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

Leaves of Grass is Walt Whitmans life legacy and at the comparable time the most praised and condemned book of poetry. Although fearful of social scorn, there argon several poems in Leaves of Grass that argon more explicit in showing the homoerotic 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 more different identities in order 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 an early(a) voice of his, a rhetoric device, and his effort took deuce forms simplified, and subverted word play. The first was to understand and r shuttinger the experience in normal terms, as in the poem Behold This Swarthy 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 person is to be l oved. 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 confluence 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 predominant form of presented homoerotic love was by means of terms of oppression, putrescence (54). Exemplar poem of this form is Not Heaving from My Ribbd face Only. In it the lyrical subject is trapped in fears and must name out of suppression in order to be himself. In the end of the poem there is a sudden release O neural impulse 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 attest 2012.Davidson, Edward H.. The Presence of Walt Whitman. Journal 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 manifold 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 golf club 48.2 (1995) 240-271. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Pennsylvania the Pennsylvania State University, 2007. Print.