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Earth, my likeness,
Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
I now suspect that is not all;
I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth,
For an athlete is enamour’d of me, and I of him,
But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligible to burst forth,
I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.
SUMMARY AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Introduction. Mere seventy words grouped arbitrarily into seven lines, the poem Earth, My Likeness has been taken from the collection Calamus. A few years before the publication of Calamus the poet had published Leaves of Grass about which a critic observed:- “We are bound in conscience to call it (the collection of poems) impious and obscene. In point of style the book is an impertinence towards the English language and in point of sentiment an affront upon the recognized morality of respectable people”.
Summary. As in some of his other poems the poet projects himself as an observer from space pointing to earth and making his comments. The Earth appears to be very impassive in its external appearance but there is something fierce deeply latent in it which is likely to burst forth at any time. The poet recalls that there is an athlete, a chum of his, for whom he nurses some sort of fierce and terrible feelings very likely to burst out at any time He concludes: “I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs” These songs mean Calamus poems. Despite the frankness characterizing his poems, the poet is not bold enough to express dearly the terrible feelings he has nursed within his bosom.
Critical Analysis. Whitman’s poem Earth, My Likeness contains many examples of the poet projecting himself as an independent observer of the cosmos where the Earth and other planets sail through their orbit. Sometimes the reader also is taken along with him by the poet in this cosmic sojourn. The poet is conscious of a likeness within him to the Earth.
For an athlete is enamored of me, and I of him,But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligible to burst forth.
It is revealed that the love of the poet for the athlete referred to is not of a gentle or mild type. It may erupt like a veritable volcano at any time. But the poet does not disclose the real nature of that feeling. This is revealed in the closing line. What the poet has held up within him may be akin to the abnormal passion of masculine love which he has mentioned often in his poems.