Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892), is considered one of the architects of American poetry. Poet and Journalist, he worked through his whole life on the collection "Leaves of grass" published in many editions. In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship.
He celebrated the man as an individual part of a community, who is never alone, in each of us there is something of anyone else, men are united in a sort of universal brotherhood governed by the feeling of love. This type of love is defined by Whitman “love of comrades”, so is love between peers, companions, human being and it's the force that holds the whole universe. |
In the poem “Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand” Whitman, referring directly to the reader, shows that deep and personal connection (love) that should characterize his relationship with the reader (as any other relationship).
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand
From Leaves of Grass
Whoever you are holding me now in hand,
Without one thing all will be useless, I give you fair warning before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different. Who is he that would become my follower? Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections? The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive, You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard, Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting, The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon’d, Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders, Put me down and depart on your way. Or else by stealth in some wood for trial, Or back of a rock in the open air, (For in any roof’d room of a house I emerge not, nor in company, And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,) But just possibly with you on a high hill, first watching lest any person for miles around approach unawares, Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea or some quiet island, Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you, With the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss or the new husband’s kiss, For I am the new husband and I am the comrade. Or if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing, Where I may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon your hip, Carry me when you go forth over land or sea; For thus merely touching you is enough, is best, And thus touching you would I silently sleep and be carried eternally. But these leaves conning you con at peril, For these leaves and me you will not understand, They will elude you at first and still more afterward, I will certainly elude you, Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold! Already you see I have escaped from you. For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book, Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it, Nor do those know me best who admire me and vauntingly praise me, Nor will the candidates for my love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious, Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just as much evil, perhaps more, For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit, that which I hinted at; Therefore release me and depart on your way. |
In this poem the reader is not only a very tangible presence, but he's also given the feeling he's intimate enough to hold the poet's hand. The poet at first give a fair warning to his would be follower, he says he's different from what he supposed, those who want to follow him have to abandon conformity, they're going to take a suspicious, uncertain, maybe painful way. IN this part of the poem the tone is imperative and restless, the poet orders the reader to put him down and go away if he wouldn't be able to do what he asks.
Then the tone softens and the tender and quite erotic note of the title is introduced, the poet wonders about the ideal reader and the perfect relationship that would exist between them. Then he takes to the extreme point the doubling of reader and lover figure with the suggestion of the kiss, the only action that cannot be reconciled with the normal interaction between a reader and a book, the kiss permits the poet to reveal himself: if one tries to understand him only with the mind will fail, the reader need to be part of the relationship of love to understand the message of the author.
In the last two stanzas returns the tone of the first half of the poem: he's imaging the reader failing to understand his message, he concludes “depart on your way”. By offering a glimpse of an utopia (the strong connection between reader and poet that permits the complete comprehension of the poet's message) and then destroying it, Whitman present to his audience a real request: he wants his poetry to be truly understood in order to propagate wisdom and love.
Then the tone softens and the tender and quite erotic note of the title is introduced, the poet wonders about the ideal reader and the perfect relationship that would exist between them. Then he takes to the extreme point the doubling of reader and lover figure with the suggestion of the kiss, the only action that cannot be reconciled with the normal interaction between a reader and a book, the kiss permits the poet to reveal himself: if one tries to understand him only with the mind will fail, the reader need to be part of the relationship of love to understand the message of the author.
In the last two stanzas returns the tone of the first half of the poem: he's imaging the reader failing to understand his message, he concludes “depart on your way”. By offering a glimpse of an utopia (the strong connection between reader and poet that permits the complete comprehension of the poet's message) and then destroying it, Whitman present to his audience a real request: he wants his poetry to be truly understood in order to propagate wisdom and love.