Paumanok, and My Life On It as Child and Young Man

With The Velvet Underground's "Ocean" as my guided background noise, I read this nostalgic piece concentrated on shoreline adventures.  How appropriate.
I wish my memories were as vivid, I wish they had the ability to engaged my senses.  I can't slow down enough to let those kind of sentimental reflections surface.  It's admirable how Whitman can translate his childhood expeditions so coherently, so poetically.  As that one man of infinitely gorgeous language once said, "the earth has music for those who listen."  Whitman listened, and so carefully, as to translate it for those who won't listen.
One could have guessed nature would be as significant to him during childhood as it was later in life.  Even the matured prophetical poet Whitman houses a weakness for it.  The attention to scenic images in his poetry, the love he expresses for it in "Song of Myself," the importance he assigns it, parallels its relevance to his childhood development.  Textbook psychology.  These moments he had with the outside world are obvious inspirations, which is why he wants the rest of us to have the same relationship with nature.  Also why "Song of Myself" stresses that particular relationship to the reader.  He entirely appreciated the beauty in regression to earthly basics.
(here comes the ocean and the waves)