Poem of the Day - Part 20

 We Two Boys Together Clinging
by Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet most famous for his poetry collection Leaves of Grass and the poems he wrote after Lincoln was assassinated: O Captain! My Captain! and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.

Whitman was almost certainly gay.  Leaves of Grass was criticized for wording that hints at homosexuality in some of the poems.  Some contemporary critics called the work obscene, but others, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, praised it.

Whitman volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, attending wounded soldiers.  We Two Boys Together Clinging was published in a revised 1867 version of Leaves of Grass after the Civil War.  The two boys in the poem are two Civil War soldiers.

WE TWO BOYS TOGETHER CLINGING

We two boys together clinging,

One the other never leaving,

Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,

Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,

Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,

No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,

Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,

Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness chasing,

Fulfilling our foray.

(Photo: World War II soldier buddies, from the book My Buddy: World War II Laid Bare)

By the way, happy Twosday – today is 2/22/22.