Difference between revisions of "Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act I"
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− | + | Back to: [http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ned_Katz:_%22Comrades_and_Lovers%22 Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers"] | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | ::: | + | :::'''ACT I''' |
+ | :::LIGHTS OFF; WHITMAN'S FIRST WORDS ARE HEARD IN THE DARK. | ||
− | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::Love thoughts | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 1 |
+ | :::love-juice, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 2: |
+ | :::love-odor, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 3: |
+ | :::love-yielding, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 4: |
+ | :::love-climbers, | ||
− | |||
− | WHITMAN: | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::and the climbing sap, | ||
− | ::: | + | SPEAKER 1: |
− | :::SCENE TITLE, PROJECTED | + | :::arms and hands of love, |
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 2: | ||
+ | :::lips of love, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 3: | ||
+ | :::phallic thumb of love, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 4: | ||
+ | :::breasts of love, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::bellies pressed and glued together with love. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::LIGHTS ON, NIGHT | ||
+ | |||
+ | :::SCENE TITLE, PROJECTED: | ||
+ | |||
:::1 Walt Whitman, "Love-thoughts" | :::1 Walt Whitman, "Love-thoughts" | ||
− | :::WHITMAN AND A "BOY" MOVE CLOSE TOGETHER, ADDRESS EACH OTHER | + | |
+ | |||
+ | :::[[Image:WW3.75dpi.jpeg|150px]] | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::THROUGHOUT THIS PIECE, PHOTOS OF THE CHARACTERS MAY BE PROJECTED. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::WHITMAN AND A "BOY" MOVE CLOSE TOGETHER, ADDRESS EACH OTHER: | ||
− | BOY: The wet of woods through the early hours. | + | BOY: |
+ | :::The wet of woods through the early hours. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, | ||
+ | |||
− | + | BOY: | |
+ | :::One with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other. | ||
− | |||
− | WHITMAN: The smell of apples, | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::The smell of apples, | ||
− | |||
− | WHITMAN: mint, | + | BOY: |
+ | :::aromas from crushed sage plant, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::mint, | ||
+ | |||
− | BOY: birch bark. | + | BOY: |
+ | :::birch bark. | ||
− | |||
− | BOY: The dead leaf | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::The boy's longings, | ||
+ | :::the glow and pressure | ||
+ | :::as he confides to me | ||
+ | :::what he was dreaming. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | BOY: | ||
+ | :::The dead leaf falling its spiral whirl, | ||
+ | :::falling still and content to the ground. | ||
− | |||
− | BOY: The mystic amorous night. | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::The sensitive, orbic, underlapped brothers, | ||
+ | :::that only privileged feelers | ||
+ | :::may be intimate where they are. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | BOY: | ||
+ | :::The mystic amorous night. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::The curious roamer the hand, | ||
+ | :::roaming all over the body, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | BOY: | ||
+ | :::the bashful withdrawing of flesh | ||
+ | :::where the fingers soothingly pause | ||
+ | :::and edge themselves. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::The limpid liquid within the young man, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | BOY: | ||
+ | ::: the vex'd corrosion | ||
+ | :::so pensive and painful, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::the torment, | ||
− | |||
− | BOY: the | + | BOY: |
+ | :::the irritable tide | ||
+ | :::that will not be at rest, | ||
− | |||
− | + | WHITMAN: | |
+ | :::the like of the same I feel, | ||
+ | :::the like of the same in others. | ||
− | |||
− | + | :::SCENE TITLE: 2 Rufus Griswold, "Once licentiousness" | |
− | |||
+ | :::[[Image:Griswold.jpeg|200px]] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
+ | :::RESPONDING TO THE EARLIER VERSE, GRISWOLD APPEARS WITH ''LEAVES OF GRASS'', SPEAKS TO WHITMAN: | ||
− | |||
+ | GRISWOLD: | ||
+ | :::Once licentiousness | ||
:::shunned the light; | :::shunned the light; | ||
− | |||
:::now it writes books | :::now it writes books | ||
− | |||
:::showing how grand and pure it is, | :::showing how grand and pure it is, | ||
− | |||
:::and prophecies | :::and prophecies | ||
− | |||
:::its own ultimate triumph. | :::its own ultimate triumph. | ||
− | ::: | + | :::TO AUDIENCE, HOLDING UP ''LEAVES OF GRASS''. |
:::It is impossible to imagine | :::It is impossible to imagine | ||
− | |||
:::how any man's fancy | :::how any man's fancy | ||
− | |||
:::could have conceived | :::could have conceived | ||
− | |||
:::such a mass of stupid filth. | :::such a mass of stupid filth. | ||
− | |||
:::We leave this gathering of muck | :::We leave this gathering of muck | ||
− | |||
:::to the laws | :::to the laws | ||
− | |||
:::which have power to suppress | :::which have power to suppress | ||
− | |||
:::such gross obscenity. | :::such gross obscenity. | ||
− | ::: | + | :::FIRE AND BRIMSTONE PROPHECY |
Line 120: | Line 191: | ||
− | ::: | + | :::WHISPERS, THREATENINGLY, TO WHITMAN |
Line 126: | Line 197: | ||
− | ::: | + | :::WHITMAN AND SPEAKERS RESPOND TO GRISWOLD. |
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::SCENE TITLE: 3 Walt Whitman, "Through me" | ||
+ | |||
− | ::: | + | :::[[Image:WW4cropped.jpeg]] |
− | WHITMAN: Through me many long dumb voices, | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::Through me many long dumb voices, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 1: |
+ | :::voices of the interminable generations of slaves, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 2: |
+ | :::voices of prostitutes and deformed persons, | ||
− | |||
− | + | SPEAKER 3: | |
+ | :::voices of the diseased and despairing, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 4: |
+ | :::voices of wombs and the fatherstuff, | ||
− | |||
− | + | SPEAKER 1: | |
+ | :::voices of the rights of them the others are down upon. | ||
− | |||
− | + | WHITMAN: | |
+ | :::Through me forbidden voices, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 2: |
+ | :::voices of sexes and lusts, | ||
− | WHITMAN: | + | |
+ | SPEAKER 3: | ||
+ | :::voices veiled | ||
+ | :::and I remove the veil, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 4: | ||
+ | :::voices indecent | ||
+ | :::by me clarified and transfigured. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::I do not press my finger across my mouth! | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 1: | ||
+ | :::I keep as delicate around the bowels | ||
+ | :::as around the head and heart, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 2: | ||
+ | :::copulation is no more rank to me than death is. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 3: | ||
+ | :::I believe in the flesh and the appetites, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 4: | ||
+ | :::seeing, hearing, and feeling are miracles, | ||
+ | :::and each part and tag of me is a miracle. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE: | ||
:::If I worship any particular thing | :::If I worship any particular thing | ||
+ | :::it shall be some of the spread of my body; | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER 1: You my rich blood, your milky stream pale strippings of my life; | + | SPEAKER 1: |
+ | :::You my rich blood, | ||
+ | :::your milky stream pale strippings of my life; | ||
+ | |||
− | SPEAKER 2: Breast that presses against other breasts it shall be you, | + | SPEAKER 2: |
+ | :::Breast that presses against other breasts | ||
+ | :::it shall be you, | ||
− | SPEAKER 3: Root of washed sweet-flag, | + | |
+ | SPEAKER 3: | ||
+ | :::Root of washed sweet-flag, | ||
:::timorous pond-snipe, | :::timorous pond-snipe, | ||
:::nest of guarded duplicate eggs, | :::nest of guarded duplicate eggs, | ||
− | ::: it shall be you, | + | :::it shall be you, |
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 4: | ||
+ | :::Mixed tussled hay of head and beard and brawn | ||
+ | :::it shall be you, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE: | ||
+ | :::Trickling sap of maple, | ||
+ | :::fibre of manly wheat, | ||
+ | :::it shall be you; | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SPEAKER 1: | ||
+ | :::Winds | ||
+ | :::whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me | ||
+ | :::it shall be you, | ||
− | |||
− | + | SPEAKER 2: | |
+ | :::Broad muscular fields, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER | + | SPEAKER 3: |
+ | :::branches of liveoak, | ||
− | |||
− | SPEAKER 4: loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you, | + | SPEAKER 4: |
+ | ::: loving lounger in my winding paths, | ||
+ | :::it shall be you, | ||
− | |||
+ | WHITMAN: | ||
+ | :::TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE | ||
+ | :::Hands I have taken, | ||
+ | :::face I have kissed, | ||
+ | :::mortal I have ever touched, | ||
+ | :::it shall be you. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU RESPOND TO WHITMAN. | ||
− | |||
:::SCENE TITLE: 4 Bronson Alcott: "This morning with Henry David Thoreau" | :::SCENE TITLE: 4 Bronson Alcott: "This morning with Henry David Thoreau" | ||
− | ::: | + | |
+ | :::[[Image:ABAlcott.jpeg|125px]] [[Image:Thoreau.jpeg|140px]] | ||
− | ALCOTT: This morning | + | :::ALCOTT ADDRESSES AUDIENCE; THOREAU ACCOMPANIES HIM, FOCUSING ON WHITMAN |
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ALCOTT: | ||
+ | :::This morning | ||
:::with Henry David Thoreau to Brooklyn, | :::with Henry David Thoreau to Brooklyn, | ||
:::to see Walt Whitman. | :::to see Walt Whitman. | ||
+ | |||
:::I find this Whitman | :::I find this Whitman | ||
− | :::likely to make his mark on Young America he affirming himself | + | :::likely to make his mark on Young America |
+ | :::he affirming himself | ||
:::to be its representative man and poet. | :::to be its representative man and poet. | ||
− | ::: | + | :::WHITMAN AND THOREAU EYE EACH OTHER SUSPICIOUSLY; ALCOTT OBSERVES. |
:::Thoreau and Whitman | :::Thoreau and Whitman | ||
:::each seemed planted fast in reserve, | :::each seemed planted fast in reserve, | ||
− | :::surveying the | + | :::surveying the other curiously, |
− | :::like two beasts, each wondering | + | :::like two beasts, |
− | :::what the other would do, whether to snap | + | :::each wondering |
+ | :::what the other would do, | ||
+ | :::whether to snap | ||
:::or run. | :::or run. | ||
− | THOREAU: | + | |
+ | THOREAU: | ||
+ | :::TO ALCOTT, INDICATING WHITMAN | ||
+ | |||
:::There are two or three pieces | :::There are two or three pieces | ||
:::in his book | :::in his book | ||
Line 237: | Line 392: | ||
:::without understanding them. | :::without understanding them. | ||
− | ::: | + | |
+ | :::TO HIMSELF; A NEW THOUGHT | ||
+ | |||
:::Of course, | :::Of course, | ||
Line 244: | Line 401: | ||
− | ::: | + | :::SCENE TITLE: 5 Walt Whitman, "By silence" |
− | :::WHITMAN RESPONDS TO THOREAU | + | |
+ | :::WHITMAN RESPONDS TO THOREAU | ||
− | WHITMAN: By silence | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::By silence | ||
:::the pens of poets | :::the pens of poets | ||
:::have long connived | :::have long connived | ||
Line 263: | Line 422: | ||
− | SPEAKER 1: This filthy law | + | SPEAKER 1: |
+ | :::This filthy law | ||
:::has to be repealed | :::has to be repealed | ||
:::it stands in the way | :::it stands in the way | ||
Line 269: | Line 429: | ||
− | SPEAKER 2: It is in the interest of women | + | SPEAKER 2: |
+ | :::It is in the interest of women | ||
:::as well as men | :::as well as men | ||
:::that there should be | :::that there should be | ||
Line 276: | Line 437: | ||
− | SPEAKER 3: The present diluted deferential love | + | SPEAKER 3: |
+ | :::The present diluted deferential love | ||
:::is enough to make a man vomit; | :::is enough to make a man vomit; | ||
− | SPEAKER 4: as to manly friendship, | + | SPEAKER 4: |
+ | :::as to manly friendship, | ||
:::everywhere observed in the states, | :::everywhere observed in the states, | ||
:::there is not the first breath of it | :::there is not the first breath of it | ||
Line 286: | Line 449: | ||
− | WHITMAN: The body of a man or women | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::The body of a man or women | ||
:::is so far quite unexpressed in poems; | :::is so far quite unexpressed in poems; | ||
− | SPEAKER 1: that body is to be expressed, | + | SPEAKER 1: |
+ | :::that body is to be expressed, | ||
:::and sex is. | :::and sex is. | ||
− | WHITMAN: | + | WHITMAN: |
+ | :::TO JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, WHO APPEARS IN NEXT SCENE | ||
+ | |||
:::All theories stagnate in their vitals, | :::All theories stagnate in their vitals, | ||
:::cowardly and rotten, | :::cowardly and rotten, | ||
Line 304: | Line 471: | ||
− | ::: | + | :::SYMONDS, INSPIRED BY WHITMAN'S WORDS, STEPS INTO THE LIGHT. |
+ | |||
:::SCENE TITLE: 6 John Addington Symonds, "Is it not strange?" | :::SCENE TITLE: 6 John Addington Symonds, "Is it not strange?" | ||
− | :::HERE, SYMONDS IS TWENTYSEVEN; HE HAS BEEN MARRIED THREE YEARS AND HAS TWO DAUGHTERS; HE'S WELL-EDUCATED, AND COMES FROM AN OLD, ENGLISH, ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY, BUT HE MUST WRITE LITERARY AND ART CRITICISM TO SUPPLEMENT HIS INHERITED INCOME | + | |
+ | :::[[Image:WW12.JAS.jpeg|200px]] | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::HERE, SYMONDS IS TWENTYSEVEN; HE HAS BEEN MARRIED THREE YEARS AND HAS TWO DAUGHTERS; HE'S WELL-EDUCATED, AND COMES FROM AN OLD, ENGLISH, ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY, BUT HE MUST WRITE LITERARY AND ART CRITICISM TO SUPPLEMENT HIS INHERITED INCOME | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::HE INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO THE AUDIENCE AS A CLOSE CONFIDANT, FULL OF INNER PASSION | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | SYMONDS: | ||
+ | :::Is it not strange I should have read | ||
+ | :::Whitman's ''Leaves of Grass'' only this week? | ||
+ | :::If I had read it years ago, | ||
+ | :::and if I had understood, | ||
+ | :::I should have been | ||
+ | :::a braver, better, different man now. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::The ''Leaves'' is not a book. | ||
+ | :::It is a man, | ||
+ | :::miraculous in his vigour, | ||
+ | :::and love, | ||
+ | :::and omniscience, | ||
+ | :::and animalism. | ||
+ | :::and omnivorous humanity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::ELATED AT HIS RECENT DISCOVERY OF WHITMAN'S CELEBRATION OF LOVE BETWEEN MEN | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::His Calamus poems | ||
+ | :::treat the whole matter newly. | ||
+ | :::This man has said | ||
+ | :::what I have burned to say; | ||
+ | :::what I should have done | ||
+ | :::if opinion and authority | ||
+ | :::and the contamination of vile lewdness | ||
+ | :::had not ended in muddling my brain. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::WITH SLIGHT SELF-MOCKERY | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::Yet even with these bruised wings and faded petals | ||
+ | :::it is good to know | ||
+ | :::that we bear in our breast | ||
+ | :::the Psyche and Flower | ||
+ | :::of the noblest | ||
+ | :::most masculine Democracy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::RAISING HIS ARM TO INTRODUCE THE WHITMAN POEM THAT FOLLOWS | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | :::Behold! | ||
+ | :::A light has risen | ||
+ | :::which may not be denied. | ||
− | + | ==Continued at: [[Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act I, Part II]]== |
Latest revision as of 23:06, 6 December 2012
Back to: Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers"
- ACT I
- LIGHTS OFF; WHITMAN'S FIRST WORDS ARE HEARD IN THE DARK.
WHITMAN:
- Love thoughts
SPEAKER 1
- love-juice,
SPEAKER 2:
- love-odor,
SPEAKER 3:
- love-yielding,
SPEAKER 4:
- love-climbers,
WHITMAN:
- and the climbing sap,
SPEAKER 1:
- arms and hands of love,
SPEAKER 2:
- lips of love,
SPEAKER 3:
- phallic thumb of love,
SPEAKER 4:
- breasts of love,
WHITMAN:
- bellies pressed and glued together with love.
- LIGHTS ON, NIGHT
- SCENE TITLE, PROJECTED:
- 1 Walt Whitman, "Love-thoughts"
- THROUGHOUT THIS PIECE, PHOTOS OF THE CHARACTERS MAY BE PROJECTED.
- WHITMAN AND A "BOY" MOVE CLOSE TOGETHER, ADDRESS EACH OTHER:
BOY:
- The wet of woods through the early hours.
WHITMAN:
- Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep,
BOY:
- One with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other.
WHITMAN:
- The smell of apples,
BOY:
- aromas from crushed sage plant,
WHITMAN:
- mint,
BOY:
- birch bark.
WHITMAN:
- The boy's longings,
- the glow and pressure
- as he confides to me
- what he was dreaming.
BOY:
- The dead leaf falling its spiral whirl,
- falling still and content to the ground.
WHITMAN:
- The sensitive, orbic, underlapped brothers,
- that only privileged feelers
- may be intimate where they are.
BOY:
- The mystic amorous night.
WHITMAN:
- The curious roamer the hand,
- roaming all over the body,
BOY:
- the bashful withdrawing of flesh
- where the fingers soothingly pause
- and edge themselves.
WHITMAN:
- The limpid liquid within the young man,
BOY:
- the vex'd corrosion
- so pensive and painful,
WHITMAN:
- the torment,
BOY:
- the irritable tide
- that will not be at rest,
WHITMAN:
- the like of the same I feel,
- the like of the same in others.
- SCENE TITLE: 2 Rufus Griswold, "Once licentiousness"
- RESPONDING TO THE EARLIER VERSE, GRISWOLD APPEARS WITH LEAVES OF GRASS, SPEAKS TO WHITMAN:
GRISWOLD:
- Once licentiousness
- shunned the light;
- now it writes books
- showing how grand and pure it is,
- and prophecies
- its own ultimate triumph.
- TO AUDIENCE, HOLDING UP LEAVES OF GRASS.
- It is impossible to imagine
- how any man's fancy
- could have conceived
- such a mass of stupid filth.
- We leave this gathering of muck
- to the laws
- which have power to suppress
- such gross obscenity.
- FIRE AND BRIMSTONE PROPHECY
- "Peccatum illud horribile,
- inter Christianos non nominandum."
- WHISPERS, THREATENINGLY, TO WHITMAN
- (That vile sin among Christians not to be named.)
- WHITMAN AND SPEAKERS RESPOND TO GRISWOLD.
- SCENE TITLE: 3 Walt Whitman, "Through me"
WHITMAN:
- Through me many long dumb voices,
SPEAKER 1:
- voices of the interminable generations of slaves,
SPEAKER 2:
- voices of prostitutes and deformed persons,
SPEAKER 3:
- voices of the diseased and despairing,
SPEAKER 4:
- voices of wombs and the fatherstuff,
SPEAKER 1:
- voices of the rights of them the others are down upon.
WHITMAN:
- Through me forbidden voices,
SPEAKER 2:
- voices of sexes and lusts,
SPEAKER 3:
- voices veiled
- and I remove the veil,
SPEAKER 4:
- voices indecent
- by me clarified and transfigured.
WHITMAN:
- I do not press my finger across my mouth!
SPEAKER 1:
- I keep as delicate around the bowels
- as around the head and heart,
SPEAKER 2:
- copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
SPEAKER 3:
- I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
SPEAKER 4:
- seeing, hearing, and feeling are miracles,
- and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
WHITMAN:
- TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE:
- If I worship any particular thing
- it shall be some of the spread of my body;
SPEAKER 1:
- You my rich blood,
- your milky stream pale strippings of my life;
SPEAKER 2:
- Breast that presses against other breasts
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 3:
- Root of washed sweet-flag,
- timorous pond-snipe,
- nest of guarded duplicate eggs,
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 4:
- Mixed tussled hay of head and beard and brawn
- it shall be you,
WHITMAN:
- TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE:
- Trickling sap of maple,
- fibre of manly wheat,
- it shall be you;
SPEAKER 1:
- Winds
- whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 2:
- Broad muscular fields,
SPEAKER 3:
- branches of liveoak,
SPEAKER 4:
- loving lounger in my winding paths,
- it shall be you,
WHITMAN:
- TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE
- Hands I have taken,
- face I have kissed,
- mortal I have ever touched,
- it shall be you.
- ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU RESPOND TO WHITMAN.
- SCENE TITLE: 4 Bronson Alcott: "This morning with Henry David Thoreau"
- ALCOTT ADDRESSES AUDIENCE; THOREAU ACCOMPANIES HIM, FOCUSING ON WHITMAN
ALCOTT:
- This morning
- with Henry David Thoreau to Brooklyn,
- to see Walt Whitman.
- I find this Whitman
- likely to make his mark on Young America
- he affirming himself
- to be its representative man and poet.
- WHITMAN AND THOREAU EYE EACH OTHER SUSPICIOUSLY; ALCOTT OBSERVES.
- Thoreau and Whitman
- each seemed planted fast in reserve,
- surveying the other curiously,
- like two beasts,
- each wondering
- what the other would do,
- whether to snap
- or run.
THOREAU:
- TO ALCOTT, INDICATING WHITMAN
- There are two or three pieces
- in his book
- which are disagreeable
- to say the least,
- simply sensual.
- He does not celebrate love at all.
- It is as if
- the beasts spoke.
- Men have been ashamed of themselves
- with reason.
- I do not wish
- his poems' sensual parts
- were not written
- but that men and women
- were so pure
- they could read them
- without harm,
- that is,
- without understanding them.
- TO HIMSELF; A NEW THOUGHT
- Of course,
- if we are shocked,
- whose experience are we reminded of?
- SCENE TITLE: 5 Walt Whitman, "By silence"
- WHITMAN RESPONDS TO THOREAU
WHITMAN:
- By silence
- the pens of poets
- have long connived
- at the filthy law
- that sex,
- desires,
- lusts,
- organs,
- acts
- are unmentionable,
- to be ashamed of,
- driven to skulk out of literature.
SPEAKER 1:
- This filthy law
- has to be repealed
- it stands in the way
- of great reforms.
SPEAKER 2:
- It is in the interest of women
- as well as men
- that there should be
- no infidelism about sex,
- but perfect faith.
SPEAKER 3:
- The present diluted deferential love
- is enough to make a man vomit;
SPEAKER 4:
- as to manly friendship,
- everywhere observed in the states,
- there is not the first breath of it
- to be observed in print.
WHITMAN:
- The body of a man or women
- is so far quite unexpressed in poems;
SPEAKER 1:
- that body is to be expressed,
- and sex is.
WHITMAN:
- TO JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, WHO APPEARS IN NEXT SCENE
- All theories stagnate in their vitals,
- cowardly and rotten,
- if they cannot publicly accept, and publicly name,
- with specific words,
- the things on which all decency,
- all that is worth being here for
- depend.
- SYMONDS, INSPIRED BY WHITMAN'S WORDS, STEPS INTO THE LIGHT.
- SCENE TITLE: 6 John Addington Symonds, "Is it not strange?"
- HERE, SYMONDS IS TWENTYSEVEN; HE HAS BEEN MARRIED THREE YEARS AND HAS TWO DAUGHTERS; HE'S WELL-EDUCATED, AND COMES FROM AN OLD, ENGLISH, ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY, BUT HE MUST WRITE LITERARY AND ART CRITICISM TO SUPPLEMENT HIS INHERITED INCOME
- HE INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO THE AUDIENCE AS A CLOSE CONFIDANT, FULL OF INNER PASSION
SYMONDS:
- Is it not strange I should have read
- Whitman's Leaves of Grass only this week?
- If I had read it years ago,
- and if I had understood,
- I should have been
- a braver, better, different man now.
- The Leaves is not a book.
- It is a man,
- miraculous in his vigour,
- and love,
- and omniscience,
- and animalism.
- and omnivorous humanity.
- ELATED AT HIS RECENT DISCOVERY OF WHITMAN'S CELEBRATION OF LOVE BETWEEN MEN
- His Calamus poems
- treat the whole matter newly.
- This man has said
- what I have burned to say;
- what I should have done
- if opinion and authority
- and the contamination of vile lewdness
- had not ended in muddling my brain.
- WITH SLIGHT SELF-MOCKERY
- Yet even with these bruised wings and faded petals
- it is good to know
- that we bear in our breast
- the Psyche and Flower
- of the noblest
- most masculine Democracy.
- RAISING HIS ARM TO INTRODUCE THE WHITMAN POEM THAT FOLLOWS
- Behold!
- A light has risen
- which may not be denied.