"In this poem Whitman celebrates the out-of-doors, and the road in particular, as a space where men can come together in a meaningful way, where status and social markers matter less. A road is something everyone uses, whether they are rich or poor, and it forces all levels of people to associate with one another. The road, furthermore, signifies mobility: one can take the road to somewhere new, and in America that means somewhere one can start over. For Whitman, too, the road is a space for gathering the material for poetry. As he travels along it, he sees a variety of people and places, and hears a plethora of stories. He argues against staying in one place for too long, although the hospitality may be a lure, for only the tests of the open road will do. By contrast, indoor spaces are fixed and so stultifying as to be almost toxic. “You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house,” he commands. Indoors is a place of “secret silent loathing and despair,” where death always lurks and people’s bones are almost visible as signs of their mortality and innate debasement. True companionship is not possible in this indoor world, for people, bound by “customs,” live too close together and knowledge of one another is a liability rather than a linkage of love." sparknotes/poetry/whitman/section10.rhtml
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 17:37:12 +0000
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