Something that stood out to me in our readings is the prominence of Walt Whitman’s hands, especially in “Salut au Monde” and Neruda’s “Ode to Walt Whitman”. Whitman begins Salut au Monde with “O take my hand Walt Whitman!” and continues to reference his hands throughout with his salutes, and concludes his poem with a salute to the world.
Toward you all, in America’s name,
I raise high the perpendicular hand, I make the signal.
To remain after me in sight forever,
For all the haunts and homes of men.
I’m not sure why Whitman references his own hands, but I think it may be to encourage the world to metaphorically take his hand and to see and hear and walk the world with him.
But Walt Whitman’s hands are even more important in Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Walt Whitman”. Neruda says, “I touched a hand and it was the hand of Walt Whitman” and this hand seems to guide Neruda through various landscapes. I interpreted Neruda’s emphasis on Whitman’s hand a couple of different ways: that Whitman’s hand reaches through the language barriers that Neruda would experience in reading translations of Whitman’s work, and Whitman’s hand as a writing instrument and therefore a guide (through his poetry) of other poets and people around the world.
Through
all my early
years
that hand came with me,
that dew,
his solid fatherly pine,
his expanse of prairie,
his mission of circulating peace.
It’s really interesting that you point out how these two passages have that connection to them. The image that first came to mind when you pointed that out was the Sistine Chapel; God reaching out and touching the hand of Adam. In a way, its like Walt Whitman is this Universalized figure (like God), who passes down some sort of a gift (perhaps in Neruda’s case, the power of words). Kind of going back to Whitman’s binary/ non-binary vision, this could point to Whitman represented as human, yet “God within us” sort of figure; he is part of the universe, but is also the universe.
Great post (and comment) on Whitman’s hand. I especially like how Claire relates it to both the leading / embracing hand and to the composing hand. And the nod to God reaching out to Adam adds an epic element to this very grounded gesture. Later in the semester, we will read Claudia Rankin, who talks of poetry itself as a sort of hand shake. The plot thickens!