PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Walt Whitman, Part 1

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -November 17, 2002: Walt Whitman, Part 1

By Richard Thorman

VOICE 1:
This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America.
Today we tell about the well-known American poet, Walt Whitman.
(Theme)

VOICE 1:
Walt Whitman was born in eighteen-nineteen when the United States was about thirty years
old. During his long lifetime, he watched his country grow from an undeveloped, new
nation to the great industrial power it became.

Whitman did not celebrate this growth although other writers did. Instead, he wrote about the people and the
spirit that produced American democracy. Whitman celebrated¹ the common American. The person whose hands
cut the trees and built the factories of industrial America.

VOICE 2:
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself," he wrote,
"And what I assume you shall assume.
"For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
"I loaf and invite my soul,
"I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
"
VOICE 1:
Whitman celebrated all men and women, the working people, but also criminals, the weak, and the hated. To

Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was a law of nature. It was the natural form of
government sought by healthy, happy, free human beings. Democracy, Whitman believed, honors the rights of
every person and the equality of all people.

VOICE 2:
"I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul,
"I am the poet of the woman the same as the man.
"
VOICE 1:
As a boy, Whitman could visit the port in Brooklyn, New York. Across the Hudson River was New York City.

He could watch the ships and the men who sailed the oceans of the world.
The life of the growing port city never failed to interest him. All this became the subject of the poems he wrote

 


later.
Yet no one understands how Whitman developed into a poet. He left school at eleven and worked in the office of
a group of lawyers. Then he worked for a doctor. By the age of twelve, Whitman was working in the printing

office of a newspaper and doing some writing. When Whitman was fifteen, his family moved farther from New
York. Whitman stayed.
He often took the boat from Brooklyn, where he lived, to New York City. By the age of sixteen, he was working

as a printer in New York. One year later he rejoined his family and became a teacher.
He made his father angry by refusing to do farm work. And the fathers and mothers of the children he taught

thought him unwilling² to work hard enough. By eighteen-forty, when he was twenty-one, he had started a series
of newspaper reports called "sun-down papers from the desk of a schoolmaster.
"
He went back to New York City and began to work for a series of newspapers. Dismissed from one newspaper,

he would find work with another. In one job, he was required to read the best-known writers of the time and to

write about their books. He even wrote a bad novel himself about the evils of drinking.
He was thirty-six and had never known much success. Then he paid to have his first book of poetry published. It
was called "Leaves of Grass.
"

It was a thin book that contained twelve poems, written in free verse. Free verse means that the lines do not
follow any set form. Some lines are short, some long. Also, the words at the end of each line do not have
a
similar sound. They do not rhyme.

The first poem in "Leaves of Grass" was a long one. When the book was first published that poem had no name.

Whitman later called it "Song of Myself.
"
Throughout the poem, Whitman writes about how grass covers the world and feeds us. He writes about grass as
a
sign of everlasting³ life. Grass links all living things in body and spirit, he says. We Make our bread from grass.
And, we become grass when we die.

VOICE 2:
"A child said, what is the grass. Fetching it to me with full hands;
"How could I answer the child. I do not know what it is any more than he.
"I guess it must be the flag of my disposition⁴, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
"Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
"A scented⁵ gift and rememberancer designedly dropped,
"Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say whose. ..
.
"And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
"Tenderly will I use you curling grass.
"It may be you transpire⁶ from the breasts of young men ..
.
"It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps ..
.
"What do you think has become of the young and old men.
"And what do you think has become of the women and children.
"They are alive and well somewhere, the smallest sprout⁷ shows there is really no death, and if ever there was it


led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it ..
.

"All goes onward⁸ and outward, nothing collapses⁹, and to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.
"
VOICE 1:
Whitman sent out copies of his book to other writers. He hoped for their praise and support.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of best-known American thinkers and writers, immediately recognized the

importance of the book. He wrote to Whitman, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that

America has yet contributed. I have great joy in it.
"
Most other poets and writers, however, remained silent about "Leaves of Grass." Some were shocked by
Whitman's praise of the human body and sexual love. One newspaper critic wrote that the book was a "mass of
stupid filth¹⁰.
"

Some people disliked Whitman's thoughts about society. He rejected the search for money and power. He
denounced those who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He speaks these ideas in "Song of
Myself.
"

VOICE 2:

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid¹¹ and self-contained, I stand and look at them long
and long.
"They do not sweat and whine¹² about their condition,
"They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
"They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
"Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania¹³ of owning things,
"Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
"Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
"
VOICE 1:
Whitman's ideas of religion and god were unusual. So were his ideas about beauty and the worth of the human

body.

Some of these ideas were from nineteenth century spiritual thinkers. But no one had ever declared them so
clearly. Some critics consider this part of "Song of Myself" one of Whitman's most beautiful pieces of writing:
VOICE 2:
"I have said that the soul is not more than the body.
"And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
"And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is. ..
.
"And I say to any man or woman, let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
"And I say to mankind, be not curious about God,


"For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
"(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.
)
"I hear and behold¹⁴ God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
"Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
"Why should I wish to see God better than this day.
"I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
"In the face of men and women I see God, and my own face in the glass.
"I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name,
"And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoever I go,
"Others will punctually come for ever and ever.
"
VOICE 1:
Leaves of grass was a living, growing work. Whitman re-published it every few years for the rest of his life. Each

time, he added new poems. And he changed many lines of the old ones.

The last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By then Whitman's fame had spread
around the world.
Next week we will tell more about Walt Whitman's life and poetry.
(Theme)
VOICE 1:
This Special English program, People in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan

Davis. Rich Kleinfeldt read the poems. I'm Shirley Griffith.

 

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1 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

2 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

3 everlasting   

adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的

参考例句：

• These tyres are advertised as being everlasting.广告上说轮胎持久耐用。
• He believes in everlasting life after death.他相信死后有不朽的生命。

4 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

5 scented   

adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词)

参考例句：

• I let my lungs fill with the scented air. 我呼吸着芬芳的空气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The police dog scented about till he found the trail. 警犬嗅来嗅去，终于找到了踪迹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 transpire   

v.(使)蒸发，(使)排出 ；泄露，公开

参考例句：

• We do not know what may transpire when we have a new boss.当新老板来后，我们不知会有什么发生。
• When lack of water,commonly plants would transpire as a way for cool.在缺乏水分时，植物一般用蒸发作为降温的手段。

7 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。

8 onward   

adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先

参考例句：

• The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
• He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。

9 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

10 filth   

n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥

参考例句：

• I don't know how you can read such filth.我不明白你怎么会去读这种淫秽下流的东西。
• The dialogue was all filth and innuendo.这段对话全是下流的言辞和影射。

11 placid   

adj.安静的，平和的

参考例句：

• He had been leading a placid life for the past eight years.八年来他一直过着平静的生活。
• You should be in a placid mood and have a heart-to- heart talk with her.你应该心平气和的好好和她谈谈心。

12 whine   

v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣

参考例句：

• You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
• The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。

13 mania   

n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好

参考例句：

• Football mania is sweeping the country.足球热正风靡全国。
• Collecting small items can easily become a mania.收藏零星物品往往容易变成一种癖好。

14 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。