Despite an occasional reluctance to talk about his own poetry, Whitman has said a good deal about what he felt were its sources, methods and purposes, both in his conversations and in his Prefaces. However, if we try to apply any of his ideas we always have to contend with his theoretical vagueness and his antiaestheticism. Thus, though much has been revealed about the nature of Whitman's “art” by examinations of ideas he claimed as sources (e.g. the sea, the city, the Bible, even phrenology), one wants a closer analysis of his claims and of critics' applications of them, especially in relation to a reading of particular poems. An area of Whitman criticism in which one feels a special need for clarification is that which treats the influence of music on his poetry.