What the What Was Walt Whitman Writing, and Why?

     When first viewing THE Walt Whitman's notebook I first thought, "Why am I looking at a mangy old book...is it a portkey?" 'Maybe' was the definite answer. When I 'opened' it did transport me into the mind of Whitman and then I thought "He should've been a successful doctor with this calligraphy."


     In the notebook, I could make out various names and numbers. Here they are now:

• Charles
• 10th
• Brochure
• Two <something> <something> of a dialogue between A...
• Lessons for a President elect
• Dialogue between <something> and "President Elect"
• Antique
• Greek
• Classic
• Tenpiece (?) of virtue
• Consequence in these - philosophy
• Questioning reasons <something>
• Christ
• Why now I shall meow (I take it back it says "know")  whether there is anything in you liberated. I shall see whether how much you can stand. Perhaps I shall see the <something> (looks like "crash") - is <something> (looks like "all the lust"...maybe not though). Old England

     And that's just the first four pages. There are lots of other stanzas in here as well. Starting on page 10, Whitman has illustrations that look like self-portraits. Then 'flipping' through some more. it looked like some type of war drawings. Men being shot, generals standing erect, stuff like that. Maybe it's from the civil war...Whitman was alive then...right? I have no idea. I know WWI was 1914-1919 I think, and I know that WWII was 1939-1945. Civil war though, I have no idea. Whitman's birth and death, I have no idea. In the notebook he has an illustration of a sign reading, The Boheamian; Tate Saturdy Press. Finally at the end there's a weird illustration that looks like a skeleton with colonial hair/wig sticking out of a heart that has a sword through it...weird right? Though this one can see that Whitman didn't just write poems consecutively, he went back and forth with disjoint thoughts and lines/phrases. One can also see that the visual was just as important to him as the words on the page, which probably made his poems easier to visualize.


     I kind of understand what some of those inscriptions mean after looking at the examined journal. The numbers and names were addresses. When speaking of dialogues or President Elect, Whitman was speaking of his imaginary conversation with my main man Honest Abe Abraham Lincoln (we both share a birthday). The religious things in there formed his opinion on current day issues like slavery and equality. All the lust = Is all then lost? Very different meanings if I do say so myself. I think that through this we can see that for his poems he was aiming for a more spiritual tone. He also believed in America and wanted to see it prosper. He also pulled a lot o elements from around him when writing. His environment influenced him. This is why Whitman was so successful, he made the everyday things appear extravagant and used things we all know about.


   I'd like to end this post with a poem.


     Roses are red
     Roses are green
     Roses are thorny
     Roses are plants
     Roses are love
     Roses are lust
     Roses are fat
     Roses are skinny
     Roses are tall
     Roses are short
     Roses are infected
     Roses are defected
     Roses are rejected
     Roses are dangerous
     Roses are safe
     Roses are beautiful
     Roses are lost
     Roses are found
     Roses are alive
     Roses might kill
     Roses are Roses
     Even still


     And violets are variations of blue
     But who has the time?


     Answer:


    No one, No body