For the class of October 12th - Whitman and Poe
1. For this class, we will continue reading the preface from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855) - please, try your hand at reading closely and affectively this excerpt:
pp. 2734-2735: From the paragraph that starts "The art of art" to the end of next paragraph "and makes one"
2. For a poem or excerpt analysis, either in the above prompt or in the following (poems by Edgar Allan Poe), please consider the following guidelines of a close (and affective) reading: pay attention to tone, prosody, semantic networks, significance/effect of rhetoric devices - that is, language - but also, how language makes it thrust at the world and gets entangled with it, for instance: what nature language conceives and how it conceives it?
If you care more for any of the following poems by Edgar A. Poe (the subject of the second half of our class), then try a close analysis of any of the followng:
"The City in the Sea", "The Lake", (in two versions and with Mabbott's commentary), "The Conqueror Worm", "The Bells"
3. Can you relate any of Poe's poems to the supplementary readings (Evelyn Reilly's essay "Environmental Landscapes and Ecopoetical Grief" and / or Emily Alder's "Through Oceans Darkly: Sea Literature and the Nautical Gothic" (in moodle - bibliography section)?
In the first excerpt of the Preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass proposed for analysis, W. Whitman tries for a definition of the (new) poet, in particular the poet of his country. In a series of long enumerations, he evokes the poet of his time, the bard, as one with the country, both its people and its geography, since “his spirit responds to his country’s spirit”: he then enumerates at length the aspects of nature that the poet takes into himself, draws from, becomes and encompasses: the rivers, the seas, the coasts, naming and sometimes characterizing these geographical features (“Mississippi with annual freshets and changing chutes” and “beautiful masculine Hudson”, a very personal view of this river), all the land between them, forests (once again enumerating its elements), ice, mountains, fields, as well as the birds, which he also enumerates — by not mentioning other animals, he may be equating the spirit of the country with that of birds, capable of flight. All these are untamed, part of the wild (“growth”; “tangle(d)”; “wind”; “flights”; “free”; “screams”).
ReplyDeleteHe also receives from reality, the past and present and the actions of the men in his country: this is expressed in another long enumeration starting at “To him enter the essences of the real things”, punctuated by dashes that both separate and precipitate the elements of history, in a way similar to both the passing of time/history and constant movement – of, for example, the train. The passage reflects an historical sequence and the associated vocabulary seem to span from an impression of harshness (“weather-beaten”, “rocky coasts”, “wild animals”) in the beginning of the enumeration, to an idea of difference (“the character of the northeast and northwest and southwest”), but also union, friendliness and equality (as he progressively refers the “convening of Congress… from all climates”; “general ardor and friendliness”, “equality of the female”, “large amativeness” and, in contrast to those who defend slavery in his time, pointing the opposition that “shall never cease”). Throughout, there’s an idea of constant newness and fluidity, in “the perpetual coming of immigrants”, “the endless gestation of new states”, “the fluid movement of the population”, of strength, both in men and in the country itself, in “rapid stature and muscle”, “calm and impregnable”, of the relevance of enterprise, work and the machine (starting with the arrival of “vessels” and the “first settlements”, to the “laborsaving machinery”). This “American poet” is the precursor of a new form of epic, which forgoes the strict forms and (epic) themes of the past: the reference to the “stonecutters” once again establishes a connection of this poet with the land, while the mention of “the future” constructs the image of the poet as the “seer”, the prophet of the future. He is transcendental as well, in his individuality, but also in his connection with all things.
The second excerpt, Whitman adds, with much less enumeration, to the short reference to form in the first excerpt: that the poet should be indirect and not descriptive; his form should be simple, in the sense that “the movements of animals” or “the sentiment of trees” are simple – that they are natural, with less interference of a definite style, and more of the natural ebullience of thoughts and feeling: the poet is to be “the free channel of himself”. There is straightforwardness, also, since the composition of the poem will occur “without a shred of my composition”. This is, he admits, a new (and superior) kind of expression, one that “finds no sphere worthy of itself and makes one”, and its poets equated to heroes who defy what doesn’t suit them.
pp.6-8
ReplyDeleteIn Walt Whitman's preface to Leaves of Grass (1855), the author highlights the tight bond between art and nature and, in particular, between poetry and The United States of America. In its opening section, the author pinpoints how American nature constitutes the main axis of his poetry and, simultaneously, how poetry can contain it, thanks to the American poet, whose spirit ‘responds to his country’s spirts’. Better say, the poet incarnates nature and he renders it through art. In doing so, he must be sure to convey not only the wilderness of the countryside but also the prints of mankind on it. Men and women are to be described in all their traits, especially as far as their sense of community and unity is concerned. Indeed, the poet must be able to complete such a demanding task, for which he has to be transcendent, new, indirect, creative, and far-sighted, and do what nobody has ever done before. This text serves as a statement of the author’s poetics and of his intentions as an American poet, which he delivers to the readers with an insightful, serious, and almost virtuous tone that successfully convinces the reader of the importance of the subject matter. His concise statements -for example, ‘The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem’ transpire self-confidence and pride, in both his art and his country, indeed. However, the numerous examples of enumerations and listings, accompanied by some descriptions of the many shades of the States and its people show how Whitman is not a tyrant who is stating his powers and that of his country, but a man who wants to portray what he sees and what he feels, who wants to offer his soul to the readers, because in it there are the souls of all his compatriots and their nation. The rhythm follows the mood set by the tone and is either rapid -when the sentences are edgy and short-, or more relaxed -when brief descriptions of the States take place-. As the author affirms in the Preface, ‘what he tells he tells for precisely what it is’, so the language is utterly clear and free of embellishments and intrigue, and it is as simple as the vast nature and the common people in America are, which is what sparkles his writing. Finally, Whitman writes a text that is fairly comprehensible to everyone, an aim that aligns with the author’s belief that in simplicity lies greatness.
«The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity ...»
ReplyDeleteIn the Leaves of Grass preface, Walt Whitman is using every word to articulate and pinpoint the main subjects of what is waiting for the reader on the following pages. Here, Whitman is directly speaking of art, not pointing out the secluded area of it, may it be visual art or literature, but rather compounds it all, and thus points out the thing that all artworks, as well as all art practitioners, have in common — simplicity. Simplicity is the starting point Whitman uses to open the conversation about art and nature. Here, he is already speaking of «…excess or for the lack of definiteness» that ties with simplicity. The word itself, «definiteness», understood as something made clear, binds in a way with the meaning of the word «simplicity» or «simple» as «something that is easy to understand». In this part of the preface, Whitman is directly speaking of nature and its way of communicating. He is comparing the « …insousiance of the movements of animals and the unimpeachableness of the sentiment of trees in the woods and grass by the roadside…» with literature, where it only can be seen as a part of the world of art of it reaches the same ease, in the way it communicates with the reader. The words he uses for drawing the picture of movements in nature are "insousiance" and "unimpeachableness". "Insousiance" has the meaning of casual lack of concern; indifference, while "unimpeachableness" speaks of something or someone unquestionable or blameless. Both words, with close reading, tell the reader more about the way the author himself is viewing the natural world and its movement: if it cannot be named "perfect" directly, it can at least be associated with what that world stands for, and therefore no human should question the movements of the plants and animals, but rather take it as an example of something alive and real, something "unimpeachable".
In a way, Whitman is using the direct comparison of art and nature to highlight the importance of one for another. Here, the art is being influenced by nature, the latter is being used as a way of measuring or criteria applied to see how "perfect" something is. Therefore if simplicity is a language in which nature communicates, then the writer is someone who translates this language for the readers to notice. Whitman does not indicate that nature should be «interpreted» into art, rather it acts on its own, takes inspiration from it, from its way of communication, and from its simplicity. «The greatest poet has less a marked style and is more the channel of thoughts and things without increase or diminution, and is the free channel of himself.»
Whitman is inviting readers to observe nature with him, notice the small movements, through which it speaks and what exactly the artists try to depict: «What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition. You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me.»