Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand Flashcards
Summary.
- The poem is Whitman’s spiritual guide to reading his poetry, presenting itself as a forewarning to readers.
- Whitman, through his speaker, urges the reader to refrain from reading any further before they are entangled in his mess of worldview-shattering contradictions full of illusory meaning.
- Through his compelling imagery of nature & physical intimacy, the poet entwines the search for meaning in art & life with certain spiritual truths.
Themes.
- Understanding Whitman’s Poetry
- Love, Intimacy & Sensuality
- Nature
Define metonymy.
- Figurative language that refers to a situation in which one term is substituted for another.
- For example, “The pen is mightier than the sword” or “lend me your ear”. In the former, the word “pen” is substituted for the written word in general, and “sword” for military might.
Stanza 1:
Whoever you are holding me now in hand,
Without one thing all will be useless,
I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,
I am not what you supposed, but far different.
- A word of caution to the reader that would attempt to engage with Whitman’s poetry
- “me” - the poem is personified
- ambiguous “one thing” - without which the reader will flounder & fail in trying to decipher any meaning to Whitman’s poem
- “I am not what you supposed but far different” - Whitman feels isolated because he finds that the norms of society do not fit him, & seeks a way to express his individuality.
Stanza 2:
Who is he that would become my follower?
Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?
- short couplet of two rhetorical questions that catalyse self-reflection in the reader
- Whitman’s choice of diction likens those that would seek to read & understand his poetry to religious disciples
- doubtful tone
Stanza 3:
The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive,
You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole & exclusive standard,
Your novitiate would even then be long & exhausting,
The whole past theory of your life & all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon’d,
Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders,
Put me down & depart on your way.
- presents some expectations & consequences of the reader maintaining their grip on the poem / Whitman
- the journey to understanding Whitman’s poetry is similar to a religious one, where one must be willing to abolish every notion about who they are & the world around them in order to engage honestly with the poem
- discouraging tone & tricolon of “release me”, “let go” & “Put me down” - the dissuasion is to weed out those who would misinterpret Whitman & entirely miss the meaning hidden within his poetry
Stanza 4:
Or else by stealth in some wood for trial,
Or back of a rock in the open air,
(For in any roof’d room of a house I emerge not, nor in company,
And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
But just possibly with you on a high hill, first watchin lest any person for miles around approach unawards,
Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea or some quiet island,
Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
With the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss or the new husband’s kiss,
For I am the new husband & I am the comrade.
- The speaker offers another clue about how to properly experience Whitman’s poetry
- “By stealth in some wood”, “back of a rock in the open air”, “on a high hill”, “sailing at sea” - taking the shape of this ephemeral spirit, the speaker claims that only by catching ahold of Whitman’s poetic spirit while ensconced in nature will one ever come close to understanding it.
- The last three lines underscore the profound sensuality that serves as a source of connection between Whitman & the reader.
- “put your lips upon mine I permit you” - the kiss is a metaphor for the speaker’s meeting with the reader in nature
- “the new husband’s kiss” & “the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss” - highlights the romantic & brotherly love that Whitman / the speaker will come to embody for the reader
Stanza 5:
Or if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon your hip,
Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
For thus merely touching you is enough, is best,
And thus touching you would I silently sleep & be carried eternally.
- Continuing the sensual imagery in Stanza 4, the speaker becomes further entangled with the reader, elaborating on prominent currents of homoerotic love that pervade through ‘Leaves of Grass’
- “thrusting me beneath your clothing” - ambiguity & kinaesthetic imagery continues the crescendo of passion. It is no longer clear if the reader is simply engaging with the poet through just their words or their body. Despite
living in an era where society regarded the body and sensuality with a sense of taboo, often shying away from open discussion or celebration of physicality and sensual experiences, Whitman made his poetry indiscernible from physical intimacy. To him, both are considered highly spiritual & sensuous acts. - “For thus merely touching you is enough, is best” - echoing the tactile imagery that began the poem & the importance of physical touch
Stanza 6:
But these leaves conning you con at peril,
For these leaves & me you will not understand,
They will elude you at first & still more afterward, I will certainly elude you,
Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!
Already you see I have escaped from you.
- Speaker reverts back to their dissuading tone.
- “these leaves & me you will not understand” & “They will elude you at first & still more afterward” - reiterates the vivaciously transient meaning that the reader searches for in Whitman’s poetry, which itself is a reflection of life’s paradoxes & fleeting dynamism
- “behold! […] I have escaped from you” - Just when the reader thinks they’ve discerned some form of the truth, meaning eludes them, alluding to how Whitman abstained from any sort of classification on types of love, especially homoerotic love, and was in favour of representation that was decidedly more fluid.
Stanza 7:
For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
Not is it by reading it you will acquire it,
Nor do those know me best who admire me & vauntingly praise me,
Nor will the candidates for my love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious,
Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just as much evil, perhaps more,
For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times & not hit, that which I hinted at;
Therefore release me & depart on your way.
- Offers further explanation on how not to acquire an understanding of Whitman’s poetry
- Anaphora “Nor” - strong negation
- “For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book” - the poet affirms that they did not write for the mere purpose of the words & because of that, simply reading will not aid the reader in obtaining the truth to the poems
- “those […] who admire me & vauntingly praise me” - Returning to the notion of attracting followers, Whitman insists that admiration does not indicate that they understand him.
- “Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just as much evil, perhaps more” - What keeps Whitman’s exclusivity from being egotistical or pretentious is his utter lack of contempt for anyone who might attempt such a plunge into his writing. Instead, there’s just a lucid understanding that he & his writing will certainly be misinterpreted.
- Despite his pleas to desert such an undertaking, the passion with which he espouses his deterrents goads readers to keep going.
Thematic Comparison for the theme of nature & non-conformity.
- In Paths Untrodden
- “In paths untrodden, // In the growth by margins of pond-waters, // Escaped from the life that exhibits itself”
- Images of being on the periphery compares nature to a place of solitude & solace that allows the speaker to embark on a journey of self-discovery, away from the compliance of norms that society prescribes to the individual.
- Drawing similarities with Whitman asking his readers to retreat into solitude in nature to truly discover his transcendental truths.
Thematic Comparison for themes of body & soul.
- I Sing the Body Electric
- “O my body! […] you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)”
- Whitman establishes the close connection of the body with the soul by presenting them as equals that affect one another.
- The body is the vessel that allows the soul to experience the world. Hence, one can never achieve an understanding of Whitman’s poetry without embracing both spirituality & sensual physicality.
Robert K. Martin; The “me” of the title.
“The “me” of the title is both the poet’s body & his book, & a commitment to either requires a loss of a former self.”
Robert K. Martin; Whitman’s wordplay.
“Underlying Whitman’s play is a sense of opacity & elusiveness of language. He will not be pinned down, any more than meaning can be prevented from dissemination.”
