THE HOMOSEXUAL THEME IN WALT WHITMAN'S POETRY

The Overview of “Calamus” Collection

The "Calamus" poems first appeared in Leaves of Grass in 1860. Firstly, this group included a manuscript cluster of twelve poems (out of sequence as in their present position) which appear originally to have been intended for a commemorative notebook. These poems reveal a story of attachment and renunciation whose symbol at first was not "Calamus" but "Live Oak with Moss".

Walt Whitman defined his symbol as follows: "Calamus” is a common word here. It is a very large and aromatic grass, or rush, growing about water-ponds in the valleys-spears about three feet high-often called 'sweet-flag'-grows all over the Northern and Middle States. The recherche or ethereal; sense of the term, as used in my book, arises probably from the actual Calamus presenting the biggest and hardiest kind of spears of grass and their fresh, aquatic, pungent bouquet". To John Addington Symonds, who inquired whether the "Calamus" sentiment was homo-erotic, Walt Whitman gave an emphatic denial, maintaining his normal sexuality.

Both in Democratic Vistas and in his 1876 preface to Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman insisted that the meaning of "Calamus"devoted to political problems, e.g., "It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship, that I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American democracy, and for the spiritualization therof."

However, it was known from the beginning of publishing “Calamus” that poems were about relationship between man and man. It is considered that “Calamus” was written after Whitman’s trip to New Orleans 1848. There were different legends about who was his lover at that time. Whatever happened in Louisiana, it had an important impact on Whitman's conception of male love: "Calamus" is obviously indebted to the New Orleans trip. The second of the poems in the original sequence specifically identifies Louisiana as its site.

Through the remaining six editions of Leaves of Grass, this group of poems retained its identity with surprisingly little change. The forty-five poems of 1860 were reduced in 1867 to forty-two, with three poems rejected; in 1871 one poem was added and four were transferred to Passage to India to make a total of thirty-nine, which is the number retained for the final arrangement of 1881.

To sum up all the information, there is no question that for the poet the "Calamus" sentiment possessed a power both tragic and idealistic, from whose inner turmoil was to emerge compassion, sympathy, and balance.

Ð¡Ð°Ð¹Ñ‚ ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð´Ð°Ð½ Ð² ÑÐ¸ÑÑ‚ÐµÐ¼Ðµ uCoz