Specimen Days
Contents:
His account of the Civil War Hospitals is painful to read, but his kindness and ministrations to the After reading this book, I know that if I could go back in time and spend the day with one historical figure… it would be Walt Whitman… and we would spend the day hiking for wildflowers. His account of the Civil War Hospitals is painful to read, but his kindness and ministrations to the wounded soldiers writing them letters home and giving them horehound candy are really touching.
He estimated that visited between 80, and , young men. My great grandfather was in one of those hospitals, so I like to think that Walt stopped by to give him some candy and talk. After the war, Whitman came down with an illness and was partially paralyzed. He moved to Camden and spent his afternoons outside in nature. He attributes his rebound in health to this time and wrote many essays about the outdoors and the nature around him. He loved wildflowers and bathed naked in the streams wearing only his broad brimmed hat.
Whitman also writes about the events of the day, praising Abraham Lincoln, mourning the loss of Longfellow, and visiting Walden Pond with Emerson.
I really enjoyed this book. Jun 06, Mark rated it it was amazing. I read Whitman in high school and instantly fell in love with Leaves of Grass. But this one has stayed with me longer--more spontaneous, more intimate.
Similar Books
Basically a series of journal entries, a large portion of which detail his experiences during the civil war, Specimen Days comes as close as any book I've ever read to conveying what it was like to be that particular author--to see the world through his eyes. The most magical moments for me are his musings by the creek, his gentle descriptions of I read Whitman in high school and instantly fell in love with Leaves of Grass. The most magical moments for me are his musings by the creek, his gentle descriptions of the effervescent happenings of a sunset, the comings and goings of all manner of life, with himself perfectly at rest and at peace among them.
I always feel when reading this that time and space have no meaning and that there by the creek I have found a long-lost friend. I expected something poetic and that's what I got, along with "good things about being naked" and "trees are really cool". I read a translated version of the book, and I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it more had it been in English. Nevertheless, I am very intrigued to read more of Whitman's works.
I actually felt a bit of trepidation at picking this book up at the local Barnes or was it Borders? Maybe it's meant to evoke a sensational novel of the time period, and though I know it can be read as a ghost story, I think it can also be read as not one. To ask other readers questions about Specimen Days , please sign up. When one of her callers, an orphaned young boy, is involved in a suicide bombing, a police investigation is launched. Sorry, lizard romances just don't do it for me. Mary rated it it was amazing Jan 22, If you want ordinary writers and novels, look elsewhere.
Not necessarily reading in order. More enjoyable to open to random sections. The trick is, I find, to tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies. One's eating and drinking one wants fresh, and for the nonce, right off, and have done with it -- but I would not give a straw for that person or poem, or friend, or city, or work of art, that was not more grateful the second time than the first -- and more still the third.
- Dementia: A short story;
- Hautot padre e figlio (Italian Edition)!
- Flavor: Story 9?
- Im Gonna Bury You - A True Story!
- Make-or-buy-Entscheidung und die richtige Lieferantenauswahl nach betriebswirtschaftlichen Methoden (German Edition);
- The Virgin Mary: Undoing the Wrong (Challenge of the Bible Book 3).
- Der Imagefilm als Kommunikationsinstrument und als Indikator für Corporate Identity (German Edition).
Jul 06, Supertramp rated it it was amazing. Aside from his literary eloquence and meditative, masterful way to elaborate the most nondescript of situations, I feel about the same while reading Whitman as I do when I take a casual look at an alien artwork: Most of it seems untranslatable, yet it pours into my thirsty soul like a glass of water. His poems in Songs of Myself and Leaves of Grass are absolutely indispensable, but Specimen Days is where his natural prose writing really comes into its own.
Walt Whitman is an icon in American letters. This is more of a diary than anything else. The entries are more or less chronological, although the subjects covered — aside from the first part of the work — are relatively random. This gives him a chance to bemoan the concept of war and to delve into what he thinks must be the reactions of the wounded men. Once the war is over, he begins to skip through current events at a furious pace.
He then seems to concentrate on matters bucolic.
Specimen Days is a novel by American writer Michael Cunningham. It contains three stories: one that takes place in the past, one in the present, and one. Specimen Days has ratings and reviews. J. said: I don't know what it is about this novel, but I'm convinced there is some kind of magic weaved.
He is becoming a Thoreau look-alike. After a while, this becomes so saccharine that you wonder if anything will ever taste the same again.
Specimen Days and Collect
There are a couple of sections where he gives his opinions and assessments of other writers, including Poe and Carlyle, but the rest seems to be devoted to the number and kinds of flowers, birds, and trees that he knows and can recognize. I came away wondering why he really wrote it. In all, if you read the first half of this work, you will have read the most important and interesting section.
You can likely skip the rest. The first part of the book gives a first hand account of the Civil War - some of the accounts are very harrowing and disturbing. I was left wishing he had wrote more about his meeting with Poe in the latter's office in New York. The description of Lincoln as he traveled with his wife without any security give us I started reading this book after Jack Kerouac mentioned it as his prime influence for On The Road. The description of Lincoln as he traveled with his wife without any security give us an enduring insight into someone truly unique.
During the war, Whitman spent his days in hospitals helping the injured men out as much as he could, for many of them their last memory of this world was Walt talking to them. The second half of the book is about Walt's travels around America, in towns where coal furnaces and steam trains dominate the landscape, and in forests, mountains and canyons in the mid-West.
Whitman is at home sitting among the trees observing the creatures around him. He jots down ideas for poetry all the time. He spends many nights just observing the night sky he knew all the stars and constellations by name where he is at one with his surroundings and his writing takes on a transcendental nature. There is an unforgettable experience in the forest when Walt and his friend come upon a tramp family, the sense of poverty hits you right out of the pages.
He mourns the death of his fellow writers - Carlyle, Emerson etc. Although Thomas Carlyle had different political views to Walt, he spends 10 pages writing about his importance to 19th century literature and culture where he calls him the most essential writer of his generation for his gritty and uncompromising style of writing. You couldn't see this happening today.
Whitman admits he didnt want to edit the book or put some kind of form on it, it is made up of a couple of hundred small essays and notes, perhaps an inspiration for the formless style used in On The Road. Aug 02, Andrew Sydlik rated it really liked it Shelves: I paid most attention to the first part of this, which details Whitman's tending to wounded and sick soldiers during the Civil War. It also begins, strangely, with a genealogy of Whitman's family. His observations are filled with compassion and an almost spiritual sense of connection with the men he visited, some of whom survived, many who did not.
Not that he romanticizes the war or being a soldier - one of his first descriptions before even entering a hospital is seeing a pile of amputated f I paid most attention to the first part of this, which details Whitman's tending to wounded and sick soldiers during the Civil War. Not that he romanticizes the war or being a soldier - one of his first descriptions before even entering a hospital is seeing a pile of amputated feet, hands, arms, and legs.
The second half, which I more or less skimmed, recounts his meditations from while living in the woods of Camden, NJ after suffering a paralyzing stroke he calls himself a "half-paralytic". Most of these are beautiful, often poetic descriptions of his natural surroundings. He does not comment much on his condition. While interesting, this part was not as gripping as the first, and for the sake of time read this for exams , I had to move on to another work. Jul 26, Hansen Wendlandt rated it liked it.
Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
Not the quality that you might expect from an American legend, but there are some real gems in the journal. Whtiman's account of Lincoln riding a horse to the White House, early morning, stress and responsibility wrinkles that no painter could ever portray--that's a fantastic entry. Also, after some good travel entries in , "The Silent General" about U.
Grant coming home , 28 Sept is great. Perhaps what most struck me was that and how Whitman served as a war-time hospital chaplain. H Not the quality that you might expect from an American legend, but there are some real gems in the journal.
He could be so tender, writing a dead man's family, or giving a healing man 50 cents; but how on earth, right after the war ends, could he return so seamlessly to writing about nature, unfazed, indifferent to most of Leaves? Was it hiding from what he dealt with no evidence of that , or a singular focus on literature no, he's too free a thinker , or a subtle disconnect from people unlikely?
Jul 25, Torben Carlsen rated it really liked it. Men der er rigeligt at tage af: En lille tynd sag, jeg sikkert vil vende tilbage til fra tid til anden for at blive lidt klogere. Mar 01, Ori Fienberg rated it really liked it Shelves: I'm just assuming this will be stunning. I wish I had one of the fake blood and pine resin coated facsimiles.
Navigation menu
Instead I have this yellow and white affair that looks like it was glued together in a basement, but at least it was affordable. Well, it's no Leaves of Grass, but it's certainly worthwhile,. The novel is divided into what are essentially three discrete short stories, unified by common threads such as character names and types, story location New York City , story themes such as shared humanity , and the presence of Walt Whitman whether through actual physical presence, quotation of his works via narrator or character, or the spirit of his ideas expressed through narrator or character.
The first short story, " In the Machine ", is a ghost story. The principal characters are Lucas a disfigured young boy , Catherine a young woman who was to marry Lucas' elder brother , and Simon Lucas' recently deceased elder brother. The second short story, " The Children's Crusade ", is a noir thriller.
The story is set in earlyst-century New York City. The story plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The principal characters are Cat an African-American woman working in a New York City police department , Simon Cat's businessman boyfriend , and Luke a child terrorist. The third short story, " Like Beauty ", is futuristic science fiction.
The story is set in a New York years in the future.
- Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability: A Practical Manual.
- Through the Tears ( Sandy Cove Series: Book 2 ).
- Review: Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham | Books | The Guardian.
- Un cimetière rouge en Nouvelle-Angleterre (French Edition)?
- The Ghost Next Door:True Stories of Paranormal Encounters from Everyday People?
- Reckless Rudy and the Green Vase?
- Reap The Wild Seeds;
In the story, New York City is overwhelmed with refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. The principal characters are Simon an adult male cyborg , Catareen an adult female alien lizard living as a refugee on earth , and Luke a homeless boy. Simon, a young man working in a factory had been accidentally sucked into a factory machine which crushed him to death. Due to the poverty present in the lower classes during the Industrial Revolution, Simon's family sends Lucas, Simon's disfigured younger brother, to work at the factory in Simon's place.
Lucas has a strange affilction in which he intermittently and uncontrollably spouts the poetry of Walt Whitman's ' Leaves of Grass ' Lucas' favourite book. Walt Whitman was a contemporary of the time and Lucas meets him during the course of the story. Lucas is also concerned Simon has become a ghost and inhabits not only the machine that killed him but all the machines that are becoming commonplace in the city as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
This concern leads Lucas to fear for the life of Catherine, Simon's bereaved girlfriend.