Undrape.... you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded,
I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or no,
And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless.... and can never be shaken away. -- W.W.
In Song of Myself, Whitman repeatedly returns to a theme of “merging” as it relates to a profound number of combinations: the body and soul, flesh and nature, Whitman and his reader, the past, present and future, as well as life and death. Whitman speaks of living in his own unified utopia whereby the arbitrariness of human distinctions are irrelevant and one lives in a certain harmony with himself, others, and nature. In the lines cited above, Whitman invites his reader to “undrape” and assures him there is nothing that can offend him. Interestingly, Whitman speaks to his own perspicacity and tenacity telling his reader he will pierce the veil of their being regardless of their willingness to shed their “broadcloth and gingham” (Whitman is certainly not lacking in confidence with respect to his life mantra – a theme you feel consistently throughout Song of Myself as well as Whitman’s preface to Leaves of Grass). One of my favorite aspects of this theme of merging is the manner in which Whitman describes himself as one with nature. In the preface to Leaves of Grass, Whitman states that the poet “incarnates [his country’s] natural life and rivers and lakes” and then goes on to describe how rivers should not embouchure into the sea but into the poet himself (allegories like these are just so cool). I could fill a number of pages with other references to the theme of merging but will leave at this for now.
As a side note, this theme of merging and convergence reminded me of a passage I read a number of years ago in Forbes magazine (of all places). They posed the question “What does convergence mean?” to several business figures and celebrities. The following link takes you to the response provided by Muhammad Ali. Ironically, the theme of convergence that the magazine was referring to was a technological one – that of the telephone, television and internet. This context was apparently not provided to Ali as his response is a very personal and philosophical one. As I read Song of Myself, I see and feel a number of parallels with Ali’s sense of “convergence”, particularly where Ali says: “To understand that there are no distinctions of any real importance in the affairs of men, that there is only one time and one place and one person and one truth. And that we are all contained in that time and place and person, and that the truth contains us all.” While I had always regarded Muhammad Ali with a certain level of awe, his poetical response to Forbes magazine certainly reaffirmed his status to me as “The Greatest.” See link below for full text – it is very cool (and it’s not that long).
Nice connection with Ali! Perhaps he was reading Leaves of Grass? The "merge"/converge connection is also interesting . . . as Whitman's merge does entail the idea that " . . .there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe," e.g. that anything - - from grass to Brooklynite - - can become the center of a universe, can bring the universe into a new constellation. A bit like the interwebs - - where there is no "center," but there are plenty of "hubs" that connect and re-order etc.
ReplyDeleteAn extremely well written blog post. I applaud you, and find your words insightful. Whitman certainly keeps with the theme of merging throughout Song of Myself. Whether Whitman was aware of it or not, his theory of unity, a sort of "we are all one" attitude, looks to an Eastern type spirituality which is spreading in the West today. Walt was definitely ahead of his time.
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