“Prayer of Columbus” is an interesting and somewhat perplexing poem to me due to the fact that Whitman, like he did at times in “Leaves of Grass”, attempts to write as though he understands those outside of himself in much deeper way. It’s interesting to me that Whitman would write a poem where he is placing Columbus in a different context. He’s creating a new narrative, and a new way to look at and think of Columbus. As we’ve discussed before in class, the ways in which Whitman speaks for others and represents others in a certain way seems almost inappropriate and impossible. Despite this, it’s interesting to me due to the fact that Whitman is speaking for a man who ventured to America. He’s speaking for a man who has a mythic legend hanging around his name. It also makes sense to me because Whitman was so interested in a certain idea of America, almost a romanticized version of America. Here in “Prayer of Columbus”, we see that he adds to this legend by creating a new narrative.
The poem starts off in a way that suggests Columbus is some sort of Odysseus type figure, we find Columbus on a “savage shore”. He is exhausted literally and figuratively in the beginning of this poem. We read, “A batter’d, wreck’d old man, Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home…” (WhitmanArchive.org). From what we’ve read before, Whitman sees America as a fruitful place. Sure it’s filled with death, negativity, and separation, but we still have seen that Whitman sees America as home. Here, America is not a home at all. It’s a “savage” land, a place far from Columbus’ home. As he lands on the shore, Columbus prays to God, and it’s in this prayer we see the new narrative that Whitman begins to form. “Thou knowest my years entire, my life, My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely; Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth, thou knowest my manhood’s solemn and visionary meditations…”(WhitmanArchive.org). It’s here in the poem that Whitman begins to go into the mind of Columbus. He adds to the mythos of Columbus by giving the character this knowledge of himself and also a personal relationship with God. By doing this, I believe that Whitman is playing with this legendary historic figure, he is adding to the myth of Columbus’ voyage. He takes it one step further than the history books and lets you as the reader in on this secret prayer shared between Columbus and God.
We see more of this mythic type narrative being created in other parts of the poem. For instance there is a point in which Columbus acknowledges what he has done. We read, “By me and these the work so far accomplish’d, By me earth’s elder cloy’d and stifled lands uncloy’d, unloos’d, By me the hemispheres rounded and tied, the unknown tied to the known…”(WhitmanArchive.org). I really enjoy this section, but it’s also somewhat conflicting. It’s a very cinematic statement, I almost imagine it to be some sort of speech being given in a film. Here in the poem, we see how Whitman adds to this legend by surrounding it with drama and terror. Columbus declares that through his work he has tied the world of knowledge and knowing to the unknown. He has landed upon this wild land, and he has connected to his world. I think that the drama of this poem is what makes it truly powerful. Some might see Columbus as a negative figure in history, but here, he is presented as some sort of sacrificial hero.
In the final section of the poem, we read about Columbus’s vision, and it appears to him to be the success that his voyage will bring. Did his voyage truly bring enlightenment and joy? It seems as though Columbus believes he’s brought these things with him in the poem. “And these things I see suddenly, what mean they? As if some miracle, some hand divine unseal’d my eyes, Shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky, and on the distant waves sail countless ships, and anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.” (WhitmanArchive.org). These final lines seem to suggest that Columbus believes that he has done something right. He has sacrificed himself so that the future of America could be fruitful. He sees people “saluting” him. It’s interesting because that is true. In history, Columbus is somewhat of a legendary figure. He has a cloud of mysticism hanging around him. Whitman seemed to have taken advantage of that legend in this poem. He took the figure of Columbus and made him even more of a myth. That’s the element of this poem that I really enjoy, the fact that Whitman took a true figure in history and created his own narrative for this well known historical figure.
Thanks for drawing our attention to this poem more closely–it is certainly a fascinating one. First, it is one of the few we’ve read so far that take the form of a dramatic monologue–that is, Whitman not taking over the experience of an other, but rather allowing that voice to speak. This is not a poem about Columbus: it is the voice of Columbus–his prayer–speaking out. You’re right that this poem adds something of a private drama to the life of a man considered to be a hero. It allows us to see his self-doubt, his private pain, his recognition of possible failure.
It’s good to note that in Whitman’s time, Columbus was an undisputed hero. Only much closer to our own time, as we more recently began to grapple with a legacy of death and destruction, did Columbus’s reputation come under closer scrutiny. We know from history that voyages such as Columbus were about securing resources–human and otherwise–for expanding empires. Whitman, however, seems to want to deepen the myth of Columbus as he frames this character at the very start of divinely ordained manifest destiny.
If Whitman adds some humility to the character of Columbus, the fact that this poem also serves as a sort of shadow drama for himself: a poet whose work has gone unrecognized, and who has achieved something, not unlike Columbus, the scale and scope of which might not be fully understood for centuries. He places Columbus, as he often places himself in poems of crisis and union with the divine, on the solitary shores, and he shares this “altar” of “bleak sand” with Columbus. The hubris of the poem, which is otherwise shrouded in (mock?) humility emerges in the end as Whitman sees “shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky” and “on the distant waves and countless ships” and “new tongues I hear saluting me.” He sees the future here, and it is a future that will inevitably honor his contribution.
In that second-to-last stanza, where we read the line “Is it the prophet’s thought I speak, or am I raving,” I always wonder whether were supposed to read that as Whitman calling himself out for his act of ventriloquism, or whether we’re still in the Columbus narrative. What do you guys think? In the first reading, it certainly makes that Whitman-shadow-drama reading more available.
I also enjoy that Whitman dabbles in historical fiction here and mysticisms Columbus, however I cannot seem to shake my 21st century perspective. Columbus accomplished a lot in terms of voyaging however he did so through the means of genocide. This is a similar issue I found myself running into when Whitman would speak so highly, and similarly create myth, around the founding fathers while omitting unsavory things they participated in like slavery or mistreatment of women. As well this confused me because Whitman would also take on the personas of those abused by these great historical figures. I think this is important to however to see how we got to the mindset we have today surrounding figures like Columbus. Only recently has anti Columbus sentiments been raised and issues have been voiced about the way he is taught in schools. For so long he Columbus was reverted in a way that is very similar to the way he is described in ‘Prayer of Columbus’ and I cant help but think that Whitman played a major part in cementing this idolized view of the man in the collective American mind.