By Whitman, Biweekly! April 27th - The Finale to Our Series

By Whitman, Biweekly!
Tuesday April 27th,  4pm SLT
Caledon Library, on the Hub in Victoria City
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/160/117/23

A Discussion led by Dame Kghia Gherardi of the works of Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is one of the works at the foundations of American poetry. Its expansive attempt to capture the spirit and landscape of the 19th century United States has influenced an entire culture's self-concept, and its rich language continues to inspire readers today as it has for the century and a half of its existence.

"By Whitman, BI-Weekly" provides an opportunity to look closely at this beloved work. Each time we spend an hour discussing its context and examining the poetry of the 1855 first edition.

The series also gives those who love Leaves of Grass, and those who would like to learn more, an opportunity to explore Whitman's vigorous and heartfelt poetry together.

Below is the text we'll discuss this week, but we will also be discussing the work as a whole, as our tribute to both the poet and the poetry lovers who have participated in this year-long series.


Wealth with the flush hand and fine clothes and hospitality:
But then the soul's wealth—which is candor and knowledge and pride and enfolding
         love:
Who goes for men and women showing poverty richer than wealth?

Expression of speech . . in what is written or said forget not that silence is also
         expressive,
That anguish as hot as the hottest and contempt as cold as the coldest may be with-
         out words,
That the true adoration is likewise without words and without kneeling.

Great is the greatest nation . . the nation of clusters of equal nations.

Great is the earth, and the way it became what it is,
Do you imagine it is stopped at this? . . . . and the increase abandoned?
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as this is from the times when
         it lay in covering waters and gases.

Great is the quality of truth in man,
The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes,
It is inevitably in the man . . . . He and it are in love, and never leave each other.
The truth in man is no dictum . . . . it is vital as eyesight,
If there be any soul there is truth . . . . if there be man or woman there is truth . . . .
         If there be physical or moral there is truth,
If there be equilibrium or volition there is truth . . . . if there be things at all upon the
         earth there is truth.

O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined to press the whole way
         toward you,
Sound your voice! I scale mountains or dive in the sea after you.

Great is language . . . . it is the mightiest of the sciences,
It is the fulness and color and form and diversity of the earth . . . . and of men and
         women . . . . and of all qualities and processes;
It is greater than wealth . . . . it is greater than buildings or ships or religions or
         paintings or music.

Great is the English speech . . . . What speech is so great as the English?
Great is the English brood . . . . What brood has so vast a destiny as the English?
It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new rule,
The new rule shall rule as the soul rules, and as the love and justice and equality
         that are in the soul rule.

Great is the law . . . . Great are the old few landmarks of the law . . . . they are the
         same in all times and shall not be disturbed.
Great are marriage, commerce, newspapers, books, freetrade, railroads, steamers,
         international mails and telegraphs and exchanges.

Great is Justice;
Justice is not settled by legislators and laws . . . . it is in the soul,
It cannot be varied by statutes any more than love or pride or the attraction of
         gravity can,
It is immutable . . it does not depend on majorities . . . . majorities or what not come
         at last before the same passionless and exact tribunal.

For justice are the grand natural lawyers and perfect judges . . . . it is in their souls,
It is well assorted . . . . they have not studied for nothing . . . . the great includes the
         less,
They rule on the highest grounds . . . . they oversee all eras and states and
         administrations.

The perfect judge fears nothing . . . . he could go front to front before God,
Before the perfect judge all shall stand back . . . . life and death shall stand back
          . . . . heaven and hell shall stand back.

Great is goodness;
I do not know what it is any more than I know what health is . . . . but I know it is
         great.

Great is wickedness . . . . I find I often admire it just as much as I admire good-
         ness:
Do you call that a paradox? It certainly is a paradox.

The eternal equilibrium of things is great, and the eternal overthrow of things is
         great,
And there is another paradox.

Great is life . . and real and mystical . . wherever and whoever,
Great is death . . . . Sure as life holds all parts together, death holds all parts
         together;
Sure as the stars return again after they merge in the light, death is great as life.