Description

An episode from 4/9/22: Is Whitman our great poet of love, or of longing? Is there a difference? In this episode, I share my favorite of his love poems, many of which are expressed as unfulfilled longing. They can all be found in ⁠The Selected Short Poems of Walt Whitman⁠, and ⁠The Selected Long Poems of Walt Whitman⁠:

• Selections from “Song of Myself”
• To You
• Once I Pass’d through a Populous City
• Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand
• Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
• Calamus #8
• Calamus #9
• When I Heard at the Close of the Day
• To a Stranger
• When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame
• Thou Reader
• I Sing the Body Electric

Following these poems (at around 1:06:57), I’ve inserted a reading from a previous episode on Whitman’s love and sex life, from Paul Zweig’s book, ⁠Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet⁠.

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Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.