Journal #1 Walt Whitman: The Beauty In Biology!

QUOTE:

“My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, / Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents / the same” (Whitman 30).


SUMMARY:

This stanza is from the opening section of Whitman’s Song of Myself. He is introducing himself and his origin, which he describes in biological terms, but still uses poetic techniques for this poem.


RESPONSE:

When I first read these lines I immediately thought that Whitman must have just finished attending a biology lecture before writing the opening section of Song of Myself. However, the “scientific” language he uses is very descriptive and rich, so Whitman seems to have turned science into art with this section of his poem. Words such as “tongue,” “atom,” “blood,” and “soil,” may just be nouns, but they are used almost like adjectives (if that makes any sense). Whitman’s vocabulary is still simple even though it is scientific, but since he arranges his words almost like how I think song lyrics are usually arranged, they express something much more complex than just stating: “My family and I come from nature and earth.”

After reading the introduction for Whitman in Norton, however, it makes so much more sense why Whitman’s scientific language stands out to me. Since Whitman “would address all ‘the facts of the animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, birth,’ [and] he put the living, breathing, sexual body at the center of much of his poetry” (Norton 17), reading his poetry can feel like witnessing the beauty of nature, in a way. I think his innovative techniques in his poetry help display just how beautiful language can be, as well as how beautiful nature and the natural occurrences of life can be.

On a side note though, I think I just may be too squeamish to find beauty in blood or other biological things. That’s why I’m not a Science Major! I’ve always hated doing labs in any science class I’ve ever had to take, so it really impresses me when people can make all of that gross stuff sound beautiful!