On Thursday, April 18th, I attended a lecture on
Walt Whitman in Temple’s Paley library basement. Katherine Henry, a Temple
professor, introduced the two addition speakers David Henry Blake and Michael
Robertson. Blake and Robertson are both chair professors of English at the
College of New Jersey, as well as editors and authors of their own books. An example
to their devotion to Walt Whitman can be found right in the title of
Robertson’s books Worshipping Walt
and Whitman’s Disciples, and Blake’s
Walt Whitman: Where the Future becomes
the Present. Whitman is remembered as a poet and an advocate for sexual
liberty, and his significance is still just as powerful as it was in his time.
He was an ingenious man because he created ideas that lived long beyond he
could.
David Henry Blake started the discussion by posing the question, what keeps us wondering about Whitman? This is because embedded in his poetry is the mysterious way he chooses to represent himself. For example, in Whitman’s most famous poem “Song of Myself,” he concluded with a puzzle and not a definitive statement. Blake focused on three main points, which he saw as defining Whitman. The first point was identity and egotism. Whitman’s comes off as an extreme egotist in his poems because of his excessive abuse of the word ‘I.’ Blake does not believe that Whitman was full of himself, and that the ‘I’ included the reader. The second point was publicity. Whitman embraced his role as a celebrity; he planned photos and icons and edited his own work. He was in complete control of his public image, for the most part. I thought it was humorous that Blake described Whitman’s modernity, because were alive today, he would have a blog. The final point was the concept of time and place. Whitman predicted that he work would still matter in the future, which is does; and its incredible because despite the time gap – we are just like him.
Michael Robertson was next to speak, and he introduced Whitman as an American Nationalist, environmentalist, feminist, democrat, and socialist. It is fascinating how Whitman was able to entwine his religious and gay identities. He religious views come from his parents. His father was an admirer of Thomas Paine, and a free thinker who rejected organized religion. His mother was a Quaker. With this background, he embraced what Robertson called a “modern democratic spirituality.” Whitman was not alone in his different religious views, this was a time when Western Society was finding a new way to approach religion, such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Walt Whitman was a homosexual icon, writing erotic passages and exemplifying a strong love between men in his writing – but he was and Icon for all of us because he advocated a peaceful, democratic lifestyle where we could all live in happiness, and who doesn’t want that? The end of the lecture was opened up for questions from the audience, with one that I remember in particular. A woman in the audience called Whitman a modern day hipster – and I don’t think it could have been said any better to sum it all up.
David Henry Blake started the discussion by posing the question, what keeps us wondering about Whitman? This is because embedded in his poetry is the mysterious way he chooses to represent himself. For example, in Whitman’s most famous poem “Song of Myself,” he concluded with a puzzle and not a definitive statement. Blake focused on three main points, which he saw as defining Whitman. The first point was identity and egotism. Whitman’s comes off as an extreme egotist in his poems because of his excessive abuse of the word ‘I.’ Blake does not believe that Whitman was full of himself, and that the ‘I’ included the reader. The second point was publicity. Whitman embraced his role as a celebrity; he planned photos and icons and edited his own work. He was in complete control of his public image, for the most part. I thought it was humorous that Blake described Whitman’s modernity, because were alive today, he would have a blog. The final point was the concept of time and place. Whitman predicted that he work would still matter in the future, which is does; and its incredible because despite the time gap – we are just like him.
Michael Robertson was next to speak, and he introduced Whitman as an American Nationalist, environmentalist, feminist, democrat, and socialist. It is fascinating how Whitman was able to entwine his religious and gay identities. He religious views come from his parents. His father was an admirer of Thomas Paine, and a free thinker who rejected organized religion. His mother was a Quaker. With this background, he embraced what Robertson called a “modern democratic spirituality.” Whitman was not alone in his different religious views, this was a time when Western Society was finding a new way to approach religion, such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Walt Whitman was a homosexual icon, writing erotic passages and exemplifying a strong love between men in his writing – but he was and Icon for all of us because he advocated a peaceful, democratic lifestyle where we could all live in happiness, and who doesn’t want that? The end of the lecture was opened up for questions from the audience, with one that I remember in particular. A woman in the audience called Whitman a modern day hipster – and I don’t think it could have been said any better to sum it all up.
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