Whitman saved my life too.
When 2010 began, I still disliked Whitman, and held a fierce grudge against myself, not just for failing to grasp his barbaric yawp, but for a lot of scarier stuff too. Then I began to understand that Walt was not just trying to write uplifting arias to the self. He was renovating the stale soul of humanity.
After a few passes through Leaves of Grass, the poems that struck me hardest were Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, and So Long. "I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for."
More on this to come, but I ended the year a Whitman devotee, happier than I've ever been, and highly recommend this book on the poet's impact on his contemporaries.
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"Whitman saved my life too." <<< This is sort of a diving board from which you've calmed yo leaped, I'm waiting for the gory details and or the splat at the bottom of all this...
ReplyDelete" Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, and So Long. "I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for."
Imagine beaming up from that very spot in time and plopping him in the exact place now and telling him to take it all in and then explain; fallowed by your interpretation, a obvious disconnect then syntheses ..
Followed by a request that he should writing in in light of what he has taken in now.