There’s no doubt that Spahr was heavily influenced by the work of our dear Walt Whitman in both content and form after reading her poem, “Poem After September 11, 2001”, which comes from her book of poetry entitled, “The Connection of Everyone with Lungs.” Spahr’s poetry in this book attempts to cope with the tragedy of 9/11 by grappling with the idea that everyone is connected. Specifically examining this first poem, it is obvious that Spahr took a Whitmanian approach to dealing with the aftermath of 9/11.
Spahr introduces her concept of the greater, intimate human connection in her piece, “Poem After September 11, 2001” by beginning at the cellular level:
“There are these things:
cells, the movement of cells and the division of cells
and then the general beating of circulation
and hands, and body, and feet
and skin that surrounds hands, body, feet”
Spahr then continues to relate each individual component that connects human beings until she has expanded the idea as far as she could to make her final point:
“The entering in and out of the space of the mesosphere in the entering in and out of the space of the stratosphere in the entering in and out of the space of the troposphere in the entering in and out of the space of the oceans in the entering in and out of the space of the continents and islands in the entering in and out of the space of the nations in the entering in and out of the space of the regions in the entering in and out of the space of the cities in the entering in and out of the space of the neighborhoods nearby in the entering in and out of the space of the building in the entering in and out of the space of the room in the entering in and out of the space around the hands in the entering in and out of the space between the hands.
How lovely and how doomed this connection of everyone with lungs.”
The entirety of this poem relies on the presence of hands and the space around the hands and the adjoining things around the space that connect us as humans. This is similar to many of Whitman’s poems in which he gives hands symbolic importance when representing a higher human connection. While Spahr was influenced by the national tragedy of 9/11, Whitman was influenced by the national tragedy of the Civil War. Both of these events that impacted not only the nation generally speaking, but affected the collective American psyche, pushed both Whitman and Spahr to conceptualize a greater human connectedness.It is in this connected way, which traverses time and space, that Spahr reached out and held Whitman’s hand.
As an aside, not only in this ideology of human connectedness can we see Whitman’s influence on Spahr, but also in her form. Spahr’s ideas plod on methodically as they flow and interweave one into the next, giving her piece a sort of waterfall effect. Spahr also uses the Whitmanian elements of long lines, lack of appropriate capitalization, and repetition of words and phrases. These elements are meant to add to the idea of connectivity that Spahr is trying to produce in this poem.
I agree that the influence of Whitman pervades this collection, in terms of both form and content. I also thought it was interesting that Sphar chose to provide Whitmanian catalogues on both the micro and the macro level (e.g., she mentions the “stratosphere” then builds to people and occurrences) (8). Also, her Whitmanian embrace of the tragic, which proves penetrable by the light of human connection, proves especially powerful. For an example, “this dirty air we breathe together, our dependence on this air, our inability to stop breathing,” indicates how the modern world becomes tainted in the midst of warfare (57). Meanwhile, people seek solace in one another, in our mutual state—whether of jubilance or dissatisfaction. In doing so, humankind absorbs Whitman’s “common air” which “bathes the globe.” I also thought she vacillated between Whitman’s selves: his “me myself” and his more global image, such as in her direct address, in which she states “beloveds, I haven’t been able to write for days,” to demonstrate the emotional impact of turmoil on her internal state (42). This personal influence of turmoil proves poignant, because each individual possesses his own form of grief, yet can overcome this with those with which he remains intertwined.
Also, Spahr utilizes Whitman’s phraseology to catapult her own speech, and extend it to from events such as the Civil War, to that of 9/11, and circumstances that resonate with people today. Sphar’s mention of “dirty air” serves as one of my favorite moments because it indicates human ability to overcome negative circumstances through the inextricable nature of connectedness (57). On that note, connectedness takes the form of both emotional and the physical. As you stated, hands dominate this collection and permit touch itself to link humans and to spawn this sense of shared space. In effect, the connectedness that marks the beginning of this work also marks the end; it permits Spahr to hone in on minutiae, in order to construct this global picture, which could not exist without the “molecules” that characterize its beginning. Thus, Sphar links the emotional with the physical, the minute with the global, and the “real me” with the global self, to engender connectedness, even within “dirty air” and states of disease, to demonstrate the ever-present nature of shared space for humankind.
I agree that Spahr is obviously impacted by Whitmanian themes of connectivity and there are many moments of crisis in her poems that remind me of Whitman. However, in these moments of crisis, I feel that Spahr emphasizes a sense of isolation, “I speak of the separations that define this world and the separations that define us, beloveds, even as we like to press our skins against one another in the night.” Spahr’s feelings of isolation and separation in the face of war are very different from Whitman’s treatment of war. In many of Whitman’s poems that comprise “Drum-Taps,” he speaks of a unification during war and “The idea of all, of the Western world one and inseparable.” In parts of her poetry, Spahr seems to struggle to find this Whitmanian optimism.
I also find a very immediate connection between Whitman and Spahr in both their form and content. Like Whitman, Spahr uses crisis as a premise to explore a greater sense of ultimate understanding. However, I also agree with Claire in that Spahr struggles to find the energy that allows Whitman to overcome his crises with a final optimism. I think Spahr participates in the same tradition as Whitman in that they both seek (and succeed) to carve out a space in which the individual and the community can intersect intimately. However, unlike Whitman, Spahr’s tone is evokes lingering presence of tragedy that has yet to be ennobled.