{"id":68,"date":"2021-12-07T19:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T19:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/?page_id=68"},"modified":"2021-12-13T17:11:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T17:11:56","slug":"to-think-of-time-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/fall-2021\/culture\/to-think-of-time-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"To Think of Time (Spirituality)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The poem “To Think of Time”<\/a> by Walt Whitman defines identity through the lens of spirituality by examining our collective cultural notions and reactions to death. Ultimately it concludes that there is an eternal soul between all people, and because of this common spirit, death does not change or make obsolete any individual identity, but actually reaffirms it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For context, Walt Whitman was an influential 1800\u2019s American poet, his work in both the transcendentalist and realist realms. He may be most known for his collection of poems, Leaves of Grass<\/em>, that tackles themes of nature, democracy, and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural fear surrounding death, as the poem explains, is that it ends our experiences of the real world, it takes pleasure, business, our things, ourselves, and other people, and deems them nothing when we die. Yet, the poem describes this as a kind of continuous passing on, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI swear I think now that everything without exception has an eternal Soul<\/strong>!
The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the sea have! the animals!
I swear I think there is nothing but immortality! […]
And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it<\/strong>! and life and materials are altogether for it!\u201d (Pg 351, 114-118). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitman wants readers to understand that we, who we are, do not entirely distinguish at all, that the sky will still be held beautiful and that there will still be pleasure, just by other people and other things. There were people before us, and there will be people before us, and the same goes for everything in our environment. And if we believe that we share this eternity with all of these people and things, we don\u2019t really become nothing when we die. In fact, our identity is rooted in the eternal common soul\/spirit we share<\/strong> with the people, animals, plants, and things around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If we have (belief in) a common eternal soul\/spirit, our identity doesn\u2019t change<\/strong> when\/after we die<\/strong>, but may actually be made more certain by death. The poem wants readers to see that, that, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe difference between sin and goodness is no delusion,
The earth is not an echo\u2014man and his life, and all the things of his life, are well-consider\u2019d.
You are not thrown to the winds\u2014you gather certainly and safely around yourself;<\/strong>
Yourself! Yourself! Yourself, forever and ever<\/strong>!\u201d (Pg 349, 65-68).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our soul is simply transmuted into this larger common spirit, our identity isn\u2019t just ours, it\u2019s shared. And when death comes, you will still be who you always were: one timeline in a larger continuity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this perfect continuity can be understood in various ways. In our relationships, we find that our memories in our loved ones outlast us. Maybe, your perception and understanding of this death is what really defines your perception of your internal identity. Additionally, this is also an antithesis to some answers in our anthology. This idea of certainty after death goes against some of the major ideas in Process.<\/a> Looking at the analysis of Plato, there\u2019s the conflicting idea of a soul individual and specific to one person. Ultimately, these complements and antagonists strengthen our understanding of this poem, as well as understanding of what our identity is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitman, Walt. “To Think of Time.\u201d\u00a0Leaves of Grass<\/em>, Bantam Classic, 1892, pp. 346-351 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The poem “To Think of Time” by Walt Whitman defines identity through the lens of spirituality by examining our collective cultural notions and reactions to death. Ultimately it concludes that there is an eternal soul between all people, and because of this common spirit, death does not change or make obsolete any individual identity, but… Continue reading To Think of Time (Spirituality)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"parent":7,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-68","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68\/revisions\/334"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}