Nature’s Quorum

Nature, democracy, and morality.  Three seemingly disconnected meanings, yet in the eyes of Walt one cannot exist in harmony without the other.  In his Specimen Days entry titled “Nature, Democracy -- Morality” he seems to be making somewhat of a closing statement in an attempt to conclude his stream of meandering thoughts.  I believe Whitman is connecting the idea of democracy as a form of equality, that presents itself in the original hierarchy and structure of nature.  In part he is saying that nature is the underlying factor of all things harmonious and beautiful (for lack of a better word) and without its solid foundation, the trials of everyday American life would border on the boundary of supreme insignificance.  It may very well be that we all amount to nothing in our current state of being, but is it not then death that gives meaning to our existence?  Whitman then goes one step further and brings in the element of morality as the adhesive factor in the ultimate conflict that is life itself.  Nature and natural elements may be driving factors in regards to how we regulate a democratic existence, but morality and the concept of “virtue” is what gives purpose in general to man kinds otherwise pointless existence.  He says it possesses the ability to “bring people back from their persistent strayings and sickly abstractions” or in other words, morality is the force that allows nature and the concept of democracy to exist without consuming the unbeknownst.

It reminds me vaguely of a particular poem I came across:

Mother Nature

Jane heads to the field

where the river runs deep

and hearts get lost 

in Bradbury’s dandelion delights.

Her dress plays softly on her hips

and the cool of the morning  

hangs on her shoulders 

like a gentle reminder

of nature’s quorum.

Mama always told Jane

that rivers are like restless men;

quick to lure in soothing tones

while you drift far, far away

from the quiet haven 

of home.

Mama always told Jane 

that if she listened hard enough

she could hear the soft coos 

of a woman’s heart

echoing in the belly 

of a beast that rests at noon.

She said that down by the river

babies are left

to be raised by wolves

and die in the arms of Mowgli

because curiosity killed the cat,

but when it didn’t

the cat had nothing 

left to live for.

She said that nature was conceived

by Lucifer and Beezlebub

to swallow up the hopes of man 

when he loses himself 

in the jungles of greed

and desolation.

So Jane lost herself

in the bottom of the river.

In other words, one can easily get swallowed up in the everyday trials and tribulations that man must endure, but Whitman has discovered a recipe that blends nature, freedom and virtue, as a way of creating order among human entropy and our inevitable end.