Decomposing City

Response Question:

The poem “This Compost” was first published in the 1856 edition of Leaves. Like other sections, “Compost” centers on images of life (regeneration, life, freshness) and death (decay, decomposition, degeneration). It employs metaphors of vegetation (grass, plants, trees) to represent the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Your task is to compare the images of of life and death seen in “Compost” with the images seen elsewhere in Leaves (esp. sec 6).

Guidelines for passage selection:

Select 3-4 passages to develop an argument about the representations of life and death in the poem, and how it differs from those found elsewhere in Leaves. There are a number of elements you might consider:

         1)  circle/note striking descriptions of the human body

         2)  look for vivid descriptions of decay, death, destruction of the body of the earth, nature’s body

         3)  look for lines that suggest tensions between decay/death and regeneration of life/eternal life.

Helpful Hints for the paper's structure:

Your response should follow these steps: in the opening paragraph, very briefly state your paper's subject (assume your reader is familiar with the poem). In the body of the essay, devote one paragraph to each of your passages/examples, providing specific evidence and examples from each passage. At the end of the paper, briefly sum up: what can you conclude about images of life and death in "This Compost"?

Background & Contexts

Background on New York City in the 1850s in general: What was the population? What did the topography (map) of the city look like? How did it differ from today's city? What would have been recognizable? What was New York City like in the 1850s, the decade when Whitman published his poem:

NYC was truly a filthy city with a public health crisis. Research for this class could focus on some of these topics: problems with manure disposal; burial of the dead; the water supply; trash removal; sanitation; etc. Use the keywords NYC & 19th century (in other words, it needn't focus on Whitman per se).

Dead horses were very common in the city; "the close of a career"

An 1886 article in the Atlantic Monthly described Broadway as congested with "dead horses and vehicular entanglement."

From the New York Times: "When Horses Posed a Public Heath Hazard"

Manure was another big problem. There were 3-4 MILLION pounds of manure EACH DAY in Manhattan. Artists have not left a record of this, but there were many manure blocks in the city.