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LITR 4232:
American Renaissance
Student Presentation Summary
Reader: Sandra Burkhalter
Recorder: Dawn Dobson
Date: April 10, 2003
Summary
For this presentation, I discussed Walt
Whitman’s poem “There Was a Child Went Forth,” Objective 1, and the
“Table on Classical, Popular, and Representative Literature.” I began by
looking at Whitman’s audience in light of New Historicism. I noted that
Whitman was praised by his peers and in Europe, but American critics did not
approve of Whitman’s subject matter. Whitman chose to write about America in
honest terms and refused to sugarcoat his themes. He approved of the American
system of Democracy, but he criticized industrialization, the Civil War, and how
America dealt with slavery issues. He often wrote of love, but he included
controversial themes that were not discussed in polite company, such as
homosexuality, repressed desire, and female eroticism. He wrote about America,
but he wanted Americans to transform their way of thinking. This is alluded to
in “There Was a Child Went Forth.” On
the surface this seems to be a simple poem about a young boy who is affected by
everything he sees around him; however, there are deeper allusions present and
room for interpretation.
Next, I completed a close reading of the poem
and listed some of the stylistic aspects that make Whitman unique. This is
important because Whitman was the first American poet to break away from the
stoic rhythm and rhyme that was popular at this time in America. I discussed his
use of meter, obscure words, difficult language, and cataloguing. I then
discussed how the simple meaning of the poem can be easily understood, but
deeper meanings can also be found upon close examination of the poem.
Finally, I made the poem very personal by
explaining that Whitman wanted his reader to be equal with the child in the
poem. This personal quality adds to the classic elements, unique style, and
multiple meanings to give the reader a poem that is distinctively Whitman’s.
Walt Whitman
I will examine the poem “There
Was a Child Went Forth” using the “Table on Classical, Popular, and
Representative Literature” to show the classic elements of Walt Whitman and
how he stretched these elements to depict his individuality.
Sales/Audience
Whitman received critical praise from Europe as well
as American writers like Emerson who said of Leaves of Grass:
“I find it the most
extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.”
Fanny Fern reviewed Leaves of Grass in the New York Ledger writing:
“Walt Whitman, the effeminate
world needed thee. . . . a large-hearted,
untainted, self-reliant, fearless son of the Stars and Stripes . . .
I am not unaware that the charge of coarseness and sensuality has been
affixed to [Leaves of Grass]. . . . but I confess that I extract no poison
from these "Leaves"--to me they have brought only healing. Let him who
can
do so, shroud the eyes of the nursing babe lest it see its mother's breast.
[F]or all the good things included between the covers of his book, Mr.
Whitman will please accept the cordial grasp of a woman's hand.”
However, he was controversial and
American critics were often unkind:
“[Whitman] is no poet and no
artist . . . he is gross, monotonous, loud, obscure, prone to coarse animalism
and to talking rank nonsense” - Robert
Buchanan, Broadway Magazine
“[Whitman]
is rich in all those qualities of haziness, incoherence, and obscurity which
seem to be the first that some readers nowadays look for in poetry. We can see
no reason for considering Walt Whitman powerful. Strong he may be, but it is
only in the sense in which an onion is strong.” - "Walt Whitman's Poems." Saturday
Review 25 (2 May 1868), 589-90.
Style/Appeal
Whitman was ahead of his time in terms of subject matter, but this was the area where he became controversial. A few examples of subject matter include:
1.
Democracy;
however, he did not approve of the greed and corruption of industrialization and
he wrote of the futility of the Civil War.
2.
Love;
including everything from amative love to homosexuality, repressed desire, and
female eroticism.
Depicts farm life, “apple
trees” (line 13), “schoolmistress” (line 15), seeing the “barefoot negro
boy and girl” (line 17), and a combination of “city and country” life
(line 18).
Question
1: “There Was a Child Went Forth” was one of Whitman’s earlier poems and
Whitman called it one of his most innocent works. However, can you find anything
in the poem that hints at controversial themes? How does he resolve these themes
in the poem?
Question 1,
Comments and Answers:
Deterrean: The
second part, where he is talking about the family, “The father, strong, self
sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust…” struck me as a different,
domineering situation. It was jarring after the description of the mother.
Although this is a “Made in America” family, obviously something is not
quite right.
Dr. White: And
how about “the old drunkard”?
Sandra: Yes,
you have these beautiful apple trees in bloom and then an old drunk walking by.
Whitman seems to be hinting at something more in this poem, signaling his future
writings about darker issues. Another example of this is “the tidy and fresh-cheek’d
girls, and the barefoot Negro boy and girl.” Putting those two images
together, we can see how he might be leading into the issues of racism and
bigotry by juxtaposing these two very different pictures of America.
Dr. White: I
never picked up on that before, but I can see it now- “tidy . . . barefoot”.
Sandra: Another
passage that interested me, or hinted that something more was going on, is
“the facades of houses.” Are
you familiar with the term “façade?”
Robert: It
means a false front. The phrase makes us wonder: What appearances are we putting
on?
Sandra: Also,
what is not in the scenery of this poem? Think of America, what our country is
based on…….
Cathy: In a
small town such as this, a church would be prominent.
Sandra: Yes!
There is no religion!
Dr. White: What
do you make of this?
Sandra: He
seemed to avoid the type of religion that would be prevalent in small town
America.
Corrie: He
said, “I have no religion.”
Sandra: It goes
back to the façade theme. It is very intriguing that it is missing.
Corrie: It says
something about correspondence in the poem, what is left in and what is notable
with its absence.
Deterrean: As
Americans, we always say we are a religious nation. However, the rise and fall
of church attendance, what is actually important in our society, and what
percentage of citizens make it a real priority in their lives, there is always a
duality.
Sandra: Again,
it gives the reader something to think about.
Dr. White:
It’s not as if the preacher is there lecturing the old drunkard.
Style/Appeal
Whitman was also ahead of his time in terms of style. He broke away from the structural patterns of rhyme and stoic rhythm to create a style uniquely his own. Stylistic examples from “There Was a Child Went Forth” include:
1. Meter; long sentences that mimic speech patterns and have a rhythm all their own
Line 6: “And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,”
2. Obscure or invented words:
Line 12: “Winter-grain sprouts and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden”
Sandra: Another thing about Whitman’s work that I found interesting
is the familiar scenes with the unusual words, such as “esculent”, which
means edible. It’s not a word you would hear from a farmer, such as “my
esculent crops.”
Dr. White: Yes,
he writes plainly on the one hand, but like so many who are self-taught, he does
love to throw in that unusual word now and again.
3. Language that is difficult, used to enhance meaning:
Line 24: “The mother with mild words, clean her cap and gown . . .”
Sandra: And at
line 24, the way the language is written: “The mother with mild words, clean
her cap and gown…,” I had to read that several times to make sure I
understood it correctly. It says to me, that although the child idolizes the
mother, something is not quite right. She seems to be a good person on the
surface, but we cannot be certain what lies underneath the clean apron.
Dr. White: This
is an example of what we discussed the other day, how poetic language can have a
de-familiarizing quality. It makes you pay more attention to it and ask why it
is written that way. It stands out.
4. Listing images or ideas: no particular order because no example is more important than any other is and all contribute to the final meaning.
Line 7: “and the Third-month lambs and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal and the cow’s calf,”
5. Simple idea that leads to deeper meaning:
Simple idea: A boy is experiencing the world and his experiences help to mold the
person he is and will become.
Deeper meaning: Journey through life, Bildungsroman.
· Birth is seen in the “early lilacs” (line 5) and the newborn animals
· Childhood curiosity grows as he notices fish mysteriously floating in the “curious liquid” (line 9)
· As a young boy he begins to see the difference in people, “friendly” vs. “quarrelsome” (line 16) and “fresh-cheek’d” vs. “negro” (line 17)
· As a teenager, he is losing his innocence and his “sense of what is real” (line27) Cynnamon Coufal refers to this idea in her presentation on April 10, 2001. As the child grows up the reader sees the “effect of humanity on the individual.”
· As a young man he ventures into the world (lines 31-2)
· Finally, as he approaches death, “at sunset” (line 33) he sits at the edge of the water, and like the River Styx, no one knows what is on the other side.
Sandra: I
realize that Whitman does not speak in mythological terms in this poem, but when
I read the part about the river, it reminded me of the river Sphinx. I enjoy
looking for mythological references.
Dr. White: Yes,
perhaps a deeper meaning in the simple ideas. Whitman doesn’t say everything.
Melville would have, but Whitman suggests the allusion and lets us work it out
for ourselves.
Question
2: Classic works have multiple meanings. Who else could the child be and how
would this deepen the meaning of the poem?
Question 2,
Comments and Answers:
Corrie: First
off, it is likely himself (Whitman).
Robert: If the
child is Whitman, then we would read this as more biographical than universal.
It would make it a more personalized experience and would not be as universal.
Note: Whitman believed that his mission in writing poetry was to
make an “attempt to put a Person, a
human being (myself, in the latter half of the 19th century, in
America) freely, fully and truly on record.”
Deterrean: This
child is a child universal. It is suggesting that everyone is a part of someone
else and really gives a sense of the interconnectedness of the universe. The
idea is Democratic Unitarianism. It could be Whitman. It says: I am you, you are
me. Through that individual, the collective, the community can be found.
Dr. White:
Let’s toss in how many different groups of people do identify with Whitman,
all throughout the world. Feminist
writers used Whitman as part of their literature as did African American
writers.
Deterrean: Yes,
Langston Hughes wrote the citation titled, “Oh, Walt.”
Note: One of Whitman’s drafts ended with the line “and these became [part] of him or her that peruses them now.”
Sandra: He
meant for the child to be you, whether you realize it or not, you are affected
by your world around you. This discussion shows how deep the meaning of the poem
can be and how universal the themes are.
Conclusion
The discussion for this presentation showed that the students were well aware of Whitman as a classical writer, but were surprised at how controversial his work was. Adding this historical element to the study of his work adds a new dimension to Whitman’s purpose for writing and his textual meanings. Furthermore, by examining Whitman’s unique style, the reader gains a new appreciation for his groundbreaking techniques and classic elements.
The
Poetry of Walt Whitman. 2 April 2003 http://www.liglobal.com/walt/waltbio.html