The Whitman You Don’t See in School, Part 1
Engraving of Walt Whitman found in some editions of Leaves of Grass. Image found here and I recommend clicking through to read a bit about it. It’s surprisingly interesting in my opinion.
Most people, at least in the USA, have encountered the poems of Walt Whitman. At some point in school, a teacher assigned you something from Leaves of Grass and you probably read it and moved on with your life. I’m here to tell you to give a bit more time to this great American poet. I was very discontent with the treatment of Walt Whitman in my Junior English course back in high school because it barely scratched the surface of the man’s genius and misrepresented his ideals. I find it hard to believe that other schools didn’t have similar faults in their curriculums.
I’ve loved Whitman’s poems since I was a kid. I always have Leaves of Grass at hand, downloaded on my phone so I can flip through it wherever I’m at. however, I have not read every poem all the way through (yet) and I understand why some people may find the schoolbook presentation of Whitman impenetrable or uninteresting.
I am guessing that most schools focus on Whitman’s most famous works: O Captain My Captain, Song of Myself, and I Hear America Singing. I love these poems and they deserve your attention, but I think Whitman’s true strength shines in some of his lesser known, quieter pieces. Whitman told humble stories of people easily over looked, wrote notes filled with emotion, and spoke to the reader directly with timeless sentiments. His longer and more famous works have these qualities, but there are plenty of other examples within Leaves of Grass that are more accessible (and more exciting than pieces acceptable for a classroom).
So I thought I’d lay out my own list of good, lesser known poems of Whitman and why I think they are worth your time. I quickly realized that this would take more than a single blog post, so this will be an ongoing series of posts celebrating lesser known Whitman poems.
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
This is one of my favorite Whitman poems of all. It may take you a few tries to parse the beginning of the poem. That’s intentional, I’m pretty sure. The beginning speaks of overwhelming doubts about the world as the individual perceives it. We can never know whether someone sees the night sky or the colors of our world the way we do (or don’t). If you think about it too long, these kind of thoughts that make your head spin. The poem embodies that feeling with twisting phrases filled with parenthetical comments.
But the turn comes in the last third of the rambling poem. The convoluted phrasing fades away as Whitman explains that when he is with who he loves most these uncertainties no longer matter. These unanswered questions cannot disrupt the satisfaction of beloved company. The whole poem is a love poem hidden beneath the initial philosophical discussion. I think it is one of the sweetest love poems I’ve ever seen.
