Song of Myself: Section 16- A Democratic Imagination 2.0

Transcript

16

I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,

Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,

Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,

Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff

that is fine,

One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and

the largest the same,

A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and

hospitable down by the Oconee I live,

A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the

limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,

A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin

leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,

A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier,

Badger, Buckeye;

At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with

fishermen off Newfoundland,

At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and

tacking,

At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or

the Texan ranch,

Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners,

(loving their big proportions,)

Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake

hands and welcome to drink and meat,

A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,

A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,

Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,

A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,

Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist any thing better than my own diversity,

Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,

And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,

The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in

their place,

The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.)

It has been recorded that Whitman’s mother described him as going in and coming out- he had a peripatetic way; which means he was nomadic. Another definition of the word is Aristotelian, referring to The Peripatetic school or Peripatos which was a school of philosophy founded by Aristotle. Peripatetic was a word used to describe the peripatoi, in English the walkways, of the Lyceum where members of the school met. To maybe try and relate this, in the same nomadic, ungrounded manner of the school, Whitman expands himself over the details around him. This is especially exemplified in section 15 where as one analysis put it he “ tested how wide he could expand his sympathetic impulse before the self dissipates” in section 16 we find that Whitman contracts back into a firm sense of self, expressing confidence that he can contain the multitudes that he has absorbed and that they in fact strengthen the self. 

Furthermore on the multitudes he absorbs, Whitman presents himself as a vessel within which opposites unite:

He is old and young, foolish and wise, Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, Maternal and paternal, a child and a man, stuff’d with coarse and fine stuff. One of small and large nations, a southerner and a northerner (bearing feebly in mind that this was prior to the civil war) one with limber joints and one with stern joints. Notably, I think, he is a  Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen and a comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat; which touches on class. Because in prior sections it was made clear that Whitman was the common man’s poet, the poet of the raftsmen and coalmen, but he also has comradery with those who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat.   Once more he is a learner among the simplest and teacher among the most thoughtful; novice in his beginnings but is rich in the experiences of many seasons. He embodies every hue, caste, rank and religion then lists a number of professions and mannerisms in seemingly random order once again reinforcing this union of opposites.

I want to revert back to the line 

Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,

And talk about the democratic imagination and its ties with transcendentalism

The democratic imagination is part of an analysis done by the University of Iowa and it describes the breakdown of all the boundaries that divide us and it allows us to see how our identities interrelate. This representative imagination allows for the union of opposites and as a result lets us each see our individual self as diverse. 

Whitman then introduces his radical claim: “I resist anything better than my own diversity.” From the section of his radical claim onwards there is much gesture towards transcendentalism.

The only thing that he will fight against will be anything or anyone that teaches him discrimination, that urges him to be less, to be more narrow, than his democratic imagination would allow him to be. He resists being stuck up as in “arrogant” or “self-important,” nor does he isolate himself in an ivory tower. Rather, he will be “in his place, just as a moth or a sun is in its place, 

His claim “;I resist any thing better than my own diversity, places an emphasis on self-wisdom which is central to transcendentalism, but also befalls a complex discussion on Whitman’s ideas of diversity. 

In my research I was presented with two portrayals of Whitman; the man who wrote leaves of grass before the civil war on the one hand and an acceptor of racial pseudoscience post civil war on the other.  

The Whitman who wrote leaves of grass embodied every hue, caste, rank and religion which is at odds with endorsing the belief of biological racism. But an analysis from daily jstor by lavelle porter resolves these two portrayals and gives some insight into what Whitman's “own diversity” was about.  

Porter writes: 

"Whitman seems to have been seduced by the proliferation of racist pseudoscience in the post-Civil War era, a body of thought largely produced in reaction to black emancipation and the prospects of black citizenship rights as voters and office-holders. Whitman’s racism was not limited to black people, but also extended to Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.

These comments force us to reconsider all those lovely passages in Leaves of Grass where Whitman the poet celebrates the “aboriginal” heritage of America. Whitman, the man, actually hoped that white Americans would absorb the naturalistic traits of Native Americans, but discard the actual people, much in the same way that contemporary sports fans now cling to their Native American mascots while dismissing living Native Americans who have repeatedly told them how these degrading, offensive caricatures contribute to ongoing Native oppression and disenfranchisement."

As I said before there’s a lot to consider here; most importantly the time frame but that does not dismiss the wrong of racial science and general racism. I want to hone in on the comment about Whitman’s hope that white Americans would adopt the naturalistic traits of Native Americans, but discard the actual people. 

Is this what he meant when he said to be every hue, caste, rank and religion? He is every hue. Caste, rank and religion; not fully but selectively; Selectively adopting the naturalistic traits of Native Americans in this example but not fully absorbing the actual people. 

Interestingly,  transcendentalism which came about in the romantic period has a number of similarities with the Sami worldview and Native american theology but as Andrew Slaton a writer on Sami culture put it 

“ There is no easy way to explain anthropologically why these very different groups came to many of the same conclusions about life and deity. Each group was centered on nature and the cyclical movement of life, and each demanded respect for all living things. They understood the land and the creatures that inhabited it. This is their common bond; an understanding that the modern world as a whole has missed out on. But their words speak for themselves, and there is still much to be learned from these fascinating groups of people.”

All of this is to investigate Whitman’s democratic imagination; its qualities; in what way is it representative, what are its limits and what is the nature of those limits. Would Whitman have this democratic imagination post civil war? Perhaps looking back on the idealism of his youth where he wrote that he embodied everyone and everything and just shaking his head. 

https://daily.jstor.org/should-walt-whitman-be-cancelled/ https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/diehtu/siida/religion/transcend.htm