We’re all Whitman, enumeration: Edmund Feng

Looking closely at the poem, we can tell right away that there isn’t exactly any sort of pattern to follow, which means there’s no specific rhythmic pattern, nor is there some sort of enumeration in it. As such, we can consider this sort of poetry to be free verse poetry. From a basic overview, this poem essentially speaks about the themes of identity and diversity. The dashes in the poem title further serve to show us the purpose behind that, segregating them almost like the races in real life are. It speaks about the people in the world, although different in many ways, like wealth, identity, spirit, and so on, all belong in the same existence and should be united. When we move to the actual wording system in each though, here’s what I’ve gleaned. walt Whitman has some enumeration on the body, for example, “Head/neck/hair/ears/Drop”. In Luis Alberto’s poem though, he elaborates more on the identities of people, as opposed to the beauty of the body, such as “Romans/Celtics/Hebrews/Moors,” or “Hispanics/Aborigines/”.

Then, moving back to Walt Whitman’s poem, we can look into the actions and descriptions of individuals, such as “Swim with the Swimmers. wrestle with wrestlers, marching in line with the firemen” before comparing it to Luis Alberto’s poem on struggles, like “Boss and day laborer, still the job’s slave, painter of trenches, resourceful creator.” Once more, each poem has an enumeration on its OWN set topic, with Luis Alberto more focused on the workings of identity, race, and diversity, and Walt Whitman on the beauty of the human body. Although both are free verse, both share similar rhyming tendencies and enumerations.

Jarring Recitation

Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poem “We are All Whitman: #2 Song of/to/My/Your/Self”embodies similarity of the rhythmic enumeration to Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” through the aspects of recitation of poem, punctuation and the grammatical structure. Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric,” has an enumeration of body parts which causes a very cacophonous sound when the reader is reciting the poem. It all involves the emphasis when reading the high use of repetition, punctuation, and the listing of body words that allows the poem to continue with a very harsh flow. 

Ambroggio’s poem follows this Whitman style of poetry as it also involves similar aspects that could be pinned back to Whitman’s poem. Whitman uses the the long list of body parts to signify the founding over the human body through, “O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul, / O I say now these are the soul” (267), as he concluded to list off the the different parts of the body. While in Ambroggio’s poem, he explains the nature of an individual by looking back towards their roots from their skin color, religion, etc as they all come from somewhere. 

While closely looking Ambroggio’s poem, the sound the poem flows through while even having the listing of features. Whitman gave this very cacophonous sound as it involved harsh wording that Whitman purposely placed to be properly pronounced and articulated to support this main idea. However, Ambroggio’s poem had more of a graceful euphonious sound while also incorporating the enumeration. When both poems involve listing off words, the poem designs it to be recited in a particular way such as in Whitman’s case, the reader is needed to rapid fire the list of body parts that as the reader is reading the poem it intensifies them without much of caesura or end stop punctuation. Ambroggio follows the similar structure when further describing the individual’s identity through a list as without much a stop for a breather makes the reader recite the poem quickly. With both similar parts of the enumeration, they change the rhythm of the poem while having the reader recite it quickly as they do not have an intended meter, rhyme scheme, and punctuation that makes the reader pause and reflect on the text.

Naraint Catalan Rios

Rhythmic Chaos in Cadence

For this assignment, we are presented with “We are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self” by Luis Ambroggio and “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman. After discussing “I Sing the Body Electric” in class with my fellow peers, I have taken the intricacies of rhythm into account. When reading this poem, there are extreme inclines and declines in the reader’s voice as they read aloud every line. In class, there were two visual and auditory demonstrations of the inclines and declines within the poem. By the time my professor had finished Whitman’s poem, he was out of breath. However, during the reading there was an electric sensation that echoed in the room due to the cadence and tone. That specific cadence that is amplified and it resembles the chaotic nature of being human. When we dissect the lines, which focus on the body, there are moments where a certain body part is gendered by Whitman. Whitman, of course this is what we would like to believe, is placing both men and women on an equal playing field. Ambroggio’s poem that alludes to Whitman, conveys parallel focal points in rhythm and cadence. There are two videos provided where three poets read “Song to Myself” by Walt Whitman. One of the videos is demonstrating the diversity in translation when reading the same poem. The second presents the three poets who give direct translations as well as their analysis on the question of sensuality.

In Ambroggio’s poem the reader is already embraced by the multitude of colors that exist in this universe, “Hispanic, Latin, blond, black,” (Line 1). When Whitman’s poem “Song to Myself” was read aloud by the three speakers, there were again inclines and declines in the tones of each. One reader spoke in English, the other in Spanish, and lastly in Persian. The Spanish translation exemplified euphony in comparison to Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric.” Similarly, in Ambroggio’s poem there are tangible qualities that resemble “I Sing the Body Electric” such as the enumeration. Both poets discuss different periods of the spectrum within the human experience, one is more physical than the other. I can only imagine the copious amount of slopes created in Ambroggio’s poem. Even just by reading it aloud to myself, I am left with the sense of freedom and passion for the human experience despite bearing somewhat nihilistic thoughts. And while there is no rhyme scheme for both of these poems, there remains structure. The rhythmic listing of races, body parts, ethnicities, gender, and nature are a part of the human experience.

Emily Pu

poetry that leaves you gasping for air

By; sofia garcia

In poetry, there are rules. Some poets follow the rules of rhyme and meter while there are others that could care less about those rules. Those rule breakers created something called free verse. They try to fool their readers by claiming they are writing “free verse”, and that of course is matter of opinion. Free verse just means the poet made up their own rules to write their poem.

Whitman in his poem, “I Sing the Body Electric” he uses free verse. He writes in run-on sentences which contain very little punctuation, and literally leaves the reader breathless. There is no name for that, but it inspired poet Luis Alberto Ambroggio to write “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/ to/ My/ Your/ Self” and “Song of Myself:  Walt Whitman in Other Words” which are just as breathless as Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric”.

Surprisingly enough, Ambroggio actually writes in “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/ to/ My/ Your/ Self”, “In everyone’s Self,/the poem’s universal soul,/in each innumerable Walt Whitman,/cosmos without rubrics,/”, in which he references Whitman which led me to assume that he was Ambroggio’s inspiration to write theses poems as long as the tittles themselves.

When Professor Humberto Garcia, read “I Sing the Body Electric” to the class, he was out of breath by the time he was finished reading it. In contrast, when Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Christopher Merril, and Sholeh Wolpe read “Song of Myself:  Walt Whitman in Other Words” they sound like they are reading a book to the audience. The three narrators have their breathing composed.

In “I Sing the Body Electric” Whitman talks about how his poetry affects the body and proceeds to break it into parts in his poem. He goes on about this without stopping. He even says it in his poem, “I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with/my poems and that they are my poems” (Whitman lines7-8). This poet believes that poetry should reach every country so he goes on to list every country. It leads Ambroggio to have the same rhythmic enumeration. On the subject, translator and poet Sholeh Wolpe says that when you translate poetryyou get “into the bone of poetry.”

Free verse is limitless

By: Jasmine Carrillo

Both Luis Alberto Ambroggio and Walt Whitman use descriptive enumeration in their favor throughout their poems. The lists in Amroggios “We are all Whitman: #2 Song of/to/MyYou/Self” are what establish the rhythm throughout the poem. Specially, the run-on sentences are what causes the rhythm to sound as if it is somewhat speeding up. When lists are longer, it causes one to lose their breath due to us speeding through them when reading. This fast paced rhythm also causes the shorter lists in the poem to sound longer than they actually are. This is exactly what Whitman did in his poem but instead of listing body parts, Ambroggio translated this method in his own way and made many lists of numerous things.

For example, Ambroggio lists “It comes from Mexico, Central America, from Costa Rica, Tikal, Guatemala…” When one is reading this extremely long list we tend speed up through it the further down the list we go. This goes hand in hand in how Whitman lists “This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person, The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard…” Whitman has list after list making the reader want to speed up like they would do in Ambroggio’s poem.

Both Ambroggio and Whitman use the similar strategy of using rhythmic enumeration. They use this in their own way to make their poems flow the way they want them to.

with every breath i take.

By: Jocelyn Lemus

Being able to breathe and read these poems at the same time became difficult. These poems took control of my tongue, of my entire mouth.  There was no pause button as I read, the beat and rhythm of the poems were possessing my body into another dimension. As I was intensely reading both I Sing The Body Electric by Walt Whitman and We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self by Luis Alberto Ambroggio there is a comparison when they both used their way to manipulate words into an up beat of a rhythm and sound. These two poems carry similarities because they connect with the types of freestyle they used. They were both able to express themselves in these poems like if there wasn’t a forever. Once they began writing and reciting these poems, it seemed like there was no end to it. Being able to pour the whole soul into poems is what I saw coming out of these two poets. Their poems not only took control over the bodies of the audience, but it also took control over the bodies of the writer. The translation of rhythmic enumeration of the body parts in these two poems levitated the soul in one piece. When levitating the soul, I mean to say that the poems became like a concert to the reader, it made the person read intensely as if periods did not existed.

To add on, to specify on the up beats of both poems, these to poets used certain lines on stanzas that incredibly dominated the readers tongue and lungs as they read. For instance, in I Sing The Body Electric by Walt Whitman, he mentions,

“Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,

Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,

Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges”( Whitman 9). 

When I was approaching these lines, I became prepared to take a big ball of air into my lungs because I knew I was not going to have time to breathe in between the lines. For this poem shall not have broken spaces between the lines. I tried reading it like Professor Garcia, with so much to say and so little comes out. As if I was trying to say the last words coming out of my mouth as I took my last breath of being alive. With so much adrenaline and rush coming out of the system. You’d be surprised with the wonders the body is capable of doing.

In addition, Luis Alberto Ambroggio also uses lines that take your breath away unconsciously. For example, in We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self, he emphasizes,

“This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano,

from Cuba free dancer of merengues,

from Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean,

from El Salvador and Nicaragua.

It comes from Mexico, Central America,

from Costa Rica, Tikal, Guatemala,

from their rainforests, lakes of salt and honey,

from Panama, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela..”(Ambroggio 5). 

When reading this outloud, it becomes important to say it fast with an intense rythmn, not only because the words take you there, but because the author does too. Ambroggio wants to manipulate us with his words into going fast because when saying all these place and countries he wants us to say it together because that is exactly what he wants the reader to take from it. The ability to not only say these places are united, but to actually feel it in your bloodstream flow across your body.

To wrap it up, both Walt Whitman and Luis Alberto Ambroggio translate each others’ body parts from each poems because they share a similar rhythm and sound. They both use the ability to fasten the beats by multiplicating the commas enhancing the sound of the readers’ voice. Even though, both poems might send in a different message, the beat still demonstrates the similarities of how they are trying to both send the message. They try to get the attention of the reader in order to send the messages through multiples strategies. Therefore, these two poets share the translation of body parts through their poems.

I Tried to be Whitman

“The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account,  That of the male is perfect and of the female is perfect”

—Walt Whitman, I Sing the Body Electric

 

Luis Alberto Ambroggio, proud of who he is, has been, can be, could be

Pens a poem of praise, of pride, of power.

Ambroggio’s poem We are all Whitman: #2: Song Of/ To/ My/ Your/ Self follows the form of Whitman’s I Sing the Body Electric, in rhythm, in tone, lack of breath,

It is but a short rendition of Whitman, calling praise to body, calling love to the human form,

Pride in oneself, and in this case, the Self is, “Hispanic, Latin, blond, black, olive-skinned, native and immigrant” (Ambroggio ll.1-2).

Whitman talks of the form of body, the role it plays,

its performance in everydayness,

and Ambroggio does much of the same in the same jarring jolt that electricity has.

Aside from content, one might think the poems to be one in the same because of this jolt of life that is injected in reading each poem,

the continuous stream of enumeration, comma after comma, listing on and on about form and performance.

The works themselves lend a hand in power. The lists go on,

Ambroggio list draws attention to the comma that requires emphasis, strength,

power to enunciate and repeat one after another like the Whitman piece, but a different subject matter,

but a similar message.

This is the pacing of power that these poems lend, but what of the form?

The Self in the poems both have, do not have form, a form that exists, yes, but unconventional, unafraid to be itself

to provide its message, its meaning, similar to the body, any

body whether it be the body Whitman or Ambroggio talk about, the body is its own unique Self,

whether that be a human body or a body of work in literature.

In their own unique way, Whitman and Ambroggio both list out what it is to be the self, and both poems are charged just like electricity.

The unstoppable stream of words creates thrill, so why is it so crazy to understand the singing of the human form as electric?

The rhythm and pacing of the work is not meant to be restrained or self-contained, the work is supposed to read electric.

—Joseph Rojas