For the longest time, he’s all she could talk about. As a teenager, my now friend of twenty-five years, would include his lines in her long letters to me. She quoted him like he was a holy book for her to follow. And she followed him, in the real sense, not in the online sense. She lived her life, and still does, with an exuberance which would have made him proud. Walt Whitman was guide and muse, all rolled into one.
Leaves of Grass, his iconic work of poetry and thought continues to inspire and to push the boundaries of whatever we hold sacred and dear.
According to poet Linda Ashok, the book is important from the LGBT perspective as well. Whitman is often described as gay or bisexual. According to Linda, schools do not discuss sexual orientation and socio-cultural and body politics are not talked of, either. Honestly, this is way too much thought for me but the importance of the point cannot be stressed enough. Within this framework, Walt Whitman becomes all the more essential. But that’s not what makes him so significant.
His celebratory poetry makes the reading experience exciting and animated. Poets often don’t reveal all their reasons behind a poem, nor do they have to. It’s important that the reader makes sense of the work in his or her own way. With Walt Whitman, this is a simple process. After all, more than anything, he celebrates the individual first and foremost. Everything else- country, religious beliefs, ideologies and idols come later.
His themes were unsettling, especially in the times he wrote. Whether it’s his style of writing, the sexual content and the frankness with which he wrote about it, the referring to himself in plain speak, as a son of the land- these were new ideas that were embraced by some, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, but rejected by many. This was writing way before its time and didn’t find too many takers. But today, if you consider American poetry as such, you have the Whitmanian school and the Dickinsonian school of poetry. Such is the lasting effect of the writing.
His poem for Abraham Lincoln, the oft-quoted O Captain! My Captain! is part of his belief system- he was anti-slavery. Walt Whitman sings the body electric, he hears America singing and he saw a live-oak growing. But it is with Leaves of Grass that he is most identified with. It’s seminal work and he was constantly fine tuning it.
I read of the interesting connection between Walt Whitman and another WW, Walter White.
White is the meth-cooking school teacher who’s the star of the mega-hit TV show, Breaking Bad. Fans or viewers might be familiar with the references to the poet’s work throughout the show. The inspiration of the verse continues in worlds beyond writing and literature.
To my delight, a young reader of the column, quoted Walt Whitman in her latest email to me. I am including all the lines here, “Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am/ Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary/ Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest/Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next/Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.” To be involved but apart, to see and to witness, to be curious and questioning.
My introspective pen-friend, finds so much in these lines that she can identify with. This young girl, on the cusp of higher studies, sees Walt Whitman’s words as an endorsement, an encouragement even, of her own unique take on life. The poet would approve, I am sure.
(Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819.)
Srividya is a poet. Read her work at >www.rumwrapt.blogspot.in
