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Literature
by
Travis Mader
A
Love for Élève?
As
Inprint throws a festive Walt Whitman marathon readathon,
OutSmart considers the Walt your teacher may have failed
to mention
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To
the young man, many things to absorb, to engraft,
to develop, I teach, to help him become élève
of mine,
But if blood like mine circle not in his veins,
If he be not silently selected by lovers, and do
not silently select lovers,
Of what use is it that he seek to become élève
of mine?
—Walt Whitman, “To
a Western Boy” (Calamus)
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Remember
your first time? Your teacher was patient and guided
you with a sure and steady hand. You were young and
green, an élève (“student,”
en francais, if you please) to the words of Walt Whitman,
perhaps smothered by his Leaves of Grass. But your teacher
didn’t tell you the whole story.
A
late bloomer, Whitman’s sexual awakening did not
come until about middle age. His most revealing song
of himself can be found in his queer collection Calamus
(named for the Calamus aromaticus plant, with its long,
phallus-shaped tendrils). These poems explore Whitman’s
Socratic interest in his far younger “élèves.”
Whether yearning for his lost years, or for the company
of potential “students,” he told his friend
Horace Traubel, “I like boys who are glad to be
boys—the men who remain boys.... Why should any
man ever give up being a boy?”
In
1882, a 27-year-old student of the world named Oscar
Wilde met Whitman (then 61). During their meeting, Wilde
recalled that his mother, Lady Speranza Wilde, used
to read to him from Leaves of Grass during his formative
years. Wilde confessed to Whitman, “I have come
to you as one with whom I have been acquainted almost
from the cradle.” Whitman the fantasy tutor? What
can queers learn today from the flood of his wise words?
If
you find yourself pining for a lesson in the poetry
of Walt Whitman, Inprint has brought together a mix
of scholars and artists for a reading of his works.
“Celebrating Whitman and Ourselves: The Inprint/Brazos
Bookstore Marathon Reading of 2000 Lines of Whitman”
is Monday, April 17, 6:30–11 p.m. Inprint’s
marathon readings are always fun, informal events with
people dropping by throughout the evening, sticking
around to hear a few readers, eating a snack from the
café, then heading on. Call Inprint at 713/521-2026
for more info.
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