“Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache”

In Spahr’s “Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache” she converges with Whitman in his expansive energies, though her mellifluous, chant-like lines, and in her emphasis on nature, touch, etc. However, as one “welcomes” the world and “[breathes]” it in, the “red tailed hawk” becomes juxtaposed alongside “cigarette butts” to highlight how her vision of connectedness includes pollution, and other contaminates, which taint prior idealism. At this point in the poem, she catalogues loss, and introduces the presence of absence, to highlight societal detriment, and how the bird’s “private perch” becomes lost, etc., due to humankind’s recklessness.  This seems to contrast with a Whitmanian vision because it indicates the perils of human connections in the modern age. Spahr criticizes modernization, in its inherent anthropocentrism, which occurs as a result of connection gone awry. One realizes this as Sphar describes how she partakes in work at the chemical factory, which indicates how she becomes complicit with turmoil. Thus, as one associates herself with humankind, she inherits its negative qualities as well. When Sphar catalogues what she does not “say goodbye” to, this permits one to see how the environment loses importance in the modern age, as one’s attention hones in on a false ideal of progress, and becomes narrow as a result. “I put my head together on a narrow pillow and talked with each other all night long. And I did not sing.” Repetition, (e.g., the phrase “I did not sing”), indicates how one becomes drawn into this communal perspective. While human connection affords environmental immersion on an initial basis, repetition of phrases, such as the aforementioned one, demonstrate how ideological convergences can prove detrimental. Also, as people introduce contaminants into society, and fail to “sing” the praises of the environment, the importance of modernization supersedes it. Therefore, once the speaker becomes incapable of singing, the Whitmanian energy that characterizes the prior segment dissolves, and humankind becomes connected in light of its destructive abilities.