Here, we find three separate days where Whitman records his thoughts subsequently. That is to say, two days in a row, and one day nine days later... What I found interesting about these posts were both their distinct and divergent voices. The author is able to create a completely new voice, almost as if from the perspective of an entirely new individual. Here one idea being expressed is each day a person, a writer, an individual, carries an entirely different tone, mode of emphasis, and overarching emotional field.
The first day, for example, Whitman merely catalogs his encounter of a few small birds. His phrases are short, lacking adjectives, lacking explicit emotion. The next day, we encounter extreme verbiage, lengthy phrases, decorative descriptions, and allusory detail. The third day becomes less a catalog and more of a personal encounter, where sensory language detailing and celebrating the physicality of existence is utilized.
Where this becomes interesting, of course, is when thinking of the length it took Whitman to write "Leaves of Grass," and also his further edits from later years. Essentially, it explains the divergent voices found throughout the text. Whitman would perhaps describe this by stating he is the voice of the people, an ever-changing field of growth. Thus, an author's day to day life becomes a process of evolution.
For example, some section are physical, such as the romance where a lover is to reach into the very chest of the narrator. Then, some sections are Self-reflexive,
"I know perfectly well my own egotism,
And know my omniverous words, and cannot say any less,
And would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself."
It is probably that these varying sections, similar to "his" journal entries, focus on different avenues of existence as a result of the linear nature of when they were written. This both accounts and explains the Whitman-esque transforming voice, which morphs like leaves from one day to the next.
Link: http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=WhiPro1.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=124&division=div2
No comments:
Post a Comment