Because Steven Olsen-Smith and you may Hershel Parker point out, the new desire from inside the Whitman problem has been to dicuss inexactly regarding clusters plus personal poems (Olsen-Smith and you can Parker 1997). Critics seem to make reference to, state, “Outside of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” otherwise “Calamus” rather than indicating and therefore version is meant and sometimes into the implication the review holds for all systems out of a poem otherwise cluster. Considering Whitman’s current condition as symbol out of homosexual The united states, and you can given the imprecision in which experts features generally speaking described Whitman texts, a volatile mix might have been preparing during the Whitman criticism.
One could understand why brand new bet is higher: because Helms highlights, you are able to believe “Live oak” instead of the fuzzier “Calamus” ‘s the “simply sustained therapy of gay like in most out of his poetry” (p
But Helms’s collection of messages written a small important violent storm.