Walt Creech or Whitman, Who's the real Poet?

 The first thing that I notice when looking at Walt Whitman’s notebooks is his unique cursive handwriting, which is hard for me to read. Whitman seems to scribble down ideas as they come to him much like many writers and inventors tend to do. These ideas range from a poem about a “president elect” and one about a “ship.” The story about the ship seemed to be a metaphor and seemed to be completely written over three or four pages in Walt’s notebook. I think his notebooks reveal that he has encountered some bad times in his day and is trying to inspire people to fight through much like he did through adversity. Now for the drawings, most of the drawings of the people seem to be from the same perspective and even look like the same guy with some different features. The images look much like Whitman himself and he could be representing the many different feelings of his being. The last image stands out because it is not something that is seen in the others. There is a large heart with a skewer through it. This is interesting because the heart is not bleeding or anything, so maybe Whitman is saying people may break your heart but you will not break.

After looking at the yellow tags and delving deeper into the meaning of Whitman’s notebooks it appears that the “president-elect” that he was talking about was Lincoln. Although he never met Lincoln, Whitman fantasized a deep conversation with him. Moving on through page four, there is evidence of Whitman and his religious writings. Whitman hypothesized that there was a four-sided God that included both Satan and God. This is his idea of God based on the Civil War, which represented rebellion and resistance. Whitman used this “third religion,” which was separate from the two other religious platforms, to embrace “that which is not conscience, but against it.” This is an interesting concept and interesting that Whitman hypothesized a new religion to fit the needs of the people. Later on in the notebook you see Whitman’s adoration for Lincoln when he describes him as the “Captain of the ship” which is America. The sketches depict Whitman, like I said, but they are not drawn by him. This means other people saw his notebooks and could’ve added to them which is interesting, most artists and writers keep their ideas secret.

Looking deeper into Whitman’s notebooks and the meanings behind each entry, you can see some of what Whitman thought when he was writing and what he thought about the times. Obviously he did not value any specific religion but sort of created his own that encompasses some things that other religions lack. He also developed religions that fit his needs at the time. Through these entries you can see that he has a large admiration for Lincoln and utilizes a metaphor to show that. Whitman had a lot of interesting ideas and you can see how he scribbles down little phrases when writing. This notebook activity shows how he holds different values than others of his time and that could’ve set him and his poems apart.