Song of Myself, Stanza 5 was shown during the June 19, 2022 international online marathon reading of Whitman’s most beloved, ambitious, and sprawling poem, “Song of Myself.”

Still from: "Song of Myself, Stanza 5" by Mitchell Santine Gould. We know that Fred was an omnibus driver.

Historian-Animator

Mitchell Santine Gould has been dreaming of portraying the great American poet Walt Whitman in an animated short since 1994, when he added a very simple Whitman animation to his book, Windows 95 Multimedia Programming. Years of effort since then, and the increasing sophistication of software, have finally made it possible. Gould, the mind behind Lincoln City’s General Picture Animation, is a well-known Walt Whitman scholar who runs a website called LeavesOfGrass.Org .

An intimate moment.

Gould was invited to showcase his latest work during the June 19, 2022 online marathon reading of Whitman’s most beloved, ambitious, and sprawling poem, “Song of Myself.” After others read the first four stanzas, Gould streamed his animated version of the fifth stanza. The marathon’s director, NYU Professor Karen Karbiener at the Walt Whitman Initiative, praises the “heart and mind” Gould invested in his film, adding, “It will be a high point in our 19 year legacy!”

Walt welcomes Fred to his home at 99 Ryerson Street in Brooklyn. This house still stands is the subject of a preservation battle.

In June and July 2022, Gould’s animated characters Walt Whitman and his most important but most mysterious lover, Fred Vaughan, were also on view in the Lincoln City Cultural Center’s Annual Members’ Show, “Glow.” Song of Myself, Stanza 5, and numerous animation experiments can be viewed on General Picture’s Youtube channel

Walt and Fred escape to the wildwood.