“Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,

I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.”

"If you done it, it ain't bragging." - Walt Whitman

Whitman is using his past experiences to better his way of talking to smart people and understand them more easily. It seems repetitive to say “my own days” but I think he does it on purpose to emphasize that he's looking back on specifically his experience and not trying to understand everyone's experience in dealing with highly talented people. In the first line he's acknowledging the frustration and confusion he endured when trying to interpret and appreciate the words of a linguist. He's also saying that when he would compete with contenders he would experience the same lack of ability. To have a fair chance of successfully dealing with an opponent you must be well familiarized with their tactics and know how to execute the proper defense or offense. If you are not well equipped or devoted enough in taking on a task you will be sweating. If your walking through some fog your guaranteed to get covered in water. The same amount of moisture you would get by sweating profusely. Whitman is using sweating as a replacement for struggling because it works with his fog analogy. In this context I interpret contenders to be the same thing as someone who is experienced when it comes to competing with another individual. So if your faced with competing with a contender your probably going to be “sweating” so much moisture that you might as well have walked through a dense fog. In the second line he seems to be referring to the linguist. If his goal was to out speak a linguist his approach wouldn't be to mock them or argue with them. That tactic would be futile. The best option is to sit back, listen, and wait for whatever else may be coming at you. That way you learn from the encounter instead of talking so much that you don't even understand what the counter argument is.

I feel like Whitman is trying to give us advice on how to live our lives. He is boasting that he knows how to get the most out of an experience. He “witnesses and waits.” He acts like he understands what I'm all about and is therefore in a position to be giving me guidance. To suggest that you have that kind of wisdom is definitely a little egotistical. I also think that observation and waiting alone is not the best way to learn. Sometimes mocking someone is necessary to show what your stance is on the topic or idea. By mocking someone it can also have the effect of putting that person in their place. The better a person understands their position the easier it is to get out of it or improve it. I interpret his use of the word “arguments” in two ways. The first is him advising us not to argue when we should just accept what we are being told. The other is him advising us not to argue period. I don't like this way of looking at it because I strongly believe that arguing can produce many positive outcomes.

"Walt Whitman Quotes." Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1438.Walt_Whitman>.