Whitman ends the Second Annex with “Good-bye My Fancy” which shows us a dying Whitman who is no longer fighting the inevitable, but rather embracing it. In “Good-bye My Fancy,” Whitman is giving his farewell address to his audience as he knows that he will soon be dying. Throughout his poetry he has turmoil with death and the idea of his own mortality. However, in this final poem, Whitman is accepting of his fate.
Whitman begins this poem by saying that he doesn’t know how much longer he will be around or to where he will be next, but he doesn’t seem worried by this. Whitman is speaking to his reader as his love which makes this goodbye very intimate. “Fareware dear mate, dear love!/ I’m going away, I know not where,/ Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,/ So goodbye my Fancy.” It’s like Whitman is taking the reader by the hand and reassuring the reader that he will be all right. It’s like if he hears himself reassuring us, it will help him to cope with his near death.
Whitman continues his goodbye by reminiscing about old times and happy memories. “Now for my last- let me look back a moment;/ The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,/ Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping.” Whitman is getting melodramatic now. He can feel his heart slowing and he is capitalizing on that feeling. His heart, the clock, is “slower fainter ticking” while inside of him. He can feel his death coming soon. And yet he still rejoices in the past while separating himself from reality. “Long have we lived, joy’d, caress’d together;/ Delightful! - now separation - Good-by my Fancy.” He speaks to his love and reminds the reader of all the times they’ve spent with him. Whitman delights in the relationship, but he realizes that it is his time to press on. So he separates himself, making the ultimate goodbye a lot easier.
The next stanza is different from the previous three. Whitman goes back to his classical idea of being one with someone else continuing with the concept that he can’t die quickly. He doesn’t want his lover to think that he is being hasty in leaving. He drags his goodbye out, holding on to life. Whitman expresses how they have spent so much time “blending into one” and then reassures the lover that even after he passes they will still be one with him. “Then if we die we die together, (yes, we’ll remain one,)/ If we go anywhere we’ll go together to meet what happens,/ May-be we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something . . .” Whitman wants his love (or his readers) to continue to learn him even after he is no longer present.
The end of the poem is interesting. Whitman actually gives credit to his love for giving Whitman his songs to sing. “May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?)” He is passing the legacy on to his readers. Whitman wants us to take the baton and continue from where he left off. Walt Whitman ends this line with a question as a side thought. Whitman seems to be questioning now instead of answering each scenario with his own solutions. He finally begins to let go and give the credit to somebody else. He then calls his love the “mortal knob really undoing, turning-,” he is saying that the person is the key to his temporary immortality. It is the love that opens the door to his death, yet will carry on his memory after he is gone. He then says goodbye one last time and hails his Fancy.
In this poem, Whitman finally becomes less than Godlike. He is softer and more capable with dealing with death. He is serene and aware and yet at the same time relaxed with saying “goodbye.” This is a very likeable Whitman because he is so real. He ends his long career with identifying the reality of death as any ordinary person would. He isn’t singing to the masses or of the masses anymore, but rather to his lover in a tender, loving way. Whitman ends with dignity and pride and that is apparent in this poem.
Questions:
- What do you notice about this paper?
- How is it similar to the lit. analysis paper?
- What is the focus of this analysis?
- How well does this author prove his/her point?
- Here is a link to the poem http://www.daypoems.net/poems/2254.html - how well does the author interpret Whitman's poem?
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