Sample Student Research Project 2012
Journal
LITR
4232 American Renaissance
Sample Student Research Project 2012
Journal
Angela Sims
28 April 2012
The Legacy Left Behind By the Great American Poet
Introduction:
I have been enthralled by Walt Whitman since the first day of class. When I
heard “I Sing the Body Electric” recited aloud, I was moved by the lyrical
verse. The subject matter he wrote about seemed other-worldly or from another
time. I longed to hear more and to know more about this poetic genius. His name
was familiar to me, yet I could not place his works or importance. Not wanting
to fall into the trap of the “biographical fallacy,” I moved ahead, resolved not
to find Whitman “inside” his poems, rather to find out his motivation and
purpose behind his writings.
My first action of research included reading more of Whitman’s works. Perusing
through my copy of Leaves of Grass, I
was perplexed by all of the different themes moving through each poem. Some were
about lust and longing, others about death and reconciliation with our world.
One thing that remained constant throughout was Whitman’s distinct flavor. When
I read, the words flowed like water from my lips, filling the air with the sweet
melody of his lyrical structure. Many of the terms and associations with
Romanticism popped up in the text as I turned through the pages. In particular,
“A Woman Waits for Me” proved to be a puzzling analysis. Was Walt Whitman purely
talking about the release of physical pleasure in his racy description of sex,
or was he speaking of a higher purpose to our biological structure, that is,
leaving behind a legacy? Of course, in a similarly themed poem, “My Legacy,”
Whitman exposes the differences in leaving behind treasures and great
inheritances verses leaving behind simple tokens and memories for his loved
ones. In that poem, the business man “leaves money to certain companions to buy
tokens, souvenirs of gems and gold, while he “[binds] together and [bequeaths]
little souvenirs of camps and soldiers, with my love in this bundle of songs”
(408). But in “A Woman Waits for Me,” Whitman is not alluding to any material
objects left behind in death, but rather the familial line that results in
proliferation.
In this simple page and a half poem, I find the holistic personification of
Whitman and his work. Stylistically, this piece offers the trifecta of Whitman’s
main structural devices: free verse, parallelism, and the catalogue. His
changing themes throughout the poem touch upon relationships between self and
others, sexual exchange and release, transcendence, and absorption. These things
all point to Whitman and his flair, but I find his final line most telling about
the legacy of his art he leaves behind. “I shall look for loving crops from the
birth, life, and death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now” (Whitman 88).
Whitman’s works certainly defy death and time, and have become a legacy to
Biographical Highlights:
Whitman seemed to have had a normal upbringing in a working-class family.
He was born on
The thing I found most fascinating about his early life, was his apparent lack
of advanced education. “By the age of eleven, Whitman was done with his formal
education” (“Walt Whitman Archive”). When he finished with formal school, he
started taking odd jobs to make money. His first job was working in a law office
in
Another interesting job Whitman held was that of the country school teacher.
When he taught school, Whitman used progressive techniques “encouraging students
to think aloud instead of reciting, involving his students in educational games”
(“Walt Whitman Archive”). One of Whitman’s poems, “There Was a Child Went
Forth,” has been read as Whitman’s very own educational philosophy. In the poem,
Whitman describes the many sights a child may see in one day. These visions
extend from the house and nature into the city streets. The final line reads,
“These become part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and
will always go forth every day” (306). Basically, the child becomes the things
he is surrounded by and is influenced by the people he sees. This educational
principle seems to be rooted in the concept of modeling, which is a widely used
method of instruction today. Whitman did not teach long, for he was not happy
living in the country. He was much more suited for the bustling city full of
people.
Whitman began his writing career composing short fiction for literary magazines.
He used his experiences to write such stories like “Death in the School Room,”
where we can assume he adapted his involvements with teaching. His short story
vocation did not last long; it is estimated that he penned around two dozen
stories (Folsom). From there he arose as a journalist and finally started
dabbling in poetry. The rise of Whitman as a poet can be traced through many
years. He did the majority of poetry writing during the first 10 years of his
career. During the rest of the time, he reworked and revised poems, resulting in
multiple different editions of his most well-known collection of poetry,
Leaves of Grass.
It is said that Whitman’s writing abruptly transformed during the Civil War.
“For three years during the Civil War he ministered to injured soldiers in and
around
Walt Whitman on the Web:
A simple Google search led to the great mecca of Whitman information:
www.whitmanarchive.org. “The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and
teaching tool that sets out to make Whitman's vast work, for the first time,
easily and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers”
(Folsom). The website is an expansive resource that documents Whitman’s life,
his works, his letters, and also some criticism and commentary from others. Ed
Folsom and Kenneth M. Price started this project in the mid 1990’s and continue
to add and compile Whitman’s works on the site. They began their labor of love
to pay homage to Whitman and ensure that his legacy would last. Not only does
the website publish his texts, but also offers guides to reading Whitman poetry
and various criticisms about each work. This website is the ultimate Whitman
resource.
As far as the Whitman writing, there are six different American editions of
Leaves of Grass, not counting the
so-called “deathbed edition” of 1891-92 that Whitman was working on before he
passed away. These are all featured on the sites along with images of some of
Whitman’s manuscripts penned in own hand. Most notably is Whitman’s own personal
journal, the 1860 Leaves, known as
the “blue book.” That book contains hundreds of Whitman’s manuscript
annotations, revisions, additions, and deletions. If I would have had 200 hours
to devote to this project, I would have certainly spent more time reading
through those manuscripts. While sifting through the “blue book,” I noticed
notes in the corners of the page, lines crossing out words and sentences
discarded by Whitman, and various ink colors (probably representing the process
in which his poems were created). Ultimately, these manuscripts give an insider
perspective of the approach and thought process of Whitman to his poetry. It is
also of note that his work was continually evolving throughout his life. Many of
his poems in the first edition of Leaves
of Grass were reworked or repurposed in the later editions. An interesting
question was raised when reading about the cyclical revising and editing of his
poetry. Was Whitman ever satisfied with his writing? Maybe he was evolving as a
person; so too was his craftsmanship.
Aside from the reading materials, the site also has pictures of Whitman through
the years and an audio recording of a 36-second wax cylinder recording of what
is thought to be Whitman's voice reading four lines from the poem “
Centre of equal daughter, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law, and Love (419).
To think that Whitman’s own voice was able to be captured reading his own words
and then to be put onto his website is unbelievable. His works have left behind
a great legacy, but his words echo the sentiments that our country was founded
on. He wrote “
Overall the website is a great resource and should be looked at by all Whitman
enthusiasts. This website provided a spring board to my research, filling me in
on the necessary background information, while giving me leads to find more
specifics about Whitman. The information compiled is accurate and many times has
the original document to show its exact form.
The Use of Language
Whitman certainly was known for his use of language and the way he put
words together to signify meaning. His poems reflect his extensive vocabulary
and penchant for putting together words to express ideals that words were not
able to capture before. Whitman’s “organic theory of language” is promoted in
The Walt Whitman Handbook, written by
Gay Wilson Allen. “His poetry was marked by a bold use of words, by a large and
indiscriminate vocabulary. He mingled with the resilient, colorful words of
common speech with highly literary and foreign words, caring little for their
precise meaning and much for their sound and suggestiveness” (Allen 560).
Whitman’s poetry does not simply move at contriving meaning through only using
the words. He also constructs his argument through the structure. The way the
poem looks is as much a part of the meaning as the words behind it.
Mary Elizabeth Burtis echoes Allen’s sentiments of Whitman’s idea of
language in her article reviewing Allen’s “handbook” in the
American Speech journal. In the
article, she suggests that Whitman’s highly stylized use of language suggests
experimentation rather than defined word usage. Whitman “believed that words
were symbols of things, that nature itself was a symbol. In this view,
distinctions of high and low, good and bad, disappeared” (Buris 203). Using this
application of Whitman’s use of words would rectify the potential problem of
calling war “beautiful” in his poem, “Reconciliation,” referred to earlier in
the journal. The “beautiful war” would serve a symbol for something else. Nature
or life could be seen as a beautiful war in this aspect. Whatever the true
intention behind the poem, Whitman does have a habit of expanding the lens of
his work to include many interpretations. That may be the beauty of his poetry.
The reader can inflect their own meaning to his verse.
Death is in the Eye of Whitman
Browsing through the endless list of online academic articles, “The Visionary
Walt Whitman” caught my attention. David Lehman writes in
The American Poetry Review about
Whitman’s rise in success and his extraordinarily skilled craft and vision he
brought to American literature. “Dickinson, the poet of dashes and telegraphic
urgency, and Whitman, the poet of the deep breath and the long line, are alike
in the extent to which they obsess about death” (Lehman 12). Immediately Lehman
begins comparing the lyrical style that Dickinson and Whitman share. Some
subject matter, such as death and love, are also common between the two poets.
Yet, that is where any other similarities cease.
In his poems he gives a voice to his secrets, the secret that can be stated in a
single word: the word initially withheld and then released and reiterated in
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.” In this poem Whitman reveals the genesis
of his poetic vocation: it is death as a fact, a word, a condition (Lehman 11).
This motivation is powerful and apparent in many of Whitman’s poems. Without the
power of death, there is no meaning in life.
Taking Lehman’s point about Whitman’s obsession with death, we can go
back and apply the principles to the poem, “A Woman Waits for Me.” The element
of death and impermanence flows through the lines. “The babes I beget upon you
are to beget babes in their turn” highlights the natural order of life. Whitman
believes that beauty has a reason for being in the face of a most ultimate
death. “The mind’s ability to contemplate its own extinction is Whitman’s major
motive for metaphor” (Lehman 13). These metaphors add a deeper element to his
subject matter. Whether Whitman is speaking about a dead soldier in a coffin, a
child learning from things he sees, or the pleasure of sexual exchange, Death
always has its watchful eye on the living. It is almost like an echo from the
bible about living in this world, instead of living beyond it.
Conclusion:
This assignment greatly enhanced my understanding of Walt Whitman, not
only as a person, but as a presence. The journey of finding reason and
understanding in Whitman and his works became my “romantic quest,” of sorts. Did
I find a decisive consensus on Whitman? Unfortunately, I failed in that
discovery. However, love him or hate him, Whitman evokes an emotional decision
of his poetry. His words, though, have a way of staying with you, long after
your eyes have glazed over the page.
This quest, or assignment, deepened my respect for Whitman as a writer and
artist. If I would have had an entire semester, or year, to devote solely to
this reason, I would have liked to research further into his influence on his
peers and contemporaries. When reading through various articles, I found a great
deal of information regarding negative reactions to his works. For instance, in
Jerome Loving’s article in the Walt
Whitman Quarterly Review, he retells the story of when Whitman’s lawyer
friend, Tom Donaldson, collected contributions to buy a new horse and carriage
for his old, ailing friend, Walt. William Dean Howells and John Greenleaf
Whittier are two writers who contributed to the cause, but did not wish to have
their name associated with Whitman. The article also cited that Mark Twain was
hesitant to get involved with the poet “whose book had been ‘banned in
Another path of research could have intersected the works of Whitman and
Dickinson. They are usually linked because of their stark style similarities. I
also would have liked to research
In closing, much can be taken away from the study of Whitman, as a writer, along
with Whitman’s poetry. His colorful past continues to challenge readers and
influence writers and other artists. The legacy he leaves his country is one of
freedom, diversity, curiosity, and personal exploration. Through his poetry we
strive to find meaning and application to our own lives. “I shall look for
loving crops from the birth, life, and death, immortality, I plant so lovingly
now,” becomes an anthem of the crops (his work) Whitman so lovingly tended to
that we, as a nation, get to harvest and stamp our “USA” symbol onto, in
prideful admiration.
Works Cited
Allen, Gay Wilson. Walt Whitman Handbook,.
Burtis, Mary Elizabeth. "Walt Whitman Handbook." American Speech 21.3
(1946): 203-04. Print.
Lehman, David. "The Visionary Walt Whitman." The American Poetry Review
37.1 (2008): 11-13. Print.
Lisk, Thomas D. "Walt Whitman's Attic." The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
47.1 (2006): 154-67. Print.
Loving, Jerome. "Whitman Surprised: The Poet in 1885." Walt Whitman Quarterly
Review 28.3 (2011): 141-44. Print.
MacPhail, Scott. "Lyric Nationalism: Whitman, American Studies, and the New
Criticism."
" The Walt Whitman Archive. Ed. Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price. Web. 20
Apr. 2012. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.
