Witty Whitman

It is very clear to see that Whitman's notebook was not initially intended to be presented to the public - the large amount of scribbles, crossed out words and phrases, and misspelled words indicate that Whitman was simply using this for his own purposes, writing down his thoughts, without spending much time making it look "pretty." Because of the disorganized nature of the notebook, I have a feeling that Whitman had no intention of showing this notebook to others. I think that the state of Whitman's notebook reveals that he merely needed a place to keep record and track of all of his ideas and thoughts and that as long as he could understand his chicken scratch, that was all that mattered. 

There are several different themes of ideas that I can make out in the notebook. Phrases like "the Jew the Christ" reflect religious allusions. Additionally, there are many indications of the creation of a brochure in which there would be an ongoing dialogue between Abraham Lincoln and Whitman himself, with Lincoln referred to as a "President elect." There is also evidence of other languages present in Whitman's notebook with the word "Libertad," liberty in Spanish, repeated a few times. I also notice some talk about the monarchy with words like "throne," the "Queen of England," and the "Queen of Spain."

On almost every single page of Whitman's notebook there is a stamp that has the general shape of a seal with the words "This Liberty of Congress" written on it and a bird-like symbol in the center. There are many pages in the notebook that have drawings of a man with a large beard and lots of hair, most like Whitman himself. I think that all of these observations reveal a few key things about Whitman. One, that he had a lot of ideas about a lot of different things, many of which resulted from personal experiences, things he observed about the world around him, and major events that were occurring at the time. And two, that Whitman had strong opinions about a lot of these controversial issues of the time and was not afraid to voice them - he wanted unity.

After reading what Whitman actually wrote and why he wrote it, I now know that the conversation between him and Abraham Lincoln that he wrote about never actually happened, and was all imagined. This is significant because it reveals that Whitman most likely very much wanted to speak to Lincoln, but was either never able to or for some other reason, did not. I can also now add to the observation that I made about the religious allusions - Whitman was apparently proposing a four-sided version of God, one that included both Christ and Satan. I think that this might be a reflection of Whitman's strong aim of unifying everyone and being as all-inclusive as possible - he very deeply wanted equality and justice for all, regardless of race or religion. Prior to reading this document that deciphers Whitman's notebook, I was unsure as to the rationale behind the use of the Spanish "libertad," but now I know that Whitman was likely trying to point out that his ideal of freedom was not limited only to the United States. This makes a lot of sense, as Whitman was American and many of his ideas were likely taken as goals for his country, not necessarily for the entire world.

^^^ Can we please go?! Field trip???