Whitman's Journal

While beginning to read through Whitman's journal i realized how much my teachers must hate me because it is almost impossible to read other peoples bad handwriting. About half way through the sample texts i began to be able to make out some lines. On some of the later pages Whitman dedicates half of a page to this "ship". Repeating lines such as "Ship of the world, Ship of humanity, Ship of the ages...Ship of promise." These could be ideas for different types of metaphors about ships for different things. Later it might lead into a topic of something along the lines of his "ship" needing a leader( O captain my captain?). I was also able to make out part of the last poem speaking of "the hills of Brooklyn...here stood Washington...The last war."but I am unsure of the meaning of this.

After reading through the interpretation of Whitman's journal, some things became clear that were not before. The first is that part of the beginning, unreadable, sections speak about religion and Whitman's views on the subject. The second observation, and more important, is what comes directly before the section i read. The pages before the except about the ship talk about a conversation between Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. This confirm my suspicions about the ship. Whitman was taking notes talking about Lincoln driving the country and how he guides the "Ship of humanity," or in other words, holds the future of the people in his hands. I also learned the poem at the end reads "The Hills of Brooklyn, Here roamed the newly landed Hollander, Here stood Washington, The last war" Which I am still unsure about the true meaning.