Walt Whitman

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

I really liked this opening passage of Song of Myself. Whitman rejoices in himself in the opening lines of this poem and reveals his identity to the reader. He discusses his closeness to nature and his separation from society by saying, “Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, the distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.” He says that he wants to follow what society wants but he refuses to let it rule him. Instead he says he will, become one with nature.

Known by many as the “father of free verse,” Walt Whitman was a humanist and wrote at a time of transition between transcendentalism and realism. Yet he was somewhat controversial man of his time. He wrote about democracy, war, politics, race, and slavery, being patriotic, and about nature and homosexual love with vibrant descriptions of the human form. He was an outlaw in literature because of some of his poetry.

Walt Whitman was the first to experience celebrity or fame because mass media was beginning to flourish at this time. He loved being photographed and became the most photographed author. Because he experienced this new for the time kind of fame he also experienced “groupies” or fans. I thought the love story that was discussed in class was fascinating. British widow Anne Gilchrist fell in love with Whitman when she read Leaves of Grass. She was so enamored with him and his writing that she slept with the book under her pillow. She wrote a book review of Whitman’s in the hope that he would see it and fall in love with her just as she fell in love with him through his writing. She defended him and his writing at a time when many wouldn’t. It took him two years to acknowledge her review, and sent compliments…. through his assistant. Whitman had many fans, but Anne was different. She was different because Whitman wrote her back. Not only did he write her back but they devised a system of communicating with him while he was traveling. He would pick up newspapers from various cities and highlight specific information then send it to her. That way she knew where he was and how he was doing. I think that this was a very sweet story of a long lasting friendship. They didn’t have a romantic relationship although Anne did offer to marry him. After her death, Whitman said that she “was the most perfect woman he had ever known.” This relationship was so sweet and innocent and it really was something that I enjoyed learning about.

Whitman and Conception of the Body:

Whitman believed that there was no physical death. He also believed that everyone was at a bodily level. In class, we watched a film clip from Kinsey. In the clip blame was passed around, the father was not to blame for anything. Alfred Kinsley and his wife’s life experiences were better once they sought out help and learned more about the body. Whitman also believed in democracy. He thought of democracy as a way for people to integrate their beliefs in their everyday lives. He believed that for democracy to work it needs to include everyone equally or it won’t work.


The movie, A Home at the End of the World, questions what it means to be family as well as the traditional roles in the family. It questions things such as love and complications of love. Just as this class has been about origin stories, this movie shows Bobby’s origin story. During Bobby’s life, he searches for meaning and for who he really is. Once he meets Jonathon’s family and they take him in, he seems to be more at peace knowing that his life has meaning and a direction. He seems most happy when he is with Jonathon, and after moving in with him in New York and he meets Clare, his life seems complete. The trio makes a home and life together and begins to raise their daughter together.

I really enjoyed this class and thought we had some really good conversations on many different topics like love, survival and obsession and origin stories. I had learned about some of the readings in the class, but was intrigued by the different spin that our class took on it. I learned a lot about history and backgrounds of the authors from this class. I really liked how Suzanne brought in media connections and real life applications to the reading. It was very helpful with connecting to the text that was written during a much different time than the time we live in now.

As a future teacher, I am going to try to connect the information that we are learning in class with the types of things my students can relate with on a daily basis. I think that when you do that, you can give your students a richer understanding of the material you are trying to teach them. I think that if you can connect information to student’s lives than they will be more interested in what they are learning and work harder. I have tried to do this during my student teaching, and it seemed to help the students be more invested in the class. Being in this class has given me a different perspective on some of these topics, through our class discussions that I will definitely be able to take into my classroom someday. It is always important to be able to look at things with a different perspective and that is something I have always enjoyed in all of my college classes. I believe that class discussions really open up new ideas and make a person decide how they personally view multiple topics and so that is one thing I have appreciated throughout my college career and this class as well.