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“The prescient poet projects himself centuries ahead and judges performer or performance after the changes of time. Does it live through them?...Will the same style and the direction of genius to similar points be satisfactory now?” (1327).

If anything, Whitman seems to believe more earnestly in a communion of poets than of every man. Here, he creates the image of a disembodied spirit as the self or “genius,” a term we encountered many times in Emerson.

Whitman, Walt. “Preface to Leaves of Grass.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1314-1329. Print

“The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races. Of them a bard is to be commensurate with a people...his spirit responds to his country’s spirit...he incarnates its geography” (1316).

This would certainly inform a reading of Song of Myself. What if the passages in which he proclaims unity with the common man are not at all about his fellows, but designed to bring himself glory as a poet? How does this change how we read his sense of being or self?

Whitman, Walt. “Preface to Leaves of Grass.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1314-1329. Print

“Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me, My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it” (1368).

This seems a more reasonable claim of connection, that the self is never alone and is constantly guided. Does this message hold constant with some of his other assertions? Does it jibe with his declarations of individualism?

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1330-1374. Print.

“This is the city and I am one of the citizens, Whatever interests the rest interests me, politics wars, markets, newspapers schools...” (1365).

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1330-1374. Print.

Here, Whitman seems to be allowing the crowd to determine him (subtly different from other passages, in which he seems to bestow his identity upon others, the generosity or political acceptability of which is up for debate).

“...And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, And such as it is to be one these more or less I am, And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.”

This follows a passage in which Whitman offers glimpses into the lives of a stream of others, which are very revealing in their character development for the few lines each occupies. He asserts that knowing the stories of these others enables him to write his own song.

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1330-1374. Print.

“Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me. [...] I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy.” Here (and in several other places in the reading) Whitman asserts his indivisibility from his fellow men and women, at the same time as he exalts his individuality. We have seen similar perspectives even among writers typically pegged as “rugged individualists.” How does this inform the early American perspective we have charted throughout this semester, amidst the fledgling democracy?

“The Sweeping up the Heart And putting Love away We shall not want to use again Until Eternity -” (1695).

Dickinson, Emily. “1108.″ The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1699. Print.

Rather than focusing on the deceased, the poem presents an image of those who must go about the everyday work of tidying the house, which metaphorically relates to moving on inside one’s heart. How does this inform our previous discussion about “being” as the ability to impact others, and the end of all such possibility in death?

“Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive? The Mind is so near itself - it cannot see, distinctly - and I have none to ask - Should you think it breathed - and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude - If I make the mistake - that you dared to tell me - would give me sincerer honor - toward you” (1703).

Dickinson, Emily. “Letters to Thomas Wentworth Higginson.″ The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1699. Print.

Imagine receiving this as a cover letter! Dickinson’s prose, if this can be called prose, is every bit as “fair” and open as her “possibility.” Might this letter be considered early free-verse poetry?

“I dwell in Possibility -

A fairer house than prose -

More numerous of windows -

Superior, for doors” (1682)

Dickinson, Emily. “466″. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1680. Print.

This first line is frequently the subject of “pretty squares,” so I thought I’d give it a little more formal recognition. I love how the hyphenated lines visually and rhythmically open her sentences, just as Possibility is compared to an airy, open home. Truly, this writing is “fairer than prose!”

“The face I carry with me - last -

When I go out of Time -

To take my Rank - by - in the West -

That face - will just be thine” (1679).

Dickinson, Emily. “The face I carry with me.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 1679.

What is “last?” Who is “thee” in the final line of the stanza? How does her use of punctuation serve to create (or even obscure) her meaning??

“How public - like a Frog - To tell one’s name - the livelong June - To an admiring bog!” Dickinson, Emily. “I’m Nobody!” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1669. Print.

Twice in these selections, June, an emblem of summer and perfection in other texts, is taken as a negative symbol. What does it represent for Dickinson?

“These are the days when skies resume The old - old sophistries of June - A blue and gold mistake.”

Dickinson, Emily. “These are the days when the Birds come back -” The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1669. Print.

“’’T was a hard sentence, - all the law allows; but it was for ‘xample’s sake. These mill-hands are gettin’ onbearable’” (1726).

Davis, Rebecca Harding. “Life in the Iron Mills.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1706-1732. Print.

Here we see Wolfe made out to be an “example,” not an individual. The particulars of his case are discarded for its supposed implications. This is another instance of his being a “subject of” his circumstances.

“’You know, Mitchell, I have not the means. You know, if I had, it iss in my heart to take this boy and educate him for’-

‘For the glory of G-d, and the glory of John May.’

...’Why should one be raised, when myriads are left?’” (1719).

Davis, Rebecca Harding. “Life in the Iron Mills.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. 1705-1732.

“Be just - not like man’s law, which seizes on one isolated fact, but like G-d’s judging angel, whose clear, sad eye saw all the countless cankering days of this man’s life, all the countless nights when, sick with starving, his soul fainted in him, before it judged him for this night, the saddest of all” (1713).

Davis, Rebecca Harding. “Life in the Iron Mills.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. 1705-1732.

Harding critiques the American justice system, which limits the lowly in their opportunity for upward mobility or equal treatment. It is wholly apart from the sacred compassion that accompanies justice of the soul, which judges Wolfe less harshly for his actions. To what degree do Wolfe and Deborah have agency?

“I remembered how my poor father had tried to buy me, when I was a small child, and how he had been disappointed. I hoped his spirit was rejoicing over me now” (941).

I just wanted to draw this out of the text, to witness the oppression Harriet, her family, and others like her experienced, and the tremendous faith and fortitude they carried. The inclusion of this passage is especially poignant after she has just been purchased by a white woman, as it exhibits the discrimination faced even by free blacks.

Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave-Girl.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1174-1239. Print.

“So I was sold at last! A human being sold in the free city of New York! The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion. It may hereafter prove a useful document to antiquaries, who are seeking to measure the progress of civilization in the United States” (940).

Rather than reacting joyfully at the news of her purchase as her friend expects, Jacobs scorns the idea that she should ever be bought and sold in the first place. She applies this as a measure of American civilization, a quality her white captors would have claimed she lacked. This illustrates that even in the North, slaves were not always “free.”

Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave-Girl.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 1174-1239. Print.

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