“What’s New?” Wednesdays: Walt Whitman
Joel on April 6th, 2011
“What’s New?” Wednesdays is a weekly column where I talk about old stuff I’ve just discovered.
Our poetry editor will bemoan this fact, but I just discovered Walt Whitman. Sure, I’d heard of him, but my knowledge of him was limited to three words: old American poet. Then I started reading Chris Adrian’s debut novel Gob’s Grief. In it, a fictional Whitman plays a crucial role in helping the protagonist create a machine that will bring back all the dead of the civil war. Good job Walt.
Then I picked up his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass. Here’s an excerpt from his poem “The Sleepers” (which I think is timely):
“The soul is always beautiful,
The universe is duly in order….every thing is in its place,
What has arrived is in its place, and what waits is in its place.
The sleepers that lived and died wait….the far advanced are to go on in their turns, and the far behind are to go on in their turns,
The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite….they unite now.”
Ah American poetry. I’ve discovered you at last.
- Joel
Published April 6, 2011 & Filed in General,Poetry
Tags: american poetry, chris adrian, joel bentley, leaves of grass, poem, poetry, walt whitman, what's new?
“Come said the Muse, / Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted, / Sing me the universal.”
-from Birds of Passage, Walt Whitman
Joel, I felt the need to weigh in today because I think the fascinating thing about great literature is that it continues to be new with every change of current. Whitman may be Old but he is old and great. When I read LEAVES OF GRASS for the first time I was astounded by how deep is his capacity to Feel. Unlike other schools of poetry (surrealism, modernism, flarf), when I read Whitman I feel simply lucky to be alive.
In the same name of the old bard (although not American), you should consider Gerard Manley Hopkins, Charles Kingsley and if you haven’t heard of William Shakespeare, he wrote a few good sonnets too.
Will
April 6, 2011 @ 9:33 am
Thanks Will! I will definitely check out those bards. My love of poetry is burgeoning.
April 6, 2011 @ 10:36 am
Also, check out A R Ammons, another American poet. “Corsons Inlet” is his best work.
April 6, 2011 @ 11:35 am