Roots, Indescriminant

"What blurt is it about virtue and about vice?
Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me... I stand indifferent,
My gait is no faultfinder's or rejecter's gait,
I moisten the roots of all that has grown."
                                       -Whitman, Song of Myself

    

Whitman reveals himself not as the creator of truths but rather the nurturer of truths that have already taken root.  In Song of Myself Whitman finds a way to utilize language (which is a device of the cognitive mind) to steer us back towards ancient truths found beyond the mind-- truths found in nature and the body and the soul.  He is not interested in the kinds of linear, logical arguments that constrict the truth into tight little boxes; he understands that truth exists in many forms, each one supported by its own intricate and expanding network.  Whitman waters these truths and allows them to grow as they will.

Each usage of the word "roots" in Song of Myself somehow ties back into this theme of the wisdom beyond cognition, weather it be the wisdom of the body or the wisdom of nature (and perhaps these two are really the same!).  At the start of the poem, Whitman writes:

"The smoke of my own breath,
Echos, ripples, and buzzed whispers... loveroot, silkthread, crotch and vine,
My respiration and inspiration... the beating of my heart... the passing of blood
   and air through my lungs"
                                     -Whitman, Song of Myself

Here the body itself knows its own roots in lust and in pulse and in breath.  These are the elements that comprise the "language" of the body, making it so that the body needs no cognitive language to be understood... a direct, experiential link to wisdom and understanding.

The next instance of this motif is as follows:  "I find I incorporate gneiss and coal and long-threaded moss and fruits and grains and / esculent roots / And am stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds all over" (Song of Myself).  Whitman writes this phrase directly following the passage in which he praises the sanctity of all of the different elements of nature, from grass to a cow to a mouse to the farmer's daughter (since we are part of nature too!).  Given this context, I believe Whitman is using the motif of roots here to talk about becoming one with nature in a literal and intimate sense: He actually ingests the roots!  ("Esculent" means edible.)  After rooting himself this way and in incorporating all of these key elements of nature into his being, Whitman becomes blessed by the company of all kinds of wonderful, holy animals.

Whitman uses the word "roots" two separate times in the extensive passage that begins, "By the city's quadrangular houses" in which Whitman shifts back and forth between domestic/civilized scenes and the scenery of nature and animals' homes.  In painting these parallels, Whitman points out the similarities and disparities between the lives of humans and other animals (and reminds us that we are still animals!).  Using the roots motif twice in this passage -- both times embedded in descriptions of the animals' homes/worlds -- indicates a grounded quality in nature that human civilization can learn from.  I recommend reading the entire passage to get these broader meanings, but here are the lines containing the motif: "Where the black bear is searching for roots or honey... where the beaver pats / the mud with his paddle-tail; ...Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow" (Song of Myself).  By the end of the passage Whitman has branched up from these roots and trees and meadows up into the wild sky!  It seems to be a holy experience.

Whitman never lets roots hold him down; instead they give him strength and the ability to launch, to grow, and to connect with all things.  

Image by Fractal Angel