"I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ"

"I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ" is yet another poem by Walt Whitman that has more than one meaning- one that is very simple and literal and more that are more submerged and subtle, and harder to see when you first read the poem. The literal meaning, however, can be grasped very quickly and seems simple and easy to understand.

There is a man walking, and he passes by a church. Hearing the choir singing and organ/music playing, the man begins to think about love and other similar emotions that go along with it. The pulse of the music stayed in the man's ear as he walked away, just as the reminder of his love stayed with him always as well, no matter how subtle or hidden. Many parts of the music going on in the church reminds the man of this romance of his, and he is caught up in remembering everything and reflecting on his love.

There is also a very obvious theme of religion in the poem, like in most of Whitman's other poems, because the man is walking past a church and hears religious songs, as well as because the man could be thinking of his life for Christ and God instead of his love for a man or for a woman. Love is another obvious theme; the man is thinking about love when he hears the music from the church and this causes him to think of more things that remind him of love. Nature plays a small part in one line of the poem, which kind of describes a little bit of the scene but it's necessarily very important. The poem holds some good imagery, but not in excessive amount, and there is a nice amount of detail as well. Because this is a short poem, I am glad that it was more overpowered with emotions than with a lot of detail that does not have as much meaning. I did not notice that much about "self" or the "everyman" in this poem, but it kind of fits in. Anybody could be walking by a church on a Sunday morning and be reminded of love by hearing a song, and anybody can be in love. However, I do not see any other evidence of those two things anywhere else in the poem. "Self", especially, is not really touched upon in the poem. The reflection done by the man in the poem exhibits some qualities of self, but Whitman does not go into deeper into the subject and seems to just leave it at that. In this poem, Whitman is basically tying love and music together and saying that you can find memories or thoughts of love in anything if you look hard enough and really have those feelings for someone or even something.

The analysis I found about this poem was by Charles Oliver. Oliver addresses Whitman's sexuality, wondering if the love mentioned by the man in the poem is a man or a woman (Oliver). He also alludes that other people knew about Whitman's homosexuality, and I did not realize that people knew about Whitman's sexuality back around the time that his poems were being published. I did not think this would be common knowledge because Whitman's poems have a lot to do with religion and Christianity, which generally goes against homosexuality. Also, people were not very accepting at all of homosexuality back when Whitman was alive so I did not realize it was a known fact.

Oliver, Charles M. "'I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW198&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 6, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "I HEARD YOU SOLEMN-SWEET PIPES OF THE ORGAN. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. .