Whitman's Masculinity and Femininity in Song of Myself.

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Whitman’s Masculinity and Femininity in Song of Myself            袁毅敏 01041083         27/06/2007

Whitman’s Masculinity and Femininity in Song of Myself

All Whitman’s poems, not merely the “Children of Adam” poems and the “Calamus” poems, are love poems of blatant sexuality and amativeness, which was frightening to some of those who read and liked him and was a real bugbear to those who charged him with writing filth without bothering to read them. However, sex, this rejuvenation or rebirth or new life is taken by Whitman as a proof of the affirmative and ascending nature of God’s world and of humanity itself. Sex is not something debasing or something to be whispered about behind the hand, but deserving the highest celebration. In Song of Myself, masculinity and femininity, the two components of sex, are chanted by Whitman; and what’s further, Whitman brings together these two seemingly polar opposites and synthesizes them to form a new wholeness at a higher level where he unlocks his own inner reality and truth.

As a start, it is essential to list some of the apparently opposite concepts that are such an integral part of all the poetry of Whitman. “Group 1: arrogant, activity, day, sun, life, body and adhesiveness; group 2: docility, passivity, night, moon, death, soul and amativeness.”   All of the words in group 1 relate to masculinity and those in group 2 to femininity. Strangely, the words in the two groups are not opposite at all in Whitman’s poetry, as they would be with most poets; instead, they are dual aspects of a new cosmic self.

Whitman is attracted to energy----drawn by its glorious, magnetic charge, which is evidenced in all his poetry. Since reproduction is the prime energizing force in the universe, it would be impossible for Whitman to neglect its power. In Song of Myself, masculinity is explicitly depicted: it was the sweating, muscular laborers, not the pale bank clerk that hold Whitman’s attention and love. He sings for the carpenter, the pilot, the blacksmith; sings for their “strong arms”, “grimy and heavy chest” and their sexual bodies. As well, masculine heroism can find its great expression in Song of Myself: Whitman imagines himself as “a mashed fireman”, “exhausted but not so unhappy”; as “old artillerist” against the “attacking cannons, mortars, and howitzers”. And further research will reveal that, all these masculine and aggressive elements within Whitman’s descriptions relate to Whitman’s own image. It was Whitman himself in his unsigned review of Leaves of Grass who depicted its author as “one of the roughs, large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking, and breeding.” Clearly, in all these masculinities, “there was always a bit of dandy in Whitman and a rather formidable streak of Narcissism”. Actually, Whitman was in love with the masculine image of himself; and it is the feminine elements of his being, at the very core of his making-up, hold this love. Moreover, penetrating into these masculine physique and vitality, it exposes that Whitman’s inner nature is primarily passive and feminine, which might explain why he becomes ecstatic when he describes the masculinity of energetic men, typically, in Section 12 of Song of Myself where the poet is describing the blacksmiths: The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms.

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Besides the firm masculinity and heroism, there are also many instances in Song of Myself where Whitman tends to view himself as Christ. In section 10, the poet is sheltering a run-away slave and showing his democratic (Christ like) brotherly love: “Though the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limps and weak,/And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him,/ And brought water and filled a tub for his sweated body and bruised feet……/I had him sit next to me at table----my firelock leaned in his corner.” In section 48, he declares, ...

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