WALT WHITMAN
LESSONS 1-2
WALT WHITMAN
(1819—1892). Whitman's poetry exercised a great influence on many poets of the twentieth century throughout the world.The poet was born in 1819 at West Hills, a little farming community in Long Island, N.Y. His father moved his family to Brooklyn in 1823. Walt Whitman had experienced a great deal of adversities before recognition came to him. At the age of eleven he began to work as an office-boy in a law-firm. Then he was apprenticed to the printing trade. For two decades the poet worked alternately as printer, editor, and journalist. Whitman was greatly impressed by the revolutionary events of 1848 in Eu-md he took part in the political activities in his country. Whitman protested against all sorts of oppression and especially he exposed inhumanity of slavery. result he did not prosper as an editor because his social views did not agree with the policies of the owners of the papers on which he was employed. In this period appeared his first poem "Europe" (1850), written in unconventional verse Form, It was included Into the collection of poems named "Leaves of Grass" which in its first version appeared in 1855 (with its final additions and revisions it came out in I892). The publisher was Whitman himself who had printed it at his own expense. But the book brought him neither money nor fame. It was only later on that it was recognized as one of the masterpieces of world literature. To earn money Whitman continued to contribute to newspapers. During the Civil War (1861—1865) Whitman praised the people who courageously fought against the slave-owners. His war experiences were reflected in a volume of poetry "Drum-Taps" (1865) and the poems inspired by Lincoln's death: "O Captain! My Captain!" (1865) and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (1866). These were also included into "Leaves of Grass". In his poems Whitman celebrates common people mainly. The poet emphasizes his association with (those who have toil-hardened hands. Whitman had faith in the innate goodness of human nature, in the power and might of man, in his ability to create a better world.
LEAVES OF GRASS INSCRIPTIONS
SONG OF MYSELF
1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
10
The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy
and weak, And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,
And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and
bruis'd feet, And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and gave him
some coarse clean clothes, And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and
ankles; He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass'd north,
I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the corner.
13
The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses, the block
swags underneath on its tied-over chain,
The negro that drives the long dray of the stone-yard, steady
and tall he stands pois'd on one leg on the
string-piece, His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast and loosens
over his hip-band,
His glance is calm and commanding, he tosses the slouch of his
hat away from his forehead,
The sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on the black
of his polish'd and perfect limbs.
I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do not stop
there, I go with the team also.
31
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of
the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and
the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any
statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
33
The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence,
blowing, cover'd with sweat,
The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck,
the murderous buckshot and the bullets,
All these I feel or am.
I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksmen,
I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd with the
ooze of my skin,
I fall on the weeds and stones,
The riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,
Taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over the head
wihtwhipstocks.
45
I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,
And all I see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge but the rim of the farther systems.
Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding,
Outward and outward and forever outward.
My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels,
He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,
And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.
There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage,
If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther.
A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do
not hazard the span or make it impatient, They are but parts, any thing is but a part.
COMMENTARY
- toloafe(or loaf) —to spend time idly.
- limpsy— flexible.
- stone-yard— a stone-pit.
- string-piece—a detachable front of a cart.
- dribs— dribbles.
- whipstock—a whip-handle.
TASK to LESSONS 1-2
TASK 1. Read the poem and translate your favourite extract.
TASK 2. Learn your favourite extract by heart.
