Whitman and I Are Going Crazy, Part Deux

Step 1:

After reading Whitman's "Song of Myself" away from the classroom setting, students will return to class armed and ready for action in engaging with the poem. But first they're not even going to look at the poem. Instead, they will be asked to consider and just think about these words out of context:

Insanity
Lunacy
Asylum
Sickness
Mental Illness

If there is either a chalkboard or power-point device involved, then post these words here and allow students to read the words and just look at the words for themselves without any context. Have them think about these words for a few minutes in silence, and while they are still thinking and pondering these words, ask and prompt the students with a few questions like these:

• What thoughts, other words, or feelings spring to mind when considering any of these words?
  
• What image or images do you associate with these words?
  
• How are these words treated and perceived in today's culture and society?
  

Allow students to speak to these feelings and images associated with these words in a discussion format, and then move into...

Step 2:

Present students with three or more images (also known as cultural objects) of asylums from the 19th century, like these:

Or this:

And this:

Set up the context of these images, by giving students basic information on where and when they were taken, and what types of asylums these were. Encourage them to ask questions and speculate ideas about the time period.

If wanted, or is neccessary, have students research information about insanity and the 19th century, to find more about the culture surrounding these images.

Next, have students read the images. Questions to consider might take the form of, but are not limited by any means to:

• Who and what (if anyone, or anything) are represented in these images?
  
• How are people and physical objects framed within their environments?
• Do the structures of the buildings, and the small details of each image indicate or build to a deeper understanding of the overall image?
  
• Do anything in these images particularly stand out, or strike the viewer/reader as odd or strange?
  
• Look at the differences between the three images. How are the engravings different than the photographic image? What might this mean? Are there exaggerations? Falsities?
  
• How do these images represent, misrepresent, speak to, or challenge the notions and ideas of asylums and insanity within the 19th century and today's culture? (i.e. all the words discussed earlier?)
  

Step 3:

References to insanity, asylums, lunacy and mental illness/sickness are continually referenced in Whitman's poem "Song of Myself." For example, focus on the lines:

"I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum"

"The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case, He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom;"

Then consider these questions, and discuss in pairs:

• How does Whitman address and perceive the concept of insanity in these lines?

• How do the three previous images connect or disconnect to or with these lines? Why would Whitman care about these images? Are they an accurate representation of Whitman's views on insanity?

• How might the images misrepresent or represent, and/or enhance Whitman's view of insanity and asylums?

• How is Whitman's idea or concept of insanity and lunacy different from what the images represent?
  

• How might Whitman's focus and emphasis on mental health within the poem be speaking to the attitudes, social issues and perspectives of America during this period? Is this shown or expressed through the images in any way?
  

• How would Whitman's audience perceive or interpret this theme of mental illness illustrated in these lines?

• As modern readers of this poem, how do we understand and interpret these sections, excerpts and detours of insanity and sickness throughout the poem? How are the mentally ill perceived today, versus the 19th century? How do the images discussed earlier speak to these differences?
  

• How does this theme of sickness/insanity emerge from the poem? How does this connect to other sections of the poem, or play a part in understanding the rest of the poem?

• What larger themes or ideas might Whitman be creating, by including lunacy and the insane in his poem?

Step 4:

Assignment:

1. After breaking into pairs that have discussed these questions in class, the students will post to their blog a reply or response to any or all of the questions and thoughts I have listed above.
2. Additionally, the student must find at least two other examples of insanity, lunacy, asylums, etc. found within the poem to provide supporting textual evidence to their responses.
   
3. The goal is to generate ideas verbally in class, and expand these through writing in their free form blog posts. Feel free to expand on ideas that were generated through discussion.
   

• Students must use textual evidence found in "Song of Myself" to support their ideas.
• The blog post should be no shorter than 4-5 paragraphs in length.
• Not all of these questions have answers, and many will lead to lingering questions. Many will lead to something entirely else. This is good, for students will be evaluated on their ability to work through these ideas on their blogs, (in whatever form that may take) and their ability to create and form new questions to approach the poem and images with.

one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Preface:

To invoke the new media muse, I have chosen to frame my assignment for the student/reader around the form of a familiar new media device: a blog post assignment. This seems to be an easy format for everyone to use, plus it provides the textual evidence of an assignment, but it also proves to be a more accessible and simple way for students to voice their opinions and interpretations, without the demanding format of a paper assignment. Plus everybody on the internet gets to read it. And other students can comment. And so can the teacher.

Also, I'm assuming students have already read the poem at least once. And possibly, this assignment would follow a brief introduction into Whitman's 1855 New York, giving a slight cultural context to the assignment. (In addition to the cultural object that is incorporated into the assignment itself).

I also want to say that it's difficult to write an assignment for an assignment.

That being said...

Consider:

The mentally insane, and the sick and the dying within Whitman's world of "Song of Myself" are found lingering in the shadows of his expansive poem. Often, Whitman's sickness chooses to afflict the heart, the mind, the body, and sometimes all three.

Questions to think about:

• After viewing this cultural object, and considering the separation (physically, mentally or ect.) of the mentally insane within New York, circa 1855ish, how might Whitman's focus and emphasis on mental health within the poem be speaking to the attitudes, social issues and perspectives of America during this period?
  

• How would Whitman's audience perceive or interpert this theme of mental illness?

• As modern readers of this poem, how do we understand and interpert these sections, excerpts and detours of insanity and sickness throughout the poem? How are the mentally ill percieved today, versus the 19th century?
  

• How does this theme of sickness/insanity emerge from the poem? How does this connect to other sections of the poem, or play a part in understanding the rest of the poem?

Assignment:

After breaking into pairs that have discussed these questions in class, the student will post to their blog a reply or response to any or all of the questions and thoughts I have listed above. The goal is to generate ideas verbally in class, and expand these through writing in their free form blog posts.

• Students must use textual evidence found in "Song of Myself" to support their ideas.
• The blog post should be 4-5 paragraphs in length, but if you feel like writing more...go ahead.
• Not all of these questions have answers, and many will lead to lingering questions. Many will lead to something entirely else. This is good, for students will be evaluated on their ability to work through these ideas on their blogs, (in whatever form that may take) and their ability to create and form new questions to approach the poem with.
  

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Throughout the poem, Whitman makes it a point to mention multiple times, varying forms of sicknesses that might strike a person. This sickness is sometimes in the mind, in the body, or in the heart. A few textual excerpts to get you in the frame of mind:

*The sickness of one of my folks—or of myself . . . . or ill-doing . . . . or loss or lack
of money . . . . or depressions or exaltations,

They come to me days and nights and go from me again,

But they are not the Me myself.

*The flap of the curtained litter—the sick man inside, borne to the hospital,

*I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,

*The wretched features of ennuyees, the white features of corpses, the livid faces of
drunkards, the sick-gray faces of onanists,
The gashed bodies on battlefields, the insane in their strong-doored rooms, the
sacred idiots,

*Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis—waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me;

* The felon steps forth from the prison . . . . the insane becomes sane . . . . the suffer-
ing of sick persons is relieved,

The sweatings and fevers stop . . the throat that was unsound is sound . . the lungs of the consumptive are resumed . . the poor distressed head is free,

The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother than ever,

Stiflings and passages open . . . . the paralysed become supple,

The swelled and convulsed and congested awake to themselves in condition,

They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the night and awake.

*The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case, He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom;

*The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist's table, What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
********************************************************************************

There are a bunch floating in the poem. After re-reading the poem several times, I found a prominent theme with the repetition of health, sanity, insanity, and sickness.
That being said, here's some cultural context:

This is the inebriate asylum on Ward's Island, at Manhattan State Hospital. Also called the New York City Asylum. This object/artifact/drawing is from 1869. I found this at the New York Public Library


Now, Ward's Island is in the East River of New York, and is bridged by a rail to Queens called Hell Gate Bridge. A small population lived on the island starting in the early 17th century, and the first (draw)bridge was built to connect the island in 1807, out of wood. But that got destroyed by a storm in 1821. Around 1840, the island primarily became a dumping-ground-wasteland for everything unwanted in New York. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Thousands of bodies from Madison Square and Bryant Park
• A hospital for sick and dying immigrants, opened in 1847, which then became the largest hospital complex in the world during the 1850s.
• An Asylum for the insane, opened in 1863.
• Immigration station
• Manhattan State Hospital, containing 6,045 patients, making it the largest psychiatric hospital in the world.

This is the Verplank State Immigrant Hospital in 1871-72. You can sort of make out the people in the photograph. I found this on a ship's list website. Neat.



I'd imagine that everyone was pretty aware of these asylums during the time period. Especially Whitman.

Cultural object found. I'm done.