Walt Whitman

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses the prevalent idea in Walt Whitman's poetry, that the individual and the external world are essentially fluid. According to the paper, they mix together and interact in ways that we do not generally believe them to. The paper also reviews Michael Moon's essay "The Twenty-Ninth Bather: Identity, Fluidity, Gender, and Sexuality in Section 11 of 'Song of Myself.'"

From the Paper:

"In this way, the closing lines of the poem suggest both union and the act of sex. Similarly, it is no longer clear--by this point in the work--whether it is the woman acting upon her desires, Whitman, or both simultaneously. Of course, this is Whitman's goal: complete unity and fluidity. It is regarding these final lines, however, that Moon's analysis becomes concerned with the differences between the sexes. Although it is most probably Whitman's aim to illuminate the unimportance of this distinction, Moon is preoccupied with the clear gender differences expressed in the beginning of the poem, and attempts to extend this theme to the end. Moon concerns himself with the differences between the female and male orgasm, and the question of whether one is properly represented in the closing lines of the section. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Moon, Michael. "The Twenty-Ninth Bather: Identity, Fluidity, Gender, and Sexuality in Section 11 of 'Song of Myself.'" The Norton Anthology of Literature. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2002.
• Whitman, Walt. "Leaves of Grass." Bartleby.com, 2006. Available: http://www.bartleby.com/142/.

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