Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Walt Whitman's Caution.

To The States, or any one of
them, or any city of The
States, Resist much, Obey
little,
Once unquestioning obedience,
once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation,
race, city, of this earth,
ever afterward resumes
its liberty.—


http://www.whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/
_________________
Mercedes W136

where is this quote from, what essay or poem?

far from "words of wisdom", however, i think it is totally false.

for two reasons:

1. why is he telling States or Cities to resist rather than persons, indivuduals, groups, etc.? sounds like a justification for civil war, or for, say, racists polities in the south to resist federally mandated integration decades later, etc. obviuously that ain't Walt's intent but it can be read into the principle he expressed.

2. factually, the claim that no people can freed itself after once being enslaved is not true. liberation movements of all kinds, from those of Moses to Frederick Douglas, count on the possibility of liberation as the guiding force to their resistance. so, i dispute Walt's premises and conclusions, though of course he is a wise old poet man, nonetheless.