"I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west,
the bride was a red girl, She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight locks
descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach'd to her
feet."
This one was interesting because the man that is marrying the woman is a trapper. I don't know if Whitman intended it to be that way, or I'm just noticing this little pun. Also, he just describes the way she looks, her long eyelashes, straight hair, and voluptuous limbs. It's interesting that he describes her like this, when he seems to hold women in such high stances in other motifs as barers of life, or important roles as mothers. Perhaps he is seeing her the way the trapper is. Only what she looks like. not the importance she holds.
"Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome.
She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
She hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of the window."
In this passage, The woman is watching the 28 bathers, swimming naked. She is behind a glass window, she is trapped and there is a barrier. She is lonely in this big house, she "hides" because she can only imagine herself swimming with them and would never be able to actually do so. and she is "richly dressed", in comparison to being naked, this holds meaning in that she is not only trapped in the house, but is trapped within herself as well.
"The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel, "
I notice that he uses the word "retreats" this word holding a negative connotation, like returning to safety, withdrawing, or giving up. As oppose to using a word like, "returns" which wouldn't hold such a
"the hum of the big wheel" is the spinning wheel you use to make thread for cloth, which would be a common role for women.
"The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the clock moves slowly"
I loved this line. It's so haunting and intriguing to me. She is a bride, flattening or straightening out her dress. Perhaps getting ready to walk down the aisle and preparing her dress to look its best. "The clock moves slowly," maybe in a positive light can be seen as timeless. In a negative light, maybe showing that her life after marriage will be slow paced and will hold nothing more than the unrumpling of clothes.
Some more lines I found,
"The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the drunkard nods by
the bar-room stove,"
"The young sister holds out the skein while the elder sister winds it
off in a ball, and stops now and then for the knots,
The one-year wife is recovering and happy having a week ago borne
her first child,
The clean-hair'd Yankee girl works with her sewing-machine or in the
factory or mill, "
"The mother of old, condemn'd for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her
children gazing on, "
"On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes. "
"Come my boys and girls, my women, household and intimates"
"The young mother and old mother comprehend me,
The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and forget where they
are,
They and all would resume what I have told them."
He still speaks to man and womanly equally, as shown in these lines,
"Do you see O my brothers and sisters? "
"And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed
before a million universes."
Which shows me he was definitely not one to divide people into societal rank.
I believe Whitman thought highly of woman, he appreciated the body and gave thankful recognition in child bearing, as he uses this motif often. He gives mothers important roles and I noticed every time a woman is happy in the poem is when she is with a child or about to give birth to a child. Was Whitman is trying to illuminate the fact that women are held in certain roles, often trapped by forced marriage or the ideal wife role? or was he merely speaking of what he saw?
She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
She hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of the window."
In this passage, The woman is watching the 28 bathers, swimming naked. She is behind a glass window, she is trapped and there is a barrier. She is lonely in this big house, she "hides" because she can only imagine herself swimming with them and would never be able to actually do so. and she is "richly dressed", in comparison to being naked, this holds meaning in that she is not only trapped in the house, but is trapped within herself as well.
"The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel, "
I notice that he uses the word "retreats" this word holding a negative connotation, like returning to safety, withdrawing, or giving up. As oppose to using a word like, "returns" which wouldn't hold such a
"the hum of the big wheel" is the spinning wheel you use to make thread for cloth, which would be a common role for women.
"The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the clock moves slowly"
I loved this line. It's so haunting and intriguing to me. She is a bride, flattening or straightening out her dress. Perhaps getting ready to walk down the aisle and preparing her dress to look its best. "The clock moves slowly," maybe in a positive light can be seen as timeless. In a negative light, maybe showing that her life after marriage will be slow paced and will hold nothing more than the unrumpling of clothes.
Some more lines I found,
"The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the drunkard nods by
the bar-room stove,"
"The young sister holds out the skein while the elder sister winds it
off in a ball, and stops now and then for the knots,
The one-year wife is recovering and happy having a week ago borne
her first child,
The clean-hair'd Yankee girl works with her sewing-machine or in the
factory or mill, "
"The mother of old, condemn'd for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her
children gazing on, "
"On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes. "
"Come my boys and girls, my women, household and intimates"
"The young mother and old mother comprehend me,
The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and forget where they
are,
They and all would resume what I have told them."
He still speaks to man and womanly equally, as shown in these lines,
"Do you see O my brothers and sisters? "
"And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed
before a million universes."
Which shows me he was definitely not one to divide people into societal rank.
I believe Whitman thought highly of woman, he appreciated the body and gave thankful recognition in child bearing, as he uses this motif often. He gives mothers important roles and I noticed every time a woman is happy in the poem is when she is with a child or about to give birth to a child. Was Whitman is trying to illuminate the fact that women are held in certain roles, often trapped by forced marriage or the ideal wife role? or was he merely speaking of what he saw?
Very nice! I wonder how women readers responded to Leaves of Grass? Check out Sherry Ceniza's essay - - '"Being a Woman - - I Wish to Give My Own View": Some Nineteenth-Century Women's Responses to the 1860 Leaves of Grass"' (http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521443431_CCOL0521443431A008)
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