Image via WikipediaA FEW WORDS ON LEAVES OF GRASS, BY WALT WHITMAN
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There is a connection between Leaves of Grass and Greek poetry which links Whitman to the classic tradition. There are several indications of this in the Leaves. One of them is the “reed”[i], or “kalamos” (Greek), or “calamus” (Latin), or a “blade of grass”, which is poetically called “the flute”. Another link is what are called the “catalogues” (longs lists of items) in the Leaves. The catalogues trace back to an ancient tradition too. Parakataloge is in Greek poetry a reduced song sung by greek rhapsodes[1]. And song is the origin of poetry.[ii] And Whitman liked to write that he was weaving his songs[2], not writing poetry. Therefore, we can conclude that he considered himself not separated from the classic past. Even though he was creating a new poetry, or song, to depict the modern man[3], the new nation, his country fellows, his roots were driven deep down in antiquity. By the way, the word “inscriptions” itself is historically marked. There was in Greece a custom of making inscriptions by roadsides on stones.
Another aspect of Whitman’s work on the Leaves is his process of recomposition of the book along his life. However, there is nothing new about this process of recomposition. He did not invent it. Again, we trace this back to an ancient tradition of the Greeks, as we can see in the following passage from Pindar’s Homer (NAGY, p.54):
“Earlier I argued that the rhapsodes were direct heirs to earlier traditions in oral poetry. But we see that over a long period their role has become differentiated from that of the oral poet. Whereas the oral poet recomposes as he performs, the rhapsode simply performs.”
Considering that a performance for an oral poet is done when he is singing his song, we can say that, for a poet of printed words, every new edition of his works can be considered a new performance. From this standpoint, Whitman recomposed his works throughout his life, from 1855 to 1892. In this way, he was inscribing himself in the old traditions of recomposition in performance. While at the same time he called his poetry “song”, like the famous “Song of the Open Road”, “Song of the Exposition”, “Song of the Rolling Earth”, etc.
[1] Rhapsode, in Homeric poetry, is “he who stitches together the song.”
[2] “Song of Myself“, section 15: “And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.”
[3] “Inscriptions”, “One’s Self I Sing”: “The Modern Man I sing.”
[i] Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, p. 54: “In the same context of Panhellenic Festivals, what we have been calling song or lyric poetry is being performed verbatim by kitharoidoi ‘lyre singers’ and auloidoi ‘reed singers’.”
[ii] Ibid., pg. 30.
