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Loading... Song of Myselfby Walt Whitman
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. What I love about poetry is that there is a lot of room for interpretation. And in those beautiful 80 pages, Whitman did deliver what he promised before getting into the poem: "You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self." A must-read for anyone who likes to analyze things. It made me want to be in a book club just to discuss it. I think if I loved poetry a bit more, I might have appreciated it immensely. A few bits that I personally loved: "I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth." "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) " Song of Myself: With a Complete Commentary by Walt Whitman is a sectional breakdown of the poem with two different commentators -- Ed Folsom and Christopher Merrill. Folsom teaching and research have centered on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American poetry and culture. He earned his MA and PhD from the University of Rochester and currently the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa. Merrill is an American poet, essayist, journalist and translator. Currently, he serves as director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. "Song of Myself" is often included in Whitman's Leaves of Grass. It has been called the core of Whitman's poetry and something he edited throughout his life. It examines the self, the soul, America, the universe, and back down to the atoms. Whitman also openly hid references to the equality of races and sex in the poem. It reminded me of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side where censors were so worried about the reference to "colored girls" that they missed the sexual reference and caused quite a stir. Likewise, Song of Myself was not well received by social conservatives and was threatened by the Baltimore district attorney for violating obscenity laws. Whitman's view of race and sex extended beyond being progressive for his time. The poem reads extremely well on its own and the commentary and afterword on each section help focus the reader on the changing themes of the poem. The first time I read Leaves of Grass, I just fell into the rhythm of the words and went blindly on with the flow. Folsom's commentary deal directly with the section read. He discusses the social and historical aspects of what is written and compares them to today and the poems setting. Merrill draws on personal experience and his own travels to relate what Whitman is saying. The joint effort gives the reader two views that are easily understood but without any heavy-handedness. They work well with Whitman’s easy, open style. Whitman’s view is all encompassing from the joining of body and soul to religion The poetry drifts into philosophy. His views of American society are compared and contrasted with Thoreau and his Whitman's vision of America is compared with Tocqueville's writing of American democracy. He writes of war as a soldier and a sailor, Manifest Destiny, and of Texas. He writes of the America that is, which is not always the America America thinks it is. He presents the reader with science from the atoms to the cosmos. This is Whitman’s life work and it is all encompassing. It is everything he saw and believed recorded as a poem to be passed on. He knows that he will die and he calls on the reader to discuss and criticize the poem and to become a co-creator to add to what he was written -- To keep the poem alive as one would believe a soul lives on after death. In this poem, Whitman talks of America as he saw it. It is quite long, and personally I don't think I would have gotten through it if it weren't for the chapter-like breaks. It paints a sort of vast image covering the working middle class and giving them a voice. So that was nice. In the poem we find people living and dying, and doing other things. I found a copy of this through a Google search, so I don't know the precise details about it. Publication dates elude me, and I don't think it has an ISBN. On the other hand, I could just put up the URL to it. So this is a link. Thanks for reading, until we meet again folks. no reviews | add a review
Is contained inLeaves of Grass (1891-92 Edition) by Walt Whitman (indirect) Whitman: Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman (indirect) Leaves of Grass and Other Writings [Norton Critical Edition, 2nd Edition] by Walt Whitman (indirect) Leaves of Grass: First and "Death-Bed" Editions by Walt Whitman (indirect) Has as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
"This book offers the most comprehensive and detailed reading to date of Song of Myself. One of the most distinguished critics in Whitman Studies, Ed Folsom, and one of the nation's most prominent writers and literary figures, Christopher Merrill, carry on a dialog with Whitman, and with each other, section by section, as they invite readers to enter into the conversation about how the poem develops, moves, improvises, and surprises. Instead of picking and choosing particular passages to support a reading of the poem, Folsom and Merrill take Whitman at his word and interact with "every atom" of his work. The book presents Whitman's final version of the poem, arranged in fifty-two sections; each section is followed by Folsom's detailed critical examination of the passage, and then Merrill offers a poet's perspective, suggesting broader contexts for thinking about both the passage in question and the entire poem"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)811.3Literature English (North America) American poetry Middle 19th century 1830–1861LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Self-assurance and self-belief ring out from the opening lines. Also a hint of the interconnectedness that will be developed plenty further. Drop the mask worn on the stage of social interaction. And a note of physical sensuality. Don't wait on the future. Live life in this moment. We always work to present our best most perfect selves to others. But we're perfect and beautiful anyways, faults warts and all. Don't hide or repress any part of yourself. An answer to a previously posed question, "What is the grass?" Out of many it is one, e pluribus unum, these lines arguing that all are equal. All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. It's not just all Whitman lolling around in fields and nature. He loves the society of men and women close to the earth as well. 'Everything in its right place' The outcome is not important, it is the participation in the battle, in life. Liquid trees??? Fantastic. Whitman believes in God as revealed through nature, not through churches or theologies shaped by man, a recurring theme. 'arm-pits aroma finer than prayer'... provocative way for the poet to put it! Manly wheat and the wind as genitalia rubbing against you. Oh my. Very nice description of a sunrise. Old conceptions of the divine have outlived their usefulness to a growing/evolving humanity, which now needs something new. The greedy rich, busy with commerce, exploiting their workers, miss out on the real stuff of life. Addressing the 'unbelievers', who thrash about in the sea of doubt and unbelief a few lines earlier. Don't worry about death, what comes afterward comes for all alike, and it will be sufficient. Reminds me of Rilke. Our souls will penetrate unimaginably far after death. A joke? Ha! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Whitman-leavesofgrass.gif
If high school students were presented with this image of Whitman instead of one of him as an old man with a long white beard, he would surely strike more interest. ( )