UNTRODDEN

A Study of Walt Whitman

by David Russell & Dalvan McIntire

"I dream'd in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;

I dream'd that it was the new City of Friends;

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love it led the rest; It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, And in all their looks and words."

-

The question recently arose of Whitman's homo-sexuality. I maintained it was well-known; Dal argued Whitman had been fully manly siring six children and had denied that any of his poems implied homosexuality.

Reading from the Calamus poems in Leaves of Grass:

"Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,

You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking . . .

I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,

All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,

I ate with you, and slept with you-your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only,

You gave me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass-you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,

I am not to speak to you-I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake

at night alone,

I am to wait-I do not doubt I am to meet you again,

I am to see to it that I do not lose you."

This was a poor first choice. Dal insisted that Whitman equalized man and woman as love-obiects, and obviously wasn't dealing with erotic love, but a more spiritual affection. His use of sensual imagery was merely poetic license.

5