Martin Espada’s poem, “How We Could have Lived or Died this Way” really struck me as anti-Whitmanian. Although Espada seems to call upon Whitman in terms of form, his content challenges Whitman’s ideal vision of America and gives readers the harsh reality of today. In terms of form, I noticed Espada using similar catalogue stanzas, where, like Whitman, he begins to list things that he sees. However, instead of seeing the various peoples of America coming together as Whitman does in multiple poems, Espada sees the horrors of the past come to life again in the present. For example, Espada writes, “I see the dark-skinned bodies falling in the street as their ancestors fell before the whip and steel.” Here, he is connecting the current violence against African Americans in America to the times of slavery. While Whitman would have been writing during the time of slavery, Espada reveals to readers how times really have not changed. Hence, he is challenging Whitman’s beliefs for a better future for blacks in America by highlighting the violence and problems we still see today.
After reading this poem, I found out that it comes from Espada’s most recent book of poems, which I found even more interesting because that insinuates that this violence he mentions is not just recent, but currently happening. The line that struck me the most was: “how the descendants of slaves still fled and the descendants of slave catchers still shot them.” As bold of a statement as that is, I believe that Espada is correct in the fact that blacks still face the long-lasting issues of the 19th century slave society America was. In one of my recent history classes, we constantly talked about how history manages to repeat itself time and time again, which sadly is often seen through the mistreatment and violence against the black community. Bringing this post back to Whitman, as much as I want to cherish him for his transcendental and innovative ideas during his time, I can’t help but find his views of America’s future naive in some ways. Espada helps remind us that as beautiful as Whitman’s words and ideas are, they can’t always hold true.
I find Espada’s poem striking as well and as quite contrary to the Whitmanian philosophies we’ve studied. It’s interesting that Espada’s piece comes from a recent work and that it ties together the past and present in that sense; it permits one to see how and why Whitman proves controversial, because, alongside Espada’s work, his poem seems to contain naiveté. As Whitman places himself alongside citizens who endure societal ills, Espada demonstrates the cyclical nature of these horrors. Although Whitman identifies himself with diverse peoples and landscapes, and considers himself a fellow rebel in his witness of death and destruction, his words prove to no avail. Despite his inclusive nature, slaves continue to flee, and slave-catchers continue to shoot them; in effect, Espada notes how one who reads about such events must wonder how these ills do not prove insurmountable. Thus, Espada enables one to see how Whitman’s desire to encompass the globe falls short of the mark in the face of war. In that sense Whitman appears almost boastful in his identification with a man whose fate seems sealed. Despite the poignant nature of his words, he cannot provide aid to the rebel himself. While Whitman considers himself the “sworn poet” of “every dauntless rebel,” Espada asks how people could wake without the “blood of the dead sweating from every poor” or transcend war terror in actuality. In short, Espada makes a statement about Whitman’s naive nature, as he asks how one can stand to bear witness to war with the knowledge that he- Whitman included- cannot effect change or alter the cycle of events.
I find this conversation fascinating as I’ve always read Espada as a poet fully invested in the Neruda model of Whitman–harnessing Whitman for critique, rather than critiquing Whitman. In the poem we read in class, I also sensed the powerful gesture of Whitman-as-witness to the continuing ills of society. But I guess you both have a point: insofar as Whitman placed so much stock in the future, to cast present-day America as essentially a re-play of power dynamics that have their root in American slavery, it does cast Whitman’s gesture towards a brighter future in a thick fog of irony. Great conversation!