Whitman in popular culture

1. Gilmore Girls

The Gilmore Girls is a rather quirky TV show centering around a mother and a daughter and their lives in a small town named Stars Hollow. The daughter, Rory Gilmore, is a voracious reader and lover of pop culture. Along with other references to authors like Charles Dickens, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg and etc, there is also one for Whitman.

Here is a short excerpt from the script:

(Rory pulls out an antique book her grandparents gave her as a gift)

Rory: Oh, my God, it's amazing!

Richard: Leaves of Grass in Greek. A hundred years old, some beautiful engravings. "Leaves of Grass" is a collection of poems by American poet Walt Whitman. It consists one of the best known poems is "O Captain! My Captain!

Unfortunately, there are no real interpretations of Whitman in this particular episode. However, it does show that Whitman, other than a poet, is a cultural icon and functions as "cultural capital". In other words, there is something sophisticated and valuable about owning an early edition of "Leaves of Grass". Some kids would rather have the newest and most expensive apple gadget for a present, while in this show anyway, it is classier and cooler (or more hipster?) to own an antique book.

In another episode, Whitman is once again brought up, but this time in a high school classroom.

MAX: On Monday we will start a two week of creative writing exercise, but that doesn't mean we stop reading. One of the greatest inspirations of working writers is the writing of other that they admire. Walt Whitman read Homer, Dante, Shakespeare. And the novelist Edna O'Brien has been quoted as saying 'that every writer should read some Proust every day' Now, at this point, normally I would impress the partens by pulling out a copy of Proust's 'Swann's Way' and reading a particularly difficult passage but alas, you're all saved. I have misplaced my copy. (bell rings) Oh that does is - parent's thanks for coming, students - papers on Whitman are due tomorrow and those of you who are just starting tonight - I'll be able to tell.

Although once again, there is no interpretation of Whitman's poetry, the interesting thing here is in the line "Walt Whitman read Homer, Dante, Shakespeare". As is established already, Whitman drew his sources from many aspects of life, not just the classics. In a way, popular culture to day seems to be trying to elevate Whitman as an elite alongside Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. There is no mention of all the more less prestigious poets that influenced Whitman's writings, only other recognizable poets are listed. In this sense, the show is promoting Whitman, but for all the wrong reasons.

2. "Song of Myself" by Nightwish

Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band. "Song of Myself" is a song on their seventh album Imaginaerum.

The Lyrics:

[1. From A Dusty Bookshelf]

[2. All That Great Heart Lying Still]

The nightingale is still locked in the cage

The deep breath I took still poisons my lungs

An old oak sheltering me from the blue

Sun bathing on its dead frozen leaves

A catnap in the ghost town of my heart

She dreams of storytime and the river ghosts

Of mermaids, of Whitman's and the ride

Raving harlequins, gigantic toys

A song of me, a song in need

Of a courageous symphony

A verse of me, a verse in need

Of a pure heart singing me to peace

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

All that great heart lying still

In silent suffering

Smiling like a clown until the show has come to an end

What is left for encore

Is the same old dead boy's song

Sung in silence

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

A midnight flight into Covington Woods

A princess and a panther by my side

These are Territories I live for

I'd still give my everything to love you more

A song of me, a song in need

Of a courageous symphony

A verse of me, a verse in need

Of a pure heart singing me to peace

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

Now all that great heart lying still

In silent suffering

Smiling like a clown until the show has come to an end

What is left for encore

Is the same old dead boy's song

Sung in silence

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

[3. Piano Black]

A silent symphony

A hollow opus #1,2,3

Sometimes the sky is piano black

Piano black over cleansing waters

Resting pipes, verse of bore

Rusting keys without a door

Sometimes the within is piano black

Piano black over cleansing waters

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying

All that great heart lying still on an angel wing

[4. Love]

I see a slow, simple youngster by a busy street,

A begging bowl in his shaking hand.

Trying to smile but hurting infinitely. Nobody notices.

I do, but walk by.

An old man gets naked and kisses a model-doll in his attic

It's half-light and he's in tears.

When he finally comes his eyes are cascading.

I see a beaten dog in a pungent alley. He tries to bite me.

All pride has left his wild, drooling eyes.

I wish I had my leg to spare.

A mother visits her son, smiles to him through the bars.

She's never loved him more.

Arabesque girl enters an elevator with me.

All dressed up fancy, a green butterfly on her neck.

Terribly sweet perfume deafens me.

She's going to dinner, alone.

That makes her even more beautiful.

I see a model's face on a brick wall.

A statue of porcelain perfection beside a violent city kill.

A city that worships flesh.

The first thing I ever heard,

was a wandering man telling his story

It was you, the grass under my bare feet

The campfire in the dead of night

The heavenly black of sky and sea

It was us,

Roaming the rainy roads, combing the gilded beaches

Waking up to a new gallery of wonders every morn

Bathing in places no one's seen before

Shipwrecked on some matt-painted island

Clad in nothing but the surf - beauty's finest robe

Beyond all mortality we are, swinging in the breath of nature

In early air of the dawn of life

A sight to silence the heavens

I want to travel where life travels,

following its permanent lead

Where the air tastes like snow music

Where grass smells like fresh-born Eden

I would pass no man, no stranger, no tragedy or rapture

I would bathe in a world of sensation

Love, goodness and simplicity

(While violated and imprisoned by technology)

The thought of my family's graves was the only moment

I used to experience true love

That love remains infinite,

as I'll never be the man my father is

How can you "just be yourself"

when you don't know who you are?

Stop saying "I know how you feel"

How could anyone know how another feels?

Who am I to judge a priest, beggar,

whore, politician, wrongdoer?

I am, you are, all of them already

Dear child, stop working, go play

Forget every rule

There's no fear in a dream

"Is there a village inside this snowflake?"

- a child asked me

"What's the colour of our lullaby?"

I've never been so close to truth as then

I touched its silver lining

Death is the winner in any war

Nothing noble in dying for your religion

For your country

For ideology, for faith

For another man,

Yes

Paper is dead without words

Ink idle without a poem

All the world dead without stories

Without love and disarming beauty

Careless realism costs souls

Ever seen the Lord smile?

All the care for the world made Beautiful a sad man?

Why do we still carry a device of torture around our necks?

Oh, how rotten your pre-apocalypse is

All you bible-black fools living over nightmare ground

I see all those empty cradles and wonder

If man will ever change

I, too, wish to be a decent man-boy but all I am

Is smoke and mirrors

Still given everything, may I be deserving

And there forever remains the change from G to E-Minor

Okay... where to begin? The song itself is not too far from the deviation of what you would expect from symphonic metal. The line that specifically references Whitman (so to make it a direct reference in case the title "Song of Myself" was just some funny coincidence) is the second verse where Whitman is thrown in there with mermaids and raving harlequins in the speaker's catnap in a ghost town. As to what that means, your guess is as good as mine.

The fourth part of the song is the most Whitmanian I feel. For example, these lines parallel Whitman's "Song of Myself":

"Is there a village inside this snowflake?"

- a child asked me

"What's the colour of our lullaby?"

And these are about themes that Whitman also bring up in his poems:

Where grass smells like fresh-born Eden

I would pass no man, no stranger, no tragedy or rapture

I would bathe in a world of sensation

Love, goodness and simplicity

(While violated and imprisoned by technology)

In these lines of the verse, there is talk of grass and the world of sensation, but the last line does take a large step away from Whitman. Now Whitman is not against technology, material objects are not good or bad, they're just tools for men to use as they see fit. But in the lyrics, technology comes off as oppressive. Although the lyrics themselves are reminiscent of Whitman, there is an evident pessimism in the writer's tone. There is the theme of seeing things as they truly are and accepting the bad along with the good, but there is definitely a criticism of modern society.

2. Bob's Burgers

"Bob's landlord, Mr. Fischoeder, tells Bob that he is an artist, a Beef-artist, a poet who writes with meat and buns and pickles, like a greasy, heterosexual Walt Whitman." - from Popisms.

Unlike Gilmore Girls, which is targeted more towards high school students and bored moms, Bob's Burgers caters to a larger audience demographic. It also centers around a working class family of relatively ambiguous ethnicity, which is unusual. Similar shows (The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad) are also about working class families, but there was never really all that much emphasis on the "working" part. I think Whitman would've been very pleased (at least the 1855 Whitman) to see his name mentioned in the show.