1. Immediately, I see the disorganization of the journals. There are poems with revisions, little notes Whitman made to himself, and drawings he drew of himself. I can imagine Whitman sitting around, knowing that the majority of the country was against his ideals, but valiantly writing his own ideas and thoughts without fear. These notes and drawings are varied and they cover several topics from history to different drawings and it seems like he did not want others to make sense of it. His journal was his exclusively and thus, he felt no obligation to conform to a typical style of journal writing or doodling. His poems he wrote out had several phrases added in and omitted from, so it shows that his poems were carefully thought out and not just scrambled together. He paid attention to the details and he even wrote about topics that might not have been included in his editions of Leaves of Grass. According to the intro from The New York Times, this particular journal was written in 1860 and 1861, so this was at the cusp of the Civil War. The themes of disorganization, confusion and frenzy are definitely reflected in the structure and content of the journal.
2. After reading the analysis, I can actually see some sense in his notes and his handwriting. With newfound knowledge that he is writing a conversation between him and Abraham Lincoln, I can ascertain some meaning in what he is saying. This makes me more appreciative of Whitman because he is very creative in his method of sharing out his ideas. To publish an imaginary conversation with the President would have been radical but effective. People would have been more inclined to see how Whitman depicted the President and the manner of their conversation. Another theme prominent in these journals is universal brotherhood, because of his notes about having a third religion that is better than the two religions warring (alluding to the North and South). He also included a poem about Libertad, which has roots in Latin America. At first, I thought that Whitman himself drew the doodles in the latter pages of the journal. After reading that his friends and acquaintances actually did the drawings, I realized that Whitman wanted to see how others perceived him. Even though they become less realistic, they still show how Whitman was viewed by the artists.
Good response- I appreciate how you looked at the big and little picture, and the details and support you provided as you processed and analyzed the journal. I do wish you had done a bit more in your actual response (although I can tell you did process what you saw and read)
ReplyDeleteI thought this response was strong. You did a really good job of interpreting the observations made from the journal. I particularly like the connection that you made between the large amount of scribbled out phrases, add-ins, and omissions and the fact that his poems were well thought-out and took him quite a bit of time to write. I think that you could have been a little more specific, describing particular words and phrases that you could pick out, or talked about the seal that was present on many of the pages, but overall I think you did a great job!
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