Inside Walt Whitman’s Notebook

The outside of the notebook draws your attention simply because there is no detail, it is left us to you as the reader (looking into his notebook) to determine or began to think about what and how he formulated his poems).  In my opinion, the outside of the notebook shows little to no emotion and in my eyes that it has a story to tell. Meaning that there will be a story told through this notebook without spoiling or giving away all of the details.Simply because the things he jots down will trigger something else leading to amazing work. The next thing that drew my eyes was the crossing out of words and sentences because it shows that our world can be chaotic, and there are so many ways to tell our story, but it is hard to formulate what we truly want to say. For example, on page 4 it says something about the "internal course," but he crosses it out and writes, "philosophy and outlet" in bullet points. This could be seen as through his internal courses his philosophy and the things he did that were his "outlet" helped formulate who Whitman was and what he had to say about how things were during his time. Throughout the notebook, he starts with longer sentences or bullets but as you continue, everything turns into pictures or the bullets are less. Sometimes less is more because it sparks something else. The stampings on the pages symbolize that this is his work and I think that goes to show authenticity while there is a contrast to him liking things to do with politics. My favorite part of the whole notebook is the last page because it tells so many things without saying any words. In my view, I see a man who has come out of his skin and isn't afraid to be that way. But because he is different in the eyes of the people around him, it is wrong to be yourself hence the knife through his heart. His heart is big showing that he has the capability of showing love and respect for people. His hands represent him not knowing what to do even though he does right by everyone else but he always gets the short end of the stick while being enclosed in this world that isn't accepting of people that are "outsiders" with there being a parallel to him being the "insider" surrounded by the bubble. I think that this also has a parallel to how the poems are formulated and how they gradually show how his life unfolded. From all that is shown throughout his notebook, it is clear that he enjoyed his life despite what was going on. He enjoyed learning about his city and learning more about the battles and how big his imagination really is. From imagining what his conversation with Lincoln would be too religious platforms to "I shall see the crash" all shape his a person and how his brain interpreted the events around him.