Walt Whitman, a fav poet of mine, is experiencing some what of a renaissance. A poem about a meteor shower in ‘Leaves of Grass” has been researched by Texas State astronomers http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/3512/the-walt-whitman-meteor-mystery for some time now to reveal the exact rare meteor shower that inspired the poem and many other pieces of art at that time! [as if he just made it up, peeps.... come on now!]
Walt’s poetry, which was controversial and ground-breaking for its time, touched on issues of spirituality, sexuality, sensuality, nature, politics and human rights, definitely hallmarks him as a divinely inspired writer.
I recently watched an ABC doco on walt which confirmed for me the divinely inspired nature of his writing, where just prior to the writing of leaves of grass, his writing reflected a loss of self/ego, and complete resurrection creatively where his on soul was his muse… profound and interesting…
‘I know thee, savage spirit—we have communed together,
Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own;
Was’t charged against my chants they had forgotten art?
To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse?
The lyrist’s measur’d beat, the wrought-out temple’s grace—column and
polish’d arch forgot?
But thou that revelest here—spirit that form’d this scene,
They have remember’d thee.’
my interpretation of this poem -most likely off-the-mark- i will not go into for fear of being a complete and utter drongo [too late?!] however, I cannot wait to immerse myself with the “guide to whitmans poetry” [intended audience: 15 y.o american youth] that i downloaded last week, plus my complete works of the man himself, on the plane to LAX surrounded by seppos [seriously just learnt that term from heathcliff - don't shoot me for racist rhyme slang] who’ll think im an absolute wanker or american equivalent, and declare my nerdom openly, reliving the halcyon days of my literature inspired youth… –it is the equivalent of a german exchange student on berlin direct tulla reading banjo patterson and expecting not to be regarded as some kind of freaq… fret not, one is totes prepared for a large array of response…
oh yes… plane reading… happy days…
