Upon viewing Thomas Eakins’ “The Swimming Hole”, I find that I am clearly able to see the words of Walt Whitman’s Section 11 of Song Of Myself as if the language of the poem literally brushed the paint onto the canvas. This beautiful piece of art is exactly the visual picture one gets when reading the poem about the “woman” watching the beautiful, naked, young men frolic in and around the swimming hole. Both Eakins and Whitman were lovers of the human body, mutually appreciating the woman’s form but passionate about the male form. Whitman, writes of the “woman” looking through the window adoring the striking figures as they sunbathe and swim in all their glory, oblivious of the admiring view they present from their groupies’ window.
His words creates the following visualization for his readers: “The beards of the young men glisten’d with wet, it ran from their long hair, Little streams pass’d all over their bodies. An unseen hand also pass’d over their bodies, It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.” When looking at the portrait “The Swimming Hole”, even though you don’t see the window pane, the evaluator of art becomes the voyeur and the words seem to spring onto the canvas. The eye becomes the “unseen hand” drinking in the splendor of the chiseled bodies of the nude men fraternizing in the picturesque setting, reveling in the splendor of their naked forms. Both artist have a love for the human body and while reading Whitman’s poem and viewing Eakins’ portrait one gets the reward of looking at their wonderfully, candid, sexual depiction of beauty from their brilliant minds.
The Essay on Comparison Of Whitman And Dickenson Poems
America experienced profound changes during the mid 1800s. New technologies and ideas helped the nation grow, while the Civil War ripped the nation apart. During this tumultuous period, two great American writers captured their ideas in poetry. Their poems give us insight into the time period, as well as universal insight about life. Although polar opposites in personality, Emily Dickinson and ...
