14
The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation,
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,
Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.
The sharp-hoof’d moose of the north, the cat on the housesill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-spread
wings,
I see in them and myself the same old law.
The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred
affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
I am enamour’d of growing out-doors,
Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,
Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes
and mauls, and the drivers of horses,
I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will
take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever.
We ended section 13 understanding that Song of Myself is not only a celebration of humanity but of all living things. Particularly with animals Whitman uncovers the wisdom they possess, a type of wisdom that nullifies the idea that humans are superior to them. An idea that section 14 challenges is the basis for “human superiority” which is intellectualism. To echo a line in section 13
And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills
pretty well to me,
A gamut, in music, refers to the full range of pitches in a musical system; also, the compass of a particular instrument or voice. Needless to say it was developed by some smart people and has provided order and meaning in the sphere of music, however Whitman points out that in the face of the gamut the shy jay that hides deep in the woodlands away from this knowledge or conception, trills pretty sweet. And so section 14 scrutinizes the worth of knowledge/reasoning touted from “high-places”or far-aways places.
Still in nature, the speaker observes the wild gander who leads his flock through the cool night. The gander honks and Whitman takes it to be an invitation, a call for attention. He says:
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,
Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.
The word pert has three definitions, one of which means a girl or young woman who is particularly lively or cheeky. I imagine a young woman in the same setting as Whitman who also sees the gander and his flock and hears his honk but thinks nothing of it, at best thinking the gander’s honk to be humorous, but Whitman finds deeper meaning in the gander’s call and Finds its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.
Drawing his gaze from the sky, he observes:
The sharp-hoof’d moose of the north, the cat on the housesill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-spread
wings,
I love how each creature he describes evokes an individual scene; The sharp-hoof’d moose in the mostly frigid north, then the cat at leisure on the housesill, then the chickadee likely nesting in a cavity of wood, and then the prairie-dog expertly digging across the arid grasslands. None of these scenes are related but give a spotlight to the intricacies of animals and wildlife. He also illustrates the grunting sow and her litter as well as a turkey hen and her brood,as they care for their young. In all these scenes Whitman sees the same old law. What I think he means to express is an interconnectedness between man and nature because in the next lines he says;
The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred
affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
Here he is making contact with the earth which springs multiple affections, interestingly the word affection generally refers to a positive feeling, however archaic definitions describe affection as a condition or disease, further, a mental state or neutral emotion. And I think the archaic definitions best explains the scorn that proceeds the hundred affections.
the earth springs a hundred
affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
So multiple affections spring forth from the earth, perhaps they are not all the same or they are affections that are against each other and so they harbour scorn despite Whitman’s best efforts to relate them. Alternatively, they scorn at his attempt to relate or rearrange nature's affections for himself.
In spite of the scorn Whitman continues;
I am enamour’d of growing out-doors,
Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,
Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes
and mauls, and the drivers of horses,
I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Here we have Whitman expressing his love for the outdoors and really the pastoral lifestyle at large. He’s enamoured of all of it, growing out-doors, the men that live among the cattle, the men at sea or in the woods, the builders, steerers of ships, the drivers, the wielders- the common man, especially for his time. He can eat and sleep with them for weeks on end, he prefers their company because
What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
The sum total of who Whitman is, can be found in the common, cheap, near and easy; not in the exotic, illustrious and abstract. He finds himself in nature following the honk of the gander, observing various animals in their natural environment. He finds himself in the earth's affections and among the men living with cattle who taste the ocean and wood. And truly his sentiments are drenched in transcendentalism, a philosophy which he was known to represent, which supposed there to be a divinity that pervades all nature and humanity.
We left the raucous tune of the city in section 8 and following that section we see Whitman really champion nature and the countryside. We’ve gone from the living and buried speech that is ever-vibrating and howls restrained by decorum in the city, to the earth springing a hundred
Affections in nature. This illustrates an interesting distinction between the two settings. While the city is clearly animated, its liveliness is tainted by an impermanence that rids it of a lasting power and the decorum that restrains the howls strips it of sincerity. Funny enough the city is also the primary producer of the abstract and theoretical things that Whitman hardly relates to. Conversely, nature’s liveliness is one without restraint; the earth springs a hundred affections without restraint and so it has a lasting power and Whitman readily and passionately engages with it.
He ends the section with these lines:
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will
take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever.
In the palm of nature Whitman takes his chances and makes extravagant investments in hopes that he shall receive vastly in return. I don't think he’s making an actual transaction, I think that being in nature and around the common are the vast return for him and so he feel liberated in a way; adorning himself to bestow himself on the first that will take him, not even counting on his lucky stars for the vast return, he’s just ready and open to receive whatever. That's all I can really make of that.