
ditional
lived was
religious
century.
periods
It was
science had begun
faith;
humanitarian
threatened by selfish motives.
perhaps
a
one
time when
to supersede
it was
the
in American
goals were
All men,
of
"idealism
tra
ever-
argued,
•'■Gay Wilson Allen, Walt Whitman (New York: Grove Press,
Inc.,
1961),
p.
9.
should be
free
advantages,
and equal—but
either
inherited
in
reality some
or seized.
fought angrily against each other
darity,
while
the nation
Regional
Within
outlandish
prudery coexisted
interests
and against national soli
itself battled
dominion.
enjoyed special
to expand
the American character gross
uneasily,
its
crudity and
and citizens
of
the
new republic expressed both a chauvinistic bravado and a
cultural
Grass
inferiority complex."
encompasses
the many
flicts within himself and
compared
to an
open
road
feelings,
society.
began.
He was
1819,
The Whitman's
and con
traveled
to get an
literary work.
travel with me]
Walt Whitman's
2
journey through
life
to Walter
(One of the children died in infancy.)
lived
in West Hills
sturdy farmhouse built by Walt's
trying his hand at
farming at
on Long Island in a
father,
that
a carpenter,
time.
■^Barbara Marinacci, 0 Wondrous Singer!
to Walt Whitman
of
life can be
the second of nine children born
and Louisa Whitman.
was
Whitman's
whoever you are come
On May 31,
Leaves
experiences
that must be
understanding of most of his
AllonsJ
Walt Whitman's
(New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.,
who
Although
An Introduction
1970),
p.
2.
^Sculley Bradley (ed.), Walt Whitman-Leaves of Grass
and Selected Prose
1949),
p.
128.
(New York:
Holt,
Rinehart & Winston,
West Hills was
some
its
appearance
and
son
to New York City.
simple,
natural,
thirty miles
spirit was
This
deep and
in
one
along
his
the
he
And
the
first
shore
line
a
and
in
the
basically a
farm,
in
the
introduced made
as he
later
"There Was A Child Went
child went
in a
the woods.
to which Walt was
upon him,
in compari
few years
He was
to wander around
indicated
Forth"
forth every day,
first object he
look'd upon,
that
object
became,
that
a
almost primitive
spent his
impressions
poems,
There was
And
liked
pristine world
lasting
of
of New York City,
unspoiled atmosphere.
child of nature who
meadowland,
Walt
east
object became
certain part
of
part
the
of him
for
the
day
or
day,
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.1
In her book,
"in a
0 Wondrous
stated
that
poet's
of his
thinking and
Singer!,
youth
feeling
the
are
Barbara Marinacci
patterns
set,
and he
and
directions
gathers
in
the
vital images which eventually will emerge in his poetry."^
What young Walt
along with
about
those
in his
the
saw,
things
heard,
that he
things—all
poetry.
1Ibid.# p. 303.
2
Marinacci,
p.
smelled,
6.
felt
tasted
inside,
eventually were,
and
touched—
and his
indeed,
thoughts
manifested
Just as nature greatly
Walt's
family played an
descended
from
them.
partly determined
His
influenced his
influencing
Therefore,
the
role,
future
for he was
who and what
person he was
that had
poetry,
they were
to become.
own
parents,
he
she
that had
conceiv'd him
father'd him and
in her womb and
birth'd him,
They gave
this
child more
of
themselves
They gave him afterward every day,
part
Indeed,
than
that,
they became
a
of him.
they were
a
part
of him:
he
inherited much
from his
parents.
Walt's
father,
schoolteacher,
the
son
ested
rudimentary
in books
and
he was
especially
common
man.
Some
and some
farmer
and
a mild-mannered
was of English descent and represented
fifth generation of Whitmans
only a
of a
on Long
Island.
formal education,
but was
ideas.
one
There was
interested:
gaining
He
received
deeply
subject
the
inter
in which
full equality for
the
2
of Walter Whitman's
of his
Bradley,
associations
reading material,
p.
Marinacci,
304.
p.
10.
indicate
or
friendships,
that he was
a
freethinker.
author of
Hicks,
He
had known
the Age
the
the
of Reason,
radical
notorious
Tom Paine.
Quaker preacher,
freethinker
He
who
the
Hicks
became
the
leader
Quakers which became
Although he
never
took an active
sympathies
According
to Gay Wilson Allen
the
political
tion,
the
owned and
and he
notorious
Thus,
always
subscribed
rationalism and
liberal
Walt's mother was
Since
her mother was
the Whitmans
Velsors,
in any church,
the
was
descended
only a
the
p.
8.
in
of
life.
Her
father,
farmer and horse-
seafaring Welshmen.
few miles
frequently and
(New York:
Owens.
influence
descent.
from
the Van
probably accom-
1Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singert
Biography of Walt Whitman
published by
thought early
from
of
French Revolu
Wright and Dale
a Dutch
Walter
an epitome
inquirer,
of Dutch-Welsh
them
Walter
the Hicksites.
Ruins,
Walt came under
political
lived
Walt visited
Free
of
Hicksites.
in The Solitary Singer,
Frances
"Major" Cornelius Van Velsor,
breeder;
the
remained with
to the
father,
liberal branch
as
philosophy of
socialists,
through his
part
read Count Volney's
and Deistic
After defending
a more
better known
Whitman's
Whitman
of
also knew Elias
defended Paine when
other churchmen were busy maligning him.
Paine,
and
A Critical
Grove Press,
Inc.,
1955),
panied his grandfather to Brooklyn and sometimes even to
New York,
by way of
the
His grandmother,
of the Quaker church;
ferry,
and
numerals
"thys"
which included using
and referred
to days and months by
tales
to Walt.
later exuded many qualities
to his
forebears.
probably acquired a
that could
From his English
firm dedication to ideas
liberal mind for religion and politics,
in national history and a desire
Dutch
"thees"
She was a very gentle woman who
often related old seafaring
attributed
was a member
therefore she used the traditional
instead of names.
He
farm produce.
Naomi or Amy Van Velsor,
language of the Friends,
"thous"
to market his
probably be
forebears he
and ideals,
an intense
to teach others.
a
interest
From his
forebears he probably acquired his hardiness.
From
his Welsh forebears he probably acquired his gift for language
and
the
death.
love
for the ocean
As Walt himself
that he maintained even until
so aptly put
it:
They gave him afterward every day,
part of him.1
Walt's
ties.
He
parents had
depicted his
Bradley,
p.
304.
they became
a
two distinctly different personali
father as:
...strong,
The
blow,
the
From
this
self-sufficient,
the
crafty
played very
love
the
that his
He was
anger1d,
they usually
resulted
in
and
from biographical
father was
a
tempera
not given or dis
immediate
failure.
frustration and disappointment
success;
Consequently,
that he
felt were usually
family.
Walt's mother,
a very sensible,
a woman with very
mild-mannered,
little education,
patient,
loving person.
Her main concern was her family's welfare.
Although she
may not have
Walt
cular,
she
fully understood her children,
always
accepted them just
as
reason
that Walt was
Although Walt
each other.
sated with
in an
so attached
"experienced opposites
natures of his parents,
in parti
they were,
expecting or demanding anything from them.
for this
unjust,
tight bargain,
a man who devised business
thought would bring
taken out on his
was
deduced
father,
and approval were
freely.
schemes which he
mean,
the
lure...
it can be
mental man whose
manly,
loud word,
poetic sketch of his
information,
instead,
quick
It was
never
probably
to her.
in the very
these contradictions somehow balanced
He soon realized that the whole universe pul
this
intimate,
same
opposition or polarity of things
eternal bondage:
joined
positive and negative,
8
light and darkness,
human
sphere
hate,
faith
and
soul,
explore
self and
try
diametrical
other
society.
As
male
female.
dichotomies:
ideal,
a
and
good
poet,
love
and evil,
The
and
body
Walt Whitman would
the essential unity of
such
forces."
Walt Whitman's Childhood
the Whitman
of difficulty
family
hence
Brooklyn,
the
where
sure
increased
in supporting his
Walter Whitman;
felt
in
real and
to define
B.
he
and death,
also abounded
and doubt,
and
As
life
in
1823
in number,
family also
succeed
degree
increased for
the Whitmans moved
building business was
that he would
the
to
booming and where
in his
chosen vocation—
carpentry.
Very
life.
four
few details
However,
influences
in Brooklyn.
occurred
later
are
in
that he
Perhaps
on July 4,
life
poet
experienced
1825,
pp.
the
about Walt Whitman's
recalled
during
three
those
early
or
early years
the most outstanding experience
Revolutionary war hero,
Marinacci,
known
when
came
12-13.
General Lafayette,
to Brooklyn
to
lay a
the
old
cornerstone
for a new
library.
He
lifted Walt Whitman
so
that he could get a better
he
set Walt down he
kiss.
This
considered
supposedly gave
to be
a
verbal
that assured
future
instructions
ranks
the
1
"Walt
link between
inspiration
to take
In the
place
and
from the nation's
past."
school education began at age six.
to cope with,
found
He
the con
learning and rigid
so he
traded the stifling
classroom for the crowded city streets, where
began
spokesman-to-
the common man and
temporary educational methods of rote
too nuach
that
the new American
attended school for about six years before he
discipline
fancied
the brave
to establish
rights of
a
later
of Americans who surely would need
and renewed
Walt's public
When
the child a hug and a
prophetic blessing.
idealistic men who had battled
those
ceremony.
instinctively selected him as
for democracy—a
republic
the
trench
lingered in young Walt's memory and was
Lafayette had
be
view of
over a
true
learning
for him.
streets Walt was
able
to become
familiar with and knowledgeable of all
that interested him
1Allen, The Solitary Singer..., p. 9.
2Marinacci, p. 16.
thoroughly
2
10
in his
surroundings,
the massive material
the
sky,
zant of
things
the water
this
in
at
his
Walt's
His
father
success,
wages
help
bution
of
of
"sing"
of
real estate
large
not cogni
these
same
Jesse went
lawyers
in
little
carpenter's
Therefore,
to
find
to sea
law firm and
the
youth.
with
family on a
family
it became
employment
to
and Walt became
then
for
law firm made
a
a
doctor.
great contri
to Walt's education by helping him with his hand
and,
even more
giving him a card to a circulating
card was
the key to
read all of
on
ferries,
The Youth
in
the
for a
writing and composition,
went
the
frequently during his
themselves,
the
jobs,
poetry.
boys
first
their
Although he was
he would
speculating
the
boy,
One
time,
and
the wharves,
increasingly difficult.
for
an office
people
land.
supporting his
became
the
Walt Whitman -
tried
support
the
family moved
and
necessary
that
as
structures,
and
future
C.
such
in
the
the
novels
pursuit
significantly,
library.
door of knowledge
and
of quite
That
a
library
for Walt.
poetry of Walter Scott
comprehensive
by
and
He
then
self-education.
11
After working for the
realized
after
that he would not enjoy a career
leaving
doctor
law firm for about a year Walt
the
law firm he
for a very brief
became
period
of
that he would not enjoy a career
When Walt was
an apprentice
editor of
in
the
the Long
developed an
almost
in
literary ambition began
printed some
to
the
some
of
paper.
in medicine,
office
to bud,
of his work
to one
of
Walt Whitman,
that
authorship was
Another
politics,
he
had
listened
discussions
occasionally
inspiration
to
submit
one
of his
the
pieces was
states,
point where
in his
book,
"his vanity of
born."
one
of Walt's
lifelong
its
origin
the
to and
and
Allen,
that he
that Walt submitted
Gay Wilson Allen
this was
Clements,
the most celebrated magazines
in New York—the New York Mirror;
accepted and printed.
there
for the editor
the
became
Subsequently his
the verses and stories
That gave Walt
a
either.
old he
It was
to
realized
of Samuel E.
journalism.
and
apprentice
fourteen years
printing
law,
time before he
Island Patriot.
interest
an
in
at
participated
read
the
Patriot.
in
partisan
Walt Whitman,
p.
interests,
18.
the
It was
"animated
positions
that
that
there
in
that
political
the
paper
12
advocated."
The
paper,
of Tammany politicians,
population of
was
"the
the
right of
in
representing
attempted
its
to rule
in
in
the
printing
slogans
the
rival
and
paper
to the Long
primarily supported
its
at the
the
Island Patriot.
the business
of Brooklyn and
editor,
2
trade
Walt became an apprentice with
Marinacci
the
of
every case."
people
interests
"a public
the growing
the
and manufacturing
said of
to
One
Long Island Patriot,
The Star was Whig,
to appeal
interests
skilled working men.
After his early training
Long Island Star,
the
the nation.
Alden Spooner,
that he was
spirited man who knew how to make words work
good of
the
citizens
Walt clearly saw the
by arousing
newspaper's
them
to positive
ability to
influence
for
action.
the
populace."
Walt's
lifetime
started while he was
he
recognized
Allen,
fascination with
an
apprentice with
the newspaper's
power
The Solitary Singer,
2Ibid.. p. 18.
■'Marinacci,
p.
35.
public
of
p.
speaking
the Star.
persuasion,
19.
Just as
he
could
13
see how oratory had the
feelings
and
power to
"alter or expand people's
thinking."
Walt was
also able
to obtain free passes
dramas performed in New York City.
these dramas
that Walt began
to the
It was while attending
to notice
that drama had the
ability "to sway an entire audience all at once,
through the
appeal to
imagination,
rather than by making a direct
the emotions and the
and oratory did."
intellect as both journalism
2
Because he was so
intrigued by actors,
their techniques of portraying roles,
people other than themselves.
point when she said
life
that
Walt studied
of temporarily becoming
Barbara Marinacci made
a
"Walt may have wondered whether in
itself a person might actually become what he at first
pretended
to be
working
to be.
During Whitman's entire manhood he
portraying a succession of roles,
distinct in their phases.
he wrote
there
suggestions
is an
interrelated yet
And in both Whitman and the poetry
interesting
similarity between his
for actors depicting characters
1Ibid.., p. 36.
2Ibid., pp. 36-37.
seemed
on stage and his
14
own ultimate
assumption
self-designed,
with
its
self-imposed
role
completed his
printer
turned
to
teaching
he
have
"some
when
few were
and,
unlike most
that he
Questions'
Unable
in
teachers
for
them.
them and
to find work
1838,
when he
started his
After about eight months
or,
paper,
p.
the
for
others
rather
to
He
he
overwhelmed
in his
of Long island.
but he
believed
the
interest children
he
trade,
did
time
loved children
than by
For example,
played
in
rod.
in
He
the
'Twenty
invented other educational games."
The
first
left
the
time he
own newspaper,
the
of publishing his
perhaps,
and he
He worked
teaching at a
period,
teaching career he
to do other things.
id,
of
find ways
twice
restless
1835.
the country schools
by persuasion
to
set
with
the
in
required by school boards.
During his
to sell
a
impress
the city was
important qualifications
constantly
became
to
only had a meager education,
keeping discipline
tasks
intended
in New York City until
Granted,
strove
'Personality'
apprenticeship
by an economic depression.
Walt
special
'magnetism.'"
Walt
as a
of a
was
37.
2Allen, Walt Whitman, p.
schoolroom
left was
in
Long islander.
paper he either
strongly advised by his
did.
19.
2
backers
15
Then,
in
1839,
he went
to work as
for the Long Island Democrat,
still on
leave
in the
Queens County.
edited by James
fall of 1840,
presidential campaign of
a writer and
he
Brenton.
participated
Any political ambitions
and their followers
D.
Walt Whitman
In the spring of
in the
that Whitman may
to certain
in New York.
- The Man
1841 Walt began
tion to furthering his
own ambitions as
to direct his atten
a writer.
The
Democratic Review published several stories
of Walt's,
two of his
1842,
World.
of
poems were
published
in January,
(Walt had worked for the New World since
1841
In
as
a
the
spring of
in the New
the spring
1842 Walt became editor of
Under this
many topical matters
of
such as
prohibition,
abolition of slavery,
women's
rights,
cults,
and
printer.)
a daily New York City newspaper.
gious
While
1840 as Democratic electioneer for
have had inevitably dwindled after his exposure
politicians
typesetter
the day were
socialism,
just
to name
1Ibid., p. 26.
free
a
few.
love,
the Aurora,
editorship
presented
in the Aurora,
health
mesmerism,
fads,
and reli
16
Walt's editorship of the Aurora ended in May,
after a quarrel with his employers.
for long,
He was not without work
for in the summer of 1842 Walt was hired as editor
of another New York City newspaper,
the Evening Tattler.
In September of that same year he was fired.
few years he worked only intermittently at
jobs.
1842,
For the next
regular newspaper
He supported himself mainly by free-lance journalism
and by selling stories
Walt's
to magazines.
return to Brooklyn in August,
period of journalistic experience for him.
1845 marked a new
He was first
employed on the Long Island Star as a reporter.
about temperance,
manners,
educational reform,
He wrote
amateur
theatrical performances, music programs in Brooklyn and in
New York City,
young
and even gave moral and practical advice to
people.
In
1846 Walt became editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.
As editor he
frequently took decisive positions on many
questions of the day,
such as the abolition of slavery,
the
setting aside of prejudices towards foreigners, women's rights,
abolishing capital punishment,
physical hygiene,
original,
non-imitative American literature and music, humanizing
education,
and civic improvements.
Walt advocated those
causes because he actually believed in what he was saying.
17
As Marinacci said,
himself did not,
Walt
"rarely gave
out advice which he
or ultimately would not,
There was one notable exception.
readers
years
that
old,
married.1
On Walt's
bachelors
and maidens
'die
'There be
old enough
but the most of both sexes
Pools,
beds?
make yourself a
doubtless,
can
likely
to
intended
who may not be blamed,
the bands
of
the
find partners meant
Buy cradles
to say
that,
solitary,
for them.
and double
although Walt was
"he showed small
supply his own life with new furniture."
this can only be speculated about.
own mother as a woman and mate.
Marinacci,
p.
83.
inclination
fully
to
The reasons for
Perhaps one
"no one ever measured up to his
2Ibid.
but
the
2
qualified for marriage,
that
and get
reality in life—and do the State
Marinacci went on
is
twenty-one
fools were
to marry,
and get discretion.
service. ' "
go
of ever having desired or
some,
Turn,
over
to encumber you,
whom peculiar circumstances keep in
some
are
list of the world's
and give no sign'
to marry.
He demanded of his
"'If you have good health,
and have nothing
heed."
reason
idealization of his
Or perhaps
there were other
18
'peculiar circumstances'
marrying;
whatever
the
interest
in girls."
reason,
'cradles
felt
his
and when
discreetly
crying or asking him
of milk.
as
Yet while
to
traced
writings.
in
of
the
Among
the
faddists
other
concerns
rush
to
the
to him
any wife
pointed out
Goethe,
and
such as Mary S.
and 0.
S.
The
that
Fowler,
the
"Walt
best
engrossed him,
grocers
the
Solitary Singer,
intruding
to buy a
they were
or
quart
probably
or child could be."
that Whitman
direct
Emerson,
the
81.
can
reviewed
of
some
advocate
phrenologist.
p.
in
their
Margaret Fuller,
the writings
Gove,
2
reviewed
influence
after he
2Ibid.
Allen,
romantic
could alter child or woman
them were Carlyle,
temporary
cure,"
He
poetry which he wrote
George Sand,
said
imagination supplied
authors whose
Michelet,
"water
Marinacci
they stayed,
should also be
the Eagle many
him delay
showed much
vanished—instead of
real and as wonderful as
It
be
own
and double beds.'
'family'
he never
further,
that his
to suit his mood;
own which made
1
Speculating even
may have
all his
of
"To
con
the
19
judge by
some
the
of
later results
these
on Whitman's
authors were
subtly emancipating him from
puritanism and asceticism he had been
Another aspect of American
treated
a
in his
editorials was
political stand which he
porary political undoing.
democrats who did not
nately,
sition
the
thinking and writing,
his
to
it.
Soon after
theater
to be
of
the
local
leaders
dismissed from his
losing
that
job,
Walt met a man
his
tem
Unfortu
in oppo
post around
later,
the editorial
Walt's
Walt's
He
stay
he quickly made a
that
to be a
lonely one.
nine
the morning until eleven in
deal
staff of his new paper.
journey
in
in a
starting a newspaper in
through
life continued,
accompanied by his younger brother Jeff,
to New Orleans.
in
proved
it was
1848.
with him to serve on
for he,
one
Impressed with Walt,
Two days
Ironically,
the Wilmot Proviso.
lobby one night who was
New Orleans.
that
frequently
Walt vigorously attacked all
Hence Walt was
end of January,
that he
politics.
took
support
employer was
life
taught..."
traveled
southern city proved
generally worked
long hours,
the evening.
from
20
As
a
reporter
for
the Crescent,
social and cultural events,
that Walt saw Gen.
Mexican War.
geous
This was an event
"man of
It was
the
frequently attended
it was on one
Zachary Taylor,
he greatly admired this
he
of these occasions
who was
just back from the
that Walt cherished,
plain-talking,
for
unpretentious,
coura
people."
also during his
stay
in New Orleans
that Walt
steadfastly defended public exposure of the human body,
as he had
previously expressed praises
in the Eagle.
seen a
This
show called
performers
assumed
position came as a
"Model Artists"
the
was completely alien
poses
to
of
of
just
the human body
result of having
in which scantily—dressed
famous
statues.
His
that customarily published
attitude
in the
press.
Walt's
months,
customs,
ness
sojourn
in New Orleans
but his memories
its
people
and gaiety,
and
of
its
lasted
that portion of
for only
the South,
prevailing atmosphere
along with various
would vividly stay in his mind
three
of friendli
less mentionable aspects,
for a
lifetime.
to and away from the South eventually offered
His
journey
"many authentic
details and provided broad background scenery for the
logues'
of American
life
J-Marinacci, p. 93.
in Leaves
its
of Grass".
'cata
21
By the middle of June,
1848, Walt had plunged back
into politics, engaging in the heated disputes surrounding
the presidential election.
He attended the Democratic Con
vention, where the antislavery "Barnburners" split off from
the "Old hunkers" and held their own caucus, which he also
attended.
The new party,
known as the Free-Soil Party,
selected former President Martin Van Buren as its candidate
to oppose Lewis Cass,
Zachary Taylor,
the choice of the Democrats,
and
the choice of the Whigs.
To promote his
party's
candidate and
its opinions
prior to the election, Walt started a weekly paper called
the Freeman.
But a fire destroyed the printing office the
day after the publication of the
Walt was able to publish again,
Taylor was the victor.
first issue.
By the time
the election was over and
Walt remained editor of that paper
for one year.
Forces were now at work within Walt Whitman
alter his way of life.
to
He had recently seen for
himself other regions of his great nation and watched
many of its people's doings.
The experience had
deeply moved him and set him to wondering anew why
no American writer had yet captured, or even tried
to capture, the
United States.
vast shape
and vital
spirit of
the
During the nearly thirty years of his life Walt
had absorbed so very much; and what he had not
actually experienced he could hear and read about
22
and vividly imagine.
the
If no one else would undertake
job of putting the whole
of America
into a book,
why not he?
E.
Walt Whitman
After giving up editing
free-lanced
for newspapers
- The
the Freeman
tion as editor on any newspaper.
It was
in
1849,
Walt
in Brooklyn and in New York City,
but he seemingly was not too anxious
beginning of Walt's
Poet
That year marked
transformation
"during that year that he
to obtain another posi
from journalist
the
true
to poet.
received satisfying
"proof"
that nature herself had really intended him to take up this
new career:
the
shape of his own head gave
the best evidence."
Walt had great faith in every aspect of science.
Phrenology was a faddish
"science"
of
that century which held
that human character could be determined by studying an in
dividual's skull.
A phrenologist would feel
and depressions of the various
the
protrusions
zones of his subject's cranium
and then draw up a comprehensive chart of the subject's per
sonality,
including attributes
Walt had his
Fowler,
own
"Chart
an expert American
1Ibid., p. 94.
2Ibid., p. 97.
and defects.
of Bumps"
phrenologist.
drawn up by Lorenzo
In his analysis
2
23
Fowler confirmed Walt's
when he asserted
that Walt possessed,
attributes of a poet.
ings with
the
ogy because he
of human
long held desire
Hungerford,
phrenologists,
regarded
it as
said
to become
an expert on Walt's deal
that Walt turned to phrenol
a sound scientific analysis
poetry.
Since Walt maintained such a high regard for this
to assume
propel him
life were
the
spent
in appren
Much of his time was expended in doing the
that were most appealing to him,
from
that Walt needed
into his new career.
The next six years of his
ticeship.
"science,"
that Fowler's analysis of his
character may well have been the stimulus
to
poet
to a notable degree,
character on which he could base his
it may be safe
a
British reviews
things
such as reading everything
to the extensive works of Emerson;
studying modern science;
learning about astronomy;
theatrical performances;
visiting the Egyptian Museum and
the World's Fair;
acquainting himself with
lives and opinions of contemporary artists;
people
in all walks
or the masses;
were
of
attending
the cosmopolitan
associating with
life,
but
particularly the uneducated
and attending
the
Italian opera.
these experiences appealing,
but he
Not
only
probably felt that
1Edward Hungerford, "Walt Whitman and His Chart of
Bumps
f" American Literature, II
(Jan.,
1931), p.
360.
24
they were
necessities
His method
that
of
it would
interests.
enjoying
his
needed
from
and
business
Grass went
a
gold
leaf.
by
in
the
The
by a
untitled
the
Selected
on
the
he
nature
pursue his
He
built
housed his
To
did
to
a
was
already had
ground
briefly.
copies
floor,
the
a
three-
own
some
little
and he
supplement his
and
income
newspaper writing
of Walt Whitman's
at Swayne's
on
on
Fulton St.
Broadway
in
Leaves
of
Brooklyn
in New York City.
poems
of ninety-five
bound
in
the
title
and border ornately stamped
in
author was
name
poem,
pages,
It
of
Brothers
identified only by an engraved
obscurely placed mid-way of
which was
in
later
The
called
book
of
to Whitman:
poems
Sculley Bradley
said
Leaves
the
"Song
Brooklyn under Walt's
introduction
Prose,
the
such
(carpentry)
carpenter.
in which he
copyright notice.
Rome
In
a
endeavors,
and Wells
cloth with
long,
became
1855,
sale
Fowler
portrait?
and
6,
on
he
of
speculating.
thin volume
green
he
lived upstairs
On July
that
prosperity and Walt
in Brooklyn
real estate
was
time
shop and bookstore
these
and at
the
the building business
skills,
family
new career.
allow
story building
printing
for his
to be
period of
necessary
preparing
supporting himself had
Since
a
in
first,
of Myself";
was
printed
direction.
of Grass
and
25
As
the
was
poet
from the
many poems
the
light
first
On
socialized,
others
the
The
intended
like
the
the
'assume'
growth of
Whitman had
'I'
on
of
their
1891,
several
the
through his hands
months
before he
in
the
of
in March,
1860,
1881 were
was
simply
luck
their
the
first,
1892.
at
The
find
the whole work,
culminating
a
the
in
the
that of
the Civil War
the
the
separate
the
It was
person'
as
as
also watched
Bradley,
the
p.
death
vi,
birth of his
of his
father.
of
though certain
in
the
themes.
body,
book
in one
nature
of
in July,
His
One
mind and
enlarging experience
a person in the'Democratic...En Masse.'2
the
that
eight editions
progressively associated
other
As Walt watched
all
thematic
through
poet
Whoever has
editions
developing
1881.
the
or Camden,
asserted
development of two correlated
'simple,
immortal;
pages
successive
The
courageous
All other editions
Washington,
title
few
book de
the
printed wherever
especially
leit-motivs were
symphonic
but
once.
to
of
actually
deathbed
'Handled by Walt Whitman.'
to
place will observe
he
said
precisely what
accepted by
to be—in Brooklyn,
they were
the
Bradley
last edition
firm of Thayer and Eldridge,
New Jersey—while
was
Grass,
only on his
them out of business
happened
the
terms.
almost without benefit of publishers.
third edition,
before
with
pronoun
began...'Hoping not
of
size
passed
died
own
of
foreseen when he
Proofs
put
in
old ballads,
of Grass was
till death.'
young
poem of
personal
of
Leaves
Leaves
times
one
If he wrote
first
cease
veloped
to be
of Grass
for himself only what
could have
development
Leaves
revised and enlarged
experience.
to himself,
and he would
all
asserted,
continuously
of his
reference
was
repeatedly
such
1855,
high hopes
26
for
the
from
newborn child of his
fully
life:
participating
and would
The
than he
overall
had hoped
response
for.
while
generate
interest and
three
several
others
poems with
these was
domestic
other
favor
in
Many
to
sorrow.
people
it
and
reviews
book of
ignored
found
it
sales,
himself.
than Walt who
came
poems was
the work
new
Walt
less
com
offensive.
To
anonymously
However,
looked upon
reviews.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Here
it?
stimulate
their
probably distracted him
to Walt's
read
favorable
judges
in
the world welcome
pletely,
wrote
genius
there were
the book of
The most outstanding of
The
letter
that Emerson wrote
to pay tribute
to Walt's
accomplishment has
famous
ever
to any unknown writer by such a
tribute
celebrated man
In his
I
of
of
paid
am not blind
piece
to
the worth of the wonderful gift
of Grass.
I
I
happy.
making
seemed
if
find
of what
in
the
free
joy
in
I
great
incomparably well,
courage
of
it.
treatment,
perception
the beginning
and
as
and brave
I
in
be.
I
the
fat and mean.
thought.
incomparable
inspire.
am always
stingy nature,
I
things
I
so delights me,
new career,
contri
great
lymph
they must
which
yet
demand
too much
find
as
only can
of a
extraordinary
our western wits
of your
said
it,
the
sterile
joy
have
large
reading
too much handiwork or
give you
the most
It meets
temperament were making
I
it
that America has
am very happy
power makes me
as
said:
of wit and wisdom
buted.
the most
letters.
letter Emerson
Leaves
become
find
the
and which
greet you at
which yet must have
27
had
I
a
long
foreground
rubbed my eyes
a
little
but
is
a
sober certainty.
of
fortifying and encouraging.
did not know until
in
real
the
and
It has
I,
as
available
wish
to see my benefactor,
Emerson
its
used
author's
letter was
as
in
Although Emerson was
never
to
accomplished
people
it was
learned
a
Englishmen
Emerson's
Tribune
book
saw
the
could
book
like
pay you
laudatory
of
10,
without his
to
visit
the
the
fame by
the young
only
Leaves
1855
spite
book was
of
recommending
his
action,
this,
that
he
notably
poet.
favorably
alike.
fame,
for
received by quite
Thus
that encouraged him
ready
of Grass
permission.
promoter of Walt's
and Americans
letter alone
in
the
I
felt much
that his
namely,
trust
postoffice.
but on October
endorsement,
second edition which was
summer,
the
probably displeased with Walt's
not
that
I
and have
dreamed
start.
best merits,
public endorsement
promote Walt's
Emerson was
few,
the
retracted his
continued
a
abilities,
printed
a
a
sunbeam
of
night,
that
for
this
and visiting New York
probably never
letter would be
if
such
sense
the
last
name
my respects.1
to
it was
not
prepare
for distribution by
a
late
1856.
The
by
solid
newspaper,
striking my tasks,
he
the
for
see
no
advertised
and
to
were
I
illusion?
somewhere,
1856
further use
edition
of
the
of
Leaves
now-famous
of Grass
letter
1-Allen, Walt Whitman, p. 58.
is
distinguished
from Emerson
printed
28
inside
the book along with an open-letter reply
Whitman addressed to his
"Master."
Emerson Walt declared that his
"making"
poems.
He boasted of his
He went on
open
intention
to continue
several hundred—perhaps a
to assert that the average yearly
demand for his poems would be
ten or twenty thousand copies.
Although he never witnessed a yearly sale
the one he boasted of,
his death.
letter to
life's work would be that of
making poems until he had made
thousand.
In his
from
as
great as
he never stopped making poems until
The growth of his Leaves was indeed his
life-
work.
After publishing
the
first edition of Leaves
Walt returned to journalism.
the
fall
of
1855
to
the
of informative articles,
Illustrated,
As he
spring of
2Ibid.
60.
from
a group
for Life
publication.
the
(It was another presidential election
looked over the
p.
he wrote
mainly about New York,
field of candidates he felt
very little enthusiasm for any of
Ibid.,
1856,
following summer Walt took note of
political situation.
year.)
During several months,
a Fowler and Wells
During the
of Grass
them,
but decided that
2
29
the
one
that came
the
Republican Party candidate.
tract called
as
had
for
the kind
claimed him
evidence
to his
ideal was John C.
So he wrote
a
Fremont,
political
"The Eighteenth Presidency" which was
an endorsement
supporters
as
closest
of candidate
to be.
This
lost him
the
editorship of
that Fremont
political
of Walt's continued concern
over
the Eagle
intended
and
tract
the
stands
issues
strangled
that
the
Freeman.
The
was
of
had
only obvious
that Walt was
the
supported
editor of
the
editorials
exposing
enhanced
the
for
and
two years.
corruption;
vice,
He wrote
also,
any kind of
to expose
hypocrisies,
Walt
churchgoers,
who
Eighteenth Presidency"
as
on
and
Times.
During
running
the
owner
Bennett
Walt worked as
that
the
their one
time his
street
day
of
cars
recreation;
providing Brooklyn with
and denounced
brutality and
only brought on
turn
the
informative
various ministers
in
Bennett,
for President.
such causes
abundant water.
fights,
"The
to edit
laboring men
political
prostitution and
effort
Fremont
Times
on Sunday for
of
employed by George C.
Brooklyn Daily Times,
also
pure,
result
for
articles
"rowdyism,"
injustice.
their
the wrath
pressured Bennett
on
In an
failings
of
into
prize
the
and
respectable
dismissing him.
30
Just after Walt lost his editorship of the Times,
evidently had a good deal of leisure time,
visited Pfaff's
for he often
Restaurant in New York City.
Pfaff's,
favorite hangout of a group of Bohemian writers
was
frequented by Walt almost daily for
Henry Clapp,
literary review,
printed
mas
the editor of
was one
"black despair,"
are no records
a
He
in the special 1859 Christ
thereby giving Walt the
that he needed at that time.
Walt needed encouragement,
a period of
two or three years.
of Walt's Bohemian friends.
issue of the Saturday Press,
added encouragement
the
and artists,
the Saturday Press,
"A Child's Reminiscence"
he
because he was going through
as Marinacci labelled it.
There
to indicate that Walt had experienced any
unhappy love affair or the loss of a loved one by death in
1858 or 1859,
but many of his manuscripts of this
testified to his sense of loneliness,
for love and friendship.
solitude and
His despair was
loss of his editorial position on
it would
One of his
offers a basis
in
his
poems,
for the
open
"As
letter
longing
intensified by the
the Times
of his second edition of Leaves of Grass
boasted
period
and the
failure
to sell as he had
to Emerson.
I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life"
poet's
period of "black despair."
31
While walking along Long Island's shoreline one autumn
afternoon Walt felt
the
"seiz'd by the spirit that trails
lines underfoot"
in
and identified himself with the debris,
with wreckage and failure.
I
too but signify at the utmost a
little wash'd-up
drift,
A
few sands and dead
Gather,
leaves
and merge myself as
to gather,
part of the sands and
drift.
0 baffled,
balk'd,
bent to
Oppress'd with myself
the very earth,
that I have
dared
to open
my mouth,
Aware now that amid all
upon me
what
But
I
that blab whose echoes
I have not once had the
least
recoil
idea who or
am,
that before all my arrogant poems
stands yet untouch'd,
untold,
the
real Me
altogether unreach'd,
Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congratulatory
signs
and bows,
With peals of distant
ironical laughter at every word
I have written,
Pointing in silence
to these songs,
and
then to the
sand beneath.
1
perceive I have not really understood any thing,
a single object, and that no man ever can,
Nature here
me
in sight of
to dart upon me
and
the
sea
not
taking advantage of
sting me,
Beacuse I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.2
The poet's frustration soon abated and became replaced by the
belief that
of
the
"the
ocean of
flow will return,"
life.
1Bradley, p. 214.
2Ibid., pp. 214-215.
3Ibid., p. 215.
for such is
the nature
32
The
was
"flow"
did return,
for a few months
offered an opportunity to have his
later Walt
third edition of
Leaves of Grass published by a young publishing firm in
Boston,
Thayer and Eldridge.
A contract was agreed upon,
and
Walt went to Boston to oversee the printing of the book.
In May the book was completed,
and his
so Walt returned to Brooklyn
friends at Pfaff's.
The
1860 edition of Leaves
Whitman's most revealing,
According
to Allen,
of Grass has been called
important and interesting version.
"It was a
thick duodecimo volume of 546
pages,
bound in heavy boards
on the
front cover a globe swimming in space,
sun half risen
(or half set)
stamped with symbolical designs,
out of the ocean,
on the back a
and on the
backstrip a butterfly perched on an extended forefinger,
evidently illustrating the cosmic,
and motifs
from an oil
In
of
the book.
The
version of Leaves
task of
treating two themes:
and
to propagate
(b)
poetry Walt
tried
Allen,
p.
the
to fuse
74.
and nature themes
frontispiece was an engraving
portrait of Whitman
this
spatial,
(a)
in a Victor Hugo pose."
of Grass Walt assumed
to make
poems
ideal of manly love.
and reconcile
the
for the States,
In his
these national and
33
amatory motives
through
and companionship
his
program of
proclaimed
the
in
d1
"Enfans
men,
procreative
Adam";
regularly with
friends,
close watch
of
the
on
the
or amative
Walt
love
advanced
"Chants Democratic";
instincts
loving
in mankind
friendship between
for Walt after
of Leaves
of Grass.
Pfaff crowd,
the
personal
"Calamus."
as usual
1860 edition
in
and celebrated
in
that only
"These States."
literary nationalism
Life went on
with his
doctrine
can compact
adhesiveness,
of his
the
drivers
rode
the
He
publication
still associated
the Broadway stages
and conductors,
Presidential nominations
and kept
and campaigns
that year.
When Walt
received news
Civil War on April
12,
immediate change.
He
ordeal
ahead
pure milk
by
and
1861,
his
the
to
fat meats
indication
style
late
all
soul
drinks
never
immediately after obtaining
enlisted,
two years old;
probably for
and
(2)
He had
dependent brother Eddie.
bution a
two
the
for
the
but water and
suppers.
Walt's younger brother George enlisted
regiment
of
underwent an
body and
ignore
and
first
life
prepared his
resolving
all
of
in
the news.
reasons:
(1)
a
volunteer
But Walt
He was
forty-
to support his mother and
Walt did,
however,
few weeks after George enlisted.
make
a
contri
He wrote a
34
recruiting poem called
published,
in
"BeatJ
on September
After many months
of the war
who had
of
in newspapers
in December,
to search
1862,
for George.
Virginia,
familiar with
the
life
Rather
hospitals at
felt
the
in
name
the
George W.
that same
relieved
one
piece
few days
to
and
of everyone,
while
after
find him
in
on active
and became
For he
—
thoroughly
observed every
taking notes
on
told.
Walt began
the camp.
that he
by soldiers
51st New York Volunteers
of soldiers.
been magnetically drawn
he
to accounts
left Brooklyn
in
into
read every account
the wounded
He was
all
retreated
the battles.
the
than merely continue
seemingly useless,
He
Walt spotted
for a
and asked questions
saw and was
in
list of
Walt
Walt stayed there
what he
1861.
listened
the wounded of
Fredericksburg,
thing
and
reading over a
his brother's regiment.
duty.
which was
poem-making Walt
actually participated
Whitmore among
noon
28,
tense watching and hoping.
While
Herald,
DrumsJ"
the New York Leader and Harper's Weekly
simultaneously,
a period of
BeatJ
couldn't
to do
to make
He began
the
leave
that were
rounds
to feel as
to the wounded
just
things
of the
though he had
and dying men.
them.
Hence
35
Walt
arranged
delivered a
hospitals
to stay in Washington
trainload of wounded soldiers
there.
For several years
of mercy—a wound-dresser for
Civil War.
to patients,
wrote
to their
with
listened while
to one
he was
to be
those who had
Without compensation,
them or
after he
he
had
of
the
an angel
fought
in
the
passed out gifts,
families
or sweethearts,
they talked,
read
talked
and even helped
with requisite medical attention and anything else
that they
wanted or needed him to do.
During this
time Walt supported himself as
in the Army Paymaster's
pondent.
of
the
office
He had to work only a
day was
free
and as
a
a copyist
part-time
few hours
a
for his hospital work.
day?
corres
thus most
Although his
persistent hospital work occasionally affected his health,
forcing him to stop and go
always
returned
and
to Brooklyn
took up his
The hurt and wounded I
I
sit by the
so
Some
restless
daily
for a
rest,
Walt
rounds.
pacify with soothing hand,
all
the dark night,
some are
young,
suffer so much,
I
recall
the
experience
sweet
and sad,
(Many a soldier's
cross'd
and
loving arms about
rested.
this neck have
Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)1
■'■Bradley, p. 260.
36
Walt not
the
only witnessed
appalling suffering - he
struction politics,
for he
government clerk until
post as
clerk
six months
an
duties
of Walt's
got
office.
him
Drum Taps,
imaginative
published
in
intended as
the
as a
from his
Interior after only
J.
Hubley Ashton,
leisure
published
that
early autumn
feature Drum-Taps
to
Leaves
and
Assistant
the Attorney
received wages
for
for his writing.
in May,
the war years
of
to
published much during
a memorial
fourth edition
discharged
transferred
life during that
the
-
performed by a substitute whom he
in order to have
reflections upon
He was
For eight years he
Walt wrote and
period.
in Washington
because Secretary Harlan heard
friends,
that were often
employed
the war
saw the worst of recon
remained
1873.
part of
indecent book.
Attorney General,
General's
also
the Department of
of service,
he had written
One
in
the worst
1865,
and his
time.
of
had
primarily
own emotional and
in
the war dead.
the Sequel
contained
The Sequel
1865,
of Grass,
this eight-year
the main was
The
as
to Drum-Taps,
1867,
or
the
its distinguishing
to Drum-Taps
added
to
it as
appendages.
reply
The magazine
version of Democratic Vistas,
to Carlyle's
prediction
that
"the
Walt's
rise of democracy,
37
as seen in
the United States,
would destroy civilized
culture,"1 was published in 1871.
Leaves
with
of Grass was
published
"Passage to India"
To this
in
Another edition of
1871 and
reprinted
in
1872,
attached.
juncture Walt and his
ignored or scorned by his
poetry had been
fellow Americans.
In the
largely
late
1860's Walt began to be widely accepted in England as the
best spokesman for American democracy,
Moncure Conway,
recommendation
Leaves
who visited Walt
just after the
of Grass,
in
Brooklyn on Emerson's
publication of
recounted his visit
issue of Fortnightly Review.
it all began when
Although Walt
the unexpected attention.
which appeared
1866
later claimed
he was
Walt was quite
an article written by William Rossetti,
Gabriel Rossetti,
first
in the October,
that some of what was said was erroneous,
have
the
pleased to
pleased with
the brother of Dante
in 1867
in
the London
Chronicle.
In the
article
Whitman's volume
our period,'
would
Rossetti very
"outspokenly called
'incomparably the
and declared that
in
largest poetic work of
time
rank with Homer and Shakespeare
time and place."^
,
Walt Whitman,
2Marinacci, p.
265.
p.
106.
the American poet
in reflecting his
own
38
Walt agreed
of
poems
to
let
for British
Rossetti
readers.
turning point in his struggle
magazines
He
began
to
pay
good
This
"Proud Music
of
Broadway Magazine
twenty dollars
the
for
from
a
special
prices
Storm";
"Whispers
selection
edition became
for recognition,
received one hundred dollars
for
edit
for his
from
the
for the best
poems
in
1868.
the Atlantic Monthly
fifty dollars
from London's
of Heavenly Death";
the Fortnightly Review
for
and
"Thou Vast
Rondure".
Algernon Charles Swinburne,
Walt
for
representing
in Europe,
ever awaiting
encouragement."
burne
"the
the English poet,
democratic
spirit
long dormant
fulfillment and needing Whitman's
In an essay entitled
"William Blake" Swin
also favorably compared Whitman and
English poet.
so
praised
He also wrote a
that
long ode,
prophetic
"To Walt Whitman
in America."
It seems
ironic
that Walt
recognition from the English,
criticized Americans
literary verdicts
received his
for he
1Allen, Walt Whitman, p. 106.
Marinacci,
p.
for many years
for being subservient
and writing styles,
266.
first widespread
to
"had
to English
the
detriment of
39
developing
American
work
their own national
tendency to
in his
important
the
friendships.
men
toward England would
factor
According
Eldridge,
J.
position,
were
in Walt's
great satisfaction
H.
life
that he
to Allen,
like John Burroughs,
At
And,
now,
this
start
to
favor."
Another
period was
look
literature.
Walt's
William Douglas
Ashton and others,
during
found
this
in his
friendships with
O'Connor,
all men
of
Charles
intellect and
never better.
the same
time he maintained a
close
friendship with
a young horse-car conductor named Peter Doyle.
Their
tionship was
Young Doyle
was
simple,
relaxed and
only eighteen or nineteen when he
1865
or
going,
1866.
fun
He had very
to be with,
except when Walt was
and grateful
other
daily.
out
of
first met Walt,
little education,
and affection of an older man.
son
affectionate.
for the
but was
advice,
rela
in
easy
assistance
They saw each other daily,
town;
They seemingly had
then
they wrote
to each
a very affectionate
father-
relationship.
Walt
ever as
had
close
several
to him as
in New York was Mrs.
1Ibid_., p. 267.
female
Peter.
friends;
however,
Probably his
Helen Price.
none was
closest
In Washington Mrs.
friend
Ellen
40
O'Connor was his closest woman friend, although Mrs. Ashton
of Washington also liked him a great deal.
Probably the strangest of all his friendships was
the one with Mrs. Anne Gilchrist of England.
Mrs. Gilchrist
became so interested in Rossetti's selections of Walt's
poems that Rossetti let her read his copy of the complete
1867 edition of Leaves of Grass.
After reading Walt's poems
she thought that she could give him the love that he apparently
so desperately needed.
She wrote a critical appreciation of Walt's poetry
and gave it to Rossetti,
who in turn sent it to Walt.
Walt
responded with books and a photograph of himself which
Rossetti passed on to her,
and the pursuit began.
She wrote
such impassioned letters to Walt that the words could have
burned the pages on which they were written,
for she con
fessed that she had been married to a kind man whose
she was unable to return fully.
love
She had thought that she
had little capacity for love; now she realized that it had
only been undeveloped.
For,
dear Friend,
my soul
was so passionately
aspiring - it so thirsted and pined for light, it
had not power to reach alone and he could not help
me
on my way.
cannot give
And
a woman
is
so made
that
she
the tender passionate devotion of her
whole nature save to the great conquering soul,
stronger in its powers, though not in its aspirations,
41
than her
up and
own,
on.
that
It
her body.
is
The
can
for her
into
had
forever and
soul exactly as
strong divine
embracing hers with
precious
lead her
soul
passionate
germs within her
of
for a
few days,
It was
the
before
dreamed what
meant.
divine
Never was
nay,
can be
is
the
to me when
hours,
love meant:
for
quickened
I
in your books.
soul embracing mine.
alive
it
the man
love—so alone
soul
life....This was what happened
read
forever
I
nor what
never
life
before—no words
but
those
of "new birth" can hint the meaning of what then
happened
Even
in her
to me.
first
letter,
she made
it
plain
that
she was
seriously proposing marriage.
Walt was
know how to
However,
appalled by her emotions
respond,
seeing her
very tactful
in which he
is my best
explanation of
spirit.
all.
than
anyone
clearly understand
Enough
that
delicate
there
this,
Walt
In
it
she
I
for several weeks.
among
my
And
I
too
letter
surely exists
my
truest
and
fuller and
fully
it has
and
evoked.
so beautiful and a
accepted by both
persisted
and
a
things:
put my body
better
loving
her
other
response,
have
this
evidently didn't
finally wrote
said,
else.
the
relation,
Nevertheless,
he
letter,
You understand
clearer
nothing
persistence,
letter
My book
so he wrote
and
of us with
in her efforts.
joy.
Seeing
bluntly wrote:
Let me
You must
Allen,
warn you about myself
and yourself
also.
not construct such an unauthorized and
Solitary Singer,
2Ibid., p. 438.
p.
436.
42
imaginary
figure
so devotedly
and
call
invest your
actual Walt Whitman
is
it Walt Whitman,
loving nature
a
very plain
entirely unworthy of such
Even with
such
continued
for years.
Walt
in his
discouragement,
began experiencing
life-work,
with his
failing health.
Walt had a
paralytic
relapse
resulting
months,
Walt
mother.
that
making
a
lost his
strange
decline
His
The
and
and a
life,
Within
the
in
and
a
soon
life
of January
few days
sister-in-law,
death was
in
relationship
decline
night
from exertion.
His mother's
began
23,
1873,
later he had a
span
Mattie,
of
and
five
then
his
greatest emotional
shock
he had ever experienced.
Walt
took
refuge with his
became convinced
that
it would
resume work.
While
which he
sold
to newspapers
He wrote
two good
"Prayer
poems,
of Columbus",
In
As
of
Marinacci
"Prayer
p.
take a while
which were
1Ibid., p. 440.
Marinacci,
in Camden when he
and magazines
"Song
rising spirits within
condition."
brother
recuperating he wrote
by Harper's Monthly.
his
their
the
stroke,
it.
personage
devotion.
poems.
On
in
and
290.
the
and
could
poetry
in New York City.
for
said,
an acceptance
of Columbus"
prose
Redwood Tree"
accepted
has
before he
publication
"they
of his
and
signaled
physical
it becomes
evident
43
that Walt
saw a
parallel between himself and Columbus.
Columbus,
he was
My hands,
My brain
Let
the
striving
my
limbs,
feels
old
for
fast
faith:
grow nevereless;
rack'd,
timbers
I will cling
Like
bewilder'd?
part--l will
to Thee,
not
0 God,
part,
though
the waves
buffet me;
Thee,
Thee,
He dreamed
in
the
realm of
geography
long
And
As
things
vast
on
And
anthems
He
I
the
shapes
the
see
sail
determined
of his
be
of
a
^-Bradley, p.
began
I
collection
349.
be
than
to
of Grass
of his
they?
unseal'd my eyes,
the
air
countless
hear
own works.
Leaves
prose.
2Ibid.
through
government would
Centennial edition
in
suddenly—what mean
smile
explorer
achievements.
some hand divine
Hence he
an
had been
and
sky,
ships,
saluting me.
another blow when he was
became more
be Two Rivulets,
as Columbus
in new tongues
version
considered
unrecognized
from his writing.
another
know.
distant waves
received
job with
1874.
after his
And
Walt
I
eventually being
some miracle,
Shadowy
his
of
least
literature,
these
if
at
notified
terminated
ever
that
in July,
to earn money
prepare
a
two-volume
The
first
and
the
latest
volume would
second would
poems
and
44
To help Walt
primarily by Anne
for
the
Walt made
In
so
a
that,
his
Walt
her
moved
tal
a
farm about
body
improved
liked her
Platonic
and his
from
rapport
spirit.
immensely by
immediately.
For years
relationship.
regularly.
In
the
In
time Mrs.
1878,
they had shared
Walt visited her and
however,
Mrs.
where her daughter was working
for her career.
the winter
in New York City he
staying with J.
paid,
in Philadelphia.
of her household,
less,
twelve miles
both his
to prepare
sub
frequent
regenerated
to Boston,
1879
to make
re-established
liveliness
of
printing expenses were
that his
family quite
led
subscriptions
They received enough
1876 Walt began
locomotion had
remarkable
to sell
found
Gilchrist arrived
a
of
to Timber Creek,
with nature
in England,
profit.
spring
There he
friends
schemed
after all
little
the
Camden.
fact,
Gilchrist,
his
new Centennial edition.
scriptions
visits
financially,
H.
Johnston,
the Gilchrist
a
and
that when
joined her
for
friend of his.
remained devoted
That
following autumn Walt achieved one
take
a
the
she
spent
several weeks,
In
family returned to England;
they
long ambitions—to
in a hospi
Walt missed Anne
so much so
Gilchrist
the
spring
neverthe
friends.
trip out West.
of his
He was
life
invited
to
45
be
the guest-poet at the Kansas Quarter-Centennial celebra
tion.
After
the Topeka celebrations,
west to Colorado.
it would be,
he
traveled farther
The West was everything that he
thought
except that the women were still imitating
eastern women and not developing an
identity of their own.
Other than that one disappointment,
he was
everything
that he
pleased with
saw.
In the summer of 1880 Walt traveled to Ontario,
Canada to visit Dr.
Richard Maurice Bucke,
who had long cherished Walt's
a psychiatrist
Leaves of Grass.
staying a while with the Buckes,
After
he journeyed with his host
around the Great Lakes and down the St.
Lawrence
River and
Montreal.
Traveling again,
Walt went to Boston
in the autumn
to give a lecture on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
(He had given this same
lecture in New York in 1879.
became customary for him to give his
that,
for his
friends
promoted
earn several hundred dollars
It
lecture each year after
the event so that he might
to supplement any other
income
that he might have had.)
Just as his
been achieved,
lifelong ambition to visit
the West had
another ambition was achieved in 1881.
He
46
obtained
and
a
very prestigious
finally published
which he was
there
arose
Boston
an edition
of Leaves
thoroughly pleased.
some
publisher,
As
controversy over
and
of Grass
threatened
obscene
to prosecute
a Common Prostitute"
from
a
that edition.
reasonable
to
the
poet,
if
and some
other
for Me",
lines were
and
turning
declared
distribution,
not
hence Osgood,
settlement
"To
deleted
after making
over
completely disassociated himself
it,
that edition.
its
"A Woman Waits
Walt refused;
financial
in
authorities
banned
Osgood,
of Grass with
two poems
literature,
R.
luck would have
Boston's District Attorney and civil
Leaves
James
the
plates
from Leaves
of
Grass.
Undaunted
small
publishing
print copies
In
a
by
of
few months
by David McKay,
these
firm
Leaves
the
an
the
Walt arranged
in Philadelphia,
to have
a
Rees Welch & Co.,
of Grass
and Specimen Days
and Collect.
publication
of both books was
taken
associate
and David McKay copies
result of
actions,
of
of
Rees Welch.
Leaves
vast amount of
of
Grass
The
over
Rees Welch
sold well
publicity surrounding
as
the
a
Boston
controversy.
At
the
tion
last Walt had
competence
in knowing
of
a
found
satisfaction
publisher.
that his
Moreover,
public was
and
he
security
found
increasing both
in
satisfac
in
47
America
and
in Europe.
larity or acceptance,
Longfellow,
were
among
In
Henry Irving,
these
because his
cut
spent
several
off
the
from
the
friends
around,
farmhouse
the house,
prepared
she
it,
During
a
became
and he
those
paid
conversations
For
the
could
official
she
for
it.
person,
a
conversations.
(He
as With Walt Whitman
for
life,
young man
his
life
Living
reasons
where
assistance
Mary
for
of
Davis.
bearly get
live-in housekeeper.
shopped
of his
confidant,
social
328 Mickle Street,
that he
it;
preferred
those
of whom was Mrs.
his
planned
him sufficiently,
life with
final years
became Walt's
recorder of his
one
and
but Walt
rather unusual agreement;
furnished
assisted by another
Traubel
see him.
to Philadelphia.
visitors.
own at
so crippled
Davis
and Walt had
popu
and Oscar Wilde
family,
ferry
of his
persons,
became
Mrs.
to
intellectual and
and
of his
remainder
devoted
After Walt
She
near
a
country could never compensate
Walt bought a house
he
journeyed
Lord Houghton
to move with him and his
depended upon being
being
increasing
admirers.
in Camden,
in the
many admirers
1884 George Whitman built
for Walt
to say
As evidence of his
he
the
provided
food
Walt was
named Horace
errandboy,
later
and
published
in Camden.)
and
greatly
Traubel.
the
their
It was
48
Traubel,
primarily,
birthday,
to
pay
and when he
for
In
Walt's
who arranged
needed a nurse's
one
life was
of
the
My
about
young manhood,
that
mid-age,
and
Though unmarried,
are dead—one
relating
the
of
boy writes
to me
from
intimate
said all
his
be
life
I
times South,
have
open
and
fortune)
have
this
no one knows,
but
indirectly dealt with
drew nearer
to
its
this
Walt
general
Walt was
able
hands while he was
death-bed;
Edition."
the
1891.
thus
This
edition
public
lifework on earth,
j ourney through
his
in
friends
copies
longed
and Prose Works were
of Grass
to hold a
lying
called
on March
Walt
it
26,
died,
1892,
life.
Solitary Singer,
p.
535.
of
the
copy of
the
ill
last
in
this
on
"Death-bed
distributed
having
to
printed
incurably
of his works were
1892.
of his
in Chapter Four.
end,
reality:
aspect
of Leaves
his
(connected
relations.
edition
in his
two
separated me
a
of
etc.
to criti
six children,
last desire become
edition
to
grand child—fine
see his
autumn
to
"Calamus"
occasionally—circumstances
their benefit
biography will
the
funds
poet made
the
doubtless
living Southern
with
As
reply
the meaning
been jolly bodily,
cism.
Why Walt
secured
wrote:
life,
have
he
greatest mysteries
generated by a
John Addington Symonds
He
care
of Walt's
all expenses.
1890,
poems.
for celebrations
to
completed his
thus ending his
long
CHAPTER II
WALT WHITMAN'S
A.
Whitman's Early Interest
Many Whitman
mendous
influence
subsequently,
degree
of
PHRENOLOGICAL
scholars
that
have
in
never
phrenology had
on his works.
influence,
BACKGROUND
recognized
on Whitman
Those who
moreover,
have
Phrenology
did
the
tre
and,
recognize
only mentioned
some
it
in
passing.
It has
been
seen
in
the
that Walt
participated
in
and wrote
in.
Some
of
his
life's
the
that
he wrote
experiences,
were
solidly
of
and his
association with
chapter
first,
is
the
period—phrenology.
on his
an
life
attempt
for Walt's
second,
for his
Over
the
substantiate
the
as
in
the
exploration of
years
all
the
very
49
His
of
the
and
in
had
been
faddish
definite
lifework.
of
of
phrenology
a
possible
study
believed
the
This
reasons,
phrenology and,
phrenological
has
this
some
study of
science
the
little
details
founded
on his
to establish
interest
about,
phrenologists
as well
part
about what he
things
science
influence
biographical
terminology.
preserved
surrounding Walt's
to
interest
in
50
phrenology;
mation
recorded
editorials
January,
when he
entitled
D.
A Whig Journal
of
and was written
Socrates
for
and
in
the
foundation
for,
phrenology
rests.
habits.
In
pencil
lines,
and
2
one marked
But
if
and
perfect
is
in
a
an
the
the
in man,
a
p.
357.
an
Review;
and Science,
dialogue
between
lays
the
theory upon which
very heavily underscored
typically
the
by
intent
two
reading
parallel
following:
in man,
which
ruling over
affections;
to
Hungerford,
read
energy
same
in
notebook
defines,
flanked
nature,
anything divine
a
Art
Platonic
is
passage,
and harmonizing his
is
into
Literature,
article
its
the
phrenology
in The American
defends
carefully
there
ascribe
pasted
indicating Walt's
Walt
in
in which Socrates
The
and
infor
A Socratic Dialogue" written
form of
even
period
from
Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
appeared
Politics,
Phidias
in many places,
and
deduced
that
interested
read
It
to be
of
the
"Phrenology:
Whelpley.
had
notebooks
probably became
1846,
article
in his
that he wrote
Walt
by J.
therefore much has
in
is
unlimited
all his
one word,
it will be
no
acts,
if
there
impiety
to
God.
2Arthur Wrobel, Walt Whitman and the Fowler Brothers:
Phrenology Finds A Bard
Microfilms,
Inc.,
1969),
"Phrenology:
Whitman Collection:
Frances
Frey
(Ann Arbor,
p.
Michigan:
71.
A Socratic
Dialogue,"
Trent Collection,
(Durham,
1945),
University
p.
75,
Catalogue
of
the
compiled by Ellen
quoted
in Wrobel,
p.
71.
51
Only
two months
the Editor of
attended
Fowler,
a
the Eagle.
lecture
the
Acting
on March
expert
phrenologists
after Walt
could
"give
faculties which
Walt was
ably
subconsciously,
that Fowler assumed
very
fully developed
Fowler's
lectures was
in his
mingled with
of
his
to a
Digestion entitled
"A Chance
Eagle,
March
2Ibid.
7,
"The
for Men
1846,
'the
as
restraint."
in expressing his
and used,
jargon.
His
ever been
He
prob
said
and he
our
lot
to
for the
2
a
from Combe's
Best Time
long column
in Wrobel,
p.
in
Physiology of
for Dinner",
of Bad Character,"
quoted
is
reception of
perfect contempt
only devoted
taken
to
greatest conglomeration
it has
audience.1"
selection
that
instruction
audiences.'
the most
Within a week Walt not
the Eagle
S.
delineation of
emphatically unfavorable,
absurdity
understanding
claimed
became
Walt
"'the bump of marvellousness
of
to,
but
phrenological
presenting
listen
Fowler
claims,
he
delivered by 0.
development or
accused Fowler of
pretension and
1846,
article,
capacity,
sponge-like nature
some
that
this
the most minute
these
exhibited his
this
the most accurate
require
doubtful of
doubts he
in
phrenologist.
individual character and
the
6,
read
but
favorably
Brooklyn Daily
72.
52
reviewed
another 0.
Walt wrote
of
a
favorable
the Mental
pioneering
a
to
the Mind,
review of
which explicated
logists
advocated.
Walt began
the
to
great esteem
entitled
"Something
asserted
that
of 0.
S.
applied
same
body and
applied
the
power
on March
of mind
to self-education and
phrenology,
Walt
Iwrobel,
p.
reviewed,
74.
2Ibid, p. 75.
to
in
the
an
1846,
read
the
phreno
article
restoration
the
study of
juvenile
instruction.
12th
two
of health of
Intellectual
his
read
the
and Mental,
and
demonstrate
Walt
phrenology;
subscribers
Animal
the March
21,
Relation
Phrenology,"
all who opposed
and Memory,
publicly
in
in studying
that his
in
older
from physiological
1847,
Physiology,
the
phrenology with
about Physiology and
books:
of
Body
logic which
10,
good
one
the
1846,
the Doctrine
subscribers
study of
preservation and
Continuing
of
that his
the
recommended
Fowler's
Use
ethical
there was much
Then he
to
The
16,
And on December
"moral deductions
very severely criticized
science.
Spurzheim,
scientists.
regard
that
On November
Phrenology or
G.
recommended
This was
he
by J.
George Moore's
Walt
lecture.
review of
Phenomena
force."
such
Fowler
phrenological
in
book,
S.
Improvement,
interest
in
issue
the
of
53
Eagle,
L.
N.
Fowler's book,
Ceremonies.
And on
Combe's book,
readers.
23rd
Physiology,
This
deals with
the
the
book,
Marriage;
like
"relation
of
that
Its History and
same month he
and highly recommended
the
of
one
reviewed
it
to his
already mentioned by Moore,
physiology to mental well-being
and bodily health.
There
gical
is
lectures
evidence
that he
and
phrenological material
newspaper
reviews,
privately
for his
books were
that he
carefully
the
Also,
for example,
and another,
phrenologists,
Lectures
entitled
Walt made extensive
on Phrenology.
insanity—some
in
these
large;
the
some
are
organ of
science
among his
not used
in his
note
reviews,
subject which
"Human and Animal
notes
from George
the nature
of
fancy
cautiousness will be
themselves
destructiveness,
ness.
But a small
often does so.2
id.,
p.
2Richard M.
insanity,
or more
Deity,
are
in
these
furious,
likely,
in
combative-
organ may become diseased and
Bucke, Notes and Fragments: Left by Walt
and Now Edited by Dr.
p.
79.
Richard Maurice Bucke,
(London,
for Private Distribution Only,
in Wrobel,
the
some
found
76.
His Literary Executors.
quoted
the
affected with melancholia,
self-esteem predominates;
Whitman
On
for his
studied
on a
phrenolo
Walt concisely noteds
Of
these
attended
own personal satisfaction;
"Phrenology"
Magnetism."
Combe's
but
only
newspaper pieces which were
one entitled
interested
read
not
Ontario,
1899),
Canadas
Item No.
401,
One
of
Printed
p.
82,
54
In his
race
Lectures
into
the
on
Phrenology Combe
four mental
classified
temperaments,
the
the
human
"lymphatic,"
the "Sanguine," the "bilious," and the "nervous."1
adopted
this
phrenological
psychological
both
in his
types
poetry and
He made
numerous
with whom he became
in
utilized
in notes
entries
ogists used.
"fat,
having
He
a
also
taneously
to
as well.
For
sample
and
"large,
phrenological
that was
using
the
the
to himself
These
rosy,"
the
was
temperament."
phrenologist's
terminology to describe
identify
the
describe
categories which
a
in a
good-natured,
phrenol
described
technique
person
"He was
warm blooded,
patients
as
described
2
description
said:
patients
the
the
of
an
proud
of using
and simul
person's mental and moral
one example,
strangers,
a nurse
and George Sanburn was
sanguine
adopted
about
served as
notes
lifetime
to describe
notebooks
for example,
cited by Wrobel Walt
of
throughout his
in his
same
James Myers,
lymphatic,
it
of categorizing men by-
acquainted while he
the Washington hospitals.
physiologically,
as
and
practice
Walt
faculties
Robert Burns
average
spirited,
•'■"Combe's Lectures on Phrenology," Southern Literary
Messenger,
V
(July,
Whitman;
1839),
461-462,
A Catalogue
of
the Library of Congress
p.
18,
quoted
pp.
in Wrobel,
p.
Based upon
(Washington,
80.
quoted
in Wrobel,
p.
the Collections
1955),
Item No.
80,
79.
55
amative,
alimentative,
convivial,
born middle classes."
that Walt,
himself
become
tion
seriously
for his
could
pursuing
future
attracted
of human
It would
to
types
it was
intimate knowledge
into
people,
the
him with
human
an
of
Wrobel,
in
all
so
philosophical,
that he
in his
studied
could
as
a
should
classifica
order
that he
literary,
sing
of
of
gaining
an
and
them all
poet he had
notebooks
phrenology by
reading articles
in,
to
interpret
provided
insight
into
Bucke,
The
Thomas
Subsequent
2Wrobel, pp. 81-82.
that Walt
subscribing
and
Life
Complete Writings
Harned
Putnam Bros.,
Edition.
indicates
to,
and
two phrenological magazines.
Phrenological Journal
81.
prepare
2
(New York:
p.
peculiar
greater
Richard M.
VI
of America,
infallible method
Whitman,
ed.
to
seemingly
systematically
Vol.
the bard
reading
cumulative American democratic
Furthermore,
Other material
The American
of
phrenological classification
faculties.
carefully
course
temperaments,
the
decent-
absolutely necessary that Walt have
scientific movements,
equally as well.
as
the
seem almost inevitable
phrenology and its
properly sing of
experience,
role
a
young...man of
Illustrated,
of Walt Whitman,
and Horace
1902),
references
p.
are
128,
noted
Traubel,
quoted
in
as Camden
56
Some
of the
information that Walt clipped
Phrenological Journal
includes
a
"the
prospectus
phrenological head,
sponding with
articles
Time,'
their
entitled
and
that has
been
preserved or
recorded
of The American Phrenological Journal;
with a definition
of each
appropriately numbered
'The Sultan and His
'Samuel
from The American
Rogers:
organ corre
locations;
People,'
and
'Universal
Phrenological Chracter and
Biography.'"
From
Life Illustrated,
of general
interest
articles which
that
for
treated
the
two
a magazine which
average
of
the most
period—natural history and
Museum"
and
December,
"About Moscow
1855
Walt's
in
and December,
1856.
literary executors
by physiological
living,
an
journals,
and
both marginal
^ungerford, p. 360.
2Wrobel, p. 83.
notes
"Egyptian
idea which
life
and
this
It
a
is
pro-
is expressed
so many other articles
of being carefully read.
reveals
of
respectively
"the exultation of
by him
evidence
subjects
two
found another clipping among
Like
phrenological
clipped
They are
dated
items
2
throughout Walt's works.
from
Walt
popular
travel.
Russia,"
his notebooks which deals with
ductible
reader,
offered
article
shows
clipped
great
heavily underscored,
pointing
finger.
Those
57
passages which were heavily marked
sense
of
superiority
culminates,'
of
all
the
for
state
the
vigor and health,
could
the
physique,
or his
living
sharpen
such
poems
Ontario's
as
visit
it
its
and
the
sing
through
the
'life
proper balance
interworking
of
stresses
'muscular
system1
which,
the
rest of
the human
activity and
the
for Walt's
of
senses.
the
in whom
article
source
the
He
idea
of
This
in
the
physiological
celebrates
Body Electric"
its
and
senses."
interest
the
by
frame
the
and
this
belief
in
"By Blue
publicly sanctioning
this
science
and carefully
in
only
natural
that Walt would
private,
headquarters.
several
there
to have
logist,
the
innate
The
projection
"I
gical Cabinet
also went
powers.
exalts
the
only
the
Shore."
After
studying
of
people
the harmonious
intellectual
possibly be
to
and
physical
the health
sharpens
achieved
faculties
mental and
need
a
felt by some
deal with
for,
a
it
He
times
specifically
chart
of
bumps
as Hungerford
preparatory years
,
seems
p.
visited
just
of
out
the
Phrenolo
curiosity,
but he
to have his cranium examined
drawn up
says,
to what he
84.
probably
by an expert
"Walt was
regarded
as
turning
sound
phreno
in his
scientific
58
analysis
poetry."
of human character on which he
1
Here
in
could base his
is Walt's Chart
of Bumps
the Brooklyn Daily Times
Phrenological Notes
July,
and
in
to
descended
of head
live
of Walt Whitman,
from
large.
faults
of
the
a grand
good
old
among his
Indolence,
ably,
the
of
Amativeness
ness
6,
6,
He
combinations
a
tendency
animal will,
6,
is
undoubtedly
to
of
the
the
Size
and a
6,
of
certain
too unmindful,
prob
others.
6,
Concentrativeness
Destructiveness
5
to 6,
Adhesive
4,
Com-
Alimentiveness
Acquisitiveness
4,
Secretiveness
3,
Cautiousness
Approbativeness
4,
Self-Esteem 6
to
7,
Conscientiousness
tion 4,
ity 5
ness
to
5,
Color
6,
Hope 4,
6
to
Sublimity 6
Individuality 6,
3,
Order 5,
tuality 6,
Time
Comparison
6,
Nature 6.^
Walt was
permitting all
poet.
see
3,
Tune
of
the
five
and
p.
2Ibid., p. 363.
Marvellousness
7,
360.
Imitation
Form 6,
4,
5,
Size
3,
Language
4,
times
5,
6,
5,
6,
6
to 7,
Venera
Ideal
6,
Even
Causality 5
that he could
that Walt
to 6,
or Human
findings
during his
6,
Mirthful-
Intuitiveness
indicates
5,
Weight
Locality 6,
phrenological
to know
Hungerford
Hungerford,
to
Firmness
Cons truetiveness
Calculation
printed
to
7,
Suavitiveness
so proud
he had his chart
America's
6,
Benevolence
to
dangerous
pleasure
Philoprogenitiveness
Inhabitiveness
bativeness
Fowler,
Sublimity and Self-Esteem,
convictions
large
N.
of character appear
Voluptuousness and Alimentiveness
swing of
by L.
physical constitution,
age.
traits
Sympathy,
reckless
printed
soundest and hardiest stock.
Leading
be Friendship,
and markedly
a
first
1855:
1849—This man has
power
that was
that
lifetime,
indeed be
slightly
59
modified
the
It
this
phrenological
September,
is
said
that he
reading and
conviction
would
was
1855
the
of
project
something
self-review
ommitted
phrase
the
He
the wrong
first
impression
to
however,
Brooklyn
two
to him
to
felt
sentences
that
impressive
suit his
of
this
of himself,
avoid.
following
Daily Times.
probably,
that Walt
something as
phrenology was
reprintings
the
probably
that he wanted
about modifying
in
in
"too unmindful,
others."
action demonstrates,
as
reading
and
of
the
phrase
that
This
arbitrary
felt
no
and
as
the
remorse
scientific
own whims
or his
own
particular needs.
B.
Walt Whitman's
Business Association with
the
Phrenologists
Walt's
after he
different
association with
had his Chart
level.
Fowler and Wells
of
Leaves
of
tors
for
this
business
their
the
of
the
Bumps
It developed
served
Grass,
and
into
a
up,
as
publishers
The
not
but
for
circumstances
relationship does
a
association:
the
as well
recorded,
continued
only on
business
distributors
agreement were
1Ibid., 363 n.
drawn
as
1856 edition.
peculiar business
phrenologists
as
first
edition
distribu
surrounding
but evidence
exist.
of
60
An
1855
advertisement
announced
Fulton St.,
the
New York.
withdrawn
from the
not known,
sale
Brooklyn,
Broadway,
in
of
Four days
after reading
distributors
littled odd
book,
firm of
for,
Although Leaves
ideas were
assurance
Allen,
308
it
is
"he may have had
volume
or he may have
of
and Wells
the book
poems.
said
that
and Leaves
its
been
not
the
it
sole
seemed
"this was
of Grass was
phrenology,
ideas,
as
a
they would distribute
gestation
to be
from
of
in Walt Whitman,
that he needed
The
that
210
of Swayne was
left Fowler
phrenological
it was
the name
No.
No.
2
of Grass was
inevitably
Furthermore,
the
as he
that during
mind with many
by Swayne,
Why he withdrew
the
to Gay Wilson Allen
phrenologists,
remembered
later
advertisement.
Swayne's withdrawal
this
of Grass
on July 6,
and by Fowler and Wells,
discouraged by sales."
or
Leaves
but Wrobel conjectured
some misgivings
agents
the New York Tribune
not
expressed
that
in some
phrenologists
phrenology."
it must be
period Walt
and
a
some
imbued his
of
these
of his writings.
that Walt
received
vigorously and unrelentingly
Solitary Singer,
2Wrobel, p. 101.
3Allen, Walt Whitman, p. 45.
p.
149.
to
61
pursue his
lifework—"making
every effort
of
the book
people,
and
to
to
of
by Walt's
first
of
Opera",
and
the
on
During
in Life
the
frequently wrote
time
26,
this,
Whatever
supplied.
the
by
10,
failed.
the
the
entitled
1855.
The
second
at
Grace",
18,
was
1856.
staff
of
for
that magazine
and
reprinted
favorable
They may have had mercenary motives
they may well have
of Walt's natural
their motives
^Marinacci, p. 130.
"The
published on December
commendatory notices
A good example
lack
impressed
published
Illustrated
was
continuously.
book
evidently
for he
copies
prominent
Tribune
sell
"Christmas
the editorial
or
earlier estimate
to
the
sent
that Walt was writing articles
of Walt's work.
for doing
in
on November
article,
January
They
to several
they were
abilities,
printed
third
and
and Wells made
probably disappointed
Grass,
articles
Illustrated
reviews
of
Fowler
poems.
efforts
"The Egyptian Museum",
published
Life
their
journalistic
which was
of
advertisements
of
Leaves
volume
journals
they were
eleven
article,
1855,
ran
all
Although
sales
the
several
they
Nevertheless,
of
sell
poems."
of
been
"affirming Fowler's
gifts
as
a
poet."
were,
their
praises were
their
laudatory notices
copiously
is
the
62
introduction which
entitled
in Life
prefaced an
"America's Mightiest
Illustrated
Our
on April
article written by Walt
Inheritance",
12,
1856:
readers will not overlook
noble
Language we
delectation by
nor will
article
is
columns
may be
from
inherit,
the
the
may not be
and
enriched
source,
out of
of
by
or
on
the
their
special
of Grass;"
ours
suggestive.
that
But
the
as
our
further contributions
a word
place
for
"Leaves
any assurance
instructive
same
the article
written
author of
they need
which appeared
or
two of
out of
introduction
taste
on
the
present
occasion.
Walt Whitman
is more
ever met.
He
character,
American
to
a
degree
When he
will
believes
that
in
of
conversation
on
his
"Leaves
the
same
are
also
We
do by no means
the
a man of
some
"American Era,"
belief
an originality.
of
Grass,"
terms,"
is
of
the
"By God!
expresses
daily walk and
therewith.
a man
of
various
the
Emphati
people.
considerable
in
all
and maintains
Walt Whitman
supposed.
He
and
has
is
of his
his
not a
lived
to have
I
their
simplicity and utter
announces
observed much,
he
and his
agree with him
delightful.
have
he
American
the
accordance
ideas,
directness,
with which he
always
in
peculiarly,
is
have
any man we
in American principles,
very soul of democracy,
but
than
tendencies,
renders
exclaims,
cally and
as
democrat
accept nothing which all cannot have
counterpart
the
a
long
reached a
He
talent.
opinions,
sincerity
opinions
are
young man,
enough
to
variety
of
friendly attention
of
conclusions.
We
our
an
commend his writings
readers.
them.1
encourage,
Ttfalt Whitman,
and Ralph Adimari
p.
62,
the
They will not
article by him without
that will
1936),
to
often,
drawing
stimulate,
(New York:
Rufus
p.
think,
expand,
New York Dissected,
cited by Wrobel,
we
from
eds.
it
or correct
Emory Holloway
Rockwell Wilson,
105.
read
something
Inc.,
63
This
reprint of
flattering acknowledgement was
a
very favorable
written by William Howitt,
the
London Dispatch.
favorable
review appeared
of
and
it
in
She
fresh,
of Grass"
after the
this
Whitman,
(America)
strong honest
toadying,
reprint of a
phrenological
in
the May
hardy and
grown
stiff,
(Fanny
10th
for
issue
the masses,
Parnassian exotics
effeminate world needed
for which
Walt
thee.
needed a man who dared speak out his
thoughts
in
the
face
of
pusillanimous,
republican aristocracy.
articles,
and the six that are collectively known as
his agents were busy preparing for the
edition of Leaves of Grass.
public's
notices and reviews
The
publication.
vainly challenged.
While Walt was busy writing more
had whetted the
in
thou art unspeakably delicious,
forced,
the
appeared
said:
our admiration has been
It
17th another
originally appeared
baptized,
"Leaves
of Grass,
Sara Payson Willis Parton
the New York Ledger.
Well
Leaves
which had originally
On May
It was written by Mrs.
Fern),
review of
followed by a
"Voltaire"
"New York Dissected,"
release of
the second
They undoubtedly felt that they
interest by printing
the remarkable
already mentioned.
promotion of
the
with a grand announcement
second edition was kicked off
in
the August
16,
1Ib_id., pp. 166-167, Wrobel, p. 106.
1856
issue of
64
Life
Illustrated.
advertisements
This
in
announcement was
the Tribune and
which ran during the months
placed Leaves of Grass
stores
in
in
followed by
the New York Times
of September and October.
their Boston and Philadelphia book
and did everything else conceivably
stimulate sales.
Despite
the book was quite
In June,
Tyndale,
the
very much.
ready
(the
endeavor
to
take
needed,
are
phrenologists.
In a note
writing
the
June
1856.
are
is
bad
worse
for me.
than
last edition had
They
ever.
have
reception of
of
friction
to Sara
plates
I wish now
some
and make
the
up
to
hundred
poems
thirty-two)—and shall
from F&W
to give
retard my book
now a
an arrangement with
and so bring out
very willing
Walt had
to
that—
third edition—I
the
public
indication
to make
thing off
7,
It
a
the
some
and Wells
bring out
this,
there was
he complained
Fowler
all
possible
disappointing.
1857,
between Walt and
They
the
publisher
additions
third edition.
the
F&W
plates—they want
the
their hands.•*■
received
letter
In
a
above
that
letter
to Mrs.
from Samuel Wells
Tyndale;
letter Wells
it was
indicated
prior
to
dated
that he was
lHWalt Whitman to Sara Tyndale," June 20, 1857, The
Correspondence
of Walt Whitman,
Writings
of Walt Whitman,
Bradley,
Correspondence
Haviland Miller.
p.
44.
ed.
1842-1867
of Walt Whitman,
New York:
(The Collected
Gay Wilson Allen
Vol.
New York Univ.
and Sculley
I,
ed.
Press,
Edwin
1961),
65
writing to
passages,
insist on the
in Leaves
omission of certain objectionable
of Grass"
or he would
"decline
publishing
it.-1
C.
Walt Whitman's Intellectual Relation to Phrenology
Walt carefully studied
that
intellectually,
logists were
on certain subjects,
in agreement.
supported such causes as
water cure;
phrenology because he
They believed
he and the
phreno
in and vigorously
the abolition of tightlacing;
temperance; women's
rights;
in the schools;
descent;
and exercise.
good diet;
things were advanced primarily by the
the
educating the mental,
physical and moral nature of man
good health;
found
hereditary
All of these
phrenologists
of that
day and had their roots deeply imbedded in phrenological
principles.
Perhaps one of the
studied the
dous
prime
reasons
science of phrenology was
that Walt carefully
related to his stupen
interest in the English language.
In an essay entitled
"America's Mightiest Inheritance," Walt manifests
"his
interest in studying the evolutionary character of words by
tracing their etymological sources.
He recognized the
need for language to constantly evolve new meanings and
borrow foreign words
to keep pace with concurrent changes
lnSamuel Wells to Walt Whitman," The Correspondence of
Walt Whitman,
Vol.
I.
44n.
66
in
the
customs
Emerson,
'namer,'
aid
in
he
saw
this
in
that
and
the
the
facts,
function
and
a
of
dynamic
the
society.
poet
record changes
of
gestation
a
"In America,
of
growing
period
vocabulary.
an
are wanted
flanges
of
to be
in
Like
that
language
of
and
a
to
evolutionary process."
search
...Words
thoughts
to observe
During
was
and
immense
to
He
is
Leaves
of
quoted
Grass Walt
as
having
number of new words
supply
the
facts,
feelings,
out
all
of
of
copious
trains
arguments,
new knowledges."
and
2
said
are needed.
of
facts,
adjectival
At
the
end
of
this note he wrote the word phrenology.^
in a memorandum
consisting of words
phrenology appears
again.
Walt
which had a
porated
and
compiled
phrases,
a
specialized
list
the word
of new occupations
vocabulary
into everyday usage,
and
that had not been
from which he
thought
sciences
incor
that he
^Holloway and Adimari, pp. 54-55, quoted by Wrobel,
p.
172.
Horace Traubel
Whitman
(Boston:
by Hungerford,
p.
(ed.),
Small,
An American Primer by Walt
Maynard and Co.,
1904),
p.
9,
cited
380.
3Ibid.
4
p.
380.
Camden Edition,
IX,
p.
207,
cited by Hungerford,
67
might extract words.
On
Human Phrenology."
derive
this
is
Obviously he
a useful working
Walt
list
reveals
his
thought
vocabulary
needs
the
from
phrase
"Words
that he
of
could
phrenology.
for new vocabulary
in
the
following entry:
Words
is
of
approval,
said among
with a wonderful
fondness
is
always
words which
for
where
freely
for
love
and
friendship which
designated
friendship rests.
in
As
the evolutionary
varied
the meanings
just as he
to
meant
the
thrive here
passionate
among
real quality of
found
—Also,
the
and have
Walt
the
of his
these words
the
friend
they
are
young men
an aversion
found a
suited him.
of
for;—
friendships.
vocabulary
Amativeness,
instinct
poet whose
slightly varied his
that
remarkably
of
physical
the quality of attachment
process
of
and
their most ardent
studied phrenology,
phrenologically defined,
Adhesiveness
the
to be
rarely use,
they never give words
This
friendly sentiments—They
the muscular classes,
These States,
When he
the
friendship,
they yet have
that do not
muscular classes,
ship
friends,
of names
to be words
friendship.
of These States,
tenacity of
for their
few words
seem
admiration,
the young men
function
language,
on which
it was
Walt
to suit his
own
own Chart of Bumps.
love;
to aid
slightly
purpose,
The new
1Traubel, An American Primer, p. 27, cited by Hungerford,
p.
380.
2Ibid.
68
meanings
that he
and his use of
attached
to amativeness
and
adhesiveness
these words will be discussed in
the
next
chapter.
Walt once
of Grass
he used
as
said
"only a
the
that he
sometimes
language experiment."
phrenological vocabulary,
statement becomes
recognizable.
use
terminology
phrenological
its customs,
portion
Here
and
its
of America's
are excerpts
events,
from
Here
"He was
the
tracing how
accuracy of
always
believing
this
trying
to characterize his
"By Blue
vocabulary to express his
people
the
In
to
generation,
that it reflected a
contemporary thought and
how he experimented with
of
thought of Leaves
process."
Ontario's Shore"
to
2
show
language by using phrenological
ideas.
He
describes
the masses
thus:
is what moves in magnificent masses
careless of
particulars,
Here
are
ness,
Here
the
the
the
roughs,
soul
beards,
friendliness,
combative-
loves.
flowing trains,
here
diversity, the soul loves.3
the crowds,
equality,
■'"Francis 0. Mattiessen, American Renaissance: Art and
Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman
Oxford Univ.
Press,
1941),
p.
2Wrobel, p. 173.
3Bradley, pp. 284-285.
517.
(New York:
69
In
these
excerpts
phrenology
The
is
from
poem,
freshness
and
candor
and
decision
In
the
influence
of
their
of
physiognomy,
their
another
interpretation
the
then are
of
large
"Faces",
he
uses
phrenology
as
a
the
jardon
foundation
as
for
well
sound
of character:
Sauntering
Faces
of
the
*
poem,
principles
the
phrenology.
prevailing ardor and enterprise,
here
of
reflected:
amativeness,
the
same
copiousness
The
as
the
pavement
or
riding
the
country by-road
faces:
friendship,
precision,
caution,
suavity,
ideality,
The
spiritual-prescient
common benevolent
The
face
of
of natural
The
faces
These
names.
of
faces
"Faces
of
logically assigned
the
face,
the
always welcome
face,
singing
of music,
the
lawyers
and
judges broad
hunters
and
fishers
can be
large
at
bulged
given appropriate
friendship" were
grand
those
"Adhesiveness,"
faces
the
at
back
the
phrenological
that would be
the
eyes,
the
person's organ of
while
rear of
the organ of
the head.
"''Ibid., p. 286.
2Ibid.
3Ibid., p. 380.
"order" would be
and
The
found over his
"Cautiousness" would be
"Suavity"
phreno
organ of which
was located on the sides of the head toward the back.
precise
top.
brows...
found
"Ideality" were
in
found
70
on
the
forehead,
"Benevolence"
head;
was
just below
would be
just
"Spirituality."
The
forward
crown
the well-developed organ of
over
judges,
the eyes
directly above
with heads
that were
characterized with
ness"
and
to have
large
"Tune"
Even
the
among
"Order."
"broad at
organs
"Cautiousness."
from
of
the
the
The
of
the
singers
backtop,"
and
are
"Conscientious
the hunter and
in
of
lawyers
"Firmness,"
the appropriately developed organ;
organ
fisher had
their case
it was "Calculation," an organ located along the eye-brow.1
In
joys
the
poem
"A Song of Joys" Walt catalogues
readily accessible
or line,
one
of
the
to all human beings;
joys of man
points out that each one of
to one
of
the
To
these joys
the
swimming-bath,
the water!
along
the
a joy corresponding
or in a good place
to walk ankle-deep,
or race
shore.
The phrenologists held the belief
ness"
is
Hungerford
shore,
splash
naked
depicted.
in each section,
phrenological organs:
O to bathe in
along
is
the various
proceeds from a person's
that the organ of "Aquative-
love of
liquids,
"desire to
drink, love of water, washing, bathing, swimming, sailing, etc."3
•^•Hungerford, pp. 367-368.
2Ibid., pp. 372-377 passim.
3Ibid., p. 376.
71
The joy of friendship or
"Adhesiveness" was presented
thus:
0
to attract by more
than
attention:
How it is I know not—yet behold:
obeys none
It
is
it
of
offensive,
the
never defensive—yet how magnetic
draws.
Hungerford sees numerous
which are depicted
ness,"
in
"Combativeness,"
"Vitativeness.nl
p.
phrenological organs
including
"Agreeableness,"
"Destructiveness,"
"Alimentive-
"Sublimity,"
"Self-Esteem"
and
Thus phrenology definitely had some
on Walt's works
,
other
"A Song of Joys"
"Constructiveness,"
influence
the something which
rest,
377.
as
is
evidenced
in
this
chapter.
CHAPTER III
TWO ELEMENTS
A.
OF
Amativeness
PHRENOLOGY IN WALT WHITMAN'S
in
the
"Children
It has been demonstrated
of Adam"
was
reflected in his work.
extensive use of
cal
terms
poems
the
amativeness
to express
This
ideals
of
Poems
incorporation
everyday vocabulary
chapter will show his
represented by
and adhesiveness
antithetical
Cluster
that Whitman's
of phrenological terminology into his
POETRY
ideas
in
and,
the
phrenologi
two clusters
perhaps,
of
thereby
unveil the element of ambiguity in himself.
Amativeness,
the
phrenological
instinctive heterosexual attraction,
to embody
the
idea
term designating
was
that Whitman wished
perfectly suited
to celebrate
in a
section of Leaves of Grass which was originally entitled
"Enfans d'Adam"
and
finally entitled
One of his manuscript notes,
"Children of Adam."
a series of plans
that he
jotted down in preparation for the composition of
poems,
reveals
the
theory of
the
cluster of
Theory of a Cluster of Poems
of Woman-Love
manly
as
the
same
the Calamus-Leaves
love.
72
these
poems:
to the
are
passion
to adhesiveness,
73
Full
of
ache,
The
animal
fire,
delicious,
yet
swelling elate
tender,
such
and
a
burning,
the
tremulous
torment.
vehement,
that will
not
be
denied.
Adam,
One
as
a
piece
central
with
the
spirit of
man,
eld,
bearded,
of
the youthful
The
poems
in
are
bound
duced
the
title.
original
of novels
of Adam"
Adam
innocence
spirit again
lost
deeply-imbedded
("children")
of
their
Walt
interpretation:
have
lost
innately
sinful;
denial of
the garden
tra
given
degraded his
the world.
Con
the
paradise
that Adam
long-accepted and
descendants
to regain paradise,
sense of
not
the
p.
251.
man
physical
through spiritual
through spiritual
transfiguration
^•Camden Edition, IX, p. 150, quoted by Allen, The
Solitary Singer,
of
through self-degradation
physical but the
flesh but
the
innate nature
not Adam but his
he must be born again,
the
into
this
innocent natures;
must purge not the
as
inverts
to
intro
each man must be born of
in order to regain
for mankind.
allegory
disobedience
and brought death
rival
poems.
section of Leaves
fall which has
the
than
love
adhere
ceived in sin and born of flesh,
the
and
does
not
developed,
a more
or
concept of
through his
well
the myth
story of Adam's
its
(in connection
fiery,—as
"Children
This myth
Christian civilization
type.
picture
fully complete,
swart,
together by
ditional Christian
man as evil:
a
and
vivid
type-hero
the
of Grass
in
figure
presenting a
74
of
the
he
is
flesh.
It
is
a child of Adam;
acknowledge
The
and
first
poem,
"Ages
and Ages
poem,
"As Adam Early
this myth,
ficance
to
In
and
all
it
the
in
of
life,
fire"
suppress,
are
that
but
frankly
nature."
at Intervals,"
and
glory,
the World,"
the Morning"
other
the Garden of Eden,
but his
in his
Garden
permeates
symbols:
the
the
Returning
in
and
the Adamic
"To
"To the Garden
forth his main
shame,
and he must not
accept,
poem,
to
not man's
the
and
eighth
the
last
devoted entirely
gives
heightened
signi
poems.
the World"
the
Walt concisely sets
beginning
of human existence
the necessity of
innocence
sex
and naturalness
that attracted Adam to Eve
and man
In
cluster,
in
of
the
cycles
"the
quivering
to woman ever
since.
Aching
second
Rivers",
sex and
poems
the
poem of
this
Walt emotionally sets
simultaneously intermingles
to
follow in
this
statement of
"From Pent-up
forth his
all
the
poetic
theme
images
of
of
the
intent:
Ijames E. Miller, A Critical Guide to Leaves of Grass
(Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press,
^Allen The Solitary Singer, p. 251.
1957),
p.
37.
75
From
pent-up aching
From
that of myself without which I
From what I
I
stand
the
am determ'd
sole
voice
Singing
song
the
continues
cluster
"I
Sing
longest
in
the
because
it
allows
necessary
indicate
accomplish
that
is
the
the
his
the
him
of
to
program
the
in
even
if
"the
and
probably
sing
of
amative
This
love,
it
and,
a
Even
of
the
him
as
a
to
simultaneously,
the
which was
soul."
2
To
literary technique
says
"the
that
in
symbols
Thus we have
snapshot
in his most vivid
p.
realism he
78.
2Gay Wilson Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook (Chicago:
Packard and Co.,
1946),
3Ibid., p. 384.
p.
378.
the
imagery
still allegorical and subjective."
iBradley,
this
externals,
transcendental
truths.1
style
is
of
significant,
intention,
expanding ego",
'spiritual
poem
allows
Allen
are
poem
"body electric"
literary
details,
third
the most
the
poetry.
in Whitman's
to ambiguity.
phallus,
the
Body Electric."
things Walt utilizes
of what he might call
joined
sex
throughout his
paradox
sing
the Adamic man,
catalog of concrete
curious
illustrious
path between reality and
known as
nothing,
procreation...
to achieve his
these
seen
technique,
of
instrument of
it allows him
"to
resonant,
cluster,
continue his myth
to make
were
among men,
From my own
Walt
rivers,
is
76
The
forth
are
in
premise upon which
the
first section of
simply variations
I
sing
The
the
armies
engirth
respond
of
of
those
to
let me
charge
the
is
this
charged
The
ready
next
constructed on
phrase
the
soul."
its
"full with
to
regain
poem,
the
idea
"Sex contains
then,
of man's
the
the
fulfillment.
go with
them,
^Bradley, p. 80.
full with
the
body containing
then
of
the
the
comes
the
in
beloved
soul."
the bodies become
Through
discorrupt,
paradise.
"In
that
the
romantic
that
the
the
is
one
fundamentally
rather ambiguous
fulfillment of
more
that
For Me",
in
the
experience,
sex
them
"body electric"
contained
But,
2Miller, p. 45.
is
charge
life may be compressed within
through
I
beloved one,
all."
epitome
only
and I
soul.
"A Woman Waits
the
is
till
experience
commonplace meaning
It
set
premise.
and charge
When
the
sexual
is
and all other sections
love engirth me
off
them,
of
"electrifying"
and hence
poem,
based
them,
physical contact with
one
I
"body electric",
"charge of
same
is
them,
And discorrupt
The
the
the
poem
body electric,
They will not
the
this
the
sense
sexual
there
desire
entire meaning
intense moment
literally,
procession
sex does
of
life
is
is
of
of
contain
all.
continues."
2
77
The Adamic man
Through
tells
you I
drain
In you I
wrap
On you I
graft
me
The
the Woman:
a
the
pent up
thousand
the
rivers
of myself,
onward years,
grafts
of
the best-beloved
of
and America.
drops
I
athletic
The babes
distil upon you
girls,
new
I beget upon you
their
turn,
I
shall
demand
I
shall
shall
artists,
are
perfect men
grow fierce
musicians,
and
and
singers,
to beget babes
and women
out
in
of my
love-spendings,
as
I
I
expect
and
shall
of
them,
shall
as
I
I
river1
tial.
count
the
it
is
the
only a
time
from the
I
vital
the
showers
gushing
in man's
the
life,
lovingly now.
the
function of sex.
fertile
'birth,
long as
plant
sexual,
The
sexual
it is
'pent-
poten
'pent-up';
(woman),
the
'thousand onward years.'
life,
death,
'gushing showers.'
1Bradley, p. 89.
of
fused with
potential as
itself—a
flowing
gushing
from the birth,
plant so
imagery,
indeed contain all.
time
the
fruits
loving crops
immortality,
Not birth alone but
rivers of
now,
of
the eternity contained
river becomes
sex does
on
others,
now,
used to nourish and make
to result
interpenetrate with
fruits
plant and river
is
But
the
for
dramatically portrays
up
to
interpenetrate
give
look
death,
"The
you
count on
showers
I
them
immortality1
In this conceit,
The'pent-up rivers'
from the
past,
are
from Adam,
are
into the
78
present,
the Children of Adam,
'pent-up'
In
into
the
procreative
In
the
future,
preceding
act
and
he
the Children of Adam a
of heterosexual
desire
in both
which he
set
it depicts
ache,
resulting
appears
the
delicious,
that exemplifies
and
is
in his
"animal
yet
to be
trying
vehement
an
embodiment
theory of
a
to effect
sensations
of
this
tender,
one
torment."
2
Here
young woman
that
flushes
and
flushes,
pangs,
deep at night,
a
poems:
tremulous
passage
and
the
the hot hand
repress what would master him,
amorous night,
visions,
fingers,
ashamed,
The
that wakes
the
strange half welcome
sweats,
pulse pounding through palms
cling
is
ideas
sensations:
flushes,
The
in
of
the
of
burning—the
and
to
of
cluster
flushes
seeking
the
of another aspect
that
The mystic
treated
fulfillment.
The young man
The young man
remain
female.
fire,
such
these
spiritual
greater awareness
the male
forth
they do not
into eternity."
attraction—the
"Spontaneous Me"
if
poems Whitman primarily
the
"Spontaneous Me"
and,
and trembling,
the young man all color'd,
red,
angry;
souse upon me
of my lover the sea,
as I
lie
willing and naked...
filler, p. 46.
2Camden Edition, IX, p.
The Solitary Singer,
p.
3Bradley, p. 91.
251.
150, quoted by Allen,
encir
79
Although Walt rather strikingly vented both male
and female erotic sensations in this
dominated by auto-eroticism.
Allen says
that
the
poem is
On this point Gay Wilson
"the poet is conscious of his own body
rather than the body of his
impulse latent in him,
or thought a
poem,
love
lover,
it celebrates
but it is not in imagery,
poem,
and may be
indicative
the life
feeling,
of ambiguous
emotions in Whitman himself at this period. "^
In his celebration of procreation Walt simultaneously
celebrates
ber
that
freedom from
in
restraints
the myth of
encouraging
and
them to cast aside
purging
the
the conventions
sense
of
the
through spiritual
transfiguration
this
restraints
freedom
of Madness
from
and Joy"
To be
when he
absolv'd
from
and
to
regain
physical
of
the
as
inhibition
celebration
that
"I
am
for
continues
in
previous
ties
p.
94.
and
He
celebrates
"One Hour
in
and conventions,
"Native Moments"
in
loose
when he
delights..."
l-Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook, p. 131.
3Ibid.,
paradise
says:
those who believe
2Bradley, p. 92.
adhered
evil
flesh.
I from mine and you from yours]^
This
Remem
the Children of Adam Whitman was
to by the Christian civilization and
through
inhibitions.
says
80
In
"We Two,
How Long We Were
Fool'd"
he
says
"We have
voided all but freedom and all but our own joy."
"Once
I
Pass'd
Through a
Populous City"
"I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes
of
express
tremulous
ache"
the
poem he
the
"animal
fire",
"the
in heterosexual attraction.
...1
I
must
the
first
second
Heart
both
experienced
says
go,
see her close beside me with silent
and
In
not
In
the Organ"
and
lips sad
tremulous.
poem he
of my
says
love I
through one
Heard the
of
pulse
you
too I heard murmuring
the wrists
low
around my head,
of you when all was still ringing
little bells last night under my ear.3
"Facing West
from California's Shores"
to the procreation theme
in a vague
Walt elevates his sex theme here
the
is
"connected
pantheistic manner:"
4
to embrace the history of
race.
Facing west
Inquiring,
I,
a child,
from California's
tireless,
2
Ibid.,
p.
seeking what is yet unfounded,
very old,
of maternity,
the
shores,
over waves,
towards
land of migrations,
95.
3Ibid.
4Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook, p. 151.
the house
look afar,
81
Look off
the
shores
of my Western sea,
almost circled; ^
The
final
the Morning",
returns
with
to
lyric
poem
in
the
serves
as
an epilogue
the
Garden
praise
Although
of
the
of Eden
the
procreative
forth
on p.
the myth of
or attitudes
theory of
61 of
this
the
study,
the Children
toward
in
allegory,
"Children
cluster of
must be accepted as
B.
Adhesiveness
group and
closing
the
not uniformly
of Adam",
poems
Walt
as
set
Even
sex do not adhere
to
though his
the
they are
thoughts
conventions
nevertheless
idea of amativeness,
and
such.
in
the
"Calamus" Cluster
of
Poems
If Walt's unconventional poetic expressions
amativeness or man's
section
and he vaguely adhered to
of Adam.
views encompassed by his
the
in
2
theme was
set by our Christian civilization,
those
circle
"As Adam Early
for
human body.
or consistently maintained
carried out his
cluster,
the
love
for woman are unique,
poetic advocation of adhesiveness
of
then his
is even more so.
According
to Malcolm Cowley, Walt once defined adhesiveness as
personal attraction between men that
is
stronger
^■Bradley , p. 95.
2Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook, p.
151.
than
"a
82
ordinary
friendship."
adhesiveness
stitute
the
as
one
In Democratic Vistas Walt cites
of
the
essence—and
It /3emocrac^7 is
of earth,
two halves
and
the old yet ever-modern dream
Not
individualism,
which
adhesiveness
ties
and
is
aggregates,
There
or
love,
the
race
are
to be
fraternizing all.
Both
"In
another
the work Walt
of
fundamental concept of his
Intense
and
loving
democratic
comradeship,
the
and passionate attachment of man
hard
of
to define,
the
age
underlives
profound saviours
and which
seems
to
thoroughly develop'd,
in manners
hope
and
and
the
the
is
promise',
vitalized
returns
ideal:
personal
and
Republic,
CXIV
future
of
recognized
these States,
from amativeness
the
identification and
that I
look
and offset of our materialistic and
"Walt Whitman: The Secret," The New
(April 8,
2Camden Edition, V,
3Ibid.
ideals
substantial
general prevalence of that fervid comradeship,
Malcolm Cowley,
to
when
the most
to the development,
for the counter-balance
fuses,
comrades,
lessons
cultivated and
To distinguish adhesiveness
"It
another
to man—which,
will then be fully express'd.1'3
poet says,
fond
of every land and
literature,
safety of
is
that
making
and
passage
her
that half only,
isolates.
by religion.^
the
and her youngest,
poets.
half,
which
together con
tension—of democracy:
of her eldest
philosophers
that
1946),
p.
80,
p.
482.
quoted by Miller,
p.
55.
83
vulgar American democracy and
thereof.'
as
He
fond and
goes
on
loving,
and again stresses
for democracy,
vain,
and
to characterize
pure and sweet,
'without which
the
poem
of
perpetuating
the other a
strong and
the
one
emotion
incomplete,
in
"the
amative
offering
the
and
the
secure
ties
0 woman I
resistless
2
love!
than I
can
tell,
thought of you]
Ethereal,
the
1
I
ascend,
as disembodied or another born,
last athletic reality, my consolation,
float in
the
0 sharer of my roving
In amative
sexual aspects;
in adhesive
man for man is
"Ascend"
and
is on
the
physical or the
this contention.
"ethereal,"
"the
Love of
last athletic
"athletic" connotes health and
"float
2Marinacci, p. 193.
3Bradley, p. 113.
love 0 man,
love emphasis is on the spiritual.
"disembodied,"
As used here,
regions of your
life.
love emphasis
The above poem substantiates
robustness.
'Calamus'
roaming comraderie of kindred souls:"
0 wife; more
Then separate,
reality."
life-long1
itself.1"
Fast-anchor'd eternal 0 lovei
0 bridei
'manly friendship'
"Fast-Anchor'd Eternal 0 Love!" Walt
relationships—the
of earth,
this
it will be
poetically distinguishes between
adhesive
spiritualization
the necessity of such
incapable
In
for the
in the regions
of our love"
84
connotes
is
his
the
a
flight
"sharer"
spiritual
or a
lifting
into spiritual
of his
"roving
life,"
poems
in
Man
companion on
journey.
Walt announces his
of
the
realms.
poetic
intent
for this
cluster
"In Paths Untrodden":
In
paths
In
the
untrodden,
growth by margins
Escaped from
the
From all
standards hitherto publish'd
the
Which
the
life
of pond-waters,
pleasures,
that exhibits
profits,
itself,
from
conformities,
too long I was offering to feed my soul
That the
soul of
the man I
speak for rejoices
in
comrades,
Here by myself away from the clank of the world,
Tallying and
No
talk'd
longer abash'd,
to here by tongues
(for in
this
aromatic,
secluded spot I
can respond as I would not dare elsewhere,)
Strong upon me
itself,
the
life
yet contains
that does not exhibit
all
Resolv'd to sing no songs
manly
the
rest,
to-day but those of
attachment,
Projecting them along that substantial
Bequeathing hence
types of athletic
Afternoon this delicious Ninth-month
life,
love,
in my
forty-first year,
I
proceed
for all who
To tell the
are
or have been young men,
secret of my nights
and days,
To celebrate the need of comrades.1
This resolution
leads
to a
to celebrate
"manly attachment"
renunciation of all other interests.
ciation occurs
in
the
My Breast":
1Ibid., p. 97.
poem entitled
This
"Scented Herbage
renun
of
85
I will
say what I
have
to say by itself,
I will sound myself and comrades only,
never again utter a call only
I will
their call,
I will raise with it immortal reverberations
through
In
the States.
"Whoever you Are Holding Me Now in Hand" Walt
says
I
give you
fair warning before you attempt me
further,
I
am not what you
James Miller says
speaks
is
exterior,
ever of
"only in his
what he
the
the
ment.
"Of
the
these
poems.
difference
this
capacity for
to be,
the
poems
In
in
the
in
"identity beyond
the
love;
spiritual
this
that,
this
in
such
attachment
cluster
portray
type
the
love
of
is
attach
one
doubts
that he perceives
grave",
his
indication whatso
of Appearances"
states
things
of which Walt
'Calamus'
satisfying effect of
it Walt
far different.
gives no
to him
Terrible Doubt
uncertainty about
about
that
possible
Many of
powerful and
but
appears
depths
to others."
supposed,
of
and
around him,
awards
"untold
and untenable wisdom."
To me
these
and the
answer'd by my
When he whom I
while
like
of
these
lovers,
my
dear
love
holding me
1Ibid.., p. 98.
2Ibid., p. 100.
3Miller, p. 65.
are
travels with me
by
the
hand,
curiously
friends,
or sits
a
long
86
When
the
subtle
words
Then I
I
I
and
air,
reason
I
cannot answer
But
He
hold
I walk
ahold
dramatically
the
or
sit
poem,
"When
portrays
the
neither
in
the
capital
the
nor
him as
happy as
lover,
was
In
the
language
'all
in
the
was
and
that
the
us
and
that
pervade
I
at
that his
food
the
or
that
am satisfied,
the Close
for
plaudits
vivid closing
"In
of
of
this
of
the
type
Day,"
of
love
that he
received
plans
could make
"dear
friend,
his
this brief drama Walt
romantic
love
in
nourish'd me more,'
picture:"
such
and
2
autumn moonbeam his
face
toward me,
lay
lightly
are
Together Clinging."
1Bradley, p. 103.
2Miller, p. 66.
3Bradley, p. 105.
around my breast—and
happy.
portray
by manly attachment
the
day my
that night I was
poems which
Heard
conventions
in
further,
completely satisfied me.
coming."
stillness
arm
I
thought
inclined
And his
Other
sense
grave,
accomplishment
on his way,
particularly
the
importance
individual;
as
surround
indifferent,
the
details
the
question of appearances
of my hand has
to
the
not,
require nothing
identity beyond
Another
uses
impalpable,
am charged with untold and untenable wisdom,
am silent,
of
the
the
power
and
satisfaction held
"A Glimpse"
and
"We
Two Boys
us,
87
"I
Hear It Was Charged Against Me"
statement of Walt's
his
expression
I
hear
of manly
it was
destroy
But
Walt's
cognizance
really I
of these States"
am neither
lies
the
is
of all
kinds
of
in establishing
"the
In
dear
of
"The
love
philosophies
sought
to
"the
Base
institutions,...
dear
or
love
of
rules
or
of All Metaphysics"
of man
for his
and
the various
of
comrades"
love.
Yet underneath Socrates
Christ
The
dear
of
Of
the
divine
love
friend
of man
to
I
clearly see,
and underneath
see.
for his
comrade,
are based
for city and
"friendship"
is
the
Come,
attraction
of children
parents,
Of city
This
the
friend,
the well-married husband and wife,
and
America
I
"in every city
"without edifices
argument."
that
the base
that
for nor against
institution
Whitman states
at
possibility that
love may be misinterpreted:
charged against me
comrades" which will be
or any
the
an apparent
institutions,
only interest
trustees
of
is
shone
upon,
pp.
103-104.
relationships
that will make
continent.
the continent
the most
1Ibid., p. 109.
2lbid..
land.
the main element
indissoluble
I will make
I will make
for
on which all social
celebrated as
ideal
land
splendid
indissoluble,
race
the
sun ever
88
I will make
the
love
With
the
life-long
This
ideal
America,
offers
is
divine magnetic
With
for
the
to be
the
those with
of comrades.•"•
prairie grass
itself
the
in
for
"inland America"
"spiritual corresponding"
"copious and close companionship of men"—
of earth-born
lusty
passion,
flesh clear of
simple,
taint,"
never constrain'd,
"those
never
In"A Promise to California" Walt tells the
"soon I
travel
robust American love."
purpose of these States
exalte,
love
friendship was especially meant
"sweet and
obedient."2
lands.
comrades,
symbolic example;
the
West that
of
toward you
to remain,
Walt's belief
is
previously unknown.
that
to teach
"the main
to found a superb friendship,
Because I
perceive
it waits,
and has been waiting, latent in all men"4 is revealed in
"To the East and to the West."
When Whitman
It seems
says
to me
yearning and
1Ibid., p. 100.
2Ibid., p.
109.
3Ibid.,
110
p.
4Ibid., p. 112.
there are other men in other lands
thoughtful,
89
It
seems
to me
Germany,
Or
far,
it
can
Italy,
look over
France,
far away,
talking
And
I
and behold
them
in
Spain,
in China,
or
in Russia
or Japan,
other dialects,
seems
to me
should become
in my own
if I
could know
attached
to
those men
them as
I
do
I
to men
lands,
0 I know we should be brethren and lovers,...1
he
is
suggesting
that adhesive
just one
continent -
love has
no boundaries.
The
antithesis of
which seems
in
it spans
almost
love
around
this broad
like
is not contained on
the world.
social
a confession.
is
"Not Heaving from My Ribb'd Breast Only",
after presenting agitated reactions
through clinch'd teeth"
sleep",
and
is one
introduced
which,
that are usually
associated with romantic love such as
I
It
theme
Brotherly
"husky pantings
"murmurs of my dreams while
concludes:
Not in any or all of
them 0 adhesiveness?
0
pulse of my lifej
Need I that you exist and show yourself any more
in these songs.2
In other words,
the poems became
Whitman to vent his adhesiveness.
in
"Trickle Drops"
Perhaps
the
and
in
of Me":
1Ibid_., p. 108.
2Ibid.. p. 102.
This
idea
"Sometimes With One
the most outstanding
Frailest Leaves
the only means
"confession"
is
I
than
to permit
also seen
Love."
poem is
"Here
90
Here
the
frailest
leaves
of me
and yet my
strongest
lasting,
Here
I
shade
expose
And yet
"These
cient
his
be
the
poems
personality
suggest
in
art
sublimation of his
more
that
in
the
than
the
real
poet
Walt
tion of
in
the
uses
calamus,
tense
than universal,
spirituality
elaborated
in
or
"leaves
or
a
this
sweet
of
2Miller, p. 70.
3Ibid., p. 71.
poet
in
seems
poetry
that
to
represents
reveals
poetic
he
intentionally
technique.
is
flag,
first
grass,"
for
the
'athletic
love1
is
as
"it
in connotations,
symbol
the
of
an exten-
is
just
an emotion
with distinct differences
of Myself,
1Ibid., p. 110.
suffi
needs
There
section
from other kinds
'Song
found
poems.
"Calamus."
grass unique
'manly attachment1
life.
and demonstrates
title,
the metaphor
special kind of
rather
do not
poetic method—ambiguity.1"'
center of ambiguity in
introduced
poet has
that his
and consciously used ambiguity as
the
myself
all my other
adhesiveness...The
guilt but his
Miller believes
At
I
for certain emotional
frustrated
recognition by
here not his
thoughts,
them.
they expose me
fulfillment
frank
and hide my
love.
calamus
As
in
a very
as
limited
its
in
further
plant not
only
91
has
a
'the
'pungent bouquet',
•way,
in
secluded
'Calamus'
some
of
biggest and hardiest kind of
aspect
the
love;
of
spears
the
the
the
is
and
each of
around
love
realization
in
of
comrades:
the
odor
depth
clusters
seclusion
rarity of
revolutionary
Furthermore,
symbol
is
a
elaboration
most
a
part of
of
the
the
calamus
of
the
plant,
in all
of
where meaning on
the
drama
calamus
leaf and
on
one
another
level
level,
1Ibid., p. 71.
the
the
of
the
the
are
developed
plant
size
and
suggests
toughness
of
such
spirituality
the
personal
plant
and
of
twofold
the
results
attachment
indicates
the
friendships."
of
the
achieves
Not only are
the
the
section.
image Walt
their possible meanings.
meaning
the
plant utilized as
the
of
grass1
out
they
poetic development of
successful effects.
of
As
suggests
such emotion:
the
in
of
and hardiness
suggests
and democracy;
such
ponds.
attributes
of
symbolize
growth
found growing
these
distinctive
attachments?
of
spots
it
spears
calamus
In
as
the
some
of his
all
the
attributes
symbolic,
but
the
root,
It
are
is
in
a
parts
fully exploited
such exploitation,
frequently expands
to
that ambiguity becomes
include
a
92
conscious
makes
poetic
device.
for an enriched
poetry,
easily open
to distortion
the
'Calamus';
fate
of
following chapter.
Ibid.,
pp.
Although
71-72.
in
it
is
the
resulting complexity
the kind of
interpretation.
this will be
poetry
Such has
discussed
in
the
been
CHAPTER IV
The
Controversy
Whitman's apparent sincerity in his
adhesiveness,
poems,
particularly in
the
treatment of
"Calamus"
cluster of
activated biographers and critics alike
scrutinize and speculate on
When he
to
the poet's personal life.
said
Here
the
frailest
strongest
Here
I
shade
leaves
of me and yet my
lasting,
and hide my
I myself do not expose
thoughts,
them,
And yet they expose me more than all my
other poems.*■
"he was surely opening the door to a personal interpre
tation of this cluster as actively tying in with his life
and
thoughts."
2
As a consequence of that poetic statement and others
such
as
Camerado
Who
this
touches
is
this
no book,
touches
a man,
Bradley, p.- 110.
2Fredson Bowers, Textual and Literary Criticism;
The Sandors Lectures in Bibliography, 1957-58 (Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press, 1959) p. 61.
93
94
It
is
I you hold and who holds you,
I spring from the pages into your arms...^
"many biographers
one:
assumed that
the book and
'If you would know Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass.'
Or they reversed
the man were
they said,
the order,
read
and said
that one could not understand Leaves of Grass without
knowing
its
After
author."
reading Whitman's
appalled at what
an example,
it to be
2
they had
poetry some critics were
read.
George Santayana,
found Whitman's poetry "shocking"
"one of the
confession of the
and considered
finest examples of a return
Poetry of Barbarism."
"It is
the most sincere
lowest—the most primitive
for
to The
possible
type of
perception."
Several friends of the poet's,
little prophets,"
especially the
"hot
defended the Calamus section against
Bradley, p. 412.
2Gay Wilson Allen, Walt Whitman As Man, Poet and
Legend with a Checklist of Whitman Publications
by Evie Allison Allen
University Press,
(Carbondale:
1961),
•^George Santayana,
p.
1945-1960
Southern Illinois
4.
Interpretations of Poetry and
Religion (New York, 1957), p. 178, as cited by Allen,
Walt Whitman As Man, Poet and Legend, pp. 104-105.
95
the charge of indecency by raising the opposite cry,
and by pointing to the author's own saintlike,
life
as
proof that the
poems
William Sloane Kennedy refers
purity,
spiritual
could not be unwholesome.
to "Calamus"
"beautiful democratic poems of friendship"
genuine lover speaks
in the Calamus
generous heart there
pours
as Whitman's
and adds,
pieces:
a great and
forth its secret.
by side with these glowing confessions,
"A
Set side
other writings
on friendship seem frigid and calculating."
Dr.
Eduard Bertz of Germany likewise accepted
Whitman as a saintly prophet,
but became
suspicious of
the poet's avidity for fame and began to examine him
more critically.
With
sexual abnormality,
Saint
(1905)
the help of some
literature
on
he wrote a book called The Yankee
in which he professed to regard Whitman as
one of the major lyric poets of the world,
but insisted
that the traits of character which he encouraged his readers
to interpret as those of the prophet of a new democratic
love between men were actually manifestations of homosexuality.
2
•'-Reminiscences of Walt Whitman
Gardner,
1896),
pp.
(London: Alexander
133-134.
2Allen, Walt Whitman As Man, Poet and Legend, p.
109.
96
This was
an
It probably was
Symonds,
idea
first
actively pursued by John Addington
an English scholar of
cal Greek and Latin
"Calamus"
artists.
who
similar
between men and
19,
About
recognized
to
those
of
and classi
in
the
"Greek
the homosexuality of Renaissance
After asking Whitman
poet answered him in
Augusta
the Renaissance
literature,
poems emotions
friendship"
the
also held by several other critics.
the
about
these
similarities
following letter
dated
1890:
the question on Calamus,
daze me.
Love
is
and within
its
all of its
pages
only
to be
etc;
they quite
rightly construed by
own atmosphere
and essential character—
and pieces so coming strictly under—
all that the Calamus
part has even allowed the
possibility of such construction as mentioned is
terrible—I
am fain
to hope
the
pp themselves
are
not to be even mentioned for such gratuitory and
quite at the time undreamed and unvouched possibility
of morbid
and
My
inferences which are disavowed by me
seem damnable.
life,
young manhood,
have been jolly bodily,
mid-age,
times South,
and doubtless
open
etc.,
to
criticism.
Though unmarried, I have had six
children—two are dead—one living Southern grand
child—fine boy writes to me occasionally—circumstances
(connected with their benefit and fortune)
separated me
from intimate
have
relations.
Symonds was not absolutely convinced by Whitman's
response,
but he stopped making the
inferences
1Ibid. p. 110.
,
The Solitary Singer,
p.
535.
to which
97
Whitman had objected,
comradeship
in
the
sense
of
the
the
of sexual
of healthy manhood."
the
love,
inheritors
that
"for
specially keen
the cleanli
inseparable from the
admitted
of
"is meant to have no
"amativeness"
that are
Symonds
mortals who are
"adhesiveness"
restraint and continence,
ness and chastity,
However,
poems
the
that Whitman possessed a
fine
complete nature
that
"Calamus"
interblending with
it is undeniable
saying
perfectly
1
"those unenviable
of sexual anomalies will
recognize their own emotions
in Whitman's
ship. ..latent in all men."1
And he wondered whether the
poet's
"own feelings upon this delicate
altered since
At
this
the
topic may not have
time when Calamus was first composed."
point in his
2
life Symonds could not have
been very suspicious of Whitman's
Doyle.
'superb friend
friendship with Peter
There is no indication that he had any knowledge
of the notebook entries
that Whitman made which have
many biographers and critics
led
to endeavour to decipher
what he meant by them.
On July
15,
1870 he wrote:
To GIVE UP ABSOLUTELY and for good,
hour,
this FEVERISH,
FLUCTUATING,
from this present
useless, undignified
1John Addington Symonds, Walt Whitman:
(New York:
B.
2Ibid.
Blom,
1967),
p.
93.
A Study
98
pursuit of 164—too long,
(much too long)
in—so humiliating—It must come at
persevered
last and had
better come now—(it cannot possibly be a success)
LET THERE FROM THIS
at all henceforth,
avoid seeing her,
HOUR BE NO FALTERING,
(NOT ONCE, under any circumstances) —
or meeting her,
or any talk or
explanations—or ANY MEETING WHATEVER,
FROM THIS
In an attempt to reveal
the numbers
HOUR FORTH, FOR LIFE.1
"16"
and"164" many biographers
theories about the
love
the meaning of
and critics
interpreted
for
"164"
advanced
affair that Whitman had decided
must be ended immediately and irrevocably.
ing
NO GETTING—
Hungerford
as being a phrenological symbol
"Hope," which in some
personified as a woman.
stand
phrenological charts was
Allen says that
sense would have meant expectation of
"hope in this
financial or pro
fessional success; with Whitman most probably literary
success.
But the extremely personal implications of
Whitman's notations make it difficult to accept this
abstract interpretation.
evidence
that Whitman's
Furthermore,
there is no supporting
literary ambitions had abated
in the slightest degree.
And he had never pursued mere
Emory Holloway, ed.
Uncollected Poetry and Prose of
Walt Whitman:
Much of Which Has Been But Recently Dis
covered with Various Earlv Manuscripts Now First Published,
(New York:
Douleday, page and Co., 1921), p. 96, as cited
by Allen,
The Solitary Singer,
2Hungerford, p. 351.
p.
422.
99
financial success;
opportunities
had,
indeed,
to gain economic
he wanted a competence
many times
passed up
reward—though naturally
for himself and his mother and
Eddie."1
Allen cites
reversed the
notation
their
the
sex of
possibility
the
that Whitman
third-person
to guard against a chance
implications."
2
pronouns
"cautiously
in
the
reader's understanding
According to Allen,
Oscar Cargill
privately suggested that Whitman did this and used a code
in which letters of the alphabet are numbered from 1
"Thus
16 would stand for P and 4
to this theory is
in the same notebook,
'Depress
But,
on
the other hand,
following the passage quoted, Whitman
the adhesive nature.
making life a torment.
It
All this diseased,
proportionate adhesiveness.1"
says
One objection
that Whitman did not break off his
friendship with Peter Doyle.
wrote:
for D.
to 26.
is
in excess—
feverish dis
Speculating further,
Allen
that "if Walt had been indulging in a heterosexual
affair,
his
'adhesive1
enjoyment of it.
nature might have interfered with his
So that it could not
'possibly be a
success.'"
,
The Solitary Singer,
2Ibid., p. 424.
3Ibid.
pp.
422-423.
100
Another quotation that can be related to the two
notebook entries
Doyle
is
several days
Dear Pete.
mother,
We
a
letter that Whitman sent
after he made
Well here
parted there,
St.,
I
writing to you
the entries:
am home again with my
from Brooklyn once more.
you know,
Tuesday night.
to Peter
Pete
at the corner of 7th
there was something in
that hour from 10 to 11 o'clock (parting though
it was) that has left me pleasure and comfort
for good
I never dreamed that you made so much
of having me with you, nor that you could feel so
downcast at losing me.
I
foolishly thought it
But all I will say
further on the subject is, I now see clearly, that
was all on the other side.
I
was
all wrong.
To recapitulate,
was
on July 15th Walt felt that he
"fancying what does not really exist in another,
is all the time in myself alone..."
On July 26th,
but
just
before leaving Washington, he was surprised to find that
his affection for Peter Doyle was reciprocated,
though
after three and a half years of knowing him Whitman had
"foolishly though it was all on the other side."
Many
years later John Addington Symonds, whose own emotions gave
him special insight into such relationships,
sinister construction on this
friendship.
placed a
2
1Camden Edition, VIII, p. 48, quoted by Allen,
The Solitary Singer,
2Ibid., p. 424.
p.
423.
101
Allen further contends
that
"had it been a physical
rather than a psychological relationship, Whitman might
not have been so torn by doubt and desire
to end his
self-deception as he had been on July 15,
1870.
"adhesive nature" had long made his
he struggled to "depress"
it.
The
"life a torment," but
important fact is not
his affection for men like Lewis Brown,
Peter Doyle,
poems,
Thomas Sawyer,
and
but his struggle for self-control and self-
understanding.
his
His
Out of that struggle had sprung many of
and even some of his profoundest insights into
human nature,
such as love as the solvent of all social
evils."1
Malcolm Cowley,
in "Walt Whitman:
the Secret,"
says that people find it painful to admit or accept the
fact that Walt was homosexual and that he
hard at creating the myth"
masculinity.
"had worked
about his great roughness or
He contends that critics
tended to follow
a line of defense that the poet had prepared for himself.
"The first line of defense was simply to deny that he had
any abnormal instincts;
the second was to invent imaginary
sins and derelictions that would distract attention from
2Cowley, p. 481.
102
his
real
faults."
"If we are going to build theories
about Whitman's work we shall have
to base
them on something
firmer than concealments and apologies."2
John Burroughs
seemingly was not trying to conceal
anything or apologize for Whitman's actions when he says
in his January,
charitable,
possible.
1864 journal:
humane,
He
"And so kind,
tolerant a man I
sympathetic,
did not suppose was
loves everything and everybody.
I
saw a
soldier the other day stop on the street and kiss him.
kisses me as if I were a girl."3
He
Burroughs consciously
accepted Whitman's expressions of affection as being purely
an
innocent gesture on his
Edward Carpenter,
part.
one of Whitman's English friends
and author of Days with Walt Whitman,
probably felt the
most intimate sympathy and identity with him.
the poet's feelings for other men,
He shared
and also believed that
the secrecy regarding sex should be broken down and that a
stronger,
more
socially beneficial
love between men was
possible.
Rowley, p. 481.
2Ibid., p. 482.
^Clara Barrus, Whitman and Burroughs Comarades
(N. Y.:
Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1931),
p.
17.
103
Dr. W. C.
Rivers wrote a pamphlet called Walt Whitman's
Anomaly in 1913.
examples
ments
He
Symond's
Rivers meticulously collected his
from Whitman's writings
to prove
kind."
Dr.
and marshaled his argu
that the poet was a homosexual of the
thought
that the
"passive
poet's emphatic denial of
inferences was probably based on a misunderstanding
of homosexuality.
bably thought
He asserted the idea that Whitman pro
that if he said that he had fathered at
least one child then he would be absolved from suspicion.
Many of his
later defenders made
His English biographer,
one of these.
the same assumption.
Henry Bryant Binns, was
He is primarily known for having created a
sensual romance in New Orleans
for Whitman.
Binns suggests
that because the woman was of a higher social rank than
Whitman she never acknowledged him as the father of her
child
(or children).
This theory seemed so logically
possible that Leon Bazalgette also advocated it.
Another of Walt Whitman's critics,
Basil De Selincourt,
also advocated and elaborated the New Orleans romance.
He
considered the poet an immoral figure because he deserted
his children and their mother.1
His theory of the "Calamus"
1Basil De Selincourt, Walt Whitman: A Critical Study
(New York:
Russell and Russell,
1965),
p.
195.
104
cluster was similar to most of the others.
in believing Symonds1
theory of the cluster,
at least question Whitman's reasons
wrote
in
"Earth,
He says
My Likeness"
supposes
He was hesitant
but he does
for writing what he
My Likeness."
"What motive and justification of
is there
it to be?"
"Earth,
if its meaning is not what Symonds
It
includes
"a recognition of an
element of danger attending all highly pitched personal
emotion,
the danger of an irruption of sex into a sphere
in which
it has no meaning."
Continuing his
"Calamus"
discussion of
"Calamus,"
he
says:
is thus the celebration of the ideal relationship
of sexual associations, Whitman confines his hymns of it
to the love of one man for another.
tic license merely.
woman to woman,
But he does
this by a poe
It is equally of course the relation of
or of man to woman in the rare cases
difference of sex becomes irrelevant.
in which
Nor of course is it
suspended in relations which are founded upon sex.
It is
suspended only when sex perverts or prevents a relationship."
1Ibid./ p. 206.
2Ibid., p.
210.
2
105
It must be added
"aim
in Leaves
that De Selincourt felt
of Grass was
of the
truth in equipoise as
thrown
in
the
scales
their bias and
leave
Like Binns,
not so much to make
to make a
the
statement
would correct
balance adjusted accurately."
Bazalgette
heterosexual relationship in
and De Selincourt,
Emory
that Walt had had at
the
article
Holloway bases his argument on the
poet's
a
statement which,
against accredited views,
Holloway attempted to prove
in describing the
that Whitman's
room,
least one
"Whitman Pursued."
fact that several people,
noted the
presence of an
unidentified photograph of a beautiful woman who was not
a member of his
family,
but was allegedly a
sweetheart of
Whitman's.
To prove
that Whitman had
lations Holloway presents a
Doyle,
found
intimate heterosexual
letter to Whitman
re
from Peter
in the Pierpont Morgan Library and dated
September 27,
1868, which contains
Jim Sorrill
sends his
love
the
following:
and best
respects
and says he is alive and kicking but the most thing
that he don't understand
is
that young Lady that
said you make such a good bedfellow.2
1lMd., p. 189.
2Emory Holloway,
(March,
1955),
p.
5.
"Walt Whitman Pursued," AL, XXVII
106
Holloway also presents
Carpenter
had sex relations."
B.
to Symonds
Binns
pertinent
from Binns
to
"Maynard says
that Doyle
in Washington with whom Whitman
Holloway says that "in his biography
of Whitman,in referring
H.
letter
in which Binns declares,
admitted he knew a woman
tion
a
to Whitman's
often quoted asser
that he was himself an unmarried father,
prints what
information he had picked up
to the matter.
"'There
is a
love
letter extant,
signed with a pseudonym dated from New York in 1862,
dently written by a cultivated woman.'"
"'tell all
that he knows,
for
in the
But Binns does not
letter to Carpenter,
to which two references have already been made,
more explicit'".
evi
he
is
"'Traubel showed me a letter from Ellen
Eyre (of N. Y.) in I860...1"2
In one of his notebooks which is now a part of the
Harned Collection,
Frank Sweeney
Holloway says
(July 8,
that Whitman wrote:
1862)
5th Ave.
Brown face,
large features, black moustache (is the one I
told the whole story to about Ellen Eyre)—talks
very
little.
lEdward Naumberg,
Princeton Univ.
L
Whitman
"A Collector Looks at Whitman,"
Library Chronicle,
quoted by Holloway,
2Holloway,
Jr.,
III
(Nov.,
"Walt Whitman Pursued,"
p.
"Walt Whitman Pursued," p.
5.
Untermeyer,
(New York,
pp.
5.
The Poetry and Prose of Walt
1949),
"Walt Whitman Pursued,"
1941)
p.
p.
7.
33,
as quoted by Holloway
12-13,
107
Edwin Haviland Miller
Eyre
letter in the Charles E.
Detroit,
but
Peinberg Collection in
identity of
who could possibly have been Whitman's
conjectured
Mrs.
original Ellen
and in attempting to establish the
this woman,
he
located the
that Ellen Eyre was neither Ada Clare
Juliette Beach,
that she
lover,
as many people would have
possibly was Ellen Grey,
"Who was
thought,
an actress
who grew up in Brooklyn and was happily married.
his 1857 notebooks
(now in the possession of Mr.
Whitman noted that
'before the first of May'
Grey at the Bowery Theatre.
him of her marriage,
or
In
Feinberg),
he saw Ellen
During the evening she told
and on the following day wrote a play
ful letter inviting Whitman to visit her—with no amorous
intentions,
but with awareness of the impropriety in her
present position of an association with a thoroughly un-
respectable poet.
Of course there is the possibility that
this letter marked the beginning of an affair."
In another article entitled
"Walt Whitman's Love
Affairs" Holloway presents evidence which destroys practic
ally all possibility of truth
which the
theories of a New Orleans
T-Edwin Haviland Miller,
Eyre," American Literature,
1962),
pp.
in any of the evidence upon
67-68.
romance
is based.
In
"Walt Whitman and Ellen
XXXIII
(March,
1961-January,
108
this article Holloway makes several outstanding points, and
one is that "Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass may be assumed
to reveal, as it professes to do,
the whole personality of
the author; but not every reader knows how to take that
revelation, where to allow for the author's conscious or
unconscious distortion of fact or for his sublimation of
experience."
With this in mind Holloway presents the four bits of
evidence upon which biographers based their theories?
then
he offers explanations based on facts which significantly
modify or totally disprove the evidence.
He says that the theory is based on
(1) Whitman's
cryptic "reply to persistent and disconcerting queries
from John Addington Symonds;11
(2)
the conjecture that the
reason for the poet's sudden departure from New Orleans
was "a romance which threatened his prophetic and artistic
independence;"
(3)
the fact that "Whitman's characteristic
verse could not be traced back beyond the 1848 journey to
New Orleans" and that therefore his experiences of this
journey were "taken to be the inspiration which liberated
his song;"
(4)
the poem,
"Once I Pass'd through a Populous
City"
"seems to describe a transitory residence in some
Dial,
LXIX
^■Emory Holloway,
(1920),
p.
"Walt Whitman's Love Affairs,"
473.
109
picturesque city of which the poet can recall only the
passionate attachment of a woman who detained him there
and was broken-hearted at his
parting."
Holloway indicates that upon examining a manuscript
diary of the Poet's he found that the cause of Whitman's
precipitate departure
from the South was an estrangment
between him and his
employers and a difference over money
matters.
the
Moreover,
that of the
name
does
not
appear as
father of any child whose birth was entered,
the law required,
on the
Nor is
it in the archives of the
Louis Cathedral, whose baptismal records
the great majority of the births in the city."
"And as to the
as
records of the city's Health Dept.—
at least not before 1850.
old St.
"Whitman"
posteriori evidence of
included
2
the maturer
and more poetic composition which followed the New Orleans
residence,
it may be
true that the first rhythmical lines
of the Leaves were written just after the return north rather
than just before departing for the south;
in a notebook bearing the date 1847,
1Ibid., pp. 474-475.
2Ibid., p. 476.
but they appear
to which year,
for
110
various
reasons which cannot here be
assign his
first definite efforts
volume which was
to see
the
Holloway discredits
I
set forth,
we must
to compose the
light of print
the evidence
Pass'd through a Populous City"
of
unique
in 1855."
the
poem
"Once
by revealing his discovery
of the original manuscript of this
poem in a
library in New York which showed that
private
"historically it
belongs next to "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing,"
among the Calamus poems."2
poem
The original version of the
is:
Once I
passed through a populous city,
my brain,
for future use,
architecture,
customs
with
and
But now of all that city I
its
imprinting
shows,
traditions.
remember only the man
who wandered with me there, for love of me,
Day by day, and night by night, we were together.
All else has
long been
remember,
I
man,
when I
who,
say,
forgotten by me—I
only one
departed,
rude and ignorant
long and
held me by the hand with silent lips,
long
sad and tremulous."
Another significant bit of evidence which Holloway
uses to substantiate his contention is a previously unpublished
passage of an article which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly
2Ibid.
3Ibid.,
p. 477.
Ill
in June,
1907,
based on the personal recollection of the
former Mrs. William O'Connor of Walt Whitman:
He (Whitman) had not met a certain lady, and by
some mischance a letter revealing her friendship
for him fell into her husband's hands, which
made this gentleman very indignant and jealous,
and thereupon, in the presence of his wife and
another lady, he abused Walt.
Walt's sympathy for the lady,
admiration and affection he
All that excited
over and above the
felt for her,
so
that in telling about it, he said, 'I would
marry that woman tonight if she were free.'
Correspondence was kept up between them for
some time after that and he was very strongly
attracted to this lady.
This is the only in
stance I have known where he was strongly
attracted toward any woman in this way.
It
was this lady for whom he wrote the little poem
in "Children of Adam" beginning:
"Out of the
rolling ocean the crowd."
Describing this lady to me he said that she was
quite fair, with brown hair and eyes, and rather
plump and womanly and sweet and gentle, and he
said that she bore herself, with so much dignity
and was so keenly hurt by what her husband had
said, that I think that drew her to him more.
It was in 1864 (?).
In connection with the above:—The idea that
he conveyed to me was that he did not think it
would have been well for him to have formed that
closest of ties, he was so fond of his freedom;
would have been a great mistake if he had ever
married.
He said to me many times that he did
not envy them their children.
He often used
this expression, "Well, if I had been caught young
I might have done certain things or formed certain
habits.ll
1Ibid. p. 479.
112
There is one habit that Walt definitely formed,
that was
secrecy.
He only let his
know what he wanted them to know,
and
friends and followers
and although certain
facts herein presented have been unveiled the aura of
mystery surrounding Whitman's life still prevails.
113
CONCLUS
Walt Whitman had
This
interest,
a definite
interest in
although slight at first,
a deeply entrenched belief
Many ideas
set
source of a
in a
forth in
were adapted by Whitman.
as one
ION
phrenology.
developed into
short period of time.
that
faddish quasi-science
But he saw phrenology primarily
renovated vocabulary.
It was
the
vocabulary that he derived from phrenology and used
poetically express
antithetical emotions
that has
to
led to
the continued speculation regarding the significance
of interpreting the poetry as a reflection of
life.
The veil of secrecy with which he so carefully
concealed the
lifted.
the poet's
facts about himself may never be
totally
114
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Allen,
Gay Wilson.
The
Solitary Singer;
Biography of Walt Whitman.
Inc.,
A Critical
New York:
Grove
Press,
1955.
.
Walt Whitman.
New York:
.
Walt Whitman Handbook.
Grove
Press,
Chicago:
Inc.,
1961.
Packard and Co.,
1946.
.
Walt Whitman As Man,
Poet
and Legend-With a
Check List of Whitman Publications,
Evie Allison Allen.
University Press,
Barrus,
Clara.
Carbondale:
1961.
Whitman and Burroughs Comrades.
Houghton Mifflin Co.,
Bowers,
Fredson.
Sanders
Textual
Lectures
England:
Bradley,
1945-1960 by
Southern Illinois
Sculley,
Selected
1931.
and Literary Criticism,
in Bibliography,
Cambridge
ed.
1957-58.
University Press,
Walt Whitman's
Prose.
New York:
New York:
1959.
Leaves
Holt,
The
Cambridge,
of Grass
Rinehart
and
and Winston,
1949.
Bucke,
Richard Maurice,
ed.
Notes
and Fragments:
Walt Whitman and Now Edited by Dr.
Bucke,
One
Canada:
Bucke,
of His
Printed
Literary Executors.
for
Richard Maurice;
(ed).
Harned,
Putnam's
John.
Houghton,
De Selincourt,
New York:
Sons,
Whitman:
Mifflin
Basil.
Russell
Thomas
B.;
Ontario,
1899.
and Traubel,
of Walt Whitman,
Vol.
1902.
A Study.
and Co.,
Boston
and New York:
1902.
Walt Whitman:
and
London,
Distribution Only,
The Complete Writings
New York:
Burroughs,
Private
Left by
Richard Maurice
Russell,
A Critical Study.
1965.
Horace
VI.
L,
115
Feinberg,
Charles E.
Walt Whitman; A Catalog Based Upon
the Collections of the Library of Congress; with
Notes
The
on Whitman Collections
Library of Congress,
Holloway,
Emory, and Adimari,
New York:
Holloway,
Washington:
1955.
Ralph,
eds. New York Dissected.
Rufus Rockwell Wilson,
Emory.
Whitman.
and Collectors.
Inc.,
1936.
The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt
2 Vols.
New York:
Doubleday,
Page and Co.,
1921.
Marinacci, Barbara.
Walt Whitman.
0 Wondrous Singer!
An introduction to
New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1970.
Matthiessen, Francis Otto.
American Renaissance: Art and
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New York: Oxford University Press, 1941.
Miller, James E., Jr.
A Critical Guide to Leaves of Grass.
Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1957.
Santayana,
George,
New York,
Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.
1957.
Symonds, John Addington.
B.
Blom,
Walt Whitman: A Study.
New York:
1967.
Traubel, Horace (ed.).
An American Primer by Walt Whitman.
Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1904.
Untermeyer,
Louis.
New York,
The Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman.
1949.
Whitman, Walt.
The Correspondence of Walt Whitman. 1842-1867,
The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman, ed. Gay Wilson
Allen and Sculley Bradley, The Correspondence of Walt
Whitman, Vol. I., ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. New York:
New York University Press,
1961.
Reminiscences of Walt Whitman.
Gardner,
London: Alexander
1896.
Wrobel, Arthur.
Walt Whitman and the Fowler Brothers:
Phrenology Finds A Bard. Ann Arbor, Michigan:
University Microfilms,
1968.
116
Articles
Bowers,
Fredson.
Studies
"Manuscripts
in
Biblioqraphy
(1953-54),
Combe,
George.
"Combe's
Malcolm.
CXIV
Lectures
Emory.
LXIX
.
V
1946),
1839),
Southern
461-462.
Secret"
New Republic,
Love Affairs"
Dial,
473-483.
"Whitman Pursued"
Hungerford,
1955),
American
Literature,
XXVII
1-11.
Edward.
"Walt Whitmand and His
American Literature,
II
(March,
of
Bumps"
1930-January,
Chart
1931),
350-384.
Miller,
Edwin Haviland.
American
Naumberg,
"Walt Whitman
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Edward,
Jr.
XXXII
and Ellen Eyre"
(1961-62),
"A Collector
64-68.
Looks At Whitman"
Princeton University Library Chronicle,
(Nov.,
Whitman,
1941),
Walt.
VI
481-484.
"Walt Whitman's
(1920),
(March,
on Phrenology"
(July,
"Walt Whitman—The
(April 8,
Holloway,
'Calamus'."
257-265.
Literary Messenger,
Cowley,
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III
12-13.
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1,
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