Blog Post 1, Topic 3

Colette Weese

ENL 003

The 19^th century poets Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman both offer insight on people and the world that maintains significance and could be applicable today.

While Whitman’s optimism reflects the hopefulness of today’s social justice movements, Arnold engages in the necessary confrontation of the pervasive and persistent ugly layers of life. Today’s movements are in response to that ugliness, and Whitman falls short of the demand for action. Whitman, for all of his progressive ideas (for his time, at least), is too complacent for today’s America. In “1,” he is happy simply to be, and his thoughts on the injustice of slavery in “I sing the Body Electric” remain unvoiced. Today’s challenges and movements ask for resistance and involvement, not acceptance or passive disapproval, of the world around us.

One parallel to draw from Whitman’s writing to today is his love for Earth and nature, which one could argue is a call for environmental protection. His musings on the simple beauty of grass, and his provoking question of “have you reckon’d the earth much?” may read like calls for appreciation and preservation of nature. His recurring theme of people as creatures in nature has remained contemporary since its writing. However, Whitman’s attitude of the sufficiency of simplicity may also come across as apathetic, especially in the face of challenges, in the sense that personal issues might not matter because everything is fine in nature. In the readings, Whitman paints a confusing picture of his actions in the face of injustice. He published the poem “I Sing the Body Electric,” so in that way he is vocal. In the poem his speaker helps the slave auctioneer, but he finishes by saying that partaking in slavery leaves one “cursed,” which is more like a threat of damnation than a direct motivation for change. Upon, first reading, Arnold seems much more pessimistic than Whitman, but further analysis reveals that Arnold is actually much more inclined to invoke balance than his peer. Where Whitman focuses on punishment for wrongdoing, Arnold says that bad things come and go.  

Arnold presents the statement that there is “an ebb and flow of human misery,” allowing the reader to conclude that there must also be an ebb and flow of joy, prosperity, hope, or whatever counters that misery. The recognition that there are good times and bad times is necessary in today’s world. Whitman seems to say, “It’s all good, and if it’s not all good, you’re ‘cursed,’” while Arnold says, “It’s not all good, but maybe it will be, and at least we can make it better for each other” which is much more reflective of today’s attitude: realistic about what is wrong and hopeful that it will get better.

Arnold acknowledged that the reality of his world was not pretty, and 150 years later, neither is ours. Still, the poem ends with the pronoun “we,” reinforcing the unity with which he faces the “ignorant armies.” Just within the last week, millions around the world manifested his words and marched in solidarity for human rights. Arnold says that loneliness is real and so is pain, but at the end of the day we are together and we’ll be all right.