Whitman as the poet of good breeding / by Henry Bryan Binns.

  • Binns, Henry Bryan, 1873-1923.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Whitman as the poet of good breeding / by Henry Bryan Binns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    especially in this connection, I must quote again the often quoted lines in The Song of the Broad-Axe : “ Her shape arises, She less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever, The gross and soil’d she moves among do not make her gross and soil’d, She knows the thoughts as she passes, nothing is concealed from her, She is none the less considerate or friendly therefor, She is best belov’d, it is without exception, she has no reason to fear and she does not fear, Oaths, quarrels, hiccupp’d songs, smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes, She is silent, she is possess’d of herself, they do not offend her, She receives them as the laws of Nature receive them, she is strong, She too is a law of Nature—there is no law stronger than she is.” It should be noted that this follows shortly after a passage in the same poem descriptive of the great city in which women have a place equal with men in all its public life : “ Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands, Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands, Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the great city stands.” After this I need hardly add that Whitman’s women are no more “ mere mothers ” than are his men mere fathers ; he does not so exaggerate the place of sex or of nativity. Yet in the race- life, and in that of the individual also, he sees that “ sex contains all,” and—“ underneath all, nativity.” Before going further* one ought really to try to render some account of the way in which Whitman uses this word “ sex,” since one dare not take it for granted that so mystical a writer would be satisfied with the ordinary contents of the words he employs ; often, indeed, they come from his pen surcharged and overflowing with significance. No doubt Whitman uses the word “ sex ” to include much more than do most writers on such subjects ; and of course one must be careful not to take him too literally when he describes him¬ self as the procreator of whole breeds of heroes and bards, remembering that he also says, “ only the poet begets.” The principal matter is, however, that when Whitman writes of sex he always includes the physical and never evades it, as too many others are fain to do.