Poetry Analysis: "Among the Multitude", by Walt Whitman

Soul Mate: An Analysis of ‘Among the Multitude” by Walt Whitman (1819-1892): 

Who are these men and women that form the multitude of people, in this remarkable piece of poetry? Where is the poet, at this time? Is he living this event in a real time and place or is this a moment of reverie? Has this been written in the genre of a memoir or a reflection?

This is something only the poet would have been able to tell us, but he cannot. As a result, we may never know. At best, readers of his poetry can only speculate on the circumstances of the event. What is truly remarkable about this piece of poetry is that it could be happening, at any time in history or in any place, which gives the poem an element of timelessness.

Wherever Whitman is, he has an awareness of the reality that there are individual men and women around him. If he is alone, he is alone in a crowd.

Suddenly, the multitude of people fade into the background and the poet becomes aware that there is an unidentified figure who has singled him out of the crowd and is drawing his attention with secret and divine signs of some kind. These signs appear to baffle others.

It does not appear to be happening because of anything he has done. It does appear to be a reality to him, whether or not it is actually happening. What is important is the fact that it is happening in his perception of reality. One wonders if it is some kind of a divine, mysterious happenstance.

Is it an event that is taking place on some higher plane of thought? Are the two people simultaneously interacting and communicating, above the conscious level of the multitude? Is there a crowd of men and women that constitutes the multitude? Were they ever there?

It does not really matter.

One wonders if the secret and divine signs that he perceives are something that only he and the other person can comprehend. Whoever that other person is, does not matter, as the poet does not pay attention to anyone else, although he does go through a long list of others. Perhaps he is looking around to see if it is really him, that the person is singling out.

There may be a third person in this scenario, one who is not baffled by the secret and divine signs. One wonders who this might be, if that is so. If this is a third party, it is not someone that the poet is concerned about as this person knows him.

Or, the poet has suddenly sensed the reality that the person who has revealed himself or herself, knows him, but probably in a higher sense of knowing than as a mere acquaintance. There is something happening on a higher level of consciousness.

He becomes oblivious to the sea of faces around him and suddenly, he goes through his own experience of knowing, too. He recognizes this person as one who loves and sees him or her, as his perfect equal. Maybe in some way, he has found someone who will be his lover. It is almost as if he blushes, at this point in the poem.

He hurriedly clarifies what he intended to state, as if he fears that his intentions might have been misunderstood. It is as if suddenly the encounter has become too personal and he backs off, taking a moment to make his intentions clear.

Perhaps he somehow willed or intended for this other person to discover him by some kind of direction that is not a direction, at all. It is as if he wanted to be found by this person.

It is also as if he expects to meet this person too, in the future. Then, the real process of discovery will begin for him, but in terms of like not love, which may not be appropriate until a later time.

“Among The Multitude”, by Walt Whitman

Among the men and women the multitude
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child,
Any nearer than I am,
Some are baffled, but that one is not that one knows me.

As lover and perfect equal,
I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,
And when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you. (1)

As one walks through Walt Whitman's poem with him, one can only wonder if he has suddenly become aware of finding his one true soul mate, someone he has begun to know, but only in the sense of being merely an acquaintance, at this point in time. Does this kind of happenstance occur in real life?

There are many different levels of consciousness, each one with the possibility of some kind of interaction and communication between people. It is possible to meet someone this way in real life. It is even more possible to surpass the boundaries of reality and meet someone as a figment of the imagination, in the same way. Perhaps in some sense, this happens in a dream or a vision.

Note that there is no one who is immune to loneliness or being alone. Whitman may have been lonely, at that moment or felt alone. Perhaps in a state of reverie, he was wishing for someone to enter into his world.

If one could take every possible emotion that is expressed in this poem, by the poet or some one else reading his poem, one might suggest that there is a gamut of emotions that range all the way from sorrow to joy. If one could take a photograph of human emotions and pixelate them, each pixel could represent one of them. Looking deeper into this piece of poetry, one can find many different emotions, even a multitude of emotions.

A person who is yearning to have someone in his or her life can be in a state of grieving or sorrow, particularly if there is the loss of a loved one. Perhaps this was the case.

The joy comes with the sudden realization that he is not alone. In fact, he has found the perfect other, in a happenstance that not of his own making. Perhaps in some sense, he has entered into a higher realm of consciousness, where he has encountered the divine or the feminine divine.

Maybe it is just his soul mate, another human being with whom he will interact in the future?

(1) http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1952.html