Secrecy, Exposure, and Sexuality in the Calamus Poems

Although they weren't assigned, I followed Professor Oerlemann's suggestion and read these poems in the anthology. Whitman explains them as a poetic rendering of "adhesive love" between men and homosocial comradeship, but gay and androsexual symbols, imagery and themes pervade this set of poems. They not only reference homosexual encounters, but they also develop a portrait of a 19th century gay person and their battles with exposure and secrecy.

Most obviously, the title "Calamus" refers to a phallic shaped plant, the acorus calamus. The poem "Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand" then provides the most explicit depiction of a homosexual encounter: "Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you, with the comrade's long-dwelling kiss or the new husband's kiss, for I am the new husband and I am the comrade." This image offers an obviously romantic interaction between two men. Preceding it is a poignant articulation of the secrecy with which gay people were forced to explore their sexuality: "first watching lest any person for miles around approach unawares." These depictions of homosexuality add to the poem's "overcurrent" of meaning (in a Poeian sense) of the incomprehensibility and complexity of the individual: "for all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit, that which I hinted at." Whitman hints at homosexuality, a manifestation of individuality which many during his lifetime failed to comprehend.

"Trickle Drops" then develops a theme of literary steganography. The poem explains literature as an act of concealed confession; it refers to "red drops, confession drops" which "stain every page, stain every song I sing." These drops act as a metaphor for Whitman's (or, I suppose, the speaker's) sexuality, which he must conceal in lines of poetry.

"Here the Frailest Leaves of Me" further elaborates on this idea of subliminality in poetry. The speaker states "Here I shade and hide my thoughts." This acknowledges an undercurrent of meaning in these poems which "[exposes] me more than all my other poems."

The Calamus Poems, then, do significantly more than what Whitman claims; they do not describe "adhesive love" between men, but rather display and subtly conceal sexual love between men and aspects of a homosexual's life. This elaborates on the theme of individuality already present in Leaves of Grass. These poems draw a direct link between individuality and homosexuality, presenting it as yet another expression of American non-conformity.