To the young man, many things to absorb
Why does Whitman use the French word “élève” instead of “student?” French words, for Whitman, may carry connotations of democracy, but, on the other hand, as a foreign word, unfamiliar to many readers, “élève” heightens the sense of an esoteric meaning directed only to the elect or “elevated.” (He also puns on “leave:” to be his student is to be one of his leaves of grass).
It requires two things to become Whitman’s pupil: first, blood like his must circle in your veins; second, you must be silently selected by lovers, and silently select lovers yourself. In a draft version of this poem, Whitman calls it the “blood of friendship, hot and red.” In the final version, he does not use any adjectives to describe his blood, but the “red hot” erotic undertones remain strong.
The silent selection of lovers echoes “Among the men and women, the multitude,” with its depiction of secret, divine signs and faint indirections. In both poems, Whitman may be recruiting a reader-student, a young lover, or both. His emphasis on silence cuts both ways: perhaps it suggests non-verbal, erotic play, or perhaps it suggests quiet reading – a young man silently sitting with Calamus and selecting Whitman as a literary “lover.” Today’s reader, thinking about someone “silently selecting” lovers, may imagine men cruising for sex. Given the other poems in Calamus, however, it is equally likely that the selection leads only to the “flash of eyes” – to dreams and yearning (in the next poem, Whitman silently comes near someone without disclosing the “subtle electric fire” inside him).
If it is just the flash of eyes, it may seem remarkable that this could constitute one of only two criteria for his élèves. But in “City of my walks and joys,” that flash is the only way Manhattan can repay him. The eroticism of the crowd and the passing stranger is fundamental to Whitman’s happiness – think of all the hours he spent roaming the ferries, buses, streets, theaters, and other public spaces – and his notion of adhesion: the invisible bonds that will hold those crowds together and prevent them from dissolving into warring factions.
The silent selecting, however, is just the entrance exam. Being an élève involves “many things to absorb, to engraft, to develop.” “Engraft” is a particularly interesting word, because its root comes from the Greek graphein, to write. “Engrafting” or “grafting” can mean uniting two plants so that they continue their growth together; propagating a plant through grafting; or knitting two fabrics together. It is a perfect image for Whitman’s idea of writing as a kind of growing, both intentional and natural: poetry unites the writer and reader to grow and “develop” to their full potential.