Whitty Whitman;)

Step 1

• From pg. 3: I think that it's very interesting how Whitman's (infatuation? admiration?) for Lincoln is reflected in his poetry. When I saw that he begins, and continues, an imaginary conversation with Lincoln in this Journal, I thought of the Lincoln-like values he includes in his conversations with readers in Leaves of Grass. We see Whitman being very 'liberal' in his views towards African American's and Women, often being inclusive towards them in his poetry; equals to his white/male audience. This is consistent with Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and declared war on the South. 
• From pg. 4: I saw two or three words that stood out to me when looking at this page on religion; "eternal", "conscience", and "philosophy". I think that on this page on religion, Whitman is brainstorming and jotting down diction to relate that sentiment , such as "eternal" and "conscience", which have connotations with broad and complex ideas (time, the soul) and strengthen his purpose of relating something as large as the universe to the reader.
• From pg. 5: This page just seems like a short poem scribbled down. The pages like this in the notebook reveal that Whitman was probably always thinking of subjects for his poetry, writing his ideas down wherever he was, even on the move. I see the word "libertad" (freedom in Spanish), and again themes of democracy and rights are touched on by Whitman on this page. By him using this Spanish word could be him expanding his work to everyone, showing he cares for everyone. 
• From pgs. 6- 10: On these pages Whitman seems to continue brainstorming a single larger poem on the idea of "libertad". I can't tell if the website only contains parts of each of the pages because it seems like he is only writing a short three to four lines of text on each. This would mean he would fill up a whole notebook pretty quickly. There are quite a few words crossed out and revisions made, leading me to think that he was in fact trying to write a poem. Also, I first thought that the stamps were a part of the original journal but then i saw that they say Library of Congress on them.
• From pgs. 11 -15: First, after looking at these pages I find it interesting that Whitman likes to draw as well as write poetry, and I wonder if he ever combined the two at once, or made drawings in consideration of his poems. The self-portrait on page 11 looks a bit exaggerated in the sense that Whitman looks too much like a philosopher, an idealized "great" poet if I had to imagine what one looked like. In his poetry, Whitman likes to think of himself a lot, so this could be a portrait to go with a poem or it could just reflect his large ego/concerns for himself that I think he has. The sketches on pages 12,13, and 14 were done quickly and with little detail, all of them again looking like representations of Whitman.

Step 2 

• From pg. 3: Before writing my original observation for this page I had read that he was beginning a conversation with Lincoln. Still, the fact that Whitman "clammers on top of a bus" to get a look at the president-elect strengthens my idea that many of the values he writes about in his poems (democracy, freedom, the soul) were inspired by or taken from Lincoln. This also reveals the purpose behind Whitman wanting to keep a notebook, he is using it to record a conversation with Lincoln to come back to later and incorporate into his poems. Also, that stamp is the stamp of the Library of Congress.
• From pg. 4: On this page, the notes revel that Whitman is concerned with making an imagined, inclusive, religion and that it makes it's way into his poems in the form of a four sided religion. Whitman wanted to create an inclusive religion so as to avoid the conflict that he saw within the Union, but at the same time he didn't want to minimize   he need for abolition of slavery. The information from the notes on this page is  reflected in Whitman's poetry, where he preaches a universal suffrage/brotherhood of democratic rights and society, but takes stances on rights for African American's and women that go against a large part of societies views. Thus, the jotting down of things like "I surround all, and dare not make a single exclusion." 
• From pgs. 5-10:  I was right in my original observation to guess that the word libertad was important to this page and was intended to mean freedom. The notes theorize that Whitman's purpose for using the Spanish term for freedom rather than just "freedom" was to imply that freedom is not only an American ideal, but a global one (i.e. a global brotherhood). The "libertad" becomes a storm-tossed ship in pages 7,8,9,10, representing the struggles of both the union (and the world; Does the Queen of England represent a thousand years?) that Whitman sees as preventing the rise of democracy and freedom. These series of pages seem to be Whitman going through his process of creating a poem, with all of the themes we discussed in class present. 
• From pgs. 11-15: After reading the notes I learned that Whitman himself didn't actually draw these sketches. This reveals that Whitman's close acquaintances, those who drew the portraits of him, actually did see him in the way he presents himself through his poetry; a very philosophical and wise man. I thought it was funny that they caricatured this on page 14 and drew him with an overly large top-hat. The fact that he passed his notebook round makes me ask the question, How much was Whitman influenced by those around him in making his poetry? because before I had assumed he was doing everything on his own.