An episode from 4/9/22: Is Whitman our great poet of love, or of longing? Is there a difference? In this episode, I share my favorite of his love poems, many of which are expressed as unfulfilled longing. They can all be found in ⁠The Selected Short Poems of Walt Whitman⁠, and ⁠The Selected Long Poems of Walt Whitman⁠: Selections from “Song of Myself” To You Once I Pass’d through a Populous City Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances Calamus #8 Calamus #9 When I Heard at the Close of the Day To a Stranger When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame Thou Reader I Sing the Body Electric Following these poems (at around 1:06:57), I’ve inserted a reading from a previous episode on Whitman’s love and sex life, from Paul Zweig’s book, ⁠Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet⁠. Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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