LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Poetry Presentation, 2003

"Passage to India" by Walt Whitman (1871)

Reader: Ginger Hilton
Respondent: Rosalyn Mack
Recorder: Kelley Gutridge
June 5, 2003

Presenter's Discussion of the Poem

Handouts: Map of U.S. prior to 1871 & Yeats' poem "The Second Coming"

Quotes from Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory handout:

"While all the cultures which were colonies of European nations can be treated as post-colonial there are many special cases and exceptions. For example, Ireland is seldom considered in this context, nor is the United States" (156).

"…'power' is not simply a by-product of these disciplines but that it is in its own right a productive force, that it makes possible specific conceptions of what one can know about oneself which serve, in turn, to maintain the episteme of a particular society" (613).

Quote from Achebe's "Named for Victoria, Queen of England" - "It was a magic phrase - an incantation that conjured up scenes and landscapes of an alien, happy and unattainable land" (191).

Terms to point out: power, productive force, unattainable land

Read excerpts of the poem.

Stanza 1 emphasizes the past and the connection to the present as well as the soul. "For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past? / (As a projectile form'd, impell'd, passing a certain line, still keeps on," meaning colonization still keeps going.

Stanza 2 talks about oral culture (traditional): "the primitive fables….myths and fables." Christianity is seen as "God's purpose" to have "the distant brought near, / The lands to be welded together." So, the motive to colonize is justified through God's purpose and is applicable to all - universality - modern culture.

Stanza 3 discusses the Suez canal and the Pacific railroad connecting "Eastern to the Western sea, The road between Europe and Asia" so we see a coming together at home and abroad. Whitman brings up Columbus several times throughout the poem.

Stanza 4 - Whitman says the "rondure of the world at last accomplish'd" meaning the roundness of the world is completed - connected - it is circular.

Stanza 5 begins a more spiritual theme. He mentions "prophetic intention" and "Adam and Eve." Whitman states that the Second Coming will "fuse" Nature and Man.

Stanza 6 illustrates the concept of universality and how religion is used to build up the world. It is circular because the "past lit up again." He mentions explorers and Columbus whose efforts were "History's type of courage, action, faith" and how their discoveries fill the "earth with use and beauty."

Stanza 7 "To reason's early paradise" is the "unattainable land."

Stanza 8 is the soul in exploration - "launch to those superior universes" - and colonization - "love complete."

Stanza 9 reads "Passage to more than India!" He states, "Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes? / Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?…O my brave soul! / O farther farther sail!" This is a plea to sail into the spiritual realm. There is an atmosphere of timelessness and mysticism throughout his poem.

Past Student Presentation: Kimberly Jones, June 12, 2001 - I mentioned how she talked about the idea of physical connectedness and how Whitman observes "The earth to be spann'd, connected by network." Network is the phrase we use today for modern technology - the internet - the world wide web. It's connecting us together.

QUESTION: As the productive force toward paradise or "unattainable land," does Whitman support cultural imperialism or modernity, or is he simply comparing the exploration of new worlds with the exploration of the soul?

Student Dialogue:

Rosalyn:            Whitman has a one-sided view of optimism.

Ginger:           Yes, he is optimistic and always tries to see the good in common, ordinary things. He speaks for the common man. This is a spiritual poem.

Tamara:            He depicts the Biblical or religious sense. Strong spiritual connotation.

Natalie:            Agrees.

Christy:            He doesn't just speak to Christianity but to everyone. He is universal.

Krisann:            He tells us we have the ability to search but are not finding what we want.

Craig:             Line 250: "For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go." This is the final frontier.

April:               We wouldn't find what we are looking for.

Craig:             Notice how Columbus keeps showing up. Left to find India, got stopped. This rounding the earth started with Columbus. It is divine history. He is a visionary. Previous generations had sense that Americans are on a divine mission. Doesn't know too much about India/China.

Ginger:           Growth toward mystical experience. Whitman likes to speak up for the common man. Knowing Whitman's motives helps to understand this poem.

Closing: from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass

"One thought ever at the fore - That in the

Divine Ship, the World, breasting Time and Space, All

Peoples of the globe together sail, sail the

Same voyage, Are bound to the same destination."