Abstract

Examines Whitman's "double attitude" toward his "poems dealing with sexuality" ("a stubbornness about their importance coupled with a defensiveness bordering on apology or even regret"), focusing on "Calamus" poems (including number 16 ("Who is Now Reading This?") and "You Felons on Trial in Courts") and others (including "Song of Myself" and "A Woman Waits for Me"); critiques arguments by Arthur Golden and Oscar L. Triggs and argues that the "sexual ardor of Leaves of Grass continued to cool throughout the sixties, and the revisionary strategies of the decade beginning in 1866--the dilution of the poetry of the body and the new emphasis on spiritual matters--increased the distance between Whitman the man and the erotic personas of the early editions of Leaves of Grass."

How to Cite:

Killingsworth, M. J., (1986) “Whitman's Sexual Themes During a Decade of Revision: 1866-1876”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 4(1), 7-15. doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1129

Rights: Copyright © 1986 M. Jimmie Killingsworth