Whitman Essay Love is the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon mankind. Defining love is different for every culture, race, and religion. Walt Whitman’s love is ever changing for anyone who tries to love him or understand his work. Love can be broken down into a multitude of emotions, and feelings towards someone or some object. In order to find love that is searched for, preparations must be made to allow the full experience of Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand by Walt Whitman to be pious.
Walt Whitman’s poem is devoted to the fullness of love, and a description of fantasy and reality. A journey to find love starts with knowledge that both participants are willing, and able to consummate their love in judgment under God. Time is the greatest accomplice to justify the energy and sacrifice needed to start developing the ingredients needed for love to grow. Each stanza is a new ingredient to add to the next stanza. Over time, this addition of each stanza will eventually lead to a conclusion.
A conclusion that love is ever changing, and people must either change along with love or never know the miracle of love. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines love as a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. Love is a journey that begins by building a foundation of trust, commitment, and understanding. The speaker is thorough and demanding to the point that the speaker becomes a facade to keep prospective loves away. Without love as the speaker begins to say life becomes pointless.
Without one thing all will be useless, (Whitman 2) The listener does not comprehend where the speaker is coming from at first. An example of emotions that are ebbing would be the calm before the storm. A nervousness that is powerless to prevent what the inevitable outcome will be. The speaker knows what it would take to mature fully a relationship that love could blossom out of. Unaware is the listener of the intent of the speaker to dishearten any further a seed that never had the chance to amply develop love. Love is funny when it becomes the focal point in a relationship.
This time usually comes after the period of adjustment between two people who have decided to further enhance their love experience. Questions begin to abound as to the qualifications of the individual and the relationship in terms of lasting, quality, and enjoyment. Total devotion becomes the heir to the newfangled relationship. Sometimes devotion becomes the sticking point that prevents a relationship to continue to grow and prosper. Devotion to ones love is a prerequisite to building a foundation of love and trust that without devotion there could be no relationship. Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting, The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon’d, Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your Hand from my shoulders, Put me down and depart on your way.
(8-13) The speaker is telling the listener that your novice status will not change even over a long period of time. The listener knows that he or she does not have the will, and this knowledge of weakness ends a chance of long life of happiness with his or her love. Love is an everyday work in motion when a relationship is developed. Molding clay into cups and plates is an example of how love is constantly being changed until you get just right. The next day you start over again with molding both the speaker and listener. Love can never be forced on someone both parties must help the other to mold each other to allow for the growth of the relationship.
No matter where the couple goes to work out difficulties. Problems are still there no matter how far away the couple goes. Intimacy, lust, and romance can be reconnected through self-sacrifice, learning about the significant other, or compromising on issues that are of vital importance to the couple. The most important aspect of a relationship is that is takes two to make a long lasting relationship.
Relationships are a Godsend to the world. Public intimate relationship is important as long as it is appropriate. Love has to be shown at all times not just in the home. Wondering what other people are thinking, or going to say is not important if there is comfort. Intimacy in public should be nothing more then holding hands, arms stretched around one another, and the occasional peck on the cheek. Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you, With the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss or the new husband’s kiss, For I am the new husband and I am the comrade.
(19-22) In-depth intimacy should be done only in privacy. Kissing as a quick peck on the lips is adequate in public. French kissing is not appropriate for public decency. The act of making love is a special moment between two consenting adults, which never should be done in public.
Thrusting, groping, or any oral stimulation is for the privacy of the adults. Especially, depending upon where in the world people are, could lead to trouble with the law. Confusion as to what your significant other needs or desires could lead to the end of the relationship and love. Knowing what makes your significant other happy leads to less confusion.
Sometimes the more that is learned about the person that is loved can make for an easier decision whether this person is worth giving your life too. This decision goes for both the speaker and the listener to decide what is most important when it comes to love. Breaking apart from a committed relationship is a hard decision to make. Especially if this decision is not seen as the end, or one person refuses to give up. Nor will the candidates for my love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious, (34-35) For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit, that which I hinted at; (38-39) Therefor release me and depart on your way.
(40) Reality is most people will go through many loves of different levels. The blessing of this story is there is a true love for everyone. A journey begins by taking the first step. The faster people go the less likely they will meet their true love. Take each day as a stepping-stone for the next. The speaker has laid out many clues and hints for what will make them happy and satisfied.
Now, it is up to the listener to decide what is best for him or her. The speaker says let me go my way. The listener must comply unless they can find the missing link between fantasy and reality. This journey is a symbolic life cycle of finding love.
This lesson is taught in every part of the world. People either fall in love, or have someone picked to spend the rest of his or her lives together. Mankind was never meant to be alone through the trials and tribulations of life. Walt Whitman wrote sometimes of his life, and society could learn a lot from his poems.
Whitman considered each of his poems to be a separate leaf or blade of grass because they were divine, symbolic of life and cycles of birth and death, but mostly because they were significant both individuality and in the mass. The lack of metrical regularity and conventional rhyme, use of varying line lengths with varying numbers of syllables per line is the uniqueness of Walt’s writing. (web) Music was one of the major sources of his inspiration. Many of his four hundred poems contain musical instruments, and names of composers.
(web) These facts make Walt Whitman a pioneer in the style that he has chosen. Society says he was a rebel, yet society would really be boring if everyone wrote the same way. I chose Walt Whitman’s Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand because there is a message that I got out of this poem. Love is mysterious, yes you can define it, but not everyone can actually find true love.
Walt is a very sexual writer, but the message he conveys is clear and simple. Love must be a journey that everyone must venture through no matter where it leads. I read a lot of documentation about his sexual orientation, but even after reading that I choose to view his writings as a man getting in touch with his emotions. Love is hard enough when you understand your emotions, but what happens when you do not understand your significant others emotions. The fact is most people never come to terms with there own emotions let alone a significant other.
This fact alone leads to break ups and misery in relationships that stay together without love. Everyone should be taught how to search the soul for their emotional state of mind that they are in before they get involved in a relationship. Love, emotions, and relationships should all come with instructions to be read before opening. Walt puts perspective on reality and fantasy when it comes to relationship. The deeper the love is for one another will allow the couple to grow not only physically, but most importantly the couple becomes closer spiritually. Spirituality is the final step in the journey of love.
Spirituality takes precedence over every aspect of human nature. That euphoria that is also understood to be the blessings of our Father in Heaven. Works Cited Bay, Nina. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature.” Rev. 6 ed W. W.
Norton & Company: New York, 2003. Common Questions on Walt Whitman. 2 February 2005 web and Biography by American Poems. com.
2 February 2005 web ‘s Collegiate Dictionary. 11 th ed. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated: Springfield, Mass, 2003.