Throughout his work and especially in “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman presents a unity or fellowship between all things. However, even in “Song of Myself,” Whitman often times will allude to those he will not include – “others” in this world of inclusion. These outsiders, unworthy of Whitman’s love, can be deduced in the opposites. In other words, if Whitman says women are good because they are the furnaces of our brighter generation to come, one can infer that a woman is bad that does not procreate. There are times where the poet explicitly vilifies certain people or traits. He specifically calls out those who heckle prostitutes and slave owners. Whether in the negative spaces or in the explicit judgement of certain people as bad, Whitman creates a rich portrait of not just what but whom he holds in contempt.
I feel that “Song of Myself” is the best place to start looking for examples of this because it is so rich with his notions of harmony. He repeatedly mentions the fraternity and sameness of all things living and dead, so his examples of what he fights against are thrown in a stark contrast. I will read through more of his poems, focusing on those describing crowds. It might also prove fruitful to look to Whitman’s correspondence or skim a biography to see the people with whom he specifically has conflict or issue. Perhaps there are no good examples here but it is worth exploring.
How this project will manifest is difficult for me to say. I don’t know that I have a strong thesis to relate to this topic so a fifteen-page paper might not be the best route. I like the idea of writing fiction though I fear this lends itself to veering too far from Whitman’s other specifically.
It’s interesting that you mention the “others” as these invisible characters who seem to be held in contempt simply for their exclusion from the Whitmanian catalogs and meditations. You might actually find a lot of research on the non-democratic Whitman; it’s worth playing devil’s advocate, you know (pun completely intended). Part of your research may ponder whether the “Whitman in multitudes” delivers these identities in isolation, or if every identity is subliminally carried into every poem. Do we see the late Whitman in the Civil War poems? Does the spiritual Whitman sneak his way into the poems of sexual celebrations? I think investigating the blurriness between these boundaries might help expose the exclusive Whitman. Also, when I first saw your title, it raised my own curiosity toward Whitman’s true devil, the anti-God of Whitman. The Good Gray Poet displays a complicated view on the nature of God as it is, so I’m sure whatever devil you find should be at least as complicated or interesting. A good place to start might be “Whitman’s Theory of Evil: A Clue to His Use of Paradox,” which is an article not immediately available on the library’s site, but maybe you can have it delivered through Pascal. In any case, looks like a really interesting topic to explore.
Great suggestion, Nick–sounds like a useful article. I enjoyed out conversation about this topic as we discussed the possibility of an anthology of sorts–perhaps an online anthology–that isolates this Whitman that you describe. The introduction, then, becomes a justification for what you chose to include and situates that selection in the scholarly conversation about this very interesting guise that Whitman takes on. Looking forward to seeing this project come together!