Walt Whitman: Homoeroticism in Leaves of Grass Essay -- Poetry Analysi

Leaves of Grass is Walt Whitmans life legacy and at the same judgment of conviction the most praised and condemned book of poetry. Although fearful of social scorn, there are several poems in Leaves of Grass that are more explicit in showing the homosexual imagery, whereas there are several subtle should I say implicit images woven into the fabric of the book. It is not strange, then, that he created many different identities in bon ton to remain safe. What Whitman faced in writing his poetry was the difficulty in describing and resonating manly and homosexual love. He was to find another voice of his, a rhetoric device, and his effort took deuce forms simplified, and subverted word play. The first was to understand and render the experience in everyday terms, as in the poem Behold This dismal Face. Whitman puts emphasis on masculinity in this swarthy face, these gray eyes (149), and other words, too, are expressive enough to explain to the reader what kind of soul is to be lo ved. What is not as subtle as in some other of Whitmans poems is the idea in the second part of the poem And I on the crossing of the street or on the ships deck give a kiss in / return (149) the meeting of the two is to be recognized anywhere, be it on the street or on a ships deck.When it comes to the second form, Davidson notices that The other and far more prevalent form of presented homosexual love was by means of terms of oppression, subversion (54). Exemplar poem of this form is Not Heaving from My Ribbd Breast Only. In it the lyrical dependent is trapped in fears and must break out of suppression in order to be himself. In the end of the poem there is a sudden release O pulse of my life / Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in... ...dBergman, David. Choosing Our Fathers Gender and Identity in Whitman, Ashbery and Richard Howard. American literary History 1.2 (1989) 383-403. JSTOR. Web. 29 skirt 2012.Davidson, Edward H.. The Presence of Walt Whitman. Jo urnal of Aesthetic Education 17.4 (1983) 41-63. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.Herrman, Steven B.. Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Imagination. Jung Journal Culture & Psyche 1.2 (2007) 16-47. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.Maslan, Mark. Whitman and His Doubles Division and Union in Leaves of Grass and Its Critics. American Literary History 6.1 (1994) 119-139. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.Metzer, David. Reclaiming Walt Marc Blitzsteins Whitman Settings. Journal of the American Musicological familiarity 48.2 (1995) 240-271. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Pennsylvania the Pennsylvania State University, 2007. Print.