Scorn by "Society" prevented Whitman from securing a good government berth to support himself and his wartime hospital ministry. This ambiguous attitude toward Whitman's poetry attached to the poet himself and followed him to Washington. I have just read his second edition (which he gave me), and it has done me more good than any reading for a long time." And yet, Thoreau continued, "There are two or three pieces in the book which are disagreeable, to say the least simply sensual. is the most interesting fact to me at present. The literary establishment both welcomed and rejected Whitman, often in the same response, as in Henry David Thoreau's description of Whitman's poetry in a letter to a friend: "That Walt Whitman. The poetic suitor's advances were welcomed by some Americans, spurned by others, and ignored by most. Sexual love between a husband and wife, and passionate same-sex friendships (with or without sexual love) were the glues that bound Whitman's Americans together. Loafing, sweating, gabbing, wrestling, singing, farming, fishing, healing, and copulating were some of their activities. Butcher boys, opera divas, Manhattan firemen, Indians, God masquerading as a loving bedfellow, runaway slaves, mothers of sons and daughters, ship builders, prostitutes and preachers were just a few of the characters who inhabited Whitman's America. His Leaves of Grass-an unabashed love letter to America first published on its 79th birthday, July 4, 1855, then followed by second (1856) and third (1860) editions-celebrated the sacred everydayness of what Whitman called "the divine Average" American life. Walt Whitman was a well-known writer by the time he arrived in Washington at the close of 1862. Whitman confided his plan to "write a little book" about his hospital work to Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's preeminent man of letters. His writings provide a compelling literary and historical record of Washington in wartime. Certain that he could make something of this experience, he wrote to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I desire and intend to write a little book out of this phase of America, her masculine young manhood, its conduct under most trying of and highest of all exigency, which she, as by lifting a corner in a curtain, has vouchsafed me to see America, already brought to Hospital in her fair youth-brought and deposited here in this great, whited sepulchre of Washington itself." Before long, his efforts bore fruit, with Whitman publishing articles in the New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle about his hospital experiences, and a book of war poems ( Drum-Taps). The hospital scenes provided inspiration for poetry and prose pieces, and Whitman jotted these ideas down as well. Armed with pencil and paper, he jotted down particular desires of the soldiers-horehound candy for one, rice pudding for another. Nonetheless, he decided to remain in Washington to serve the Union through ministry to its wounded and to chronicle its struggle from the unique perspective of the hospital bedside. At the war's opening, Whitman, an anti-slavery and pro-Union journalist, was embittered at the failure of the republic's leaders to resolve the regional conflicts peacefully. Before long he was visiting the hospitals daily. Once in Washington, Whitman visited the patients he had accompanied from Virginia and met other injured soldiers. While waiting at Aquia Creek, Whitman ministered to the injured, later recalling,"Several wanted word sent home to parents, brothers, wives, &c., which I did for them, (by mail the next day from Washington.) On the boat I had my hands full. The journey from Falmouth to Washington was made in two parts: first by rail to Aquia Creek Landing, Virginia, and then by government steamer up the Potomac River to the landing at Seventh Street, S.W.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |