Calamus (poems)

Most critics believe[1][2][3] that these poems are Whitman's clearest expressions in print of his ideas about homoerotic male love.

This sequence as written celebrates many aspects of "comradeship" or "adhesive love," Whitman's term, borrowed from phrenology to describe male same-sex attraction.

Some critics contend that Whitman's edits tended to reduce some of his most personal and specific disclosures, possibly in an attempt to make the sequence more attractive to a wider audience.

[8] This cluster of poems contains a number of images and motifs that are repeated throughout, notably the Calamus root itself.

Some scholars have pointed out, as reasons for Whitman's choice, the phallic shape of what Whitman calls the "pink-tinged roots" of Calamus, its mythological association with male same-sex love, and the allegedly mind-altering effects of the root.