I'm reminded of the way I used to feel the night before our family vacations ... something's going to happen and it's going to be big and I'm going to be part of it. My stomach would be full of butterflies. That's how I'm feeling right now.
What I'd like to do with the archive is link words in the poem to the critics’ response to the word and the phrase. I'm sure there's a way that's less clunky than what I've come up with. Here's an example of what I've been playing with:
Leaves of Grass.
| I CELEBRATE myself, |
| And what I assume you shall assume, |
| For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. |
| I loafe and invite my soul, |
| I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass. |
“From the unique effigies of the anonymous author of this volume which graces the frontispiece, we may infer that he belongs to the exemplary class of society sometimes irreverently styled "loafers." He is therein represented in a garb, half sailor's, half workman's, with no superfluous appendage of coat or waistcoat, a "wide-awake" perched jauntily on his head, one hand in his pocket and the other on his hip, with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence in his face which seems to betoken a consciousness of his mission as the "coming man." This view of the author is confirmed in the preface. He vouchsafes, before introducing us to his poetry, to enlighten our benighted minds as to the true function of the American poet.” [Dana, Charles A.]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." New York Daily Tribune 23 July 1855: 3.
I think the reviewer’s thoughts on the poem and loafers is interesting and gives the reader insight to how the word loafe may have been interrupted by some to the readers in 1855. I’d like to be able to link the word to this particular quote but with my novice understanding of the tools I find that I am only able to link to the entire article. Maybe I need to explore Delicious; this may be the way to go. If Diigo was more reliable I think it would be perfect for this.
I want to spend more time with the blog entries of my classmates; they seem to understand the technology much better than I do.
I love your idea of the links. And I share your feelings about the IT person, only I more often feel that I need a cocktail by my side when I'm doing some of this stuff!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea too! But Dana also clues us into something important about the poem . . . the image of the "loafer" - -both poetically and popularly . . .where does the "loafer" fit into the social categories of the time? and what does Dana mean when he says that the loafer is an example of the "coming man"? do the loafer and Whitman's loafer signify, for Dana at least, something new in America? something modern?
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