Notes, Notes, Notes

While looking at Walt Whitman's notes I was most interested in his drawings.  The first four drawings depict a man with a long beard and mustache, and a prominent nose.  In the first picture the man is drawn with just his head and shoulders, the next drawing is of the same man but now depicting his entire body.  This drawing is different than the first because the head is detailed where as the body is sketched rather sloppily, making it hard to make out besides the head, hand, and legs.  The third drawing again shows the head and neck but with a large hat on his head.  The final drawing depicts the same man, but with much less detail.  He wears the hat and his facial features are hidden in shadows but it is obvious that this is the man previously depicted.  Walt then drew a harp, a sketch of a newspaper header, and lastly a skeletal woman.  This final drawing is odd due to the woman's arms, legs, neck and head are all drawn as bones, yet the head has hair and a small hat.  The final piece of the drawing is the body, the oddest part of all, it is drawn as a heart.  It has a sword sticking through the heart.

Walt's notes are themselves fairly straight forward.  He uses his notes to write his poems.  Within these notes he is able to cross parts out, make changes to pieces that he doesn't like and also ensure that everything is to his satisfaction.  In many of these poems there are words, even entire lines, crossed out or changed.  Many of the lines have question marks to the left of them, this means that Walt Whitman was not sure of whether or not to include the lines in his poems.  All of these marks show that although Whitman had definitive thoughts about his messages and themes he still wanted to ensure that the message was spread the correct way and with very definitive wording and phrasing.  This shows that although he was spreading strong messages he wanted to do it in his own way and in a delicate way.  In one poem he crossed out the word "Christ".  This may have been because Walt realized that his message did not need to use a part of the Church in order to get his meaning across.  This decision may have been made due to the Church being a beloved item in the eyes of society and Whitman not wanting to make everyone angry by using them.

Walt Whitman's actual note transcripts show that he was a follower and an advocate for politics.  He loved Abraham Lincoln and actively attempted to meet with and talk to Lincoln on multiple occasions.  Many pieces of his writing talk about or reference a presidential race.  This shows that Walt Whitman cared about his society and community, it showed that he wrote his messages into his poems on purpose so that he could further society and impact his community in a positive way. He cared for his people and his nation.  His following of Abe Lincoln showed this interest in community and society.  It also allows the readers to understand why he wrote the messages he wrote.