Song of Myself: Section 13 - The Superiority of Nature

Transcript

13

The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses, the block

swags underneath on its tied-over chain,

The negro that drives the long dray of the stone-yard, steady

and tall he stands pois’d on one leg on the string-piece,

His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast and loosens

over his hip-band,

His glance is calm and commanding, he tosses the slouch of

his hat away from his forehead,

The sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on the

black of his polish’d and perfect limbs.

I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do not stop

there,

I go with the team also.

In me the caresser of life wherever moving, backward as well

as forward sluing,

To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object

missing,

Absorbing all to myself and for this song.

Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain or halt in the leafy shade,

what is that you express in your eyes?

It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.

My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck on my

distant and day-long ramble,

They rise together, they slowly circle around.

I believe in those wing’d purposes,

And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,

And consider green and violet and the tufted crown

intentional,

And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not

something else,

And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills

pretty well to me,

And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me

In section 13 Whitman narrates the activity of a man driving a dray , which is a shallow cart pulled by horses, these were used to transport items over short-distances; in this case stones are being transported. Notably, the driver is a black man, however he is not a slave. He observes the man as he holds firmly the reins of his four horses, the block swags underneath on its tied-over chain,

The drayman drives the long dray of the stone-yard, steady and tall he stands pois’d on one leg on the string-piece, 

This image of the drayman illustrates his confidence and even charisma as he stands steady, tall and poised on one leg on the string-piece. Whitman observes the drayman’s dress His blue shirt exposing his ample neck and breast and loosens over his hip-band,. Interestingly, the manner in which the drayman is described to wear his shirt is similar to the way that Whitman wears his on the original cover of leaves of grass. Here Whitman creates a subliminal connection between him and the black drayman. 

He continues:

His glance is calm and commanding, he tosses the slouch of

his hat away from his forehead,

The sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on the

black of his polish’d and perfect limbs.

I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do not stop

there,

I go with the team also.

Whitman looks on with admiration- with love, I would say appreciating the drayman’s humanity however the speaker calling the drayman a picturesque giant adds this layer of otherworldliness or this could be his way of denoting a difference between them. After all this was 1850’s America, close enough to the civil war, a time where race science held water, prejudicial water at that, and so Whitman beholds the picturesque giant, the negro who is calm and commanding, who dresses as he does, whose limbs are polished and perfect- and he loves him, he sees him as his equal, which I reckon was a controversial stance for his time, but this concides with what Song of myself is all about; a celebration of humanity where everyone is celebrated and loved the same. 

We see in this section Whitman's love extends not only to humans but to animals as well. After beholding and loving the drayman, Whitmans says; and I do not stop

there,

I go with the team also.

The team referring to the four horses pulling the dray, and we'll see in a bit that the dray is headed for the wilderness. The speaker says; 

In me the caresser of life wherever moving, backward as well

as forward sluing,

To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object

missing,

Absorbing all to myself and for this song.

Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain or halt in the leafy shade,

what is that you express in your eyes?

It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.

I’m particularly taken by “the caresser of life” ; the speaker seems to be “possessed” or indwelt by the caresser of life, adding a spiritual aspect to this experience. He then describes all he sees from an all-seeing point of view;

wherever moving, backward as well

as forward sluing,

To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object

Missing,

Absorbing all to myself and for this song.

Whitman takes everything in as it is, not feeling a need to intervene in nature's course; he takes everything in for himself and for this song- this celebration. 

Next he observes Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain or halt in the leafy shade, it appears that he asks the oxen, rhetorically, what is that you express in your eyes? And the next line follows with a response; It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. 

Here Whitman dismantles the hierarchy that places human beings as superior to animals, the thought that deems us completely separate from them. As the oxen go about monotonously, Whitman reads deeper into the scene by analysing their eyes, what we as human beings figuratively refer to as the windows to the soul. I could be wrong but from what I've seen, monotheistic religions hardly express that animals have souls and usually purport the idea of human beings being separate from animals, it's usually pantheistic or polytheistic religions that attribute souls to animals as well as humans. By reading into the expression in the oxens eyes, Whitman lets go of the idea that animals are soulless and he further attributes superiority to animals by deciphering the oxens expression as more than all the print he has read in his life.

All the print touted and issued by the creeds and schools to hearken back to an earlier section. All that print from institutions, declared by human beings, doesn’t amount to the expression in the oxen’s eyes. Maybe Whitman is trying to express that human beings don’t actually know it all and we aren’t as superior as we think.  

He continues:
 

My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck on my

distant and day-long ramble,

They rise together, they slowly circle around.

I believe in those wing’d purposes,

The speaker has just scared off drakes and ducks, they then take off and circle up above. Whitman then remarks I believe in those wing’d purposes, almost in a confessional way; an analysis I read compared this confessional way of expression to elements in the Nicene Creed. Although the personal pronouns in the profession are we as in We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty and so on, Whitman says I believe in those winged purposes, a declaration of his individual, personal confession in the winged purposes. A belief which also acknowledges the red, yellow, white, And considers green and violet and the tufted crown

Intentional which I think refers to colours in nature and the colours of the drakes, ducks and the animals he notes in lines to follow

In the ending lines Whitman makes three interesting points that shine light on human nature and how self-involved we can be. In the first line he says

1. And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not

         something else,

As we know tortoises are slow-moving reptiles however Whitman refrains from looking at that aspect as a flaw. The tortoise isn’t unworthy because it is slow, it doesn’t need the speed of a predator because it's an herbivore. So the tortoise is as it should be.

         2. And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills

             pretty well to me,

The jay in the wilderness never studied the gamut, a complete scale of musical notes, yet trills skillfully. We have these shows of intellect as human beings, producing gamuts and all, while forgetting that animals possess these raw skills we pine for. Who’s superior now?

         3. And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me

Just a look from a mare shames the silliness of thinking that we are superior out of Whitman, an experience similar to the revelation he got from the expression in the oxen’s eyes. And so Whitman not only celebrates all people, but elevates the status of animals; demonstrating that there is something we can learn from them and that they too partake in this celebration and sing songs of themselves as well.