American poet, essayist, and journalist Walt Whitman worked to expose his readers to his unique and personal thoughts on the body, nature, and the human experience. Whitman was a humanist and incorporated both transcendentalism and realism into his work. He is often called the father of free verse. Whitman's most popular work is Leaves of Grass: a collection of poems, published in 1855. The poems in Leaves of Grass are seen as Whitman's celebration of life and humanity. Whitman chooses to explore and praise the many pleasures that life has to offer, even those that may be considered immoral. His choice to write about such topics, both directly and indirectly, allowed his readers a great deal of interpretation. One of the most repeated and explicit ideas from his poetry concerns Whitman's sexual preference. There are several poems in Leaves of Grass that contain homoerotic imagery. Although the images are subtle, they are a part of his work that cannot be ignored. Through simplified and subverted wordplay, Whitman distorts homoeroticism in his work without actually making a definitive statement about his sexual preferences, without ever revealing whether he is homosexual or bisexual, and at the same time explores sexuality as a whole. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Most of Whitman's poems that contain allusions to homoeroticism are part of a section of Leaves of Grass titled "Calamus." Although this section contains the majority of poems that are predominantly erotic, we must first ask why Whitman chose “Calamus” as the title for this collection. There are a few reasons why this section can be seen as a reflection of sexuality and Whitman's view of sexuality. First, Acorus Calamus is a tall, perennial wetland monocot. It is a plant of the Acoraceae family, which grows in the same shape as an erect human penis. Many assume that he chose this title for this section of Leaves of Grass because of the erotic imagery created by the plant. Secondly, in Greek mythology, Kalamos, the son of the river god Meander, loved Karpos, who was the son of Zephyrus and Chloris. When Karpos died in a drowning accident, Kalamos was so filled with grief that he himself turned into a reed (Calamus). The imagery and meaning of the word “calamus” can therefore be seen as an intentional choice made by Whitman to represent male homosexual love, both physical and emotional. We know that Whitman focuses on the physical and emotional aspects of human life in his poetry, so it is fitting that this can be seen as the reasoning behind why he chose this as his title. As we further examine the poems in this section, it becomes more apparent that this is in fact his intention when writing this section. Whitman's poem "Behold This Swarthy Face," in "Calamus," is the first to hint at homoeroticism in this section. In this poem she writes about an encounter with a man in New York City and the interaction between them during this encounter. Whitman will certainly emphasize the masculinity of the individual he is considering. He assures the reader that the person he is interacting with is indeed a man, and confirms this to us with a physical description very early in the poem. “Here is this dark face – these gray eyes, this beard – the white wool, loose on my neck” (Whitman, 149) Whitman begins to use a physical description to ease his readers into the real nature of this piece. It makes it very obvious what kind of person is to be loved intopoetry. Whitman continues: "There comes one, a Manhattanite, and always at departure, kisses me lightly on the lips with robust love, and I, at the crossroads of the road, or on the deck of the ship, give a kiss in return;" (Whitman,149) Whitman is much less delicate here than he is at the beginning of the poem. Although this could be interpreted as an experience of her "bonding" or assimilation with the city she finds herself in and the people who live there, she clearly writes of a physical, vaguely erotic experience with this man she has met. In “Behold this Swarthy Face,” the homosexual aspects are implanted so subtly that it is possible to interpret them as something else, however, interpreting the writing directly brings Whitman and his work into a completely different light. Not only does this writing reveal aspects of Whitman's sexuality and perhaps desires, but it establishes him and his writing as highly progressive and open-minded for the time period in which it was written. Even in “Calamus,” we see physical interaction and subtle homoeroticism in Whitman’s ways. poem "Whoever you hold me now." Poetry is significant because it takes time to communicate directly with the reader. The poem speaks of a love that is physical and spiritual at the same time. Whoever you hold me now, without one thing all will be useless, I warn you before you tempt me further, I am not what you thought, but very different. (Whitman,135) The first lines of the poem can be seen as a sort of “confession” of Whitman's sexual preferences. When he says “whoever you are” (Whitman, 135), perhaps he is talking to someone unknown, calling them a stranger, or recognizing “whoever” as everyone who reads the poem. The fact that Whitman says, “I am not what you suppose, but very different” (Whitman, 135) may support the idea that he is condoning homosexuality. The fact that we live in a heteronormative world, and during the time that Leaves of Grass was written, heteronormativity was much more dominant, we can define homosexuality here as something that would be seen as “different”. By saying that he is not who he is supposed to be (heterosexual), we can see this sentence as a kind of "coming out" to his readers. At the end, we see the actual revelation of male interaction: “Who is he who would become my follower? Who would sign up as a candidate for my affection? (Whitman,135) The actual use of the pronoun “he”, and again with the actual written action: “Here to put your lips on mine I allow you, With the long-standing kiss of the companion or the kiss of the new husband, Because I am the new husband and I am the partner. (Whitman,135) Whitman takes on the role of the other party's husband in the poem. Marriage is much more than just a physical bond between two human beings, there is infinite love and a spiritual connection that is not always present in casual romance. Desiring both physical and spiritual connection with another man, or “companion,” we can surmise that Whitman wants not just a casual encounter, but a complete marital bond with a man. Finally, the references to bisexuality in "Calamus" begin to reach a climax in Whitman's poem "To a Stranger." In this piece we see Whitman begin to talk about the pleasures and privileges of knowing both sexes: Passingstraneo! You don't know how much longing I look at you, you must be the one I've been looking for, or she I've been looking for, (comes to mind, as in a dream), somewhere I've surely lived a life of joy with you, ( Whitman,151 ) Whitman tells us that he lived a life of joy with “you,” meaning men or women who were part of his story. With this he assures his readers that he has experienced the pleasure of fully exploring sexuality as a whole. Whitman can be considered.