Tag Archives: crisis and recovery

Whitman, Neruda, and Earth’s Indifference

In 1856, Walt Whitman wrote “The Poem of Wonder at the Resurrection of the Wheat,” with the prospect of the destructive Civil War looming in the distance. This poem would later be called “This Compost,” and exemplifies Whitman’s classic crisis … Continue reading

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Ginsberg’s Sunflowers

Allen Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra” is definitely a poem of crisis and recovery. Ginsberg’s sunflower suggests an America that has been tarnished and polluted by the carelessness of modern society. In observing the “dead gray shadow” that is the sunflower Ginsberg … Continue reading

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Neruda and Whitman and Forgetting

James’s recent and incisive post offers a brilliant reading of the many arguably un-Whitmanian energies in Neruda’s love poem #20. More generally, he voices a healthy dose of skepticism concerning the degree to which we might think of Neruda or any … Continue reading

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“Walker’s Whitmanian Moment”

Margaret Walker’s poem “Southern Song” possesses various Whitmanian influences, from its strong sense of detail, its sense of crisis, and its focus on the unification of the body and soul. What interests me most though about this poem is not … Continue reading

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“Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all”

Channeling Anarchy through Whitman Specimen 4: The Burden of Witness “The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom,”   Song of Myself, 8 “What is absent makes the world what it is.” History of the Always Pain, Jennifer Militello … Continue reading

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Whitman the… psychiatrist?

Throughout his history, Whitman strived to appear to be identifiable to everyone. His personalized goal seemed to be to be relatable to the laborer, the worker, the young man, the woman, the sailor, the saint, the sinner, the recluse, the … Continue reading

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