W. W. - The Wise Writer

Step 1:
After analyzing Whitman's notebook, the first thing I want to touch on is how messy yet elegant his handwriting.  Although it is very hard to read and piece any of the words together, his strokes look very smooth and done with precision.  All that matters is that he can read what he is writing because it is his notebook.  Another thing I noticed is how the notebook was described as small and that it could fit in a poet's coat pocket and how he might have had it with him when he first saw Abe Lincoln.  I find it fascinating how Whitman was so committed to being a poet that he kept a pocket sized notebook with him probably at all times.  Lastly, towards the end of his notebook are multiple sketches and one might not think much of them but they really stuck out to me and made me think about multiple questions like: "Who could that be?" "Why would Whitman draw these things?" "How are these drawings going to be helpful to him?"  Along with these questions, I thought that Whitman was very artistic for drawing something on a small sheet of paper with only a pencil/pen while probably standing up.  There is no way I could draw anything that good even if I were sitting down.

Step 2:
It is shown that Whitman seemed to be obsessed with Abe Lincoln.  He went out of his way as much as he could to see Lincoln, even if it was just to watch him walk through the streets.  Abe and him had similar beliefs and it can be concluded that Whitman looked up to Abe.  One thing I read that really puzzled me was that Whitman sometimes used Spanish words instead of English words.  Although the notes offered some reasons behind it, I don't think I would believe anything unless Whitman himself wrote down somewhere why he did it because there are too many ideas as to why he chose to write in Spanish.  "Libertad" is a common Spanish word he used which translates to freedom/liberty in English.  The notes also describe Whitman's use of Spanish terms as puzzling because they do not know the reasoning behind why he did it.  Unlike I was saying above, some of the pictures were believed to be drawn by one of Whitman's friends, Charlie Pfaff, in one of the local bars.  Where I went wrong is that I thought that his notebook was just his and his alone.  Apparently he allowed his friend to draw caricatures in his notebook.  Caricatures are "A picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect." (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/caricature).  I wonder why caricatures were drawn instead of real drawings?  I guess the world may never know.