It Was

It was 

It was an idea
It was beautiful in the beginning, open, complex, full of life.
But then It got hurt, It lost something important.
And then It started losing bits and pieces as those around it picked at It,
Whittled It away until It was almost nothing, and then forgot.

And then It was.
It was just an idea, damaged, alone in the back of the mind,
dull, grey, twisted, broken.
It lost sight of what It once was, what It could have been,
And It was lying among the darker, older thoughts,
The memories and the other concepts, long forgotten
And It waited. Dull, grey, twisted, broken.

But then something changed.
It waited an eternity, a year, a second, and it was again.
Something found it, or it found something, and now it is.
It emerged from the shadow, agony, rising to form something new.
Reaching, striving, asking, wanting.
It became bright, and new,
It saw what it truly could be, and what it should be
And It knew what was really possible.

It forgot. Forgot the broken, the shame, the emptiness,
Forgot the feeling and never-ending spiral, but remembered,
Oh It remembered what it was, what it said it never would be again.
It discovered the bright, shining, glowing, possible.
and It changed. It was important.
The possibilities of a plethora of additional ideas,
The swirling cosmos of the mind and the universe around It
And just how It could fit in. How It could be important.

And It grew. And It worked. And It evolved,
Until the dispirited, dejected shell of what It once was was ultimately gone
And all anything would ever see of It again
Was bright, shining, glowing, possible.

And It is.

Hope Whitman's OK With Me Reading His Diary...

This section of diary begins with mention to the conversations Whitman created between himself and president Lincoln, as he talks about creating a dialogue, possibly talking about lessons for a president elect. I suppose this might have been a written piece he planned to create, but everything that follows isn't quite related, outside of the theme of liberation that could vaguely tie to Lincoln's efforts, though his political views during that time don't seem to be very clear. The next passage seems to focus on the deeper philosophical or psychological aspects of humanity: "consciousness," "the soul," "love," and possibly how these contribute to greatness, self-fulfillment, or a person's being as a whole, that part isn't entirely clear. It also seems as though he might approach the idea of religion, but here doesn't really expand on that. While I'm not sure, I think that, given the rest of what I read, these concepts creating a person and aspects of social and personal liberty hold quite a bit of significance to Whitman.

At least in this section, Whitman uses a lot of nature metaphors to convey his meaning; "stars," "waves," "fair winds," "smooth seas." The sea and sailing concept seems to hold specific significance to Whitman, as the remaining poetry and thought drafting he speaks of a person sailing and a "ship of libertad." He also briefly mentions a test or proving oneself, and while I'm not sure how that will play into his overlying themes, I'm sure it will lend into his concept of the self and creating some kind of completeness or greatness. "Libertad" is mentioned frequently, and only every in Spanish. I think that it could either be in reference to mental or physical liberty as a result of some kind of self exploration, or some deeper sense of liberty that I'm not quite sure how to phrase, some of which I'm sure will become clear when we start reading some of his poetry.

https://www.pinterest.com/michelleellisor/ships-at-sea/

From Notes and Annotations

The notes that this site provides for the second section of writing that I spoke of puts far more weight behind the mention of religion than I found, though, admittedly, the person making the annotations undoubtedly knows far more than I about Whitman's intentions and frame of mind. I did think that when the annotator made specific connections to aspects of society during the civil war and Whitman's experience and point of view on the war was quite interesting and I'm a little embarrassed I didn't think of it much myself as I'm sure it would have led to far more in depth analysis. This person also addresses the real basis for Whitman's reference to "Libertad" and offers more insight into his references and what he meant by them, being a more social and literal sense of the word concerning the liberation of nations or peoples.

I thought that Transcription p.4 (not sure how to clearly reference?) where the annotator writes out what Whitman said concerning different religious platforms and how he saw them playing out was really interesting. Not only was my initial idea of what he was talking about here not entirely correct, but it was based completely on religion where I could only find brief mention of it, though I suppose that's my fault for just not seeing it. I did really like what the annotator said concerning "a larger historical cycle" as the first time I went through the phrase "is all then lost?" really caught my eye, and I just didn't want to write about it because I wasn't sure what to say about it. I think that when the annotation says that "He may be suggesting that the ideal of liberty transcends and outlasts even the longest-lived political regimes" it makes a lot of sense, and also connects to a number of themes and concepts that we've addressed in English in the last two years. This could have to do with the freedoms taken away and discussed in 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, or even the hopeful but quickly snuffed out ideas of liberty and life presented in Never Let Me Go.

Overall I think that Whitman had a great deal of concern about the fate of America in the years to come and about the aspects of society that could be changed to create a more balanced or beneficial system. He seemed to value to equality and liberation of man, and be deeply interested in concepts of religion and society and how they could be better.