Witty Whitman

Step 1

It is very difficult to make out what has been written by Whitman in his journal. From one of the ealry pages in the journal whitman writes that there will be two characters participating in a dialogue. The firsr character is unclear and the second is to be the "president elect". At this time the president would have been Abraham Lincoln.  Throughout the journal things are crossed off. This shows that Whitman was constantly going back through his journal and editing in order to get things the exact way that h wanted them. His editions don't appear to be super organized because he just crossed things out and started writing where he had space.

Towards the end of the journal there are four drawings that seem to be the same man. In the first one he has no hat and only his face is drawn. In the second his head is large compared to his body and one hand seems to be reaching for something or someone. In the third the drawing is similarto the first by showing only the man's head but this time his eyes are closed and he note has a hat. The fourth shows the man drawn in a different style with a top hat and a shadow across his face. Based on the last picture the man appears to be the president because of the top hat. Whitman is perhaps showing how his views of the president have changed over time and is planning to use this as motivation for some poetry.

Step 2

It makes since that Whitman first saw Lincoln among a group of his supporters  and that Whitman was a supporter of Lincoln himself because Whitman was all for equality and Lincoln pushed to free slaves. I think that Whitman not having many interactions with Lincoln takes away some from what his ability to imitate the way Lincoln would hold a discussion with him, but it allowed him to be more creative and get his ideas out. It was mentioned that the drawings may not have been done by Whitman. This shows Whitman was open to others view and ideas so much so that he allowed one of his drinking buddies to use his journal. This makes me think back to the poem we read in class called "Poets To Come" where Whitman includes singers and orators as poets. It appears that Whitman saw the value of other art forms as a way to deliver a message.