If Walt Whitman is a cheerleader for democracy– uncritically affirmative of democracy as a politics– and expecially celebrating democracy as it spectacularly manifests in Mannahatta— why mention aboriginals?
I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
Whereupon lo! upsprang the aboriginal name.
(Cheerleader– a thoughtless pom pom cutie– not part of the action, but an attraction, part of the fun, ’til the game is done, and after compaction.)
It is possible Walt considers Mannahatta a pretty, poetic word. A word to spice up and enliven dribbling word play and finnicky-seeming but more authentically sloppy, drivel. This would commit Walt to the Null Neutered Pseudo Completely Screwed School of Poesy and Poetaster.
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