I Hear It Was Charged Against Me
I Hear It Was Charged Against Me - meaning Summary
Affirming Communal Love
Whitman responds to accusations that he wants to destroy institutions by rejecting both attack and defense of formal structures. He distances himself from edifices, rules, and trustees, instead proposing a grassroots, informal "institution" based on comradeship and love that will exist in cities, fields, and on every ship. The poem expresses Whitman’s democratic individualism: a vision of social cohesion built from personal bonds rather than imposed authority.
Read Complete AnalysesI HEAR it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions; But really I am neither for nor against institutions; (What indeed have I in common with them?—Or what with the destruction of them?) Only I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of These States, inland and seaboard, And in the fields and woods, and above every keel, little or large, that dents the water, Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any argument, The institution of the dear love of comrades.
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