The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-11-14

tulnk$, au u0SGGn unlVSfSG. way QUGS uG not say so2 And if he did, it is net a matter of proof or demonstration, but ot hope and conjecture. His dictam is mere verbal jugglery.
 The poet then exalts his body, and this physical deliTium runs all through the song at intervals but there is DO new and divine message here. The doctors tell us that the body is not vile, nor any of its parts and when a genuine poet called it the temple of God, he said all that was necessary to say concerning it. Whitman believes in she flesh and the capacities" 1" meaning libidinons desire. In this re- spect he is not unlike the libeEtine. ln- deed, this Song of Myself" is the chant of the roue. Resuming, he enumerates the people around him, the events hap pening about him, the battles, the feel. lngs, anything and everything that chances to run in his mind, and concern. ing them all he says:
 " These come to me days and nights. and go
 from me again,
 But they are not the Me myself"
 Has this passage any meaning2 Whit man says he is not battle, or fever, or dress, or a dinner, or a compliment. Neither is he a pancake, a turnip or a sardine. If he means that bis soul stands apart from and uncontrolled by matter. why does he not say SOP If he means the contrary, why not say soI If he means that he is a mere isolated specta- tor of human events, is it not easy enough for him to make his meaning clear to the average intellect?
 Then he announces to his soul that he believes in it, and goes on to oh An, Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat" o;c. Ns.n. ally, one would infer that he was still address. ing his soul. If so, he becomes rioicu- lous; for he gives the soul throat and a voice. When we read farther we hnd he is addressing some one else, bu. whom we cannot divine. He says:
 " mind how once We lay, such transparent
 summer morning" etc.
 The matter that follows is too vulgar for quotation. The passage is simply nau- seating and devoid of sense.
 The next incident is a child's bringing him handful of grass, and asking him what it is Of course he does not know but te proceeds to make up wild yawp' about it, nevertheless; and he drifts next to the subject of death, and says it is as lucky to die as to be born, and he knows 1t. For one, don't believe he knows anything of the kind. He says "I am not an earth. nor an adjacent Of an
 earth
 am the mate and compsa:on os people, all
 just as
 I,,,r al nd C,th thap (Ihey do not know how immortal, but
 know)n
 Nor is he comet, a meteor or ring oi Saturn. " They do not know how immortal they are, but know, is evidently regarded by him as valuable bit of confidence The plebeian mind, however, will wonder how there can be degrees of immortality We could just as well ask how long a man would live if he lived forever.
 Now follows another jungle of people and things, which he says are for him but he omits to say why they are for him, and what he intends doing with them. Let us catalogue them in regular order: Male and female, boys, those that love women, the proud man, the sweet heart, the old maid, mothers, mothers ei mothers, lips, eyes, children, the baby, the youngster, the red-faced girl, the suicide, the corpse, the blab Of the pave tires of carts, stuff of boot-soles, talk oi promenaders, omnibus, driver, sleighs ciank of horses, jokes, snow balls, hurr ahs the mob's fury, flap of litter, a sick man meeting of enemies, oaths, blows, a fall crowd, policeman, stones, groans, ex- clamations, speech, arrests, sights, as- signations, reJections, etc. The writer gives us here bare enumeration oi living beings, inanimate objects, abstrac- tiops, that have no bearing on each other, obey no sequence, and teach no lesson. An iuroad into Mitchell's geog. raphy would be far more significant and useful. As description of street scene it is lame, hueless, and unnatural.
 The bard's next transition is to the country but he fails to give us any con- ducting links to show whence he went, why he went, or whither he went, though he does not fail to tell us what he did when he got there. He did exactly what one would expect him to do, after one has read the Song of Myself" up to this point Instead of acting as a rational man, he jumps from the cross beams o! hbS WokOhg S<iACS khG Ni~tCt 0h4 and rolls head over heels aHd tangles his hair full of wisps." This kind ofindivid. ual would jump out of third-story win dow, instead of contenting himself with viewing the prospect through it. He is next hunting out in the wilds then he is at sea; then at clambake then At the marriage of trapper and an Indian girl. A runaway slave comes to his house and sits next to him at his table. This cpl sode fixes his attention for a moment, and his mind wanders again, and he sees twenty-eight young men bathing by the shore
 Twenty eight young men, and all so
 friendly:
 Twenty eight years of womaniy life, and all
 so lonesome
 In the next paragraph the poet says: She owns ,he fine house by the rise of the
 bank;
 She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the