Mirages More experiences and sights, stranger, than you’d think for; Times again, now mostly just after sunrise or before sunset, Sometimes in spring, oftener in autumn, perfectly clear weather, in plain sight, Camps far or near, the crowded streets of cities and the shopfronts, (Account for it or not–credit or not–it is all true, And […]
I enjoyed the unexpected exuberance of Sail Out for Good, Eidolon Yacht! The “death as a journey” metaphor is put into effect, and you can almost visualize this old sea-captain, the speaker, a wizened snarl on his face as he’s battered by heavy waves and seaspray, taking the helm on this voyage. Not a “concluding […]
http://www.slate.com/id/2233597/ What goes around comes around! Slate.com’s Seth Stevenson has a regular column that basically reviews consumer advertisements, primarily commercials. In his newest column he just so happens to review the Levi’s commercials that use Walt’s poems (America and Pioneers! O Pioneers!) that we talked about at the beginning of the semester. Stevenson generally loves […]
Walt Whitman and the Centennial Exhibition America does not repel the past or what it has produced under its forms or amid other politics or the idea of castes or the old religions. . . . -Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass Walt originally wrote Song of the Exposition for the Annual Exhibition of […]
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 […]
O, there’s this fellow named Walt, Of the earth he’s the salt, He’s got views on God Of which I must give a nod. You could peg him a pantheist Like Danny Baldwin on the B-list To him there’s no guy On a throne up in the sky, Though he calls God a “bedfellow”- Such a scandalous thing […]
Walt says, “Only three guns were in use, One was directed by the captain himself against the enemy’s mainmast, Two well-served with grape and canister silenced his Musketry and cleared his decks.” (68) Walt makes many mentions of firearms and weaponry of his time in the mid-1800s. Arcane terms like “firelock” and “carbine” […]
I have said that the soul is not more than the body, And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is, And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud, And I […]
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