Walt’s fingerprints
One of my favorite musicians is a fellow named Conor Oberst. One of his big claims to fame is his band Bright Eyes, a fantasic, folky, acoustic-with-a-twang-of-electric-guitar band. I’m a huge fan of the guy’s lyrics, even if his voice isn’t exactly opera-worthy (though I’d argue that’s not the point). But anyway, he has this awesome song called “I Must Belong Somewhere” that I love (off of my favorite album, Cassadega), yet can’t help but feel this song has the spirit of a Walt kind of poem. You can listen to the song off of this playlist here. Here are the lyrics:
Leave the bright blue door on the whitewashed wall
Leave the death ledger under city hall
Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today
Leave the lilac print on the linen sheet
Leave the birds you killed at your father’s feet
Let the sideways rain and the crooked street remain
Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel
Leave the dead star lit on her pedestal
Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today
Just leave the sad guitar in its hard-shelled case
Leave the worried look on your lover’s face
Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain
Because everything, it must belong somewhere
A train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs
Everything, it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here
Leave the ocean’s roar in the turquoise shell
Leave the widower in his private hell
Leave the liberty in that broken bell today
Leave the epic poem on its yellow page
Leave the gray macaw in his covered cage
Let the traveling band on the interstate remain
Because everything, it must belong somewhere
Soundstage in California, televisions in Times Square
Everything, it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here
Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed
Leave the garden tools in the rusted shed
Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today
Leave the restless ghost in his old hotel
Leave the homeless man in his cardboard cell
Let the painted horse on the carousel remain
Because everything, it must belong somewhere
Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair
Everything, it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here
In truth, the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
No witnesses, no witnesses
Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool
Leave the autumn leaves in the swimming pool
Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today
Leave the novelist in his daydream tune
Leave the scientist in his Rubik’s Cube
Let the true genius in the padded room remain
Leave the horse’s hair on the slanted bow
Leave the slot machines on the river boat
Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today
Leave the hot, bright trash in the shopping malls
Leave the hawks of war in their capitol
Let the organ’s moan in the cathedral remain
Because everything, it must belong somewhere
They locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air
Everything, it must belong somewhere
And you know it’s true, I wish you’d leave me here
You know it’s true, why don’t you leave me here?
The first thing I note is Oberst’s use of the rhetorical device known as ANAPHORA. A lot of people are probably very familiar with anaphora in its application, but probably weren’t aware it was called that. Here’s a definition from americanrhetoric.com: (an-NAF-ruh): Figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over successive phrases or clauses.
Oberst’s application of this device comes in his repetition of “Leave the…” in his verses. And Walt uses this device an obscene amount of times, mostly in his cataloging of things. Take from Calamus, for example, the Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only, which is comprised entirely, until the final line, of anaphoric lines:
Not heaving in my ribb’d breast only,
Not in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied with myself,
Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs
Not in many an oath and promise broken
. . . . .
And so it goes on. You could probably pick a random page and find anaphora in this Walthology, at least in his poems, anyway.
So what’s the point? Anaphora tends to be used to emphasize some thing or things, but in the context of Walt, I think he’s attempting to connect many different things, people, places, what have you, into a convergent “oneness”. As if to say, we’re all part of this world, and that alone doesn’t make things that different from one another.
Back to the song, besides the rather obvious rhetoric at play, I think Oberst is echoing what Walt had been writing about, that is, an awareness, if not necessarily a celebration, of the place of things in this world. I think Oberst captures the pantheistic exuberance that Whitman often proclaimed:
In truth, the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
No witnesses, no witnesses
And also is less than pious in regard to traditional religious beliefs:
Because everything, it must belong somewhere
They locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air
Everything, it must belong somewhere
True, this isn’t the deepest of blogs ever, but it’s something I couldn’t help but think of as I listen to this song.
5 Comments to “Walt’s fingerprints”
Countryman, I love your analysis of why Whitman uses anaphora. I think the literal parallelism does just that – connects and combines his ideas to represent their ‘oneness’. A great observation!
Don’t self depricate at the end of your blog…. haha…. I think its great to find similarities between songs and poems, and poems and poets, etc. Its amazing to see that 150 years after Whitman that his ideas and techniques are still of interest, and many modern writers and singers are still reitering the same ideas about the universe and everyone’s place in it. Also, sometimes its not about the voice of the singer, but the message being conveyed. Great song, great post.
I like bright eyes too! Great post.
Awesome song. It definitely has Whitman written all over it. The parallels that can be drawn between the two writings is crazy especially their repetition.
I really like how you made connections with this song! I actually youtubed it and I’m liking the song a lot. Nice connections~
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