![]() ![]() While Doyle’s sexual orientation was known to his family, Whitman never publicly addressed his orientation, though his poetic voice comfortably inhabited both gay and bisexual perspectives. ![]() The nature of their relationship is uncertain. According to Whitman, it is nothing else but the other name of a journey that is interpreted as a movement. During this time Whitman also met Peter Doyle, an ex-Confederate soldier turned Unionist who became Whitman’s closest companion. His Song of Myself offers an insight into Whitmans quest for the self-discovery. The relationships Whitman developed in the hospitals of Washington inspired his 1865 collection Drum-Taps, considered by many to be the best poetry produced during the war period. Though Whitman was a staunch Unionist, he had deep compassion for the Confederate soldiers too. There he became deeply involved in supporting soldiers and casualties in army hospitals. After his brother George was wounded at the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, Whitman pulled strings and leveraged his network (including Emerson) to be employed in the Army Paymaster’s office in Washington, where he lived for the next 10 years. The Civil War was a turning point in Whitman’s personal and professional life. What are arguably Whitman’s most famous lines appear here: Do I contradict myself / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Whitman is recasting one of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s central ideas: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. ![]()
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