Yoda Speak


“The Greatest Unrest of Which We Are Part” is my favorite Specimen Days entry yet!  Although short in stature, the few sentences he does write are saturated with intuitive content regarding the compelling forces of “man and the universe” and “creation's incessant unrest.”  He describes them as being part of an ultimate “never-achieved poem” for there seems to be no answer or conclusion for the universal topics he speaks of.  It seems to share some relatable qualities with that of “Song of Myself” seeing as he discusses themes regarding human entropy and cosmic conflicts or “pulls” yet never seems to reach a finite conclusion, thus making it somewhat of an unfinished poem.  All of this he addresses within the first two sentences, and then quite beautifully ends it with the rhetorical question of “what is humanity... but emotion?”  One may view this as though we are all just meandering bodies of condensed emotions, that we know not how to maneuver.


In regards to how this relates to the picture of Yoda and the meaning of my title, I am simply referring to the title of his entry and the wisdom he manages to disperse in such a short amount of time.  My comparison (quite obviously far fetched) none the less shows that Whitman possesses a vast amount of knowledge, and if anyone would be able to distinguish the meaning of some kind of universal “force” it would certainly be him.