Part 1:
When looking through Whitman’s notebook, I immediately notice that there is little organization. Besides the page breaks between thoughts, everything seems to have no order to it. This most likely means that Whitman used this notebook wherever and whenever to write down a thought exactly when he had it. This connects to a theme that Whitman displays throughout his poems: experience is more valuable than formalized learning. He probably thought of his best ideas while out in the world experiencing things. I noticed that there was a red stamp in multiple spots on the notebook, both in the writing section and in the drawings section. I am not sure what this stamp means but it most likely has significance to Whitman because he used it many times. Many times Whitman writes down ideas or actually writes out poems. He wrote down the idea “two characters as a dialogue between A. Lincoln and” Walt Whitman. This is significant because it shows the affection that he has for Lincoln and the importance that Lincoln had on Whitman’s poetry pieces after Whitman saw him for the first time. The notebook also includes many crossed out words, which shows that he filtered his thoughts and what he decided to put into his poems.
It also included words such as “philosophy, religion, questioning, [and] reasons”. Later he inscribes a poem idea called Ship of Libertad. It goes, “Ship of the world- ship of Humanity- Ship of the ages ?(ship that circuits the world ship of the hope of the world- Ship of Promise”. Whitman thought a lot about humanity and what that meant, including how to connect to his reader. He also used dashed, parenthesis, and capitalization to convey his thoughts like he does in Leaves of Grass. In his notebook, he uses second person, which is interesting because I assumed that this was a personal notebook. Lastly, there are multiple drawings in the notebook, all depicting a version of a man. The first three are clearly of the same man, altered in some way. The second drawing was significant to me because the character had his hand stretched out, which might signify the relationship that Whitman wanted to make with his readers and all humans.
Part 2:
After looking at the notes, some details come into focus. Firstly, I learned that Lincoln and Whitman never really met or had a relationship, but Whitman would often watch him pass to and from his summer cottage when he lived in D.C. Also, he had dreams of creating books and other literary works including a brochure for the imaginary dialogue between himself and Lincoln. I also learned about the importance of the word “religion” in his notebook. Whitman included the idea that he wanted to reconcile two religions, just like he wanted to reconcile the two political platforms surrounding the civil war. This was all in an attempt to unite instead of divide people. This could also be the reason for why he used the Spanish word “Libertad” instead of the English word liberty.
The poem about the ship was important for many reasons. He wrote about the captain of the ship, metaphorically representing the president-elect Abraham Lincoln, and how he would have to go through many hardships and storms just like the ship. He equated the storm that the ship went through to the Civil war, and the doom that Americans would face if they continued on this divisive path. In addition to using the ship to represent troubles of the nation, Whitman was experiencing personal troubles around this time. With the beginning of the war, his publishers went bankrupt. Lastly, the drawings depict Whitman himself, each displaying different characteristics about the man, drawn by other people.
Quotations: The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Image: "Walt Whitman." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Mar. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
