“Tenderly will I use you curling grass,

It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,

It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken”

This quote from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself 6” was published in 1855 and is one of the many verses in his work that is queercoded. Whitman’s work while maybe not expressly does have the underlying tone of love to all. Whitman even had a by most accounts unique [at the time] relationship with Pete Doyal. Homosexuality wouldn’t be a surprise to the trancendentalist poet and would fall under many of his ideas and expressions. These ideas of Whitman’s even impacted other authors into writing  their own works such as “What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life, author Mark Doty.” The website Advocate goes on to describe the book saying “What Is the Grass is a study of Walt Whitman and his oeuvre, most notably his 19th-century poetry collection, Leaves of Grass. But for the award-winning gay poet Doty, textual analysis of the great American bard required a personal analysis, which necessitated this kind of spiritual contact” (Why Walt Whitman). In the same article during an interview with Advocate Doty described their work as “I didn't want to write a book of literary criticism without self in it, without a passionate point of view," Doty said. "I wanted to do something I did not know how to do, which was to ... read my life through the lens of the poems.” Whitman clearly even if unintentionally used his voice to express queerness through a literary lense. Talking from a modern perspective we know how important using a voice is. Many people don’t have the ability to express themselves especially in the past, so Whitman being able to do this has inspired many. Even reading Whitman’s work was able to show light to me. Whitman was very impactful for many reasons as one of the greatest poets of all time. More from Advocate’s interview with Doty saying “However, it was "his praise of heterosexual coupling and his portrayal of women when sexual desire is just thought to be awful" that clashed with conservative society, said Doty. As for his queer themes, "nobody seems to notice except for people who were looking for it, who knew how to read it." Brown noted the power of Leaves of Grass — and Whitman's avant-garde work — with this in mind. "That creates, through writing, a world of community. And that's why you take the leap. That's why you take the risk," he said” More proof of Whitman’s devotion is his set of work called “Live Oak with Moss” being called Whitman’s Song of Male Intimacy of Love. Truly a great sentiment from the poet and a very good showing of love and advocacy. Walt Whitman's Mystical Ethics of Comradeship: Homosexuality by Juan A. Hererro Brasas goes on to say chapter four about how comradeship has led to the growth of society and the growth of community whether it be spiritually, romantically, or even emotionally. Hopefully this growth from Whitman can help us all and remind us to use our voices to fight suppression for others.

Work Cited

Doty, Mark. What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.

Herrero-Brasas, Juan A. “Chapter 4.” Walt Whitman's Mystical Ethics of Comradeship: Homosexuality and the Marginality of Friendship at the Crossroads of Modernity, SUNY Press, Albany, NY, 2011.

TheAdvocateMag. “Why Walt Whitman, 'America's Poet,' Was a Queer Pioneer.” ADVOCATE, Advocate.com, 3 July 2020, https://www.advocate.com/books/2020/7/03/why-walt-whitman-americas-poet-....

Walt Male Intimacy - Whitman Archive. https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/pdf/anc.02125.pdf.