Calamus 29 One flitting glimpse
What a sweet poem of quiet love. One of my favorites so far.
The setup is voyeuristic: we're spying on a bar full of men. And we see Whitman in a corner, and then
a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently approaching, and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand
It astonishes me that these poems of clear homosexual love were published in 1860!
What's particularly nice is the contrast between the rowdy bar scene
drinking and oath and smutty jest
and the quiet intimacy of Whitman and his lover
we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.
The expression of love here is universal. But it is a man writing about a man, in the company of men. And thus it is particularly mine.
Mittlerweile habe ich jedes Jahr wieder die Freude, mich mit vielen Brettspiel-begeisterten Menschen ein langes Wochenende irgendwo im hessischen Hinterland in einem Jugend-(ähem räusper) Gästehaus einzuquartieren und dort an nichts anderes denken zu müssen, als an #Brettspiele. Dieses Jahr war es über Pfingsten so weit und ich habe mich mal wieder durch sechs komplexe Spiele gewühlt. Hier …
Calamus 28 When I peruse the conquered fame of heroes
My surface reading is this is a celebration of the common man, perhaps soldiers, over the more famous generals and presidents. But this commentary encourages me to dig deeper.
First, to highlight the gay text...
the brotherhood of lovers ... Through youth, and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were
Very homoromantic language! Male lovers who stay together through their whole lives, affectionate.
The last fillip here is Whitman's own stance: "pensive... filled with the bitterest envy". Whitman admires these lovers and envies them. That's a striking feeling to disclose!
Warum ich bei der Klimakrise keine Hoffnung mehr habe? Weil das Wort Kapitalismus nicht mal mehr erwähnt wird.
Was soll das?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKR8nWlRtZi/
Warum ich bei der Klimakrise keine Hoffnung mehr habe? Weil das Wort Kapitalismus nicht mal mehr erwähnt wird.
Was soll das?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKR8nWlRtZi/
Calamus 27 O love!
Odd little poem. On the surface it's a celebration of reinvention, of metaphorically dying and leaving your corpse behind, "always living". I don't find it particularly compelling but it's a mood.
I can't honestly find a particularly gay reading here. Broadly speaking maybe, "coming out" is a kind of reinvention gay people do, leaving our old closeted persona dead and gone. I wouldn't argue Whitman is talking about that though.
One odd thing is the 1860 poem starts "O love!", but there's no love mentioned in the rest of the text. Whitman removed this line in later versions. So who or what is the love referring to?
Calamus 26 We two boys together clinging
This is one of the gayest of the Calamus poems, a fantasy of two men against the world, full of life and ardor. I should be all over this in my gay reading!
Instead I see a darker form of Americanism here. "Power enjoying ... Armed and fearless ... No law less than ourselves". It's classic American individualism fantasy, a repudiation of community and law. Armed, at that.
On top of that I trip over the "North and South" part every time I read this. In 1860 when this was published we were just steps away from a Civil War after 10 years of enormous tension. I don't blame Whitman for wanting unity, his whole program in Leaves of Grass is American unity. All I can think is how there's no moral equivalence between the North and South. But Whitman wasn't an abolitionist and this poem reflects that.
Sorry for not reveling in the gay, maybe it's the ICE and California National Guard news affecting my reading today.
Calamus 25 The prairie-grass dividing
Whitman's celebration of simple men, of men from "inland America", of those who are unimpressed by Presidents and Governors. It's a romantic sentiment but in 2025 also feels a little naïve or condescending.
But as always I'm here for the gay stuff. Which starts explicitly enough
[I] Demand the most copious and close companionship of men
Well OK then! Me too. Maybe you could read that in a non-sexual way but then Whitman gets lusty
[I demand] Those with a never-quell'd audacity—those with sweet and lusty flesh, clear of taint, choice and chary of its love-power
My goodness, is that hot! At least to start, it's a shame he tames it seeking out men "chary of love-power". At least he recognizes their love power! I'll take the taint, thank you.
Calamus 24 I hear it is charged against me
This poem feels just so typically Whitman, but lesser somehow. Not one of my favorites.
He says he is "charged that I seek to destroy institutions". Charged by whom, one wonders, is he really so important? He sort of denies this, or is ambivalent to it, and then gets to the queer part:
I will establish ... the institution of the dear love of comrades
And here we are again at the central queer question: just what does he mean by "dear love of comrades"? As I read these poems I'm increasingly thinking it's both things. Sure, it's brotherly love, adhesiveness, a sort of robust fraternity. But so much of his writing and life is homoerotic it has to also have that charge. It can be both.
I feel like I've heard that phrase "the institution of the dear love of comrades" repeated often.