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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