Walt

Walt Whitman, around 1862 (Source)

The American Experience on PBS showed a fantastic documentary about Walt Whitman tonight that completely moved me. It made me realize that I need to get myself a copy of Leaves of Grass for my summer reading list. You will be able to watch the complete episode in its entirety online starting April 15. The documentary did a fantastic job with the (homo)erotics of his poetry. His eyes draw you in, don't they? I highly recommend the documentary!

One of my favorite poems by Whitman:

To a Stranger

PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,	5
I ate with you, and slept with you—your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass—you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you—I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

(Source: Leaves of Grass)

Check it:
Walt Whitman [American Experience/PBS]
The Walt Whitman Archive