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.*

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!

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.

Tweet-A-Week: Bowery B'hoy

        Bowery B’hoys and g’hals were the labels placed on young men and women of a working-class background in the mid-1800s, especially in Manhattan. According to Wikipedia, they used slang like “Hi-hi” (WTF), “Lam him” (WTF??), and “Cheese it.”

Everyone still uses the phrase "Cheese It"... And they will use it in the future too.

        The image of the working-class is something Whitman tries to place on himself at times, whether in his physical image, (as seen by his picture in our book) or through the language he uses. Whitman seemed to try to put on some rough edges on his image, which resulted in him gaining attention from upper-class people fascinated with a working-class image, as well as the working-class itself which probably desired representation in the arts and media. Whether the image was real or not, Whitman obviously felt a connection with the working-class, speaking of them at length in Song of Myself. Though they may have lived a rougher life than the one he led, he felt they made the US run. A Bowery B’hoy would be someone he not only wants to have read his poetry, but also someone who he would like to represent to the rest of the nation in a close view which the majority of people from the upper-class might not have seen before.

Tweet-A-Week: The Oneida Community

          The basic idea of what the Oneida Community was is that it was a community that strove to share damn near everything. It was founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. People who wanted to be a part of the community had to follow certain rules to live peacefully with the group. They believed that the 2nd Coming of Christ had already occurred and that therefore, Heaven on Earth was possible, so they aimed to create a harmonious community. Property and assets were shared. So were romantic partners. Two people were not even allowed to be mutually exclusive... If you could have sex, you hadda get passed around a little bit. Then they also had this rule of male continence/coitus reservatus, and felt that keeping men from climaxing led to deeper connections between sexual partners, and they had other rules about virgins coming into the communities and being "introduced" to the community by older council people who got to pick their virgin, which is kinda nasty and probably even manipulative, but yeah...
          So what does this have to do with Walt Whitman? Well the Oneida Community was founded in New York while Walt Whitman was around, that's for sure. But beyond that, from reading Song of Myself, we see Walt writing about how he is everything, and everything is him... just as you are everything, and everything is you. While that may not be possible to achieve in a physical sense (unless we could all be melted and poured into a pot or something) the Oneida Community seems to try to accomplish this in the best way they knew how: By sharing everything. Without the normal ideas of money and the status it brings, the community could try to achieve less degrees of separation between individuals than we may currently experience in our capitalist world. By putting the community first, the idea that you are a part of something bigger than yourself (i.e. the community) becomes engrained in your psyche and would probably lead to stronger connections to the other people in your community. So was the Oneida Community, or other communist communities, a literal interpretation of Song of Myself? Not really. But the Oneida Community is an example of a community that tried to break at least a few barriers that keep us as individuals separate from one another.

Tweet-A-Week: Barnum's American Museum

        Barnum’s American Museum was a museum that was open from 1841 to 1865 in New York City. It served as a showcase for animals, artifacts, scientific instruments, and a bunch of weird and odd stuff too. It was a big part of the culture in New York, and tons of people visited the museum until it burned down.
        Walt Whitman also lived in New York, and was surely a visitor to this museum. According to PBS’s website, he also interviewed P.T. Barnum for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1946. Knowing Whitman’s fascination with understanding all that lies outside himself, I would think he’d love visiting the museum. Although I’m sure a lot of things in the museum were of a sensationalist nature, I think he’s appreciate the diversity of memorabilia, artifacts, animals, and culture found in the museum. A guy like Walt could write poems for days in a spot like that, real talk.

Tweet-A-Week: The Wilmot Proviso

        The Wilmot Proviso was introduced to the House of Representatives in the 1840s by Congressman David Wilmot and would have banned slavery in all new territories the US was hoping to acquire from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War. Through its travels in our legislative processes, the Proviso found supporters, but also found many politicians strongly against it. It highlighted an ethical divide in our nation at the time, and those sentiments ultimately resulted in the American Civil War.
        In Whitman's "Song of Myself," he points out the differences of the people in our nation, but shows that there is an underlying humanity in everyone's story that ties us all together. Whitman's treatment of the runaway slave in his poem shows pretty clearly how he felt about slavery, and he does his best to show the struggle of the slave can be as painful as any other human suffering. Still, even though Whitman's ethics would place him on the Northern side of the war in terms of his sympathies, it seems Whitman is torn apart by the fact that his own nation is at war with itself. People from the same nation, who he might liken as brothers, were killing each other. As much as we have seen divides in our country, we have never seen it turn into a full-out war, fortunately, but this type of event is surely something Walt had on his mind while writing his song of unity and oneness...