In his article, Hair, Feet, Body and Connectedness in “Song of Myself”, Taylor Hagood1 examines Walt Whitman’s ideas of individuality and democracy throughout his poem Song of Myself. Hagood argues that Whitman “positions the individual as the predominant vehicle and measuring stick of perception, judgment, and value… [While] promot[ing] fluidity, boundlessness, and connectedness characterized by ideals of democratic social equality.” (Hagood 25). In other words, Hagood is examining Whitman’s presentation of the individual and the group.
While Hagood acknowledges that there are many ways to examine these ideas in the poem, he focuses on Whitman’s “depiction and positioning of [the] body in ‘Song of Myself.’” (25). He focuses in particular on the extreme ends of the body, the head/hair and the feet, and their position relative to the earth, vertically or horizontally. The horizontal body positioning is said to signify the group and democratic equality while the central body, when vertically positioned, represents the individual. Hagood clearly discusses his views on the relationships between the two axes:
Whitman uses images of ‘feet’ and ‘hair’ throughout the poem to reconcile the individual-democratic/vertical-horizontal ideals. Connectedness results from a consolidated line of connection both vertically and horizontally. When this connection is inconstant or broken, the individual becomes isolated from the many, and the ideals of simultaneous individuality and democracy –which must exist together in Whitman’s figuration – fail to be realized (26).
Hagood continues emphasizing the importance of vertical/horizontal positioning throughout the article. As he continues, he gives several examples, such as a poet loafing on his side in Section 5 or the men floating horizontally on their backs in the water in Section 11. However, Hagood’s strongest example is not of the position of the body, but rather his observation of Whitman’s use of grass as a symbol throughout the poem. Hagood quotes Whitman, “’[g]rowing among black folks as among white…’” and then writes “Social inequality by means of the horizontal deployment of grass.” (Hagood 28). Grass also stands vertically, however, and can be seen as the continuation of life after the individual has died as the grass is growing from the earth made of past individuals. The horizontal orientation of death also signifies the connectedness of all individuals through death as a universal experience.
Hagood ends by asserting that because reading is an individualistic activity, it can be difficult to observe the connectedness of the democratic or many through writing. He says that Whitman does his best “to create and perpetuate a peculiar unification of the individual and the many” by using the position of the axes mentioned above as well as “the poem’s sweeping, horizontally-arranged lines and…common, visceral language.” (Hagood 32).
1 Taylor Hagood is an academic focusing on American literature, he currently teaches at Florida Atlantic University.
Hagood, Taylor. “Hair, Feet, Body, and Connectedness in “Song of Myself”.” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 21 (Summer 2003), 25-34. Web. January 16, 2014.
http://ir.uiowa.edu.nuncio.cofc.edu/wwqr/vol21/iss1/3/
I don’t necessarily agree with Hagood that Whitman was thinking on that level of detail about the vertical and horizontal axes representing the connectedness of the individual with the group, but it was still an interesting read. I also thought you did a great job summarizing and paraphrasing Hagood. Your post was really easy to follow and well-organized. Super duper :]
Great critical post; I agree with Katherine, though, that Hagood might over-read, just slightly, the vertical / horizontal thing. I think we can all agree that Whitman’s scope extends from the hair on a body to the whole of humanity, and from the readers “ages hence” and those that came before (vertical / horizontal) but to read a bunch of dudes swimming on their backs as some emblem of the horizontal charged with meaning kind of misses the point. What’s next, you note that their bellies sticking out of the water (which Whitman also notes) capture some sense of verticality? So, I think Hagood offers a rather lazy and uninspired reading of Whitman, but you offer a great overview of that article! That said, I do wonder if you also thought that this guy was just a bit off the mark!