Inner Sequence

From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk, I see the regions of snow and ice. Is this then a touch? O I do not know whether many passing by will discover you. One hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not! The saints and sages in history -- but you yourself? I at least do not shun you. Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? I see the regions of snow and ice, of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest. To the garden the world is anew ascending, quivering me to a new identity -- this is the female form.

Poem Manual:

Dates of American History are systematically matched with lines of Walt Whitman. The dates are randomly selected. Their two pair of numbers are added. The sum creates the page number in Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass, Bantam Classic Edition, 93, of which each first line of the page has been taken.

E.g.: 1630 ( Massachusetts Bay Colony created ) = 16+30=46, leads to:
first line on page 46:
"Is this then a touch?.."
The selected lines create the collage "Inner Sequence."

1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony created
"Is this then a touch? Quivering me to a new identity,"

1660 Navigation Acts
"From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk"

1765 Stamp Act
"Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body?"

1770 Boston Massacre
"One hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not!"

1773 Tea Act
"O you shunn'd persons, I at least do not shun you"

1776 Declaration of Independence
"O I do not know whether many passing by will discover you"

1798 Alien & Sedition Acts
"I see the regions of snow and ice,"

1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
"Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,"

1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki
"The saints and sages in history -- but you yourself?"

1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott
"To the garden the world anew ascending"

1960 J.F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States
"This is the female form"

© Tatjana Greiner