![]() ![]() Whitman’s verse is democratic in a way that poetry almost never is. Singer justly admires “I Hear America Singing,” in which Whitman hears the songs of mechanics, carpenters, masons, boatmen, shoemakers, hatters, woodcutters, ploughboys, mothers and daughters. “They know he was a poet, more from Dead Poet’s Society than anything else.” Although most of Singer’s students come from Long Island, where Whitman’s name is ubiquitous, they know almost nothing about the man. “He’s probably the best historical commentator of the 19th century,” Singer told me in a recent phone conversation. There’s something about Whitman.Īlan Singer, professor of teaching, literacy and leadership at Hofstra University, teaches Whitman from a historical perspective, using his poems to instruct students about what it was once like to live in New York. I remember a teaching assistant detailing his conversion from Modernism to Whitman with the excitement and incredulity of a teenager moving backward from Led Zeppelin to Robert Johnson. In college, I made a habit of defending internally inconsistent or plainly duplicitous comments with “I am large, I contain multitudes.” I was not alone. Everybody reads “Song of Myself,” which makes sense because “Song of Myself” is pretty great. I had both predictable (Kerouac) and unpredictable (Pynchon) adolescent tastes, but I don’t know where Whitman fits on the scale. The reason I chose Whitman is obscure to me today. A sample line of verse: “I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea.” Assured I would become a writer and viewing Whitman as a predecessor, I made it my duty to sit in spiky abandoned parks and read the book from beginning to end. When I was in high school - not, sadly, Walt Whitman High School - I worked at a now-extinct independent bookstore from which I ordered an unabridged Leaves of Grass. (Foursquare) suggests that “America’s great poet would be incredibly disheartened with the state of these restrooms.” (Yelp) admiringly quotes, “Know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls,” and Matthew T. People who feel compelled to comment on rest stops via social media are aware of Whitman’s legacy. Whitman died in New Jersey, and that was enough for Cherry Hill. Brooklyn offers Walt Whitman Library, Walt Whitman Park and Walt Whitman Houses, which look exactly like every other dispiriting redbrick city project (no fine native craftsmanship here).īut my favorite Whitman homage is farther south, at the Walt Whitman Service Area of the New Jersey Turnpike. Indeed, you would be forgiven for thinking Whitman ever lived anywhere else. Whitman eventually left Long Island for New York City, a move NYC cannot forget. Near his birthplace, which announces itself as a “fine example of native Long Island craftsmanship,” you will find Walt Whitman High School and Walt Whitman Shops (formerly known, and still referred to, as Walt Whitman Mall). ![]() Long Island is not bashful about reminding you that Whitman was born there. I live on the Queens-Long Island border, and both the City and the Island make various claims to the bard. ![]() All calls will be kept confidential.But Greater New York City has loved Whitman for a while. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000.00 for information that leads to an arrest. The man was described as black, in his 30s to 40s, 5 feet 10 inches tall to 6 feet tall and 170 pounds. The man fled the mall in a 2008 white Toyota Camry. ![]() The two struggled and the suspect gained control of the wallet that contained cash. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Second Squad detectives are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the man who robbed someone in the Apple Store at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Station last month.Ī man was in the Apple Store, located at 160 Walt Whitman Road, when he felt an unknown man put his hand into the victim’s jacket pocket in an attempt to steal the victim’s wallet on January 13 at 4 p.m. Febru6:46 am | Filed under: News | Posted by: The Huntingtonian ![]()
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