Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity by Blake David Haven

Author:Blake, David Haven. [Blake, David Haven.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300134810
Publisher: YaleUP
Published: 2006-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

My lovers suffocate me!

Crowding my lips, and thick in the pores of my skin,

Jostling me through streets and public halls . . . . coming naked

to me at night. (LG 1855, 78; Whitman’s ellipsis)

Whitman created a similar vision in the early drafts of “The Sleepers,” turning the apprehension of beauty into greetings from ecstatic admirers. In both poems, the poet not only loves beauty, he seems to command its loving return; his presence organizes the world into an overeager crowd.

The image of the lecturer in “Song of Myself” encompasses two distinct notions of publicity. On one hand, the poem regularly highlights its civic qualities, emphasizing its immersion in the community as if that were a condition for the kind of national audience Whitman expected for Leaves of Grass. At the same time, Whitman filters his concern for the audience through his desire for its acclaim. He demonstrates how his voice is constituted by the public before turning it into a form of social display. The organizers of the Brooklyn lyceum had trumpeted their 1852 series by celebrating the “very numerous and brilliant audience” it expected to attend the events; the audience itself became an attraction. “Song of Myself” performs its publicity, treating readers as a legitimating force and an awestruck crowd. They become the subject of the poem and the poem’s principal advocates—observers and participants in the performance of Leaves of Grass.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.