I have to confess that I still haven't decided whether or not I respect Whitman as a poet. I don't really like his poetry, but not liking him doesn't make him a bad poet. By the same token, just because he's anthologized doesn't mean that he's necessarily a good poet either; it just means that he was influential. At any rate, this is my favorite Whitman poem, but not because I think it's a good poem (I still haven't made up my mind whether it is or not), but rather because I think it contains a valuable insight.
TO THE STATES - Walt Whitman
To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States,
Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth,
ever afterward resumes its liberty.
In tumbling turning clustering loops straight downward falling.
ReplyDelete...sheer plod makes plough down sillion
ReplyDeleteShine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.