Whitman and "Children of Adam"

Walt Whitman was an American poet who became very famous through his work. His work fits between the Realism and Modernism literary periods; however, his work does not necessarily fit into those periods characteristically. One example of the uniqueness in his work, is Whitman's writing of sex, love, and the physical relationship between man and woman. He wrote about things that most people of his time would have thought vulgar and innapropriate. "Even before these poems were published, Whitman had had difficulty with censorship. He had been forced to move publication of the second edition of Leaves of Grass (1860) to Brooklyn because Boston authorities wanted to cut some lines or whole poems from the book." (Oliver) The section of "Leaves of Grass" that directly deals with this is "Children of Adam." All of these poems in this sub-section relate to love, physical relationships, and even to Adam and Eve of the Bible (Oliver). All of these poems also deal with Self, in talking about the Everyman idea and the spiritual self as well.

One of the poems of this small collection is "I Am He That Aches With Love." This poem is very short consisting of only a few lines, but the message behind it is not as simple as the poem length.

"I AM he that aches with amorous love;
Does the earth gravitate? does not all matter, aching, attract all
matter?

So the body of me to all I meet or know" (Whitman).

At the surface of the poem, Walt Whitman is saying that he aches for love, just like everyone aches for love. This demonstrates the Everyman idea--that everyone is connected to each other and that everyone has a small piece of divinity in them, because everyone is connected to God. In saying "...does not all matter, aching, attract all matter? So the body of me to all I meet or know" (Whitman), Whitman connects everyone by saying that everything--all matter, and we are made of matter--feels, wants, and needs love. This demonstrates the Everyman idea of Self.

However, this poem also deals with Adam and Eve, the first people in the world. In the Bible, Adam and Eve were husband and wife, and from their creation by God, they helped in producing children--a new generation. If the reader then replaces Whitman with the voice of Adam, it is as if Adam is saying that he needs love. "I AM he that aches with amorous love" (Whitman). This goes hand in hand with the stories of the Bible. Adam was first created, but since he was feeling lonely--in need of a physical relationship, in need of a partner--God created Eve, so they would be husband and wife. This poem then represents Adam's need of love from Eve, from a woman, that physical relationship. Although this may have been uncommon to talk about back then, Walt Whitman makes this the topic of his poem, "I Am He That Aches With Love," defining the Everyman idea of Self and also the spiritual self.

Works Cited

Oliver, Charles M. "'Children of Adam'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW088&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 3, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "I Am He That Aches With Love." Leaves of Grass (1891-1892). The Whitman Archive. Ed Folsom & Kenneth M. Price, 1995. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.