Ode to Walt Whitman

“Ode to Walt Whitman” by Federico García Lorca was written in 1929-1930, while Lorca was a student at Columbia University in New York City. The poems written during this period were posthumously published as Poet in New York. By 1928, Lorca had published five full-length collections of poetry and, after returning to Spain in 1930, he focused on writing for theater. This guide cites the English translation of “Ode to Walt Whitman” by Greg Simon and Steven F. White.

As the title indicates, Lorca’s poem is an ode: a long, ceremonial lyric poem. Lorca is considered part of the romantic literary movement in 20th century Spain. “Ode to Walt Whitman” celebrates homoeroticism, condemns homophobic violence, and contrasts Whitman’s rural romanticism with Lorca’s urban duende (the inclusion of death and darkness as a part of life).

Poet Biography

Federico García Lorca was born in Fuente Vaqueros, Spain in 1898. His parents were a wealthy farmer and an intelligent schoolmistress. The family moved to Granada in 1910. Lorca’s experience growing up in southern Spain significantly influenced his work. Southern Spain and Andalusia have a unique culture as a result of North African, Sephardic Jewish, Catholic, French, and Islamic poetic influences. These diverse influences contributed to a Spanish tradition of love poetry and playwriting that, through his works, Lorca dramatically expanded and introduced to the world.

As an adult, Lorca joined the Residencia de Estudiantes, a distinguished institution of arts in Madrid. At the Residencia de Estudiantes, Lorca befriended other influential figures of the Spanish artistic world, including Salvador Dalí. In 1928, Lorca traveled to New York City to study poetry. During this time, he also composed the collection that included “Ode to Walt Whitman”: Poet in New York.

In 1930, Lorca returned to Spain and became a popular figure on the political left. His attention shifted to theater and playwriting, as his experiences in New York left him dissatisfied with the stagnancy of written poetry. The physical action and delivery of theater more closely aligned with his theories of duende, helping to popularize the concept outside of Spain.

While controversy surrounds the specific circumstances of Lorca’s death, he was captured and shot to death by forces of Francisco Franco—Spain’s military dictator—at the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Franco’s regime banned his books, but international aid in Spain saw many of Lorca’s later works saved and distributed until Spain returned to democracy.

Poem Text

Lorca, Federico García. "Ode to Walt Whitman." 1955. The Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Ode to Walt Whitman” is a free-verse poem of 137 lines broken into 23 stanzas (in the English translation by Simon and White) of varying lengths.

The first stanza describes boys by the East River and the Bronx. They are shirtless and using various tools in their work of mining silver. Kids draw the scene.

The second stanza continues this description. No one can sleep; no one identifies with the river; and no one loves the leaves nor shore.

The third stanza describes boys by the East River and the Queensboro. They battle industry. There are Jewish boys sold to a faun of the river and circumcised. Above, the sky drops metaphoric bison on the wind.

The fourth stanza continues the description. No one pauses, wants to be a cloud, nor looks for a plant or musical instrument.

In the fifth stanza, the speaker describes the coming night. When the moon is out, spinning pulleys trouble the sky. A needle-border assaults memory, and the dead are carried away in hearses.

The sixth stanza addresses the city. The speaker asks New York—which is made of mire, wires, and death—about an angel hidden in its cheek. The speaker also asks who will sing the true story of wheat if the identity of the singer is a dream of stained anemones.

In the seventh stanza, the speaker addresses Walt Whitman. He is characterized as lovely, with a butterfly-filled beard, frayed corduroy, pure thighs, and a voice like ash. Whitman is further characterized as old, beautiful, sexual, and bird-like. He opposes the satyr and vine, but loves bodies in working-class clothes.

The eighth stanza continues the description of Whitman. He is virile and, while among elements of industry, aspires to be a sleeping river next to a man who gives heartache.

The ninth stanza further continues the description. Whitman, a macho man at sea, is always remembered because homosexual men from various locations—like roofs, bars, sewers, between the legs of chauffeurs, or dance floors—point him out.

In the tenth stanza, the homosexual men continue to identify Whitman as one of them. They arrive at his beard with various complexions and from various locations. The speaker compares them to cats and snakes, and uses a metaphor about lion taming to describe what the men seek.

The eleventh stanza again describes the homosexual men identifying Whitman as part of their community. They point at Whitman’s dream of a friend eating an apple, and topless boys playing under bridges.

The twelfth stanza identifies what Whitman did not seek, which injuries to eyes and drowning children in swamps. Other things are listed: curves compared to a wound in a toad’s stomach and worn by homosexual men in vehicles and balconies. There, on frightening street corners, the moon hits them.

The thirteenth stanza lists what Whitman did seek. He wanted a river-like nude, as well as a bull, and a dream connecting a wheel and seaweed. He sought the man who fathered pain, a flower of death, groaning in a fiery, secret equator.

In the fourteenth stanza, the speaker makes a judgment. Desire should not be sought where violence will occur in the future. There are edges in the world that can be used to avoid life, and bodies should not double—from desire to death—the next day.

The fifteenth stanza describes the modern world. It is filled with repeated pain and a few dreams. Dead are left in the city streets; war and rats pass by these bodies. Rich people give temporary shiny gifts to mistresses. Life is ignoble, terrible, and profane.

In the sixteenth stanza, the speaker suggests where to pursue desire. It can travel through elements of nature, like veins of coral or a nude body compared to the blue sky. The next day, love becomes stone and the passage of time is a gentle breeze in the trees.

The seventeenth stanza addresses Whitman. The speaker explains these are the reasons why he does not loudly oppose boys who love girls, boys who put on wedding gowns, men in casinos who dislike prostitution, or men who secretly love other men.

In the eighteenth stanza, the speaker clarifies who he is against. He opposes the rich homosexuals from the city, describing them as sexual and dirty. These homosexuals are ashamed of their desire, and are enemies of joyful love.

The nineteenth stanza continues to list who the speaker opposes. The person who the speaker is against is defined as one who poisons and kills homosexual boys. A list of derogatory English and Spanish terms for homosexual is included in defining the violent men from different cities.

In the twentieth stanza, the speaker continues to describe the murders of homosexuals. The homosexuals serve women. Their wounds are compared to opening a fan. The descriptions also include a metaphor for using poisonous plants.

In the twenty-first stanza, the speaker will show no mercy to these murderers. Death is further described using flowers and a mire. The speaker also argues these murderers should be denied admittance to the world of other homosexuals who are described as confused, pure, classical, celebrated, and supplicative.

The twenty-second stanza again addresses Whitman. The speaker urges him to remain sleeping on the riverbank with his beard and hand out and open. Whether there is clay or snow, Whitman’s words inspire watching out for his disembodied nature, represented as a gazelle.

In the twenty-third and final stanza, the speaker continues speaking to Whitman, encouraging him to keep sleeping. The speaker contrasts rural dancing with urban machinery and sadness in America. Then, the speaker expresses the desire for night wind to carry off the flowers and inscriptions where Whitman sleeps, as well as that a black child will tell the rich white men about the arrival of the grain kingdom.