Native Moments
Native Moments - meaning Summary
Celebration of Marginal Lives
Whitman celebrates an unrestrained, bodily embrace of life and solidarity with society's outcasts. The speaker welcomes libidinous joy, disorder, and companionship with those labeled shameful, refusing performance or exile from his companions. He asserts identification with prostitutes, the lawless, and the condemned, positioning himself as their poet and ally. The poem champions democratic inclusivity, erotic freedom, and honest fellowship over respectability and social judgment.
Read Complete AnalysesNATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now! Give me now libidinous joys only! Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank! To-day, I go consort with nature’s darlings—to-night too; I am for those who believe in loose delights—I share the midnight orgies of young men; I dance with the dancers, and drink with the drinkers; The echoes ring with our indecent calls; I take for my love some prostitute—I pick out some low person for my dearest friend, He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate—he shall be one condemn’d by others for deeds done; I will play a part no longer—Why should I exile myself from my companions? O you shunn’d persons! I at least do not shun you, I come forthwith in your midst—I will be your poet, I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
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