ROBERT K . MARTIN
85
the mind somewhere beneath full consciousness and which invoke the experi–
ence of the mind in that state .
" The Sleepers" has received a fair amount of attention in recent years ,
probably due to the general interest in stream ofconsciousness techniques and
also
to
a new willingness to look more carefully at explicit sexual imagery. I do
not wish
to
give a full reading of the poem here-one may be referred to the
helpful comments ofLeslie Fiedler and Edwin Haviland Miller in particular,
as well as to the reading of]ames E. Miller-but I do want
to
look at it suffici–
ently
to
suggest that it is similar to "Song of Myself ' in its sense of wavering
consciousness, in its use of cosmic observation, in its shifts through time and
space, and in its sexual imagery .
"The Sleepers" is explicitly about a vision, as the first line informs us,
and its action is the movement of the poet within his vision ,
I wanderall night in my vision,
Stepping with lightfeet, sWtftly andnoiselessly stepping
andstopping,
Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes ofsleepers,
Wanden'ng andconfused, lost to myself, til-assorted,
contradictory,
Pausing, gazing, bending, andstopping.
The first section of the poem is agitated, marked by continual move–
ment. The poet uses the game metaphor to depict the atmosphere of levity
which prevails as the covers are lifted and the genitals are revealed.
wtid-flapping pennants ofjoy!
It concludes with a remarkable depiction of orgasm, in which it becomes clear
that the naked speaker who has been exposed is using his body as a metaphor
for his penis and that the entire exposure motif of the poem operates on these
two levels (the exposure of the poet for what he is-the fear of being revealed
as a homosexual-and the exposure of the penis which may bring forth castra–
tion anxiety in a hostile world) . The text is worth quoting in full , especially
since Whitman later removed these lines from the 1855 edition and they are
therefore not present in most of the editions regularly used .
o
hotcheekedandblushing!
0
foolish hectic!
o
forpity 's sake, no one must see me now!
.
.
my
clothes were stolen whtfe I was abed,
Now I am thrustforth, where shallI run ?
