References to Homosexuality in Walt Whitmans Song of Myself Essay

References to Homo cozyity in Walt Whitmans Song of Myself WHIT public WAS MORE MAN THAN YOULL EVER BE, said a student of Louisiana State University. When asked questions of your sexual preference or thoughts on the issue of sex, I would venture to translate it makes most people uncomfortable. This is an age-old topic that people know about, thus far do non want to talk about. He was particularly self-effacing about his issues regarding sex and his particular sexual preference. In fact, of Whitmans struggles the most heavy for him to deal with was his ever so strong homosexual desires (Hubbell 283). Whether homosexuality is correctly or wrong is not for me to decide. Though I feel it should not be used so explicitly in snips of literature. Homosexuality, by definition, is the act of having relations with members of the same sex (Websters Dictionary). In todays society, we chose to either omit homosexuality, to accept it, or to engage in it. Someone you leas t postulate is probably a homosexual to some extent. Most heterosexuals tend to bear on that homosexuality does not exist or judge those who chose to engage in it. This issue is not new. In fact, in the early nineteenth century many letters and diaries that have been examined show that middle class work force and women of all ages participate in relations that verged on sexual- homosexual love. instantly these acts would be judged as homoerotic, yet were viewed with tolerance and were even encouraged by leading middle class moralists. Readers of the time took little notice to poets worry Whitman, not even to condemn them for immorality, a charge which they typically taciturn for poems with heterosexual themes (Killingsworth 98). Whitman was a unique poet and a... ...e had no idea when writing this work what the future would hold, we are now reading this in our literature class. Is this very appropriate? We are college students, and as mature adults, this material shou ld be something we tummy handle. What do you think? I believe that homosexuality is very real, and that we requirement to learn about it and educate ourselves about the issue. Yet, I dont think we should go as far as being explicit about it in our textbooks. Works Cited Hubbell, Jay B. Eight American Authors- A review of Research and Criticism. The new-fangled American Language Association of America. New York, 1956. Killingsworth, Jimmie. Whitmans Poetry of the Bdy. University of North Carolina Press, chapel Hill and London. 1989. Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. 1998.