![]() ![]() Whitman understood masculine sexuality as a force to bond men together. It is not possible, however, to say that Whitman was extolling a particular erotic lifestyle. "Calamus," with its depictions of intense male bonding and friendship, was especially shocking to much of Whitman's audience. Whitman was often criticized during his lifetime for the depictions of homosexuality and erotic love in his poetry. The spirit of New York melds with this patriotic military spirit to embody what is best in the American mindset.ĭiscuss Whitman's nuanced understanding of male erotic love. In "Drum Taps," he describes the scene of a patriotic parade in New York in which wounded soldiers march through the streets. Whitman saw this most powerfully during the Civil War. ![]() Through patriotism, individual Americans, concentrating on their individual lives, were bound together in a collective spirit. Death, then, was simply a phase of being and, in Whitman's words, was often luckier than a state of physical and spiritual duality.įor Whitman, patriotism was a collective affair of the American people. ![]() It is possible to say that Whitman understood being as a cyclical process from which one was created from the natural world, lived in body and spirit, which then returned to its natural state. One cannot say if Whitman was more concerned with life or with death since he holds each state in equality. Is Whitman more concerned with life or with death in his poetry? ![]()
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