Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
- Just at the point when Whitman's tone becomes uncharacteristically sad, he cries out that his "fit" is "mastering" him, or taking him over.
- This reminds us of the sexual crisis from Section 28, except the current crisis is more like a depression than a sexual problem.
- His concern about being mastered is motivated by thoughts of imprisonment, something that Whitman does not seem to like.
- He identifies with the prisoners and convicts.
- He's one of the prisoners, and not the "jolly one" either. He's a nervous wreck.
- He's also a sick person and a beggar.
- We think this section must be about society's outcasts. He hasn't forgotten them, either.