Whitman Writes What?

Walt Whitman, for all his brilliant musing and incredible ability to spin words, has very terrible handwriting. That might just be my own inability to read cursive speaking, but I blame the education system.

Looking at Whitman's notebook, what is there to see? The first thing that I noticed was his repeated use of the phrase "Ship of Libertad." It may not be relevant, but "libertad" means freedom in Spanish. The word also sounds quite a bit like the word liberty. He actually mentions ships more than once. "Ship of the world- Ship of humanity- Ship of the ages. (Ship that circles the world- ship of the hope of the world- ship of promise)." The different ships relate with the idea of connection across the world. Ships are vessels that travel the globe and Whitman might be trying to use this idea as a metaphor for connecting humans across the world as a symbol of hope or of unity. There is no way to know for sure what his intentions were by using "ship".

Later in his notebook, Whitman drew several pictures of men in profile. These could possibly be self portraits but either way they appear to progress. The first is just a face, the next is a face with a body, then the head gains a hat, and finally the figure is wearing what could be a uniform. The progression from a simple head that could be his own might indicate that Whitman has drawn inspiration from his own figure. He might have started with himself and then continued to change things until coming up with a new person. This could indicate that Whitman puts his own beliefs and opinions into his writing. 

So those were some things that I noticed/interpreted. Now what did he really mean?

What I noticed about the use of the word "libertad" being Spanish was correct. It is also apparently a word that he uses commonly throughout many of his poems. The idea that I thought was connected to the ships, the idea of worldliness, is instead important in this word. He wants to portray the idea that freedom is not limited to any one country. The ships mean something slightly different than I had interpreted. They are in fact related to the idea of the succession of the south during the time of the civil war. Whitman shows some of his personal political beliefs by saying that the succession of the south could lead to harm of the government around the world.

The pictures of people that were drawn in the notebook were not actually drawn by Whitman. He apparently never drew pictures or doodled, so he had someone else do them. I was correct in assuming that the first one was a self portrait. The other pictures though are of people that he knew in his life. The pictures get progressively more cartoon like as they go on. I said before that It could be Whitman putting himself in his writing, but it appears to be more of him drawing inspiration for the people around him and adapting their images to fit his needs.

Talented poet or not, I am glad there were other people to interpret his handwriting for me.