Sandwiched In

Sandwiched In

Starting from Paumanok: Evoking Whitman’s Long Island

Why did Walt Whitman remain so attached to Long Island throughout his life? He was born in West Hills and made multiple trips back to the island throughout his life. This talk by Andrew Rimby will focus on the chronology of Whitman’s engagement/attachment with Long Island. Topics about Whitman on the island will include “Whitman and farming,” “Whitman and teaching,” and “Whitman and the Sound.” In his poetry, Whitman’s love of the island’s nature is always on display since he wrote that “the successive growth-stages of my infancy, childhood, youth and manhood were all pass’d on Long Island, which I sometimes feel as I had incorporated.” Come find out why Paumanok (the Native American term for LI) never left Whitman’s mind.