A Reading by Tom O’Bedlam
Listen to the calming recording of Song of Myself from Whitman’s book, Leaves of Grass, read by Tom O’Bedlam @SpokenVerse.
What is grass? What is the sky? What are the stars shining down on us 3.4 billion years before us? What is time?
Walt Whitman
My first introduction to Walt Whitman was in high school from the movie, Dead Poet’s Society. Although, my English teacher (and my art teacher, and my drama teacher) had us watch The Dead Poet’s Society, we never actually studied or read any Whitman.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain.” Leaves of Grass: Memories of President Lincoln, Bantam books, 1983, original 1892 edition, pp. 271.
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Whitman was a huge inspiration for the Beat writers of the 1940s and 1950s, and while I was in college, in the 90s, the Beats were very popular among the poets and writers, yet, I never studied any Whitman in school. It wasn’t until my 30th birthday that a guy I was dating (a poet) gave me a copy of Whitman’s book, Leaves of Grass. I have carried the book with me over the years and I have yet to complete it.
Song of Myself
Whitman’s work is not always easy for me to read. The time period and the language, along with how he wrote his poetry is not always accessible to me, not without help. However, “Song of Myself” is a beautiful long form poem, and it calls to me like I imagine it called to other poets of the past. It isn’t a poem for poets. It is a poem for the people.
In the edition of Leaves of Grass that I carry, “Song of Myself” begins on page 22 and goes on until page 74. It is an ode to being alive. The poem is found in the section, Inscriptions, from the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass. When I first was gifted the book in 2003, “Song of Myself” was the first poem I read from the book. Although, I still have not finished the collections of poems in Leaves of Grass, I have read “Song of Myself” several times. Whitman reaches through time and talks to the reader directly, as if he is a time traveler. He is talking to the reader directly. It is powerful. How did he know we would be here? He believed someone in the future would be reading his work and so he spoke to us. The future was his audience, and it awes me each time I read it.
Song of Myself, 6
A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me withWhitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” Leaves of Grass: Inscriptions, Bantam books, 1983, original 1892 edition, pp. 26.
full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any
more than he.
In this section, the section read by Tom O’Bedlam, Whitman (or the poet) sits in the grass with a child. It is the 1870s, and a child asks, “What is the grass?” It is the 1970s and a child asks, “What is the grass?” It is 2015, and a child asks, “What is the grass?” What is the grass they are lying in? Is a question I ask myself. There were not manicured lawns in the 1870’s not in the way we see today, so I think it is wild grass. Grass in an open meadow, or grass in the field. It is possible they are in a graveyard. Many wild grasses are extinct today, so I wonder, in 2070 will a child ask, “What is the grass?”.
The poem in its entirety is about being alive and the pure gift of existence. It is about living, but it is also about dying, because dying is also a part of life. Whitman loved life, yet his love of life did not make him afraid of death. He was an old man while he wrote, but he viewed the world through the curious eyes of a child. He believed all humans were meant to be equal, and all humans were meant to lie in the grass with children asking, “What is the grass?”.
I hope you enjoy the reading by Tom O’Bedlam as much as I do.
A Chatoyant Fleck 