I got this NPR notification yesterday shortly after our class, and it got me thinking. If he were around today, would Whitman really be encouraging people to get up and work out? I don’t really think so. I think that he would be encouraging us to turn off our phones and think for ourselves instead.
Wow! Ever since we talked about this poem I’ve also been notice this phrase from the title in the day-to-day. So interesting how ingrained Whitman is to the American vernacular.
I honestly think it’s possible he’d like this. I imagine he’d have a love/hate relationship with computers and how often we’re on them. On the one hand, cool technology! On the other, we do sit around indoors a lot because of it. Maybe Whitman would be like, “can y’all touch grass?”
this is just so beautiful—I get so happy when literature makes our way into our lives in little ways like this!