Walter "Walt" Whitman

Walt Whitman's Notebook

I will be looking at two specific pages in Walt Whitman's 1860-1861 notebook. The original observations are seen on the left side of this blog post, separated by exclamation points from the right side, labelled as "What Whitman Actually Wrote." What Whitman Actually Wrote is derived from the Disunion's annotated notes of Whitman's pages. It is important to note that the civil war began on April of 1861.

        Original Observations                                   !        What Whitman Actually Wrote!!

pg. 8: -This page seems to be titled "Ship of            !pg. 8: -The title of this page is actually "Ship of 

Libertad," but libertad is the Spanish word for           !Libertad," so my original observation was

liberty, however, Walt Whitman did not actually        !correct, but "Libertad" is a cognate of Liberty, 

know the language of Spanish. So I think he is        !so Whitman must have recognized this.

referring to the English word of liberty on this          !

page. -Line two reads, "Blow mad winds!" I think    !-Sean Meehan actually points out that "Blow

he is now writing a short poem on this page,          !mad winds!" has striking similarities to 

sticking to the theme of a ship to represent liberty. !Shakespeare's King Lear. 

-Line three-four reads, "Rage, Love, vese, yawn.    !-My original observation of the word "vese" is

wide, yearly waves" As you can see, it was            !translated as "vex" instead, which holds the

difficult to make out some words, but I think these  !definition of "to make someone feel annoyed."

particular lines lend knowledge to how Whitman      !And, what I thought was "yearly" is actually

writes his poetry. First, his notebook pages are       !"yeastly," and I think the question mark above

written in pen, so he cannot use an eraser to fix his !this word is referring to Whitman's confusion of 

thoughts. Furthermore, there are very little marks    !whether or not "yeastly" is a word. I think he

where he scratches an idea out suggesting he         !wished "yeast" to represent yet another metaphor

foolproof like and is a perfectionist. However,          !as America was fermenting into something bad,

it appears as though he made one mistake in the    !similar to how yeast ferments into alcohol and

word "yearly", as there is a ? placed above the       !CO2.

word and light cross marks on top of the "ly."        !

Maybe this was a thought he intended to fix later.  !

-Line five reads, "crash away-" I think it is             !

important to note the structure of the poem at this  !

point. Whitman uses lots of commas in the             !

previous line, but now switches to hyphons. In       !

addition, there appears to be no rhyming scheme,  !

and the lines vary significantly in length. I think    !

Whitman has intention with this to show that he    !

does not follow the typical conventions of poetry   !

-Line six reads, "Tug at the planks-make them       !

groan-" -Line seven reads, "fall around, black        !-Whitman's prediction of what America will have

clouds-clouds of" -Line eight reads, "death"           !to pay is revealed as the clouds give way to death.

-This poem itself is a switch from Whitman's         !-As the Disunion's explanations point out,

normal happy and energetic poems to a much more!Whitman's poetry before the civil war uses water

cynical one. This is interesting as I believe he is    !to describe what America felt like at this point in

stressing the ideal of Liberty's rough ride it takes   !time. Libertad must represent America's core ideal

to survive in the modern world. Whitman uses the !of Liberty. Since the poem ends in "death," I am

metaphor of a ship to show the tough journey, as   !wondering if the civil war had actually begun by

well as analog and imagery to describe it. This      !the time he finished this poem.

reveals Whitman's thoughts as he was writing this !

journal write before the civil war.                           !

                                                                         !

pg. 11: -This page is a drawing of Whitman           !pg. 11: -As it turns out, Whitman did not actually 

himself. Whether or not he drew it is an                 !draw it! Instead, someone else must have been 

interesting thought, but for the sake of observation!hired to draw Whitman in his notebook or he

I will be assuming he did draw it. This reveals a    !simply got a friend to draw it of him. Disunion

lot about Whitman because drawings are a far       !states that it is very similar to a photograph taken

different form of art from his typical poems.          !of himself around the same time as the notebook 

Nonetheless, Whitman is a great artist! He draws  !was written. It is likely that one of his drinking 

himself in great detail with distinctive facial          !buddies drew it at their favorite bar, Pfaff's. 

features. His eyes appear to be looking off into the!Whitman liked to pass around his notebook to the 

distance, maybe showing confusion of who he is   !other drinkers at the bar. In another note by 

at this point in his lifetime, Possibly a mid-life      !Disunion, Whitman was actually going through a 

crisis, as he was about mid-way through his life in!a mid-life crisis, as he was transitioning from a 

1860-1861. The fact that he drew himself in this    !roughneck to a gentle old fellow, hence the 

manner brings light to knowledge that he was        !drinking at he bar.

definitely aware of himself and who he was.          !

However, the fact that he drew himself so              !

accurately is peculiar, and maybe this was a copy  !

of another artist's drawing or something similar.      !

Furthermore, it shows he is invested in himself,     !

possibly a little bit of arrogance as well.                 !

Old "Gentle Santa Claus" Walt Whitman

Young "Roughneck" Walt Whitman