Walt Whitman “Spontaneous Me” Essay Example

on the same level as nature (Whitman 1). He moves on with the images of “the loving day, the morning sun, the friends I am happy with” (Whitman 2). The imagery in the entire poem, of the nature around him and the setting, help to create the process in which the reader realizes what the metaphor of the poem stands for.

In this first portion of the poem, the images of procreation become apparent to the reader within the first few lines that read, “The hillside whiten’d with blossoms of the mountain ash,/The same late autumn, the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green” (Whitman 4-5). The reader discovers the new life through “blossoms of the mountain ash” and “primitive apples” (Whitman 4, 6). Whitman then says, “The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures,)” explains the importance of the picture motivated poem. Whitman’s picture motivated poem here is that the penis is actually the poems in which he writes.

The reader is then involved in a rapid sexual experience by the words moving from a soft flow to a hastier rhythm. This rhythm expresses the speaker’s feelings. In the next section of the poem, the reader is pulled through graphic images that can be mistaken as simple. Whitman’s wording in these next few lines can be read as though he wants to have relations with a woman, but cannot. The lines read, Arms and hands of love, lips of love, phallic thumb of love, breasts of love, bellies press'd and glued together with love, Earth of chaste love, life that is only life after love,

The body of my love, the

body of the woman I love, the body of the man, the body of the earth, Soft forenoon airs that blow from the south-west, The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down, that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and holds himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied; (Whitman 13-17) After becoming aware that Whitman was a rumored homosexual, the reader may interpret these lines in a way that he only wants to have relations with his own self.

He describes the man in depth as “the hairy wild-bee. ” It is clear that he is making his appearance more masculine and intense. Whitman then entices the reader to the urges of masturbation with the lines, “The smell of apples, aromas from crush'd sage-plant, mint, birch-bark,” (Whitman 20). He uses the senses to create a scene where he as the speaker was subjected to this experience and wants the reader to feel it, as well. The speaker now is a young boy who cannot fight the urges he has been having.

Whitman describes his genitalia and the encounter as, The no-form'd stings that sights, people, objects, sting me with, The hubb'd sting of myself, stinging me as much as it ever can any one,The sensitive, orbic, underlapp'd brothers, that only privileged feelers may be intimate where they are, The curious roamer the hand roaming all over the body, the bashful withdrawing of flesh where the fingers soothingly pause and edge themselves, (Whitman 23-26) The movement in the poem becomes fast as the rhythm and wording change to show the boys frustration by not resisting

temptation.

Whitman uses words such as, “pensive,” “painful” and “torment” to describe the boy’s feelings. ” When he is done, the poem climaxes to become the semen. It is stated clearly in this line, “The limpid liquid within the young man,” to break the poem off to the next section (Whitman 27). The boy is angry with himself and ashamed as Whitman writes, “The pulse pounding through palms and trembling encircling fingers, the young man all color’d, red, ashamed, angry;” (Whitman 34). Whitman then moves back to his soft flow as if the tension has been released.

In this final portion of the poem, the speaker becomes one with nature once again. Whitman writes these last lines as if to say these sexual experiences and urges are natural. He speaks of “vegetables, birds and animals,” comparing himself to them by saying they never feel ashamed, so why should he (Whitman 38-39). The speaker ends with the feelings to procreate in these lines, “The oath of procreation I have sworn, my Adamic and fresh daughters,/The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,” (Whitman 41-42).

If taken from a homosexual point of view, the speaker who is assumed to be Whitman, could be saying that he feels guilty for not procreating or being able to procreate. It is interpreted that he wishes to do so, but cannot, simply because of his sexual orientation belief. From a religious standing, which was very much thought about during Whitman’s time, the poem could be interpreted as the speaker relating himself through a biblical allusion. Before

Whitman’s revision of Leaves of Grass, he first named “Spontaneous Me” as “Bunch Poem” (Leonard 30).

These religious interpreters would look closely at the lines, “And this bunch pluck’d at random from myself,/It has done its work –I toss it carelessly to fall where it may” (Whitman 44-45). This could possibly be referencing Jesus as the messiah by Whitman “plucking” at himself in a form of abuse to his sexuality. An analyst states, “The ‘random’ plucking and the casting away of his genitals would suggest the freedom and ease with which he broadcasts his seed in hopes of propagating the children” (Leonard 31).

Whitman also references Adam, as stated earlier, in which he referenced his “oath. ” From a biblical point of view, Whitman could be putting himself in a godlike position desiring for many to procreate. Walt Whitman’s “Spontaneous Me” is a direct reflection on his life. The reader can interpret this piece in many ways according to their own knowledge. The phallic symbols and the description of sexual encounters, leaves the reader with an image that can be examined creatively. He was one of many poets to use nature as an influence, but one of the few that could make his images so bold.

As analyst, Travis Gordon writes, “’Spontaneous Me,’ [is] arguably the most daring, [and] holds an important position in the history of modern American poetry simply for that boldness. But the poem is more than that: ultimately it is about the spontaneous urge to create, to disseminate the self in language” (Gordon). Whitman was a radical writer that cared to be real with his fellow citizens of America. It is unfortunate that the

society that lived around him suppressed his feelings to be underappreciated during his time.

Works Cited

• Gordon, Travis. Whitman's Spontaneous Me. " Explicator 52. 4 (1994): 219. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
• Leonard, Douglas. "Whitman's SPONTANEOUS ME. " Explicator 45. 2 (1987): 29. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
• Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Whitman, Walt. " American Writers, American Biographies.
• New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 2004. American History Online. Web. 11 Oct 2011.
• Whitman, Walt. “Spontaneous Me. ” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Byam. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 2190-2259. Print.