The Seemingly Unrelated Topics of Poetry and Athletics

The Seemingly Unrelated Topics of Poetry and Athletics


Team sports are exhilarating to watch and to play. Each player gets a moment of glory as she helps advance the team. The coaches are filled with pride whenever a shot is made or a pass is perfectly executed. However, any team player knows that a game can only be won if everyone works together well as one unit. Poetry is the same way. The writer controls what words or players are in the game and the words help to advance the poem to the end. Walt Whitman’s style of poetry is quite similar to this idea of collectiveness and has a smooth flow when read, which is why Walt Whitman’s poetry is similar and related to sports.


Good athletes know that in order to become a good player her sport must become second nature. The game should feel like a conversation between the players and between the two teams. While Whitman definitely makes use of his poetic terms his writing is still has a colloquial manner; it feels like the narrator is talking to the reader. Whitman has an uncanny ability to show images and express emotions through poetry as if two friends are talking about their day. “How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he”(28). Here Whitman write as if the words are being said directly to the reader and not to some unmentioned character speaking with the narrator. Sports are similar in the same way that once an athlete does not think about the words or the techniques she has acquired the game becomes more seamless and flows like a conversation between two old friends. The questions Whitman poses are like when players work through a play seamlessly. Each player is like one of Whitman’s questions. Independently they are meaningless, but together they are able to accomplish the goals of the coach. But ultimately it is up to the players and the words to win.


The choices made in an athletic competition and in poetry affect the outcome greatly. The difference between a win or a loss is the same as the difference between a good stanza of poetry and a confusing stanza of prose. In “Song of Myself,” Whitman makes use of a wide variety of vocabulary, but still manages to sound smooth because of his intentional choices. “I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth, I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself. ” Instead of only stating that he is a small and insignificant compared to the rest of the world, he uses metaphors to show and not tell what he is trying to say. From a single sentence a reader can feel the unimportantance and lackadaisical mood of the writer. Much like on the field where a player must decide how to move the ball up and into the endzone. Authors have to figure out the best way to portray their emotions most effectively. Just like a coach or a trainer must figure out how to work each athlete to ensure a win.


Whitman is the coach of poetry. His job is to guide the players or in this case words to their proper position and knows how to meticulously use them to his advantage. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. / I loafe and invite my soul, / I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass”(26).His use of the words lean and loafe create a feeling of relaxation in the mind of the reader. Just like how a starting line up can instill excitement and eagerness in sports fans. Choices made by both can drastically change the outcome, both negatively and positively.


Nothing can be perfected without practice. Poetry and sports are art forms that must be practiced over a lifetime to perfect. Walt Whitman’s writing is the equivalent of a perfectly timed give and go or a perfectly executed touchdown. Executing an 100 yard rush is nearly impossible, and similar to Walt Whitman, whose style and expertise is nearly impossible to reproduce, the chances that anyone will ever be able to be like him is virtually impossible. But as Whitman put it best, “I may be as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.”