Today while I was getting home from school I managed to experience nature in a different way. Today it rained pretty heavily and I am not the number one fan of rainy days. First, I couldn't go to tennis practice because the courts were wet and secondly, it is not the most beautiful sight of the skies. I know that rain is needed for the crops and plants and maybe it was time for a little rain because there were some warm days before. Whitman says "I am enamour'd of growing out-doors, Of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods" (246). I can perfectly agree with him. The outdoors and nature are what life is about. Our relationship with nature and what nature provides us is essential for both our living and survival. I feel at peace when I am able to see a forming of nature that man has not laid hands on it for a long while without thinking about anything. This formation of nature doesn't have to be as massive as a mountain it can even be a river. It can also be a thunderstorm like the one I was able to see today that reminds me that we are still human and that nature has much more power than us and can destroy us in any second. Animals are the other part of nature that Whitman talks about in this quotation. He says he loves the men that live with cattle. I think that Whitman could have said that the simplest men are the happiest because they live among animals. Men who live along cattle can be a form a very basic and simplistic man that doesn't need much to be happy, maybe just nature and that is what Whitman likes about these men.
From the impression I am getting from Whitman I would say he is a person that tries to convince people into his way of life. His way of life would be an all human loving life where he likes every other person because of the kindness of human kind. He would also be very involved in nature probably living in a space where he is away from the city noises and pollution. He likes nature and his ideal way of life is living with it while sharing and protecting it. According to Whitman: "I breathe the air, but leave plenty after me, And am not stuck up, and am in my place" (342). Whitman says that he likes nature and uses nature because it is necessary for living but, at the same time says that he doesn't want it all for himself. He is not of the twenty-first century where today there is a constant fight for natural resources. Today we hear that the next great wars will be for water and natural resources but what are we dong to help this stop. When Whitman says that he leaves a lot of air after him he is talking about how he doesn't want to have nature all for himself, he wants nature to spread around the world and people to enjoy nature as he does. In Whitman's time there might have been no fight for the resources but if we were to apply his quotation to today I would see it as the need for the resources and the fight to obtain them.
This is another interesting and unique way to approach the text. It's also very appropriate. I almost wish we had more time to blog. I'm not sure if you share my sentiment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, see Thoreau for more nature thinking.
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