Witty Whitman

Step 1:

On the inside cover of the journal, there appears to be a stamp on the page. Beside the stamp are names with addresses from the top of the page down. I now see on a later page that the stamp says The Library of Congress. A good portion of the pages are scratch work for his works. There is a drawing of an older man drawn in pencil. The drawing is simple, yet encompasses the man's figure well. The next drawing is of the same man with a disproportionate head to his body. The drawing seems to be almost in the style of a political carton. The man devolves as the pages go on. There is a mockup for a title for "The Bohemian". The rest of the journal contains a doodling of a skull on a heart with a dagger through it. I quite like it.

Step 2:

The first cover does show the addresses and names of people. The stamp was put there by The Library of Congress. The drawings are actually not done by Whitman himself, but they are rather of Whitman himself. The commentary suggests that the drawings were done by Pfaff, a friend of Whitman. One of the doodlings is of a harp and was possible drawn there because it is a symbol for poetry. The skull on a heart is suggested to be a metaphor. It is between day and night and life and death. Seeing the ravages of war makes a person question the true meaning of life when it goes away so easily and seemingly without meaning. The purpose of living must've weighed heavily on Whitman's mind and of the people during this time.