LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Student Presentation, spring 2001

Reader: Cynnamon Coufal

Discussion notes: Joanne Hale

Tuesday, 10 April

Walt Whitman, "There Was a Child Went Forth," Song of Myself.

This presentation deals with romanticism regarding content in Whitman’s poetry but also taking a close look at the actual style. Walt Whitman has a famous quote cited in the introduction to Emerson, "I was simmering, simmering, simmering, and Emerson brought me to a boil," and it is easy to see the influence of Emerson in Whitman’s work. It is like Dr. White was saying; Emerson has influenced other poets, and this shows the point or the spark of his inspiration. Like Emerson, he places a lot of emphasis on man’s personal relationship to nature and humanity. When reading "There Was a Child Went Forth" the foremost thing that comes to mind is correspondence and also romanticism regarding the malleable minds of children. On page 2802 in the first stanza he writes "There was a child went forth every day, and the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pity or love or dread, that object he became, and that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day..... or for many years or stretching cycles of years. The early lilacs became part of this child... and the grass... and flowers...and lambs..apple trees, etc." It’s the same idea in Emerson’s "Nature" when he says "the sun..shines into the eye and heart of the child."

He mentions all of the beautiful things in nature being incorporated into the child’s being, and then he goes on to say (on page 2801, line 8) "The old drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the tavern whence he had lately risen." And then further down "and the friendly boys that passed...and the quarrelsome boys..and the tidy and freshcheeked girls... and the barefoot negro boy and girl, and all the changes of the city and country wherever he went." A very strong point Whitman makes is the effect of humanity on an individual. Children notice and are in awe of all of these things, and I think the best way we, as adults, can comprehend this concept is when we travel to a foreign country. We observe and take in everything from the new types of architecture and the different smells of a new city to the homeless on the sidewalks and the social deviants within that society. Everything is new and influential to a child in the same way. Whitman speaks of the child’s parents (line 12) "They gave this child more of themselves than that, they have him afterward every day.. they and of them became part of him." At the end of the poem he relates these experiences to everyone by saying (page 2804, the last line) "And these become of him or her that peruses them now." He also gives the poem a sense of repetition and perpetual occurrence by repeating the word "and" at the beginning of many of the lines. He does this in "Song of Myself" (pages 2770-71) when he repeats the word "where," "over," and "at" at the beginning of many lines. They give the poem a certain rhythm as one reads it, and then on page 2763 with the repetition of " it shall be you" it almost becomes trite with overuse. I was wondering what you all think is the reason for this. Another similarity this poem has with "There

Was a Child Went Forth" is the correspondence between the individual and humanity. One example of this is on page 2762 line 504, "Whoever degrades another degrades me... and whatever is done or said returns at last to me, and whatever I do or say I also return." To me this is a beautiful and articulate way to say "what goes around comes around" and it’s a good philosophy for one to keep in mind.

Finally, I wanted to read a passage on page 2788 line 1200, "I tramp a perpetual journey, my signs are a rain-proof coat and good shoes and a staff cut from the woods; no friend of mine takes his ease in my chair, I have no chair, nor church not philosophy; I lead no man to a dinner-table or library or exchange, but each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll, my left hand hooks you round the waist, my right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road. Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, you must travel it for yourself. It is not far.. it is within reach, perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know, perhaps it is every where on water and on lands." You have to see things for yourself and experience them directly. I think that is one of the ways of Whitman’s great influence. He never says I have finished. It is more like passing a torch from one to the other.

Discussion notes by Joanne Hale

Regarding repetition of words such as Where,where, where Over, over, over. Sheila:  I was taught in early childhood training that if you want to make something real clear you say it over and over again.  Like brainwashing.

Lacy:  I think it makes more of an impact, he has all of these thoughts going on in this head, by starting it all the same way, he is separating the thoughts. I liked it because he kept you right there with him.

Dr. White: In terms of free verse – here you do see a structuring. It can be along the lines of what Sheila was saying – for emphasis or not – because the words themselves don’t seem to be the key words – they introduce the thought of what he wants to get out there.

Will: page 2793 Line 1314 – This is a pretty good summary of the poem: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then/ I contradict myself; I am large/ I contain multitudes." I think the repeating comes from the "multitudes" because he is describing all the facets of what he is or what becomes him or what he allows to affect him.

Keely: line 1322 – "I too am a bit tamed/I too am untranslatable." I don’t think he cares if you get annoyed with the repetition. He says I am who I am and that is the way it comes out. I imagine him carrying around a little notebook and writing things down that he noticed like the evening sunset. He compiled it altogether at some point. All the images are so clear that where or time or place– you still enjoy reading his impressions.

Thomas:  I think the use of where and why on these pages is mostly a stylistic choice to give a certain effect when you are reading it. "Where the rattlesnake sleeps on a rock, where the otter is feeding on fish" . . . They are not exactly a replacement for a rhyme, but to produce a certain effect, almost hypnotic effect – when the reader is reading it. I think that this is the best reason for him using that.

Erin:  I think also it is his personal quest because it is kind of him searching to find himself – In Song of Myself –at the end he is saying "I am this, I am that" – so where is kind of his search for who he is.

Dr. White: The words are not meaningless – they are not just devices.

Erin: I think it is interesting that all of his points about where are very American ideas – like he can’t get away from the patriotic.

Dr. White: He really didn’t travel that much – he lived in New York but he used a lot of images of the west. He is very American – this is the time when the west is opening up.