Was Walt Whitman A Jew? Poem by gershon hepner

Was Walt Whitman A Jew?



Was Walt Whitman a Jew?
If not why not? Alas
of all great poets, few
leave Jewish leaves of grass.

If not not. An oak
drops acorns very near
to where it grows, but folk
fall out, engrossed by fear.

“Was Walt Whitman a Jew? If not why not, ” was written by Lucien Freud to R. A. Kitaj in 1983, as I noticed in an exhibition of Kitaj’s writings organized by David Myers at the Young Research Library at UCLA. Joyce Carol Oates wrote to Kitaj after an exhibition that had been condemned by most of the critics but praised by (inter al) Paul McCartney, that “dull witted men (men I assume) were simply overwhelmed by the sickness and mystery, perhaps the exotic “Jewishness” of your work, and responded with typical venom. Anyway, my favorites are “If not, not” and “The Oak Tree”.

3/18/08

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