Final Project: Rapping Whitman

Getting right to it... I took Poem 9 out of the Calamus poems by Walt Whitman, and made it into a rap song. In the poem, the speaker reflects on the hours since his companion has been gone, basically whining in agony about how much he misses him. In shifting the poetry form into song form, I changed the "he" to "she," added lyrics and sentiments not found in the poem (to beef it up into 2 traditional 16-bar verses), and took some creative liberties in transforming Whitman's poetry into a song verse. It ends up as a love song; a love, lost... which is what I got from the poem as well.

I made the instrumental months ago, and entitled it "I Need You." With the addition of the the lyrics/my vocals, I call this song "The Hours."

Here is a link to listen to the song:

http://soundcloud.com/grasshop2/the-hours

I think it would be best to open it up in a new tab, then come back to this tab and follow along with the lyrics. You might need to turn the speakers up since the audio file isn't too loud, but of course, at it is music, laptop speakers suck, and headphones or good computer speakers are gonna be the ideal manner in which to listen. Btw, my "artist" name isn't "GrassHop" anymore, the SoundCloud page is just old...

MY lyrics are on the left, in bold. WHITMAN's original poem is on the right side. I post the original Whitman poetry first, on the right, then follow it with the lyrics I created/stole/modified from the Whitman source material on the left, in bold. I divided the poetry and verses up so you can see clearly exactly how my lyrics came from Whitman's words.

*I wrote some "Production Notes" at the end of the blog post, after the lyrics, if you are interested.*

__________________________________________________________________________

VERSE ONE:

HOURS continuing long, sore and heavy hearted,

Hours, continuing long, sore, and heavy-hearted,
The space between the meeting of myself and the departed.

Hours of dusk, when I withdraw to a lonesome

and unfrequented spot, seating myself, leaning

my face in my hands;

Hours of dusk, clinging to my lonesome fate,
Face in my hands from circumstance as I sit and wait.

Hours sleepless, deep in the night, when I go forth,

speeding swiftly the country roads, or through

the city streets, or pacing miles and miles,

Hours, sleepless, deep in the night,
Pacing roads and city streets just for one more sight- of you.

stif-fling plaintive cries;

Hours discouraged, distracted- for the one I cannot

content myself without, soon I saw him content

himself without me;

It's you- The one I can't live without, 

Like the desert without rain in this perpetual drought. 

Shouts of sorrow traced the wind when I saw you content
Without me, so now I see the world as twisted and bent,

Hours when I am forgotten, (O weeks and months are

passing, but I believe I am never to forget!)

And now the hours I'm forgotten turn to weeks and months, 
While you remained on the brain, not even leavin once,

Sullen and suffering hours! (I am ashamed- but it

is useless- I am what I am;)

Just like a dunce, sittin in shame, the corner of my room, 
Am I naive to have believed that our flower would bloom?
How can I help but feel lost without direction of you, 
And so I write to map out the road to get to what's true, (I'm tellin you...)

---CHORUS---

In the hours of the night, I fight it, but (I need you) 

Through the hours in the day, I'm sayin that (I love you)

Every moment you're away... (I need you)

I'm just wishin you would stay, cuz...

---CHORUS---

VERSE TWO:

Hours of my torment- I wonder if other men ever

have the like, out of the like feelings?

Hours, stuck in this torment and so I wonder,
If others have been sucked by this torrent that brings me under.

Is there even one other like me- distracted- his

friend, his lover, lost to him?

A friend, a lover, that beauty of mine is missing.
Do you feel me? Do you know what it's like to be left wishing?

Is he too as I am now? Does he still rise in the morn-

ing, dejected, thinking who is lost to him? and

at night, awaking, think who is lost?

Do you wake up at night, just to mourn what is lost?
And in the morning only wake up to find her at any cost?

 Does he too harbor his friendship silent and endless?

So I continue to hold onto this friendship, silent and endless, 
Like a dream I need to wake from, if only so I can end this.

harbor his angush and passion?

The anguish and the passion pull the heart from side to side.
I languish and refuse to pass this spot where I reside.
From time to time my pride will give me reason to move on,
Knowing your touch hasn't been felt by my touch in so so long,

Does some stray reminder, or the casual mention of a

name, bring the fit back upon him, taciturn and

deprest?

But the memories are enemies that breath at every moment,
Attempting to forget as I exhale in my atonement.

Does he see himself reflected in me? In these hours,

does he see the face of his hours reflected?

Breath in and fill my lungs with your image that I lack,
Breathing out... giving life to these hours I can't get back, (it's just a fact that, um-)

--CHORUS-- 

[variant from chorus 1:] I just wish you could've stayed, cuz...

 Fin.

 _______________________________________________________________________

Production Notes:

Rapping isn't a passion of mine (though I do like writing poetry). My passion is making sample-based hip-hop instrumentals. If anyone reading is interested in how I created the instrumental, and don't know much about sample-based music in general, I made this short 30-second audio clip where I play back all the individual samples you hear in the song, in their raw form, before I put them all together, added effects, and sequenced them to make the instrumental I rapped over. THIS is what I LOVE to do :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKhbrdEenWU

Some of my favorite rappers do more than just rhyme the last words of every line, so I tried to throw a few internal rhymes and stuff in my verses. My favorite genre is hip-hop, but I'm pretty damn picky with the hip-hop I do listen to. That being said, I tried to not shame my favorite music genre with the lyrics that I wrote, and I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

I recorded this at my friend's home studio. Some of the volume levels on the vocals fluctuate... Sorry, we're both amateurs.

Here is the instrumental, with no vocals, "I Need You", because seriously, I loved this instrumental, and we didn't mix the vocals in too well, so the music kinda got muddled in the vocal version:
http://soundcloud.com/grasshop2/need-you

And there it is.
Peace!

 My vinyl, where I get my samples from. Because I'm old school like that.

Here's Your Feedback, Hanley

I liked the class a lot. I thought the blogs really made it easy for everyone to have an immediate outlet for their take on the poetry and subjects brought up in class. It sucked that the amount of blog posts people actually did kinda dwindled as the semester went on, since it woulda been nice to be able to read more people's blog posts. Maybe there's a way to fix that, I don't know.

I would have liked it if you assigned more essays though. The 5-page kind.

I hear the Scorpions are playing at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View on June 9th. Are you going to be there Hanley??
I most definitely won't be there.

FACT: Richard Cheese version > Scorpions version.

Thanks for everything, Hanley. Pretty cool class.

Coen Brothers

FYI: My knowledge of the works by the Coen Brothers isn't too extensive. I've seen Raising Arizona, The second 1/2 of The Big Lebowski years ago, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Ladykillers (not good), and No Country For Old Men (crazy good).

I feel bad that I have not seen Fargo, but worse that I haven't seen The Big Lebowski in its entirety, so I'll find a way to watch it tomorrow... Oh, it's 2am, so I mean... later today.

1) How does Whitman bring both high and low culture into his work? And the Coens? What are the implications of such a mixture? What about the image of “overeducated and underemployed slackers” (sound familiar?)?

In my freshman year of high school, my English teacher was educating us on what "allusions" were, so she had us watch an episode of The Simpsons during class and asked us to write down all the allusions and references to outside sources that we could identify... Pretty awesome assignment, cuz it's my favorite show. The Simpsons always had elements of "high" and "low" culture, and sometimes after rewatching old episodes, I'd find myself laughing at different things that I hadn't laughed at before, not laughing at things I had previously found funny, and then also still laughing at other parts that transcended any humor boundaries. Both Whitman's and the Coen Bros. use of language can be said to be part of the "low" culture (as seen in the clip you provided). Whitman operated in a medium that, in a way, was always part of "high" culture (literature, poetry). The Coen Brothers can bring philosophical elements into their dialogue, and also draw inspiration for their stories/characters from "high" culture sources, like Homer's The Odyssey for O Brother, Where Art Thou? or the novel No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (I was assigned a Cormac McCarthy book in high school, so it must be "high" culture I guess). At the same time, the Coens show off a bit of "low" culture through a lot of their humorous techniques, whether it be physical comedy, grotesque and dark comedy, or a shitload of cussing. They also like writing in some characters that are crazy STUPID for comic relief. George Clooney in O Brother? STOOPID. There really weren't any smart characters in that movie, actually. I guess Clooney was the smart one of the bunch. The hearts and souls were on the right track though. As for the implications? An example can be found in the movie O Brother, where the politician dude wants to gain favor with the public to win re-election, but has difficulty connecting with the common people. Near the end of the film, he grants the Soggy Bottom Boys pardons for their troubles with the law for performing their song in support of the politician dude. The mixture of high/low culture attracts a wider audience with the purpose of being inclusive to all kinds of people. Even in saying that though, it might seem as if a person can only enjoy either high OR low culture, and not both... In looking at the Coen Brothers and Walt Whitman, who are writers, we see how the high/low culture can come from one source, and audiences to their work can simultaneously enjoy both aspects of the work, too.

2) In what ways do the Coen brothers live up to Whitman’s image of the American poet? Do any films in particular come to mind? In what ways do the Coens’ portrayal of America and Americans relate to Whitman’s? 

Whitman in his Preface: "A great poem is for ages and ages in common and for all degrees and complexions and all departments and sects and for a woman as much as a man and a man as much as a woman."

This makes me think of how the Coen Brothers told the story of O Brother, Where Art Thou? in which the 3 main characters mingle with different types, different colors, different classes through their journey in America. Just from what films I have seen, I can't say I have seen much representation of an upper-class (I see more middle and lower-class people in their films) and I don't see a whole lot of women in large roles. Other aspects of Whitman's Preface ask that the poet "absorbs" their nation just as the nation absorbs the poet, involving every aspect of said nation. The Coen Brothers do seek to portray American in an honest way, I feel. They follow the interactions of people from different backgrounds. They try to show an honesty in their dialogue, and their scenes that have no spoken words as well. They try to show American in different time periods, in different locations, just for the sake of showing the world what that particular slice of America might feel like at that moment.

3) Just as Whitman catalogs all walks of life in “Song of Myself” and “Song for Occupations”, the Coen Brothers seem to create remarkably diverse characters in each of their movies. How might any given character of a Coen Bros. movie fit into the Whitmanian ideal? Would Whitman be able toeasily relate to/connect with other Coen characters besides The Dude? Why are these characters so relatable to Whitman?

Just like you guys say in the question, Whitman catalogs all walks of life in those two poems, and the Coen Brothers have made some of those in the Whitman catalog into major and minor characters in their films. When you guys say "Whitmanian Ideal" I don't know how one character would fit into a Whitmanian Ideal. i think that the conglomerate of all the characters the Coens have presented is itself partly representing the Whitmanian Ideal, if that makes sense. The Whitman Ideal involves an ideology that strives to be inclusive, strives to be democratic, and strives to have permanence. Whitman loves the idea of him being able to "connect" with all kinds of people, and I think he's have no qualms with spending time with any of the characters in the films (except Chigurgh... that foo would kill him). The Coens like to "get around" when it comes to fleshing out characters from all across America in the same way Whitman tried to do with his poetry.

They try to keep their portrayals away from being too flashy or too unrealistic (except for comic relief) and this puts their work on a pedestal isn't any higher than their audience. They want to tell you a story, but they want you to feel that they, and their characters, are all living in the same real world as you, giving the films a sense of equality, rather than escapism.

"The messages of great poets to each man and woman are, Come to us on equal terms, Only then can you understand us, We are no better than you..." -Whitman

Actually, not all of the Coen characters are mean to show common America. Some characters are just... fucking insane.

Levine

Hey, me too.
Since I'm in the Levine group though, I'm only doing the easy parts, since I'll be doing the hard parts tomorrow during the presentation.

Anthem:
I could have picked a million other songs, but this was what I listened to before work, today.

 P.O.S. - Audition Mantra

Picture:

Graf that reads "It's a hole!"...

This is my favorite Levine poem I've read. It's called "The Lost Angel." There is a reference to empty fists as "two shaking hammers" near the end, which I don't quite understand, but it remains my favorite:

 

I figured if Hanley can say Lilacs is his favorite poem, without "getting" it, then so can I.

Muriel Rukeyser In Da House

 "Life Goes On" -2Pac

How should we represent the dead?...

        I personally feel that there is a very different relationship between poet and reader when comparing Book of the Dead and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. While Whitman LoOoOoOved being all inclusive in poems like Song of Myself and Song of Occupations, I feel like Lilacs is more of a personal presentation. Whitman does end up gaining companions in Lilacs in the form of some creepy death-representing dudes, but I feel Lilacs was mostly Walt looking at himself by looking at the world, trying to find answers for himself, by himself. A lot of people go through some sort of self-reflection when dealing with death, so Lilacs represents that inner-struggle well. Book of the Dead feels more didactic, seeking to teach, or perhaps, just REMIND people of the construction of our nation. In the first 5 stanzas, Rukeyser is basically saying to me "Yo! Don't forget how we came to be here in this nation. Don't forget the people that died in the construction of this nation. Don't forget who used to live on the land you own. Don't forget."
Rukeyser says it herself:  

What three things can never be done?
Forget. Keep silent. Stand alone.

        Rukeyser refuses to forget or keep silent. Book of the Dead is proof. She remembers. She speaks on what happened. And she stands with those who have died, straight up representing for the Dead.

        In this way, I feel like Book of the Dead reminds me more of Song of Occupations. In that poem, Whitman was more like "Hey, sup guys. Whitman in da house. Don't forget about all these people that make the country run. Without work, this country would not work. Respect that. Don't forget. I won't stay silent about it. And I stand with the workers."
Rukeyser's poem feels like it was written by someone with anger in their heart over America's forgetful nature, but through her pen, she wrote stoic poetics that are firm, yet filled with respect for her people, which in this poem, are The Dead.
        
      The word "You" in Lilacs is used to describe the bird, the star, death, and generally, things that are NOT human. In Book of the Dead, using the word "You," Rukeyser seems to point a finger at the writers of history much of the time, or simply just those people who are inclined to forget history. She is putting a spotlight on things that people may not notice (like Whitman in Song of Occupations). She may even feel that the writers of history hide the whole truth in order to make sure people DON'T notice the real truth of the lives this country was built on. So, Rukeyser says "Fuck that shit. Here, Imma bust the facts for yall." And she does.

        In Lilacs, I definitely feel the poet has come to a feeling of resolution from tragedy. For Whitman, there is a beauty he finds in nature, and finding death to be natural, he eventually finds the beauty in death. For Rukeyser, she finds ugliness in the failure to recognize the sacrifices people have made. During the last section of the poem, she describes the miners from the Hawk's Nest Incident, and places them within the greater history of our nation, letting us know that just as the injustices and tragedies in our nation's early years won't be forgotten, neither will the lives and injustices of those workers in those mines. If a resolution can be found in Book of the Dead, it is in the fact that the poet, using her best vehicle for delivering her message (poetry), delivered her message, did not forget, and did not stay silent.

Here is Muriel Rukeyser's "Book of the Dead" in song form... if it were done in a not-so stoic manner.

If Philip Levine Was A Rapper...

...maybe he'd sound like this?
Maybe not.

But I just felt like posting these songs cuz A) I'm in the Philip Levine group, and his perspectives stay on my mind at the moment, so I notice them when they appear in some of the music I listen to, B) I'm about to leave for this 5am work shift, so I feel in the mood for these songs right now, cuz they let me know I don't have it too bad, really...
and C) Cuz it's my blog ;)

Atmosphere - Guarantees

Slug (from Atmosphere) - Not Another Day (Live)

Poetics of Collective Loss

        When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloomed is a poem recalling loss, death, and life. Whitman aims to make peace with the loss of the 'man he loved' leaving a sprig from the lilac bush on the coffin of this man which passes through the nation, casting the shadow of loss across all the people. I did not have Lilacs read for class last Thursday, since I got used to checking the motherblog for everything and threw the syllabus to the side. Then again, the motherblog should not be granted the honor of the prestigious title MOTHERblog if it doesn't have everything we need to know on it, right? Cmon son. No context. Like a G. Anyway, I was confused on Thursday, but I still took notes. Professor Hanley mentioned to pay close attention to the lilac sprig/bush, the 'star,' and the bird that sings the 'carol' of death. I haven't gone into all the connections these symbols have, but my basic understanding of his use of these symbols in the shallowest sense is that the lilac presents a symbol of life and offering of beauty to the dead. The 'star' which sometimes seems to represent the sun, and sometimes the moon (?), represents the coming and going of days, seasons, and life. The bird's song gives beauty to the idea of death as the start of a new beginning, which it seems the poem's speaker embraces by the end of the poem. I really enjoyed the poem. Hanley, you weren't lying. It's good stuff!

        The first 9/11 poem that struck me as similar to Lilacs was a part of Lucille Clifton's "September Songs, A Poem In Seven Days," specifically her poem for "Sunday."


and i am consumed with love
for all of it
the everydayness of bravery
of hate of fear of tragedy
of death and birth and hope
true as this river
and especially with love
bailey fredrica clifton goin
for you

        I might be stretching, but Whitman's poem has a sense that it takes the loss of life in the same way we take a day in, with the light waking us up in the morning before having the earth be covered in darkness by nightfall, only to be lightened up again in the morning. At the end of Lilacs the poem's speaker is chillin with his death companions and the bird at "dusk and dim" waiting for the new day to begin. This "Sunday" poem also looks towards the future, specifically the poet's young relative (daughter?) Bailey Fredrica Clifton and looking not only at death, but "death birth and hope."

        Another poem I wanted to look at was "Hum" by Ann Lauterbach. She repeats many of her phrases, emphasizing a certain type of connection between everything it seems, and finding beauty in everything. She also brings up the ideas of days ("tomorrow," "yesterday," and "these days") in the same way Whitman does when he speaks on the star in the west which I view as the sun about to set to begin the night, and then a new day. Lauterbach sees a new beginning by pointing out that the "words" retired to their "books," that the "stones" were looses from their "settings," and that the "ashes" of loss remained. I feel as if this looks to a world that has changed more than it has lost, and that a new beginning can be made as the raw materials are still in our posession, they are just in different places/forms.
Whitman also looks to beauty in nature in his poem, where Lauterbach mentions beauty many times in her poem as if to remind everyone of the beauty in the world before being drowned in the idea of loss. Whitman also tries to find beauty in death as an end to suffering.

        Here's a bonus that you don't have to read since it is a bit off tangent from the assignment: When Professor Hanley mentioned the Lilac, Star, and Bird, I couldn't help but think of this song covered by Richie Havens called "High Flying Bird." The song is about loss as well, and features lyrics involving a high-flying bird, the lucky Sun that travels across the sky and gets to "meet God everyday," as well as the speaker of the song, who is stuck on the ground, "rooted like a tree." Tree, Sun, and Bird. I just thought the symbols were similar, and they were all used to give a new vision to loss, as Richie Havens sings about how the woman he lost now "flies" as a result of her death, which she could never do in life. The symbols are used differently from the way they are used in Whitman's poem, but I thought it was weird how similar the symbols were anyway. It's one of my favorite songs. Beautiful stuff.

Sir Hanley, I'm Sorry.

Not gonna post my blog assignment for Tuesday on time. Maybe I'll have it for tomorrow. Was busy all weekend. Just got back from school right now. Then these fools at work got me working 7-10pm tonight and 6am-1pm tomorrow. P-p-p-please don't give me a ✔-...

It's like I missed a shot, it's like I dropped the ball...

Worst song ever?

Project Development... Updated.

        So, I have decided to change up my approach to this Project Development thing. As long as I don't change my mind again, I am most likely going to make an expansion on my YouTubing Whitman project. In that project, I edited a video, placed one of my songs underneath, and recited Whitman lines on top. Through that project, I tried to create a new lens in which to view Whitman's poetry by way of visual media. Now, I'd like to create a new lens to view the Whitman poetry by transforming Whitman's verse into rap verse, and use his own colors to create a new painting.. I'd like to go into the Calamus poems, dig up lines that I can transform, add to, and subtract from, and create a song. I will take creative liberties while I do, cuz, you know...
    
        I will extract the CONTENT from the poetics of Whitman's lines, and then place the content back into a different poetic form. Sometimes, I will rip the lines right out of the poem, and stick them straight into the song. I will post my lyrics side by side with the Calamus poems/lines I adapted them from, to show what meanings and sentiments I derive from his poetry. I will also post the audio of the song on my blog once I'm done as well. My friend has a ghetto studio with a real vocal microphone, i.e. one that doesn't blow up and distort whenever you say a word with the letter "P" in it. Hopefully I can get him to hook me up. Otherwise, it will be recorded on my really bad microphone. My bad.

        I don't rap, but just this once, I will. My voice doesn't have much range, so I will probably sound like something in between the monotone stylings of Guru (from Gang Starr) and Evidence (from Dilated Peoples). On these songs here, both of the rappers I named had the benefit of having my producer-hero DJ Premier lace them with a dope-ass beat and scratches. I won't have that luxury, but I hope it comes out decent, because I am picky as hell when it comes to my Hip-Hop, and I will hate myself if it comes out wack. Real talk.

Rest in Peace, Guru.

Microphone check, 1, 2.

Tweet-A-Week: Peter Doyle

Peter Doyle was this one dude that Whitman loved. According to Doyle, as documented in the Whitman Archive online, their first meeting was like this:

While a passenger one evening on Doyle's horsecar, the 45-year old Whitman met the 21-year old conductor. Doyle described their first encounter:

You ask where I first met him? It is a curious story. We felt to each other at once. I was a conductor. The night was very stormy,—he had been over to see Burroughs before he came down to take the car—the storm was awful. Walt had his blanket—it was thrown round his shoulders—he seemed like an old sea-captain. He was the only passenger, it was a lonely night, so I thought I would go in and talk with him. Something in me made me do it and something in him drew me that way. He used to say there was something in me had the same effect on him. Anyway, I went into the car. We were familiar at once—I put my hand on his knee—we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip—in fact went all the way back with me. I think the year of this was 1866. From that time on we were the biggest sort of friends (Bucke, 23).

I wanted to make sure to read the Calamus poems before writing this entry, as I figured to relate Peter Doyle to Walt Whitman was to know what the Calamus poems were all about. Whitman's job was that he was a writer. As a writer, he was drawn towards the life of "roughs" especially. Peter Doyle was one of these roughs. Peter worked as Blacksmith's helper in a Navy Yard at a time in his life, as well as a conductor when Walt met him, among other things. Whitman could romanticize these 'roughs,' and Peter could be seen as the 'rough' who became Whitman's close companion, friend, muse, and romantic partner.

"For a time, Whitman had even taken up the carpenter's craft that his father had taught to Walt and the other Whitman boys." -Peter the Great: Biography of Peter Doyle by Martin G. Murray.


Though Whitman was a writer, Peter connected Whitman to this life of a rough, which Whitman seemed to want to be more of a part of (as he previously was through connection from his family and his own foray in the world of carpentry). This may have led to some initial attraction and some good conversation between the two men, but at the end of the day, they ended up becoming great friends and lovers. Some poems in the Calamus cluster bring up the image of the Calamus, a plant that has a part that looks like a ding-a-ling. Other poems explore manly love, especially in the form of physical, sexual love, speaking of bodies intertwined with each other as if it was the only way a man could be happy. Other poems sound like love songs you might hear anywhere on the radio, only they mention that the love is between two men (which is something you wouldn't hear much on the radio, unless you listen to a very, very alternative station). Those poems which only focus on the love are very romantic and sweet, speaking of a longing for a "friend," a best friend, whose companionship brings true happiness. For Walt Whitman, Peter Doyle was that friend.

When I typed 'ding-a-ling' in this post to describe the calamus, I remembered this song, which got heavy play on hip-hop radio back in 1998. I was 10 years old then. I had no business listening to this song. It's almost as freaky as Whitman. That hook is kinda classic though, no?

*I recommend not clicking on the song. I got off home from work at 1am, have yet to sleep, and my mind is lacking its best judgement, I'm sure.*

Project Development

I kinda wanted to look at some more of Whitman's peers, but at the same time, I didn't. Then I also wanted to look at more examples of Whitman in Mass Media, but at the same time, I didn't. I was wondering if I could do a project that in a way combines elements from those two projects (but at the same time, is a bit different)? What I had in mind is looking for a few of Whitman's peers, not in terms of time/place/artform, but in terms of an artist who directly claims Whitman as a heavy influence and creates art as a 'peer' of Whitman in terms of his 'realm of style' (and I wouldn't dwell on any of the poets/artists who are involved in our teaching project). After finding a few artists who state they are directly influenced, I wanted to look at what exactly they took from Whitman's influence (free-form? romantic aspects? ideas of interconnectedness? language? democratic ideals?) I wanted to build on the other 'Whitman's Peers' post by showing Whitman influence that is direct and stated, and this idea comes from the fact that one of my 'Whitman In Mass Media' entries directly stated Whitman as an influence. What I really hope to find is a few artists I don't know much about, and examining their art to find what they borrow from Whitman, which might also show me what certain things people notice the most about Whitman.

"B*tches in Bookstores"

1:23- "Watch me spit, classic lit, epic poems that don't rhyme."

She's obviously talking about Whitman, yo.
 
(She's actually talking about The Iliad, but you can tell she wanted to say Leaves of Grass.)

I'm J.K. Rowling

Tweet-A-Week: Martin F. Tupper

        Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) was a dude. He wrote poetry, and notably wrote Proverbial Philosophy, A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, which was a book about thoughts and arguments. He dropped knowledge over the pages, while other authors just clumsily spilled knowledge (I stole that one from Immortal Technique). Why do I say he dropped knowledge instead of spilled? He wrote the book in prose, but not necessarily sticking to any traditional poetry form either. He wrote in what would today be called free-verse, which is what Whitman liked to do as we've seen in Leaves of Grass. He was a bit of a pioneer in that sense and no doubt influenced writers of the future.(Whitman called him "a rare man of our time.")

        In a contemporary review of Whitman's 1860/1861 version of Leaves of Grass, one reviewer notes:

Can it be possible that Mr. Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy" has inspired Mr. Walt Whitman with the idea of his Leaves? We have most of us probably heard and read of persons who solved mathematical problems or composed poetry while asleep; and we think it just possible that the author of "Proverbial Philosophy" may unconsciously, while suffering from a fit of the nightmare, have had something to do with the composition of these American Leaves. At least we trace in them some wild fantastic resemblance to his style; such as to make us pretty sure that Mr. Whitman has occasionally "tasted the simple store and rested one soothing hour" with the English poetaster whose words we quote.

        The reviewer notes how similar the writing styles are, and finishes the review by saying that "Sense, grammar, and metre are but very minor parts in the composition of poetry; but nevertheless, pace Walt Whitman, poetry cannot exist without this humble triad."

He's basically saying poetry needs sense, grammar, and meter in order to exist.

Walt and Martin's response?:

You know which one Whitman be!

Specimen Days: Home-Made Music

        In this entry, Whitman speaks not of an event, but of an experience. The setting of his journal entry is one where he is spending the night among the wounded soldiers. He hears singing, and decides to leave the side of the soldier he was accompanying for a moment, as he was asleep anyway. He gets closer to the music, and takes a seat by another wounded soldier, a Brooklyn friend. As he sits there watching the singers, and making sure his wounded friend can also see the singers, he has a beautiful experience. He realizes that even though these singers don't sing as great as the pro singers in the New York opera house, and weren't performing complex musical compositions, he enjoyed himself as much as if he were in the opera house watching the most grand of performances. He notices the way the wounded soldiers watched in silence, and how their attitudes changed upon witnessing the performance, and that the whole thing "was a sight to look around upon again and again."
        Whitman knows what he's talking about. Life is about experience. It's not about how much money you spend for the experience or where the experience is. What matters is what you take from the experiences life gives you. Lots of times, the experiences we remember most are not remembered solely for an event, but everything that accompanied the event, like the smells, sights, emotions, and company. Not every single thing has to be perfect for everything to be perfect... if that makes sense.
        Whitman could hang with the high-culture cats and the low-culture cats. Here, he is down with the low-culture, enjoying some pure entertainment in good company. He could have paid little attention to the whole experience though. A lot of times, the experience you have can just depend on your attitude towards things. I could listen to a CD of my favorite music and get lost in the sounds, but in the same way, I can also listen to my favorite vinyl records and get lost in the music as well. Beyond the hiss, cracks, and static you hear on a vinyl record, a very beautiful experience is to be had. Once, I was making some music, sampling off an old record, and my old roommate told me that he liked what I was making, but that I should get rid of "all the static" because he didn't think it sounded good. I realized he had a completely different perception of that static than me. Whenever I hear static on a record, I never hear imperfections, I hear history. And to me, it is as important of a piece of the experience as any other.
        When Whitman writes about the people, places, and experiences in Leaves of Grass, he often lifts them up from their perceived normality into a state of beauty. He can write about a farmer and treat the subject as if he were majestic. Like I said. Whitman knows what he's talking about. Whitman could pierce into the souls of things and find the beauty underneath any rough surface. Even in my music tastes, my favorite singers all have the roughest voices. I still think Eric Burdon from The Animals is one of the best singers ever. He laid some beautiful soul on those tracks. Doesn't matter how rough the voice was, it was beautiful. I can't even listen to the radio. Everything sounds too clean. I'm stuck on singers from the 60s. There's realness in the rough. Whitman saw that. I love to look for it. It's finding lessons in mistakes. It's finding character in scars. It's knowing that the girl with some imperfections is actually way more attractive than the one that looks like a supermodel. It's knowing that the wrinkles in your clothes just means you actually did some shit while you were wearing them. It's knowing that an amateur musical performance in a room full of wounded soldiers can actually be the most breathtaking experience. You know.

beautiful.

Shout Outs to Whitman (In Mass Culture)

I'm a terrible procrastinator, and yet I'm doing this assignment on the first day it was officially assigned. Something must be wrong.

-ONE
        This first example comes from a blog called "Poetry & Popular Culture" by a guy named Mike Chasar. In his blog, Mike posted a clip from a show called Breaking Bad in which one of the characters recites my favorite Whitman poem, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer":

         According to a good friend of mine, Breaking Bad and The Wire are pretty much the greatest TV shows ever, so one of these days, as I promised him, I will illegally download them, and watch. I didn't want to write about that example in this post though, since I didn't want to jack TWO posts from Mike, and I preferred to write about a different example he brought up of Whitman.
        He shows a strip from a newspaper comic called "Pearls Before Swine" by Stephan Pastis in which the characters reference Walt Whitman and Twitter:

      Click on the image! It will make it bigger! I swear!

        Mike's blog post is called "On the Twittification of Walt Whitman," which contains the image of the strip, as well as a few lines from Song of Myself that Mike "twittified":

I cLebr8 myself,
& wot I assume U shaL assume,
4 evry atom belonging 2 me az gud belongs 2 U. 

        Leaves of Grass actually is tweeted on the daily on the Twitter account @TweetsOfGrass (Shoutouts to Hanley, since I found that Twitter account after peeping who he follows on the Twitta earlier in the semester).

        From the times I've read this comic strip, a lot of them include arguments between the characters regarding what's right or wrong, with the Rat character usually playing the cool calm douchebag who supports what most people would probably find 'wrong'. Rat says Whitman should have been limited to 140 characters, as people are on Twitter, which comments on society's love of short quotes, summaries, and highlights as opposed to diving straight into the source and bathing in the full context.

        When read "twittified," Whitman's poetry, as well as the poetry and texts of many other people, could be misinterpreted and simplified to those not familiar with the source text. When Whitman lists occupations or other things in his poetry, the connection between the things on his list might be lost. Also Whitman might ride a theme, from something like a runaway slave to politicians to natural descriptions, and those lines in which he rides his themes take up much more than 140 characters... Much would be lost on the reader.

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-TWO

        Saul Williams is a poet, who sometimes raps, and sometimes sings. Half of his music annoys me and half of his music I love. No, actually I'm pretty sure I love MUCH less than half of his music... And now I sound like one of those people who reviewed Whitman :( 

        Anyway, for every song of his that I dislike, I just go back and play some of his really good stuff like "List of Demands (Reparations)" or "Wine." Good shit!

        For this example, I went to his nice collaboration with DJ Krust in the song version of his poem "Coded Language":

        At around the 2:55 mark, Williams goes into list form, not unlike Whitman, and names poets, singers, songwriters, entertainers, and activists who he feels made and impact in cultural consciousness (at around 3:09, you will hear him give the shoutout to the big homie Walt Whitman, as well as Allen Ginsberg just a few seconds after).

        I also found this interview with Saul in which the "list writing" is noticed by both Saul and the interviewer:

DJ MATT WERNER: In exploring these different esoteric religious and spiritual traditions, I found there seems to be some parallels between your poetry and that of William Butler Yeats like with his poem The Second Coming and also Walt Whitman as well, in the listing in some of your tracks like Release and Coded Language, those seem to very much have that Whitmanian quality to them.
**Note from Miguel: If you want to hear the other song mentiond, "Release," it's actually from a Blackalicious song which Saul is featured on, off of the album Blazing Arrow, which is one of the best albums ever ;]

SAUL WILLIAMS: Well Whitman is definitely very influential, and I’ve definitely read some Yeats as well. And these older poets have definitely opened a door for me to, [Saul gives a long exhale] I guess, to step beyond. And they have like me I think there is this thing that’s being so deeply entrenched in this Christian society and seeing something deep within it and something well beyond it as well, and wanting to explore and using words to do that and realizing that the writing itself and the reading of the writing in my case often is a form of ritual.

Cool. But to focus on what I feel is the main point of the song "Coded Language," near the end of the song, Saul says:

We enlist every instrument: Acoustic, electronic.
Every so-called gender, race, sexual preference,
Every per-son as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility to
Uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking World,
Any utterance un-aimed will be disclaimed - two rappers slain.

        In these lines, I feel we find the reason why Williams named the people he named in his list. He asks that those involved in music and sound to "acknowledge their responsibility to uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world"... I love that. And Saul gives props to artists and entertainers who he feels did this in their lifetime when he's going down his list.

        This reminds me of a thought from Iona's post "Reviewing Reviews of Whitman." Following a related branch of thought, she imagines that one day our society might ask certain qualities of our poets:

Perhaps one day our 'cultural assumptions' will simply amount to a plea that our poets be honest, democratic people who write honest, democratic poems. Is that wishful thinking? Have I become infected with Whitman-esque happiness? Is that necessarily a bad thing? ;)

        Just like Iona might have become infected with "Whitman-esque happiness," it seems Saul has too found himself affected by the poetry of the great artists he names... His plea is that poets speak and uplift democratically on behalf of "the entire fucking world." 

Bonus clip of Saul Williams performing the poem, without that DJ Krust music behind it.

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-THREE

        This is my favorite. Because it is funny. And if I've learned anything in life, it is that a sense of humor is the most valuable thing in this world. So I love the people who made this video.
        I know for this project we were supposed to find things in popular culture, but obviously this clip isn't very popular, only grabbing 461 views in nearly 4 years. It was intended for mass culture though, so yea- A sketch comedy clip based on a visit to Walt Whitman's tomb:

Watch the clip before reading on :D

  

        From this video, I learned a lot about Whitman. I learned he was a prize-fighter who fought a mule, which explains the nickname Walt "the mule fighter" Whitman. I learned that he wrote hilarious movie reviews for Playboy Magazine. I also learned that he was also a mediocre poet.

        This video makes fun of the classic biographies of famous people in history who did extraordinary things and it paints Walt Whitman as a Teddy Roosevelt-type figure, when really, Whitman just wrote poetry. He did travel around the nation and do his share of exploring, but Whitman will definitely just be remembered for his poetry and the direction of his artistic spirit. Though the tour-guide livens up Whitman's biography, the tourists don't want to hear that. They just want to know about Whitman the poet, and maybe hear a few poems.

That (Real) Mass Appeal

        This man read Leaves of Grass, gained an understanding of what it took to appeal to the common American, and then made a commercial with the tools he acquired from reading Whitman.
        In general, I hate advertising, but I do love this commercial.

Creating that Whitman appeal:       

-The collar is loose and the sleeves are rolled-up, giving off the image that even though he may be white-collar, he's still connected to those who work for and around him, and might even do some of the dirty work with everyone else from time to time. 

-Use of 'rowdy' language ("Our blades are fucking great").

-Not hiding the company owner (to be transparent to the everyday person). 

-Not hiding the worker when presenting the company (giving credit to the laborer).

-A statement of job creation (to appeal to the loads of common people who are unemployed).

-Presenting a low price for the product he's selling to appeal to the majority of the nation, who aren't crazy wealthy (like Roger Federer).

-American flag to show some props for the country we live in.

-A Bear (Nature?). 

I know karate, I know jujitsu, and drive like a gangsta when I'm coming to see you.

Let me know if I missed any Whitman characteristics. 

We're still not seeing how the blades are made, where the stainless steel comes from, etc., but it's a start.

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Checking Out Reviews That Checked You Out

On three reviews of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass...
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[Anonymous]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Christian Spiritualist (1856): [unknown]

        I clicked on this review because I saw it was from a publication called the Christian Spiritualist. I expected the reviewer to say something like what the writer from The Saturday Review suggested, and tell us to throw Leaves of Grass "behind the fire"... But that didn't happen. With the Christian label, I expected the writer, in 1856, to write from the perspective of a conservative church leader as a representative of whatever Christian values the publication stood for. Instead, the reviewer was very open to the poetry, and pretty much in love with Walt Whitman. He starts off quoting someone who is dissing the modern state of poetry, then disses modern poetry a bit himself, before saying that Whitman is possibly ushering in renaissance in poetry. He catches how Whitman aims to capture a sense of unity and brotherly love between all peoples in his words. He mentions that for Whitman, "his sympathy is with man." The reviewer keeps mentioning that Whitman is a bit foul-mouthed, censoring quoted passages and warning readers that along with his strong recommendation also comes a strong warning that Whitman paints some "graphic pictures."
        My favorite description of his towards Whitman is that he is a "drunken Hercules" among "dainty dancers," both giving Whitman props for his powerful words, while also saying he has a reckless tongue. It gives me the sense that the reviewer really didn't give a damn about Whitman using his 'foul' language. He thought the art Whitman made was great. It kinda made me feel like the way the media will hype something up in the news, even though no one gives a shit about it. It's like he was warning the public about Whitman's 'foul' just because he had to, not because he felt the majority of readers would really care or be offended. Maybe that's how the open-minded the American public was at that time, or maybe the Christian Spiritualist just had a very open-minded readership.
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[Anonymous]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." The Critic 15 (1 April 1856): 170-1.

         Dayyym. Haters gonna hate. This dude straight up hates Walt Whitman. Like, HATES him.
        
"We do not, then, fear this Walt Whitman, who gives us slang in the place of melody, and rowdyism in the place of regularity. The depth of his indecencies will be the grave of his fame, or ought to be if all proper feeling is not extinct."

        What I get from the above quote is that this reviewer feels Whitman's slang and rowdiness are attempts at Whitman trying to make a name for himself.
        I'll be the first one to tell you that I hate when "artists" use pure sensationalism just to get the attention and devotion of some stupid would-be fans (and you can ask anyone who knows me, I don't mind dishing out hate to things I consider fake, or people I consider to be straight-up suckas, for I stay sucka-free). But when an artist has sensational aspects in the art with a message that still runs deep, I don't mind (not that I found LoG sensational, just in thinking about artists from today who might be considered controversial). This reviewer however doesn't seem to find sincerity in Whitman's poetry and message. The idea of Whitman using 'vulgar' language, including a 'vulgar' photo of himself, and Whitman's overall hippy-ness seem to have made an impression on the reviewer that no amount of meaning, sincerity, or poetic virtue could override. The reviewer seems to want to hate Whitman's work for those things, and won't let it go. He even says Whitman writes so poorly, that he must have been just learning how to write. That's hate.
        This guy is the dude who represents the prudishness of the nation. This guy is the one who is a xenophobe. A neophobe. He reminds me of some dudes on Fox News that talk shit about things they already wanted to hate. The criticism of Leaves of Grass is so one-dimensional, talking about how "unoriginal" Whitman is for writing about unity in humanity (simply because he wasn't the first one ever to write about it), or just talking about his vulgarity. It seems to be a simple-minded review from a simple individual. I usually don't like it when people disregard negative criticism, because a lot of critics can have something good to say... but this reviewer is just a hater for hate's sake.

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[Norton, Charles Eliot]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Putnam's Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art 6 (September 1855): 321-3.

        Norton doesn't say a WHOLE lot about the poem... He includes a lot of quotes from the poem. What he does say about the poem though, I found interesting. He finds that some of the language is laughable or comical, probably as it must have been abnormal to see such language in poetry at that time, but he recognizes the power in Whitman's writing nonetheless. This pretty much sums up how the reviewer feels about LoG:

It's "not to be read aloud to a mixed audience, but the introduction of terms, never before heard or seen, and of slang expressions, often renders an otherwise striking passage altogether laughable."

        Again, language is a factor here, and though the writer finds Whitman is talented at using words, he finds his word choices to be somewhat poor.
        The reviewer tries to be fair in including an excerpt from Whitman's own intro, highlighting that Whitman strives for simplicity, and wants to give a direct reflection of his poetry as it appears in his mind when first conceived. The reviewer ends the article with a kind of jab at Whitman's reference to himself as a "Kosmos," basically saying "yo... I don't know what this fool talking about saying he's a Kosmos, but I'm pretty sure this foo crazy."

This pretty much sums up how Norton feels about Whitman:

Tweet-A-Week: Frances Wright

        Frances (Fanny) Wright (1795-1852) was an author, feminist, and social reformer. Born in Scotland, but spending much of her time in the US, she was one of those “ahead of their time” type people. She advocated for free education for children, sexual empowerment for women, equal rights and fairness between men and women in marriages, and the emancipation of slaves. Her tombstone says “I have wedded the cause of human improvement, staked on it my fortune, my reputation and my life.” If that ain’t gangsta, I really don’t know what is…
        Fanny was about equal playing ground for all peoples. This was shown through her fight for equal rights for women, her desire to free slaves from their forced servitude, and her idea that ALL children should be able to receive education. Whitman’s poetry contains the ideas of all humanity being one. Wright took steps to create one equal humanity in the physical and tangible world. She even created a community, the Nashoba Commune, to try to educate and liberate slaves in a process where they could work towards their emancipation from their slave owners. Ahead of her time. She did her best to make life better for people who had less power than the white male, and put up her own money and time to try and make change. Ahead of her time, and maybe still ahead of our time. A selfless nature seemed to exist in this woman. Song of Myself really is about eliminating the concept of “self” and Wright was one of those people acted without the idea of “self” coming into play much. She was part of a minority that has probably seen the most inequality since the beginning of time (and still sees inequality today) simply being female, yet she fought against the inequalities that other groups faced as well.
        Fanny was someone who was down for the revolution. Legitimate revolutions are brought about by underrepresented people coming together to receive justice. Whitman loved to speak on the underrepresented. They would both take in a runaway slave. Look at the words we are seeing in the current revolution… I came across this photo a few weeks ago clicking around Facebook. So many of these signs are Whitman-esque in their inclusiveness. And they embody a spirit like the one found in Frances Wright.

The signs are all songs of myself.

Specimen Days: Sunday With The Insane

        What a title. I'll name a song I make "Sunday With The Insane" one of these days.
        Whitman writes about his visit to an Insane Asylum, and specifically the religious services that were held on the premises. He says about 300 people were in attendance for the services, and that most of them were patients. He was mostly surprised by the audience, comprised of many “insane” persons, and how calm and focused they seemed to be.
        Whitman doesn’t say it, but he expected the patients to be acting a little more… insane. He looks at them in a sort of amazement. He feels that it may be the “peace of god” that transcends different levels of understanding different people may have of the world (I.e. transcending whatever abnormalities these people had in their minds). He reminds himself that humanity is common among all, with the quote “The same old blood -- the same red, running blood;”… Though Walt wrote of the common humanity in many of his poems, here he shows how his own preconceived notions about the differences in humans superseded his openness to seeing that common humanity in everyone. He shows his amazement that he may, in fact, be right about our common humanity.

Song(s) For Occupations

This poem... My favorite lines are without a doubt the ones that close the poem:

When the psalm sings instead of the singer,

When the script preaches instead of the preacher,

When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that carved the supporting          desk,

When the sacred vessels or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath and plast, procreate          as effectually as the young silversmiths or bakers, or the masons in their          overalls,

When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman and child convince,

When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the nightwatchman's daughter,

When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my friendly companions,

I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and
         women. 

        These lines remind me of Karl Marx's writings on how the products and services that workers provide are so often detached from the actual labor involved in bringing said products and services about. Whitman dishes out praise for the workers of the world in his poem, and I can't help but appreciate this poem a lot for that. The last line shows that he wishes to give all praise to the men and women who work to create the world we live in (as opposed to just praising the fruits of our labor). The poem is very inclusive like Song of Myself, aiming to give voice to the voiceless, though Walt focuses on labor here. Our jobs, the work we do, and the products and services we bring are the main stars.
        There's plenty of reasons I appreciate this poem. Here's one reason, and it is the one closest to home for me: I just started school again last semester after taking a break to save up money (so that I could live out here again in the Bay and afford some more school, since my parents were only able to save about $7 for my college fund growing up). During my break I moved back home to Santa Rosa and worked at a Walmart (oh gawd) as a cart-pusher (oh gawd) and saved up every penny I could (oh yeahhh *said in the Kool-Aid Man voice*). I will say that Walmart is the only place that even called me for an interview, so I'll give them credit for that. Now that I've given them that credit, I will say with certainty that it is the worst job I will ever have in my life. And I will treat all cart-pushers I meet from here on out with utmost respect, especially ones at Walmarts.
        Why? I know at other retail and grocery stores it is different, but at Walmart, cart-pushers will be outside for their whole shift, and if your shift is 8 hours long, expect to walk about 12 miles that day in whatever weather the day feels like bringing to you, all while having lots of people inside and outside the store look at you like you're some low-class, lazy, up-to-no-good punk (apparently the perception some people have of cartpushers). But the WORST part of the job?: The detachment... 
        All people see when they walk inside the store is rows of carts for them to shop with. They'd receive my services inside the store every time they'd grab a cart, but never make any contact with me, since I'd be outside fetching more carts. After they finish shopping, a lot of them would take their cart out to the parking lot, put their shit in their car, and ditch the cart right next to where they parked their SUV. A lot of times it will be filled with trash. I saw plenty of McDonalds trash and used diapers in those carts. Never in their minds do they realize that those carts don't magically transport themselves back into the store after they finish using them... THAT was the worst part for me. The detachment.
        I'll stop talking about this job now, because I could write a whole book about all the things that sucked about it. Only way I could have a worse job is if I were a fruit-picker or something. Even I'd be guilty of not thinking about the labor that goes into getting fruits and veggies from the ground and into stores.
        Anyway... I have strong opinions about how labor is viewed, not only here, but around the world. For that reason, I appreciate this poem a lot. I've moved on from that crappy job, moved back to the Bay last September with my Walmart money, enrolled in classes, and found a much better job a few months ago, which means I'll have steady income, which means I'll be able to stay in school :):):)
Very grateful.

1855>1856
First change I notice? The poem now has the title "Poem of The Daily Work of The Workmen and Workwomen of These States." I wonder what the poem is gonna be about??? The changes from the 1855 version are similar to the ones made to Song of Myself... Less ellipses, more commas and dashes. He also added a few lines to the closing part of the poem, which I guess he wanted to beef up a little.


>1860
Here the poem is placed in the Chants Democratic cluster. Still not sure what this whole "cluster" thing is about. Near the beginning of the poem he adds phrases like "Men and Women!," "American Masses!," and "Workmen and Workwomen!" to the beginning of a few stanzas... I guess just to show a little more clearly who the poem is directed to. Walt once again does his fancy-talk thing, like when he changed "July" in Song of Myself into "the seventh month" in later versions, with his talk of December, which he now refers to as "the twelfth month" in this version of Song For Occupations. A bigger change though is that Whitman's talk and mention of the Utahan, Kansian, Arkansian, free Cuban, Mexican native, Flatfoot, negro from Africa, Iroquois, Esquimaux, Chinese, Bedowee, and Tabounschik is now gone. To me, this change is straight-up weird. Walt seemed so comfortable in speaking of different colors and ethnicity before, but not he spread the white-out on top of all of that. I honestly don't know why. Maybe at the time there was so much tension between the white majority population already that he preferred to leave other races out for now and just focus on the internal tension first? That's kind of a wild guess, because I really don't know why he removed that part of the poem.


>1867
The poem now has a title structure common to odes: To Workingmen
Now Walt removes the “polite or whitefaced….married or single…citizens of old states of citizens of new states….” talk that happens before the part where he removed his other removed part about the Utahans and Cubans and Mexicans and negroes and Flatfoots. At this point I just see it as him trimming some fat off the poem, but it's still weird as to why he felt he needed to take that part out.
Then he makes a change that upset me. He moves the closing lines of his poem (the ones I posted above as my favorite) towards the beginning of the poem. Why Walt??? Why?!? I liked them there at the end. They delivered your poem's purpose with force and beauty!
Anyway, he moves those lines, and has a few new lines at the end to wrap up the poem. Heartbreaking.


>1872
The poem is now called Carol of Occupations. Obviously, Christmas was just around the corner when this edition was published. Or something like that. The poem's first line is now the title.


>1881/1891
Poem now called the Song of Occupations... as we know it today. The poem's first line is now this title. Also, he moved the final lines back to where they were in the first three editions! :)
You done good Walt.
---
The poem shifts from very near the beginning of LoG (1855, 1856, 1860) to somewhere in the middle in the rest of the versions. I wonder if the poem held more importance to him in the earlier editions to place it near the beginning, or it is just because he had much more material in later versions that he stuck it in the middle on later versions. Later on, it is placed in between other odes that Whitman wrote, and perhaps he liked how Song of Myself and Song For Occupations resonated with his beliefs that he chose to write more poetry to appreciate the world around him. I'm not really sure myself, but I really would like to see what other people think in their blogs.

I love The Simpsons. I love Banksy (who directed this intro). It contains some exaggeration, but it gives a peek into the labor in creating the show.

*I may have gotten confused going through all these versions... My bad if I mixed up any in my reference to them... yep.

Versions of Grass

1855>1860
        First thing’s first… ‘Proto-Leaf’ is now the first poem in 1860. Very cool poem title by the way, Walt. The first leave of grass is kinda like Song of Myself, in that Walt  says he is the poet for all, for the nation, no matter who you may be. A difference is that he isn’t talking so much about us all being one entity as much… It’s still all about unity, but there seems to be more individuality here. Walt also focuses a lot on the ‘Soul,’ and capitalizes the word too, much like I did just now.
        When I started reading the newer version of Song of Myself, I started trippin a little because the words were basically the same, but there was something different… Something was off. Then I realized Walt removed the ellipses and replaced them with boring old commas. Commas are cool, but ellipses are… Well, it’s hard to describe the impact ellipses have on me, but I like the pause they bring. For whatever reason, to me, they almost automatically make anything romantic. If Walt Whitman was talking to a dude, I think he’d have more success asking for “A few light kisses…. a few embraces” rather than asking for “A few light kisses, a few embraces” at the end of the night. The hyphens he uses are close to ellipses for me, but the ones he replaces with commas… no. He lost poetical romanticism points on that one, in my opinion. It’s his poem, so I must let him do whatever he likes, but I had to hate on that part a bit.

The greatest joke ever, WITHOUT ellipses:

The greatest joke ever, WITH ellipses (Obviously better):

        I looked for a few other key words and searched for them just to see a side of Whitman’s meticulousness. He changed his phrasing of “it is the Fourth of July” (pg. 11 in our book) to “it is the Fourth of the Seventh Month”…Apparently Whitman thought ‘July’ was too dull of language to use to describe that month. My opinion of this change?: Cmon son!!!
        “Behavior lawless as snowflakes… words simple as grass… uncombed head and laughter and naivete;” becomes “Behavior lawless as snowflakes, words simple as grass, uncombed head, laughter and naivete;” (pg 32)
        Why? Maybe the he thought the commas made the language flow off the tongue more easily? Maybe he wanted his poem to look more like a poem? The new punctuation certainly does that, I suppose.
Oh, and in 1860, Whitman had a shit-ton more poems than in the 1855 version.

Blue Book>1860
        First thing’s first… did you see the new picture Walt has in his book? He takes on the appearance of a common man in the 1855 edition, but in 1860, he looks all bougie.
        Walt’s meticulousness comes out again. Who writes notes all over their PUBLISHED book??? And it was the 2nd/3rd edition too… Walt scribbles out words and sometimes sentences when things don’t look right to him. Maybe Walt needs to learn about leaving things alone. If Walt lived until he was 1000 years old, he may still have new editions of Leaves of Grass coming out next year. He might be helped by treating his writing like it was music, and have all the beauty and expression lay there on the tape, whether you may find imperfections in it later, or not. The 1967 version ends up keeping a lot in common with the 1960 version, even though Whitman scribbled out lots of sections in his blue book. Going through a text search of a few key points in the poem I wanted to check, he did change one of my favorite lines in the poem… He removes the line “Dash me with amorous wet…. I can repay you.”
        WTF MAN?!? That was one of my favorite lines! I even read it out loud for our project…. But alas, this is how Walt ends up repaying me… Sometimes, you need to put pen to pad, and then let it be.

Q. What did the caterpillar say the the Walt Whitman?
A. Man... you've changed.