Song of ourselves : Walt Whitman and the fight for democracy / Mark Edmundson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edmundson, Mark, 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Song of myself.

Whitman, Walt.

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Criticism and interpretation.

Democracy in literature.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Hospitals.

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Literature and the war.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--War work.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In the midst of a crisis of democracy, we have much to learn from Walt Whitman’s journey toward egalitarian selfhood. Walt Whitman knew a great deal about democracy that we don’t. Most of that knowledge is concentrated in one stunning poem, Song of Myself. Esteemed cultural and literary thinker Mark Edmundson offers a bold reading of the 1855 poem, included here in its entirety. He finds in the poem the genesis and development of a democratic spirit, for the individual and the nation. Whitman broke from past literature that he saw as “feudal”: obsessed with the noble and great. He wanted instead to celebrate the common and everyday. Song of Myself does this, setting the terms for democratic identity and culture in America. The work captures the drama of becoming an egalitarian individual, as the poet ascends to knowledge and happiness by confronting and overcoming the major obstacles to democratic selfhood. In the course of his journey, the poet addresses God and Jesus, body and soul, the love of kings, the fear of the poor, and the fear of death. The poet’s consciousness enlarges; he can see more, comprehend more, and he has more to teach. In Edmundson’s account, Whitman’s great poem does not end with its last line. Seven years after the poem was published, Whitman went to work in hospitals, where he attended to the Civil War’s wounded, sick, and dying. He thus became in life the democratic individual he had prophesied in art. Even now, that prophecy gives us words, thoughts, and feelings to feed the democratic spirit of self and nation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

A Note on Citations

Preface

Introduction

Part I: Song of Ourselves

I Celebrate Myself

Undisguised and Naked

The Marriage of Self and Soul

The Grass

All In

A Vision of Democracy

These States

Songs of Triumph

Poet of the Body

The Sun

The Generative God

The Animals

Walt Becomes Other

A Massacre

A Sea Fight

American Jesus

Democratic Götterdämmerung

Walt and the Priests

Walt’s God

Walt and the Reader

Death and Democracy

Part II: In the Hospitals

Publication

In Washington

Letters Home

Tom Sawyer

The Vision Completed

Part III: Song of Myself (1855)

Song of Myself

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674258983

0674258983

OCLC:

1240460282