Carleton Eldredge Noyes - An Approach to Walt Whitman, 1910 by gnosisclassics

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38oafcs fip

Carlcton

Mayts

APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN.

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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

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AN APPROACH TO

WALT WHITMAN BY

CARLETON NOYES

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON (Jtbe

MIFFLIN

Bita jibe

ptejJ?

COMPANY

Cambri&ge

1910

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33B\ ^95 COPYRIGHT,

I9IO,

BY CARLETON NOYES

A^H-obS

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TO EUGENE HEFFLEY

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charge you forever reject those

expound me, I

who would

cannot expound myself,

for I

be no theory or school

charge that there

founded out of me, I

charge you to leave

all free,

as I have left

free.

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all

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CONTENTS I.

II.

The Man

Whitman's Art

...

III.

The Human Appeal

IV.

The

Soul's

Adventure

To You

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

THE MAN Camerado,

Who

this is

no book,

touches this touches a man.

big, gray, leisurely figure, ample,

constrained,

un-

somewhat uncouth per-

haps, but nevertheless strangely engaging

virtue of a native ease of

his manifest sincerity,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

manner and

this is the

broad strokes that suggests

image

itself

mention of the name of Walt Whitman. It

port.

a figure familiar in picture

The

hair, the

and byre-

flowing, wind-tossed beard

and

kindly mouth, the far-seeing eyes,

of the large-framed

the free-and-easy

lilt

body, distinguish

him among the crowd,

and invest him with the authority of nat-

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ural things. Obviously, he

product.

He is

not an indoor

growth of the

soil,

of the

sun and rain and the wide winds. Rugged,

untrimmed, he has the breadth and

suf-

Nature imparts to the things that grow in harmony with her generous laws. One has heard of his odd way of life, ficiency that

trying his hand at a

little

of everything,

not sticking to anything for long, a good deal of a loafer, a wanderer,

body's friend.

some

tracing

and every-

follows the open road,

clue of his

own, and content

with the straws of experience that chance

blows across

Among

his path.

ous and varied exploits, he has

numer-

his

made some

fantastic-looking verses.

Walt Whitman though that he

it is

name

drawing-rooms and

would seem

from most.

libraries

to be least at

If he has written a book, ferent

in literature,

Such

home.

must be

dif-

a personality as

must surely overflow the constraint of words and reach out beyond the printed

this

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THE MAN His book,

page.

happens,

only a

cluster of grass that he has gathered along

But these casual

his loitering way.

fresh

and

leaves,

alive with the climbing sap, are

tokens of an immense

reality.

They

are

the well-considered offering of a genuine

man. In " Leaves of Grass," Walt

revealed as a thinker of profound in-

sight

and

than his poetry, a presence.

His

the

more moving

literary character

His poetry

himself.

which

personality.

of his work

He The

incidental.

means, the means that

chooses for communicating his

experience.

vividly at

man

secret, the spell

draws and holds us,

Whitman

But more

an authentic poet.

persuasive than his thought,

Whitman

The

first

experience

hand,

itself,

realized

the main concern.

Calling us out of the library into the streets

and the open art

he takes us away from

air,

accomplished and brings us direct to

things.

For these

are

"the

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real

poems

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN (what we

The

tures)."

poems being merely

call

culture that he represents

not in the books sensibilities

tutes

life

the training of the

it is

through the discipline of con-

with immediate reality.

tact

pic-

for a tradition

;

his gift

substiis

vital

human intercourse now and here. What we may expect to find in Whitman, as we turn his pages,

an actual friend and com-

His poetry

rade.

cation of himself.

finally the

the

communi-

medium of

his

verse, he shares his experience with us,

making us partakers of it and of its

fruits

through imaginative sympathy.

The are

avenues of approach to

many.

may

Whitman

take him purely as a

poet, luxuriating in the sheer beauty of his

phrasing in numberless inspired pass-

ages.

may

regard him in a more mili-

tant aspect, as the prophet of

Democracy, " the self-appointed bard of these States," and interpreter to himself of the average man. His political and economic theoriz4

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THE MAN ing, elaborated especially in his prose writ-

ings,

though not of the orthodox schools,

deserves consideration, as showing keen insight

and a power of shrewd

For some

readers, the final

criticism.

significance

of " Leaves of Grass " will consist in philosophic doctrine, ultimate

its

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

themes,

its

treatment of the

God, of Being,

of the purport of life, the mystery of death, the hope of immortality. But in general, I

Whitman has most for those who meet him at the outset as a man. The reading of Whitman is not merely esthetic believe that

an imaginative and emotional

its effect,

excitation, is it

though

it is

that in part.

simply an intellectual exercise and a

dim excursion

Whitman

goes

contact with

human

into regions of abstraction. all

him

the

way round

being in the

flesh,

wayfaring through the world. is

comrade

and

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at-

for

our

Walt Whit-

for the journey. 5

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Our

life.

contact with an actual

tended with practical consequences

man

Nor

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Beginning

The mere

studies the

first

step pleas' d

much,

power

the fact consciousness, these forms,

of motion,

The The

least insect or first

step I say

animal, the senses, eyesight, love,

awed me and

pleas' d

much,

have hardly gone and hardly wish'd to go any farther, But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic I

songs.

In these

lines

Whitman

lation to the world is

His

universe for him

life,

acted

attitude

and wonder; the

and to experience.

a lounger through

than acting.

defines his re-

result is

upon

rather

one of awe

ecstasy.

a procession;

The

and he

a delighted though quiescent looker-on.

move

by, the

play of

human

persons, objects, events

throng of the energies

streets, the

and occupations, the acting out

of " God's calm annual drama," Gorgeous processions, songs of

birds,

Sunrise that fullest feeds and freshens most the soul,

The

heaving sea, the waves upon the shore, the musical,

strong waves,

The woods,

the stalwart trees, the slender,

trees,

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tapering

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE MAN The The The The

liliput countless

armies of the grass,

heat, the showers, the measureless pasturages,

scenery of the snows, the winds' free orchestra, stretching light-hung roof of clouds, the clear ce-

rulean and the silvery fringes,

The high dilating stars, The moving flocks and

the placid beckoning stars,

herds, the plains and emerald

meadows, The shows of all the varied

lands and

all

the growths

and products, little

little

up by

absorbed, taken

them, and he becomes in himself the thing

on which he looks. with is

all

forms.

identifies

The whole

himself

world for him

animate, instinct with feeling and big

with purpose. all

enters into the

life

kinds of men, he realizes in himself the

conditions of every variety of

human

ex-

perience. I understand the large hearts of heroes,

The

courage of present times and

How the

skipper

all

times,

saw the crowded and

rudderless

of the steam-ship, and Death chasing

down

How

wreck

up and

the storm,

he knuckled

was

tight

faithful

and gave not back an inch, and

of days and

faithful

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of nights,

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN And

chalk'd in large letters on a board,

we will

cheer,

How he follow' d

of good

not desert you ,â&#x20AC;˘

with them and tack'd with them three

days and would not give

up,

How he saved the drifting company at last, How the lank loose-gown' d women look' d when boated from the

How the

side

of their prepared graves,

silent old-faced infants

and the

the sharp-lipp'd unshaved All this I swallow,

tastes

good,

men

lifted sick,

and

;

I like it well,

be-

comes mine, I

But

the

man,

was

there.

not a question of

it is

Every

ence only. plays

I suffer' d, I

part,

its

human

experi-

natural object

and implicates

is alive,

ultimate

meanings. You You

air that serves

give

You

objects that call

light

with breath to speak

from

them shape wraps

that

equable showers

You

paths

worn

sides I believe

diffusion

meanings and

me and

all

things in delicate

in the irregular

hollows by the road-

you

are latent with unseen existences,

are so dear to

you

me.

In the manifold discrete objects of the external world Whitman finds the expression

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THE MAN and fulfillment of himself.

them

loves

with a radiant, inclusive love, for he

them and they a

are of him.

Caught up into

whole of ecstasy, together they embrace

the cosmos.

So, absorbing and absorbed, loiters

along the road. In wide

spacious skies, soul.

Whether he

under

and invites his " looking in at the

loafs is

shop-windows of Broadway, flesh

Whitman

fields

flatting the

of my nose on the thick plate-glass,"

or "wandering the same afternoon with

face turn'd

down moment

to the clouds, or

a lane or along the beach," each

and whatever happens thrills him with joy. A " caresser of life," he basks in the radia_

tions of influence exhaling from every object.

tom

Himself "

effusing

curiously floating,

and

now

fluid, a

phan-

here absorb'd

and arrested," he enters into mystical com-

munion with

the whole.

Mystical in the

tude certainly

is,

last analysis this atti-

but the immediate and 9

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN practical

outcome of

an immense

sympathy. Identifying himself wiffiTevery form of life, with every object, he comes to understand

with an understanding that

transcends the mere exercise of the intellect

;

his

contact with the world

of feeling.

sympathy

that

precisely

one

by the power of

Whitman

enabled to

impress his personality upon us primarily as a

man. High and

thought he cosmic

will carry

vistas, if

us and open to us

will follow

his feet are planted squarely

and he

makes us

him

upon

;

feel that his

experience

experience after

but

earth,

always very close to things.

common human

far into regions

He just

all,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

yours, mine, any man's. It is

not upon you alone the dark patches

The

dark threw

its

patches

fall,

down upon me

also.

Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be I am he who knew what it was to be evil, I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

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evil,

THE MAN Was

one with the

Lived the same

the days and haps of the rest,

rest,

life

with the

rest, the

same old laugh-

ing, gnawing, sleeping,

Play'd the part that

looks back

still

on the actor or

actress,

The same

old role, the role that

as great as

as small as

what

we make

it,

like,

like, or

both great and small.

Universal in the range of his sympathy, like

some messiah Whitman takes up

himself the widest and deepest

men.

life

into

all

rejoices in their joy, he suffers

He knows. The assur-

in their sufferings.

ance of such understanding of one's

own

experience and needs, of companionship

where others perhaps have trate the isolation

this

his

failed to

pene-

of one's separate

life,

the appeal that sounds from out

pages to press more intimately^ into

knowledge of this strange, great-hearted,

answering man.

In the

man,

all

total

achievement of Walt Whit-

elements converge to the power ii

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN of attraction by sheer force of personality. with a great and ample

Endowed by birth

nature, with a universally responsive tem-

perament and with

all-inclusive

Whitman devoted

thies,

sympa-

his entire life to

the development of his gifts and the frui-

Himself was

tion of himself.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

his career,

wholly consecrated always to the

service of

mankind. As an agent

in that

development, contributing to and fulfilling that fruition, his literary

with personality, and in the

measure that

work

takes

it is

its

saturated

significance

the expression, not

of what he knew or what he thought, but

of what he

and was. Toward the

felt

complishment of fullest and sion, his poetry

ments. It is

as a

freest expres-

stripped of

runner in a

ac-

race.

all

adorn-

His verse

muscle and sinew, clean, naked, throb-

bing withrred~blood,' open to the sun and winds. It is not here a question of art for art's sake,

ments of

the graces of phrase and refinestyle.

Without surplusage 12

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—

;

THE MAN presses to

The

goal.

its

— commun-

of personality ; the means to

ication

expression at any cost

adapted to

iarly

goal,

with success love that

— here

—

it,

pecul-

fulfilling it

utterance of a

once individual and cosmic

the secret of

medium

end and

its

the end,

;

Whitman's sym-

pathy and power.

start with, therefore,

Whitman was

And

a bigger

man

poetry

so shaped as to give that central

bigness

its

pression.

than most.

then his

completest and most direct ex-

that the

it is

work of Whit-

man is surcharged with personality. In this exposition of personality

the

moment

that

carries

may be

Wherein,

for

apart from the special message

—

lies

sential distinctiveness it

— considered

asked,

the primary and es-

of this poetry. But,

why

distinctiveness

in this respect, does

Whitman's

work

differ

from the poetry, the

other

men ?

All art

art,

in a degree the ut-

terance of personality, the bodying forth '3

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN symbols of what the has thought and felt. Yes, in a deThe work of every artist, whatever

in concrete expressive artist

gree.

medium, expresses something of himself. Whether he paints a portrait or a landscape, whether he comhis

subject

and

his

poses a song or a symphony, whether he writes a

poem,

thing of his

own

a novel, or a play,

some-

and experience

inevit-

life

ably goes into his

work. In general, how-

ever, the artist himself his art

and not

only implied

fully expressed.

must

beyond the work, the subject and the medium, and we must divine the man. The work of Whitman exhibits this difpass

ference from other art

and achieves

its

primary distinction thus, that by deliberate

and conscious intention, it

wholly, undis-

guisedly, relentlessly, the exposition, in-

deed the exploitation, of personality. Of

him

it is

not to be said that he expresses

himself by means of his subject. self is the subject.

The

title

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He him-

of his

earliest

THE MAN and longest poem to the entire

applies with equal force

volume of

his

work. It

the

" Song of Myself." His purpose was,

he has defined it retrospectively in a postscript to " Leaves of Grass," "to articulate

and

faithfully express in literary or poetic

form, and uncompromisingly, my sical,

emotional, moral, intellectual, and

aesthetic Personality, in the

tallying, the its

own phy-

momentous

midst

spirit

and

of,

and

facts

immediate days, and of current America

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and tified

to exploit that Personality, iden-

with place and date, in a far more

candid and comprehensive sense than any hitherto poem or book." Thus " Leaves

of Grass " tailed

the complete explication, de-

and multitudinous, of the personality

of Whitman, a single individual, living a certain definite

kind of

life

America

the middle and later years of the nineteenth century.

book

versal in

But

at the

individual in its

same time that the its details, it is

application.

Though Whitman

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN interprets the world in terms of his

experience, ical

we must not overlook

and representative

the meaning of his

character.

work

own

his typ-

We fail

miss

to see

that Walt Whitman,

a kosmos,

of Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,

sentimentalist,

no stander above

apart from them,

this

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Whitman, gathering

men and women or

into himself every

person, character, experience,

ing for

all

men

I celebrate myself,

And what

and sing myself,

assume you

shall

assume,

good belongs

to you.

then, as the representative of you

is,

and

but speak-

or any man.

For every atom belonging to

tively,

that

Whitman, actually or imagina-

sounds the depths of every emotion,

penetrates the recesses of men's motives, feelings, all life,

self.

and

acts,

sends out his being into

and absorbs the cosmos into himwe have an em bod i-

In his person

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THE MAN ment of our separate individual experience; and to that extent us our

own

Such

is,

in general terms, the figure of

and

in literature,

pect to find in

force.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

his

total

What what we may ex-

special point of view.

he stands for in poetry,

work,

for

expression.

Walt Whitman attitude

becomes

his poetry

him

we approach

his

a compelling attractive personal

common

meet him on the ground of

The

humanity.

personality

distilled for

essence of his

us in his poetry,

and therein we have the man revelation.

But what he was

in his fullest is

expressed

also in the external events of his life;

these in turn recoiled

and modify the

upon him

and

mould

receptive, always plastic,

disposition that was his

birth.

A wider

man and his work, won by a rapid survey

understanding of the therefore,

may

of his actual adventures in the world of

men and

things. 17

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN The

story, indeed, can be told briefly,

for with the exception of roic,

one divinely he-

devoted service, extending through

a period of three years, a service titanic in

and incalculably beneficent in its results, the external incidents of Whitman's its effort

life

are

commonplace enough

Their significance

them and

them of

spiritual

in the recital.

in his reaction on

lies

what he was able to wrest from experience.

commonplaceness of it

all

lends

The it

very

an added

meaning, for his mission precisely was

endow "common and

glories

and

lives" with the "glows

final illustriousness

which

belong to every real thing, and to things only."

Average

life is his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ordinary men and women,

real

theme,

cities, fields,

the sky, morning, noon, and sunset, night

and the

stars,

things

"eligible" to

all.

These

are his theme, yet these not in them-

selves,

but as interpreted by personality.

For these only their

things, as he says, "involve not

own

inherent quality, but the 18

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THE MAN quality, just as inherent

The

their point of view."

of Whitman's illustrate his

life

and important, of

momentous

are

point of view

we run them

circumstances

over,

;

and

we may

as they

them,

try to see

the expression of the man.

In the prose volume, " Specimen Days

and Collect," Whitman has recorded a

number of

interesting

We learn that

details.

autobiographical

he was sprung from

old-world stock, long resident in America,

— Dutch on

his mother's side, with an ad-

mixture of Quaker, and on his father's English Puritan.

side,

Hardihood, vigor, and

courage both bodily and mental, a largeness of nature which comes with

life

out

of doors, tenacity, receptiveness, simplicity,

love of plainness,

people,

—

attitude

—

plain living, plain

a thoroughgoing

democracy of

and conduct, personal

cleanliness,

grasp of detail, uncompromising sincerity,

profound religiousness with

little

regard

for external forms, high spirituality and '9

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN idealism,

—

these were the boy's inherit-

ance from forbears immediate and diverge ingly remote.

Walt (named Walter

after

his father), the second of nine children-,

was born

May

—

31, 1819,

the same year

John Ruskin and James

with

Lowell,

—

West

Hills, near

ton, on the northern shore of

His and

When

old, the family

the

Hunting-

Long Island.

and a carpenter

father was a farmer, builder.

Russell

boy was four

removed

years

to Brooklyn, at

that time a "village" often to twelve thou-

sand inhabitants, and with

and open spaces, more than a

city.

its trees,

parks,

like the country

Here he attended the common

schools until the age of thirteen, learning

the "three R's" and a

little

grammar and

geography. Following this meagre schooling,

he found a place in a lawyer's

office

His employer helped him with his handwriting and composition, and subscribed for him to a big circulating as errand-boy.

library.

Now he " revel'd in romance-read20

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THE MAN ing of all kinds all

first,the

;

Arabian Nights,'

the volumes, an amazing treat.

many

with sorties in very

took

Walter

Then,

other directions,

Scott's novels,

one

after

another, and his poetry." After about two years he went to

work

in a

weekly news-

paper and printing office, to learn the trade.

develop'd (1833-4-5)," he says, "into a

healthy, strong youth (grew too fast, though,

was nearly

man

as big as a

At 16, 17, and

so on,

so-

and had an active membership with

cieties,

them.

...

these

and

could get.

most omnivorous novel-reader, years,

later

Fond of

devour'd everything I

the theatre, also, in

York, went whenever

— sometimes

could

nessing fine performances.

compositor in city.

15 or 16.)

was fond of debating

little

wit-

1836—7, work'd

printing offices

Then, when

New

New York

more than 18, and

for

a while afterwards, went to teaching country schools

Long

down

Queens and

Island, and

I consider

one of

est lessons in

Suffolk counties,

boarded round.' (This

human

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by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN In '39, '40, I started and

and in the masses.)

a weekly paper in

publish'd

Then

Huntington.

returning to

native town,

New York

city

and Brooklyn, work'd on as printer and writer, mostly prose, but an occasional shy .

The

still

poetry.'

years 1846, '47, and there along, see

New York

and printer, having

city,

working as writer

my usual good health, and a ... In 1848, '49, I was

good time generally.

occupied as editor of the paper, in Brooklyn.

The

Daily Eagle

latter

news-

year went off on

a leisurely journey and working expedition (my brother Jeff with me) through States,

and down the Ohio and Mississippi

Lived awhile on the

the middle

all

New

editorial staff

paper.

Daily Crescent

news-

After a time plodded back northward,

up the Mississippi, and around

way of

rivers.

Orleans, and work'd there

to,

the great lakes, Michigan,

and by

the

Huron, and

Erie, to Niagara Falls and

Lower Canada, finally

returning through central

New York

the

Hudson

;

and down

traveling altogether probably

miles this trip, to and fro. in house-building in

Digitized

8000

'51, '53, occupied

Brooklyn."

by MicrosoftÂŽ

—

THE MAN This occupation he gave up,

he found

he was beginning to make money, and he

wanted to remain

free.

Whitman's own

tinue

" commenced putting

In 1855, to con-

narrative,

Leaves of Grass * to

press for good, at the job printing office of

Rome,

friends, the brothers

many MS. trouble

doings and undoings out

leaving

the

Brooklyn, after

—

had great

stock

poetical

touches, but succeeded at last)."

Of the first edition of"

Leaves of Grass Emerson said in a letter to Whitman, "

you

greet reer,

" I

beginning of a great ca-

at the

which yet must have had a long

ground somewhere

fore-

for such a start."

the bare recital of the external facts of

Whitman's mains

still

early

life, this

unexplained. For the real signi-

ficance of these years of

and

foreground re-

boyhood, youth,

early maturity lies in the influences

of out-of-doors and the contact with mental forces

Nature and 23

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men.

ele-

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN child

And

object

the

first

forth every day,

went

There was a

he look'd upon,

that object

he be-

came,

And

that object

became

part of

him

for the

day or

certain part of the day,

for

years or stretching cycles of years.

many

There, and not in outward incidents and acts, is the real

record of those years.

Whitman was an inworkman a loafer many thought

the casual onlooker, different

him.

;

did not continue long at any one

job, and he

worked

and only when and

at that intermittently, as

he pleased.

lowed himself many days

weeks

at a stretch.

al-

sometimes

off,

But the days were not

wasted or unemployed.

Results were not

evident at once in terms of a day's wages.

If the idle weeks

made the judicious grieve,

they counted finally as the judicious were

not able to guess.

on Long Island

woods and tic

fields,

spent

in the open,

much

time

roaming the

or holding intimate, mys-

communion with

the sea. It

is difficult

to define in words the quality of this ex-

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE MAN perience.

makes us

felt

of the

intellect

es-

are an

less intellectual

and actually

in the

whereas Whitman's

;

was

wind and sun

ing in the sea, he raced

;

than

physical.

sorbed with his body.

naked

Words

effluence.

relation to things spiritual

and Whitman

;

feel it in his poetry.

sence and affair

must be

ab-

loved to

lie

or after bath-

up and down

the

beach in Adamic simplicity and freshness,

"declaiming

Homer

or Shakspere to the

surf and sea-gulls by the hour."

The

sence of these sights, these contacts,

esbil-

lowing, multiform, and rhythmic as the grass, is distilled for us in

through the magic of

Whitman's pages,

his

" divine power

to speak words," exhaling from

an aroma and incident of

counted

tactile

his

sensation.

boyhood,

in his verse,

typify

results,

A single

he has re-

may

suggest his

and may serve " as he absorbed and

translated." 25

Digitized

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Out of the cradle endlessly rocking, Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle, Out of the Ninth-month midnight, Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving

bed wander' d alone, bare-

his

headed, barefoot,

Down from the shower' d halo, Up from the mystic play of shadows

twining and twist-

ing as if they were alive,

Out from the patches of briers and blackberries, From the memories of the bird that chanted to me, From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and

heard,

fallings I

From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if

From

with

tears,

those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,

From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease, From the myriad thence-arous'd words, From the word stronger and more delicious than any, From such as now they start the scene revisiting, As a flock; twittering, rising, or overhead passing, Borne

hither, ere all eludes

man, yet by

Throwing myself on I,

me, hurriedly,

these tears a

little

boy

chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,

Taking

all

hints to use

them, but swiftly leaping beyond

them,

again,

the sand, confronting the waves,

reminiscence sing.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE MAN Profoundly and intimately

Whitman

was penetrated by the inner meanings of

and myriad-teeming

nature, yet the streets life

fruitful.

cities

were no

less significant

Always self-possessed and

and

at ease

in his big fashion in the presence of

any

man, he especially liked "powerful, uneducated persons," and he went freely

among

he hobnobbed with them, made

them

;

them

his friends

and cronies. Almost

while living in Brooklyn and after his return

New

daily,

York,

from the South, he crossed

on the Fulton Ferry, " often up

in the pilot-houses

where

could get

a full sweep, absorbing shows, accompaniments,

What

surroundings.

underneath

—

oceanic currents, eddies,

the great tides of humanity also,

with ever-shifting movements.

Indeed, I have

always had a passion for ferries; to

they

afford inimitable, streaming, never-failing, living

poems." " Besides Fulton Ferry," he continues,

off

and on for years,

Broadway —

that noted

knew and

avenue of

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frequented

New

York's

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN crowded and mixed humanity, and of so many notables. spiriting

;

Always something novel or

yet mostly to

in-

the hurrying and vast

human

cur-

Whitman

says,

amplitude of those never-ending rents."

One phase of these

days,

must by no means go unrecorded, " men

specially identified with

vitality

and meaning to them

strange, natural, quick-eyed .

— namely

Broadway omnibuses and the

the

How many

—

the drivers

and wondrous

—

race.

hours, forenoons and after-

— how many have had — perhaps June — whole noons

exhilarating night-times t«

or July, in cooler

air

length of Broadway, listen-

riding the

ing to

them, and giving

some yarn, (and the most

spun, and the rarest mimicry)

vivid yarns ever

—

or perhaps

declaiming some stormy passage from 'Julius Caesar' or as

Richard,' (you could roar as loudly

you chose

street-bass).

in that

Yes,

heavy, dense, uninterrupted

knew

all

the drivers then,

Broadway Jack, Dressmaker, Balky

Bill,

Storms, Old Elephant, his brother

Young

phant,

(who came

afterward,) Tippy,

Digitized

by Microsoft®

George

Pop

Ele-

Rice,

THE MAN Big Frank, Yellow Joe, Pete Callahan, Patsey

Dee, and dozens more

;

were hun-

for there

dreds."

this loving, reminiscent recital

quaint

nicknames, there

flavor of

of the

that curious intimacy of understanding that

Whitman had, which illustrates, better than any possible

definition, his extraordinary

personal magnetism.

evident that he

men, and knew them through and through and in return liked these rough, natural

;

they liked him, because he was a real man, no " yellow streak " in him, and they un-

derstood him. This was Whitman's way with everybody.

" Not only affection

—

suppose the

continues

for comradeship,

—

them

also.

laugh heartily, but the

critics will

Broadway omnibus jaunts and

and declamations and escapades undoubt-

edly enter'd into the gestation of )" Grass.'

So,

and sometimes

great studies I found

influence of those drivers

Whitman was

Leaves of

being educated as a

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN poet

took him longer than most men

to find himself;

and

in his capacity for sin-

gle-minded, unmitigated enjoyment, there

was always something of the boy about him.

Everything that came

way counted, and

his

was turned to his own uses.

People saw

him lounging through life, large and free movements, and careless of time.

in his

Perhaps they smiled indulgently, for

his

abundant ease and good-nature were contagious

;

some condemned

possibly

But there were processes

He went

people did not observe.

way and took

— the

meaning of

And

life.

did not know,

Whitman's

— how

his

own

For he saw what

his time.

they did not see,

him.

work which

mystery and

true

he knew what they certain

artistic training

the future.

was won

the same haphazard, inconsequent, and ceptive fashion.

came

re-

to ,him not as

discipline but as enjoyment.

In these

early

muchj but always where his whim and liking showed the way. Books years he read

3°

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THE MAN him were not mere literature they were like men, or scenes in Nature. His habit for

was to read in the presence of outdoor

He went dver thoroughly New Testaments, and

influences.

Old and

" absorb'd (probably

to better advantage for

than in any library or indoor

such

difference

where

room â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

makes

you read) Shakspere,

Ossian, the best translated versions

could get

of Homer, Eschylus, Sophocles, the old German

Nibelungen, the ancient Hindoo poems, and one or two other masterpieces, Dante's

The

Iliad, in a

oughly "

a shelter'd hollow

sand, with the sea on each side."

among them."

prose version, he read

have wonder'd since

why

first

thor-

of rocks and

And

he adds,

was not over-

whelmed by those mighty masters.

Likely be-

cause I read them, as described, in the

full

presence of Nature, under the sun, with the far-spreading landscape and vistas, or the sea rolling in."

So, also, to

its

Whitman's own poetry

read

best effect not in a library but out 31

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN of doors, in the same spirit in which he declaimed his " Leaves " to himself in the

open

air,

and "

tried

them by

trees, stars,

rivers."

Even in the matter of books, then, Whitman was at heart a primal man, true child of Nature, loving in

But

life.

New York, as

Brooklyn and

for a time

part of his

many-sided development, he figured

as a

He was associated now various newspapers. He

literary personage.

and again with

wrote stories and verse which found acceptance and a place in leading magazines.

was the author of a " temperance novel."

trained himself to be a public speaker,

came forward ings,

in debates

political

meet-

and drew up outlines for talks on

tory, philosophy, his

and

mother

and

wrote what

"barrels of lectures."

called

Whitman's writing and verse, shows

art.

his-

at this time,

a certain vigor

both prose

of mind and

reveals an interest in public affairs, a strong

democratic

spirit,

and sympathy with the 32

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THE MAN common

people; but his style

"liter-

ary " and conventional, without individual distinction. In

it all,

there

is little

hint of

what was to come. Perhaps the most potent influence on

Whitman's purely was

development

aesthetic

his unflagging attendance at the theatre

and the opera. As a boy and young man he saw " (reading them carefully the day beforehand) quite

all

Shakspere's acting

dramas, played wonderfully well." says,

characteristically,

scanned

that

always

an audience as rigidly as the play,

and he speaks of" the whole crowded auditorium, and what seeth'd in

from

its

faces

and

eyes, to

part of the show as any."

and flush'd

it,

as much a Whitman was

not himself a musician, but he had a deep love and genuinely intelligent appreciation

of music.

In poetry, he cared for the big

things, the elemental, greatest world-poems.

Painting seemed to interest him but

little,

for in his writings there are slight refer33

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ences to pictures, although he speaks with

enthusiasm of several hours spent with a collection of Millet's paintings ings.

Of all

the arts, music

direct aesthetic appeal

and draw-

made

the

most

and reached him most

intimately. In his own work, poems like " The Mystic Trumpeter," " That Music Always Round Me," and " Proud Music

of the Storm," and many shorter passages in the " Leaves " are vibrant with a deep

and exquisite musical The It

orchestra whirls

feeling.

wider than Uranus

wrenches such ardors from

flies,

I did not

know

possess' d them.

During the years

New York, Whitman

had abundant opportunity to hear good music. " I heard," he says, " these years, well render'd,

all

operas in vogue."

where, "

The

the

And

experts

Italian

and other

he remarks

else-

and musicians of

present friends claim that the

and

his

me, and

pieces belong far I to

them. Very

new Wagner more truly to

likely.

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

But

was

THE MAN fed and bred under the Italian dispensation,

and absorb'd

it,

and doubtless show

it."

The

years

1850 were

a time

unconscious,

less

man's

part.

more or

preparation, indeterminate and

would seem, on Whit-

Then came

a change.

sud-

den illumination flooded the dark gropings after

something, and there was revealed to

him the years.

single

meaning of the complex

Capacities were there, latent, partly

exercised, half-developed, but as yet to

end.

Now all things flowed

together, took

shape, and became a Purpose.

The

bud,

which had been slowly forming, burst into

The moment was sharp and definite in time. The result was cosmic in As he lay, one its scope and influence. instant flower.

" transparent summer morning," a new consciousness was born in him:

den, vivid, direct realization of his

own souL 35

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was the sud-

God and of

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN me

spread around

Swiftly arose and

knowledge

that pass

and

the peace

the argument of the

all

earth,

And

know

that the

hand of God

the promise of

own,

And

know

my And

that

that the spirit of

all

the

and the

And

God

the brother of

own,

men ever born are also my brothers, women my sisters and lovers,

that a kelson of the creation

love.

This sense of the unity of the Whole, the oneness of

all

love as the

creation with

creator,

vitalizing, all-fusing

that throbs in every is

its

energy

atom of the universe,

the germinal motive and life-essence of

" Leaves of Grass."

From

this

time on,

Whitman

self deliberately to the

set

making of

him-

his

po-

ems. " After continued personal ambition and fort, as

young

ef-

fellow, to enter with the rest

into competition for the usual rewards, business, political, literary, etc.

maining possess'd,

...

at the

found myself

thirty-three, with a special desire

Digitized

re-

age of thirty-one to

by MicrosoftÂŽ

and convic-

THE MAN Or

tion.

had been

rather, to be quite exact, a desire that

through

flitting

life,

hovering on the flanks, mostly indefinite hitherto,

had steadily advanced to the

itself,

and

finally

front, defined

dominated everything

This desire was

else."

to set forth his entire

personality against the background of " its

immediate days and of current America,"

form and

in a

when

the time

new

in terms

this desire

was becom-

Whitman was employed

ing articulate,

His outward

a carpenter.

in literature.

peared to others,

life,

ap-

thus described by his

brother George.

was

Brooklyn

lived together.

him

;

little,

did not

worked a

Orleans.

all

change seemed to come over

he was the same

older and wiser.

when

in the early fifties,

Walt came back from New

man

he had been, grown

He made a living now little,

loafed a

know what he was

seem more abstracted than

little.

He did not He would lie

writing. usual.

abed late, and after getting

up would write

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; wrote

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN few hours

— perhaps would

he took the notion

off the rest

—

all

of the day.

except Walt. But

were

work

all at

we knew he was

print-

ing the book."

In view of Whitman's out-of-door ways, his absorption in

for streets

Nature

an3.~rris passion

and actual human contacts,

it is

easy to divine the processes of gestation

of his poems.

Lines were jotted

down

they came to him, anywhere, on ferries

and omnibuses, atre.

Then

work, or

at his

in the the-

they were tested and tried

T)y

the sound of the wind or in sight of the

In 1855 he began the printing of his

sea.

book, setting much of the type with

own hands and ;

in that year, the

his

volume,

containing twelve poems, appeared under the

title

" Leaves of Grass."

The

thousand copies were printed.

book was placed on

sale at several

book-

New York

and Brooklyn.

Few,

stores in if

any, copies were sold. -

In spite of

this

discouragement, and in the face of a storm 38

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THE MAN of frenzied

condemnation, protest, and

abuse from reviewers and literary men,

Whitman brought a

out the following year

second edition, containing twenty poems

in addition to the original twelve.

A third

one hundred and twenty-

edition, adding

two new poems

to the preceding thirty-

two, was published in Boston in i860.

Against the date, 1 860, Whitman writes, in " Specimen Days " :

To sum

—

up the foregoing from the

three leading sources and

estimate

stamps to

my own

other outgrowth

now

character,

good or bad, and

its

—

outset,

more unrecorded,)

(and, of course, far, far

formative

solidified for

subsequent literary and

the maternal nativity-stock

brought hither from far-away Netherlands, for one,

(doubtless

the

best)

—

the

subterranean

tenacity and central bony structure (obstinacy, wilfulness)

which

get from

lish elements, for another

tion of

my Long

childhood's

— and

paternal

Eng-

the combina-

Island birth-spot, sea-shores,

scenes, absorptions,

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with teeming

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN New

Brooklyn and

York

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

with, I suppose,

experiences afterward in the secession out-

break, for the third. For, in 1862, startled by

news

that

brother George, an officer in the

New York

51st

wounded,

volunteers, had been seriously

Fredericksburg battle, December

(first

13th,) I hurriedly

went down

to the field of

war

in Virginia."

The

story of the next three years

ficult to tell.

The

quality of

Whitman's

service in the war-hospitals in

ton

mate, that

Whitman

inti-

cannot at this day be ade-

quately phrased. as

Washing-

so immediate, so personal and

fully

is dif-

The

story

himself has told

must be read it,

so beauti-

and movingly, yet with such simple,

unconscious modesty, with extraordinary justice of

word and

reticence of sentiment, " in the section of Leaves of Grass " entitled " Drum Taps," in pages of " Speci-

men Days," and in the volume of letters named " The Wound Dresser." In the field

and

Washington,

for three years

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THE MAN Whitman

ministered to sick and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; boys

soldiers,

most of them, from

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

wounded

and very young men, fifteen to twenty-five,

messenger of relief.

as a self-appointed

So he rendered countless and unspeakable services jellies,

distributing

little gifts,

tobacco, writing-paper, and envel-

opes

already

small

sums of money;

stamped, reading - matter, writing letters for

the soldiers to the " folks at

ing aloud

every

some fruit,

little

any other affection

humoring

;

whim gift,

;

home "

read-

possible

as far as

and above

;

all,

beyond

giving love and personal

homesick, wounded

lonely,

boys and unfriended dying men. " I can testify," he says, " that friendship has literally

cured a fever, and the medicine of

daily affection, a

bad wound." The money

needed to carry on

his

work was

uted by friends in the North.

contrib-

His own

private expenses he was able to meet

writing for the newspapers.

He lived with

extreme frugality, but he took care always 41

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN to appear in the hospitals in health-giving

freshness and cleanliness of body and dress.

Thus he went among from eighty thousand hundred thousand of the sick and wounded, as " sustainer of spirit and body to one

some

slight degree, in time

Without

experience of the War,

his

has said, " Leaves of Qrass

Whitman

could not have been what

approach

of need."

now

in closest intimacy to

is.

His

young men

of all the States, North, West, and South, gave him, as nothing

else

could have given

him, an understanding of the

and the grandeiiroT promise, in the

composed,

country, and

this

human

possibilities

stuff of

for the future of

which

its

it is

democracy. In

the midst of agonies and death, the love

of comrades which he had

known through

the years, and had celebrated in his poetry,

came

sublime expression. In

its fullest

the awful wrench and compelling realities

of such contacts, the tional

restraints

last

and

bonds of conven-

superficial

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reserves

THE MAN were snapped asunder, and love flowed forth, enveloping all things in life-bringing floods.

the presence of death he divined

death's meaning.

learned anew the

power of faith, and the redeeming strength of hope in immortality.

sacrifice

and pain, joy

born, and evil

These years of

transfigured into good.

suffering

saw how out

and opportunity,

they were for

him the supreme expression of comradeship, so they were the summit of his achieve-

ment

in his relations to his fellows,

and

they were the fruition-time of his genius.

From this time on,

his face

turned toward

the Valley of the Shadow, which opens into

the Light beyond.

Toward

the end of the

War, Whitman's

supremely perfect health, gloried, gave

upon

it.

ened; and

way

to the

His amazing

which he had

vitality

was weak-

at last, while helping

to dress a gangrenous pital,

superhuman drain

wound

one day

in the hos-

he contracted blood-poisoning. 43

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From

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN this attack

he recovered, but his health was

broken, never to be fully restored. About this time,

the

Whitman

obtained a clerkship in

Department of the

afterward, he was

Shortly

Interior.

removed by the Secre-

tary of the Department, in circumstances little

creditable to that official, for having

published an immoral book. Almost immediately, however, he secured a clerkship in the sition

Attorney-General's

incapacitated

removed he made his

office.

This po-

he retained until 1873, when he was

life.

a stroke

Camden,

to his

of paralysis.

New

home during

Jersey, which

the remainder of

These years he gave to

literary

work, undisturbed by any important out-

ward events, composing poems, writing prose, and bringing out successive editions of his works.

He was

able to spend

much

time out of doors, basking in the

light,

listening to Nature, influences.

tions

are

and absorbing cosmic His occupations and observa-

recorded with great 44

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charm

THE MAN "Specimen Days." In 1879 he made a journey as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and home by way of Canada. In

Camden he gathered about him a company of devoted friends. Ill and and

still

little

poor,

the object of bitter attack and

threatened legal prosecution, he was nevertheless cheered

work was

by the recognition

receiving in

his

England and on the

Continent. There was more suffering than gladness for

him now, but

remained unshaken. fied his poetry,

At last safed, March

His whole

life

He kept

the hour of quiet was vouch26, 189a, and Walt Whitman

Joy, shipmate, joy

(Pleas' d to life is

soul at death I cry,)

closed, our

life

long, long anchorage ship

the faith to the

was born again.

Our The The

justi-

and never more than

the closing years. end.

serenity

his

begins,

leave,

clear at last, she leaps

She swiftly courses from the shore, Joy, shipmate, joy.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

whitman's art Rhymes and rhymers poems

pass

away, poems

distill'

d from

away,

The swarms of reflectors and

the polite pass, and leave

ashes,

Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soil

or she

literature,

greatest

inal practical

who

contributes the greatest orig-

example.

reader of poetry, trained

in literary

perception, seeking aesthetic experi-

ence, and finding satisfaction in the rhyth-

mic outlines of beautiful forms and in the music of measure and rhyme, opens "Leaves of Grass " to encounter a shock.

first

glance he is bewildered and perhaps repelled.

These rough, common, everyday words, these bumps and knots, these ejaculations, these strange, involved sentences or nosentences,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this is

not prose exactly, nor +6

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

WHITMAN'S ART does with

seem

world." this

to be poetry, as he

familiar

His eye falls on the line, " I sound barbaric yawp over the roofs of the it.

Not only

the poetry uncouth

shaggy bard appears to be aware of

uncouthness and even to glory in

his

Yet,

it.

perhaps, piqued by curiosity, the reader

ventures a page or two, with open mind and attentive ear. Unaccountably, as at first, the spell begins to lay

seems

hold upon

him. Through these paragraphs undulates a subtle rhythm, like the forces,

rhythm of cosmic

— the ebb and flow of the

tide, the re-

turn of the seasons. These random phrases

—

are they not accidental?

eternal Tightness of the strike with the emphasis

of a lightning-bolt.

fall

—

fall

with the

of a stone

;

they

and sudden finality

The power of it

un-

deniable. Inspiteof himself, the readersur-

renders to the magic of this

new strange ut-

terance;

and he asks himself wonderingly,

What

poetry, after

all

In terms of a broad definition, poetry is 47

Digitized

by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN the articulate expression of emotion through

medium of

the in

words;

impassioned speech.

concrete symbols phrased

The

form,by which poetry is distinguished from prose, is not a primary differentia, but follows as a consequence upon the emotion within, which pulses outward to expression.

Word

over

all,

beautiful as the sky,

war and

Beautiful that

time be utterly

That

deeds of carnage must in

lost,

Death and Night

the hands of the sisters

wash

santly softly soil'd

For

all its

world

my enemy

I look

where he

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

draw

inces-

and ever again,

this

;

dead, a

lies

again,

man

divine as myself is dead,

white-faced and

still

in the coffin

near,

Bend down and touch

lightly

with

lips

the white

face in the coffin.

Here metre.

there

neither

The emotion

thought exalted

;

rhyme nor is

bound up

embody themselves

definite

and the

intense

together, they

in a form,

and they

speak a language, which have the power to stir

the reader and to rouse in

consonant with the writer's own. 48

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

mood Or again,

him

—

WHITMAN'S ART out of the mystery of the night and quick-

ened by the touch of earth, the soul I

am he

that walks with the tender

I call to the earth

and

and growing night,

sea half-held

Press close, bare-bosom' d night

—

cries,

by the

night.

press close, magnetic

nourishing night!

— few — mad naked summer

Night of south winds Still

nodding night

Smile,

night of the large

stars!

night.

voluptuous cool-breath' d earth!

Earth of the slumbering and liquid Earth of departed sunset

—

trees

earth of the mountains misty-

topt!

Earth of the vitreous pour of the

full

moon

just tinged

with blue! Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for

sake

Far-swooping elbow' d earth

—

rich

apple-blossom'

earth

Smile, for your lover comes.

Poetry in the great sense is.

Those who

are repelled

this

work surely

by its form have

not penetrated beneath the surface. For the distinction

between prose and poetry

matter

of external form than of content.

less

Digitized

by Microsoft®

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN which literature becomes pomeasured by the intensity of emotion

'The degree etry it

embodies and communicates, or by the

exaltation of the thought expressed, or

the union of the two elements.

In true

a result.

For

and exalted thought

utter

poetry, the external intense emotion

form

themselves naturally, inevitably, in rhyth-

mic forms^ Rhyme, which figures so largely in

modern verse, came

then

less as

late into poetry,

and

an essential part of the form

than as an added ornament.

Rhyme supplies

to verse the character of melody, and

by the

addition of this musical quality heightens its

immediately sensuous appeal. "So rhyme

may be called an accompaniment of poetry the foundation of the form

poetry differs in

to matter

various its

form

and

effect. :

the

its

rhythm.}

nature both as

manner, so

may

please

the logic of

architectural, satisfies

as to

works

by virtue of

its total

structure,

sculpturesque, or gemlike,

mind

Digitized

;

its

musical qualities of

by MicrosoftÂŽ

WHITMAN'S ART metre and rhyme and tone-color delight the ear; the beauty of suggested images fills

The

the eye.

core of thought

beaten

drawn and wrought into a sur-

thin, to be

face-pattern.

In contrast to

sound-

this

weaving and verbal jeweler's-work

the

poetry of energy, which compels the form to

its

fines

own

uses, breaking through the con-

of rhyme, coercing metre to change its

medium

flexible, variant

rhythm.

step at need, and surcharging

with the throbs of It debouches, as

exaltation.

it rises,

—

in intensity

and

Emotion and thought dominate

form. Its note

power; the

result

— not

pleasure merely, but heightened activity of

being and a larger grasp on

In the case of Whitman,

life.

it is

not im-

portant finally to determine whether his

work

prose or poetry. Clearly the char-

acter of

charm.

energy rather than formal

is it

happens, subtleties of verbal

distinctions are ial

swept aside by

his torrent-

utterance. Established forms, accepted 51

Digitized

by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN canons, suffer shipwreck loss

there

;

and some

some

Of the

beneficial purgation.

residuum emerging from the vortex mains for us to consider the value.

re-

It ap-

pears in the result that our concern with

Whitman's work power

his

move

not classification but us.

After

worth of any art-product

the vital

not conformity

In approaching " Leaves of

but energy. Grass,"

all,

we may not content

ourselves with

excerpts and single passages

;

are to

seek to understand the nature of the work as a whole.

We may be helped toward that

understanding by some insight into Whit-

man's intentions regarding it.

it,

Ultimately, however, the

fied

its

results.

by each reader his individual

purpose here

hopes

work

is justi-

for himself as they bear on

temper and experience. is

make

for

These may be defined

simply to point the way.

" Leaves of Grass "

hoped

his

what Whitman

and believed 5*

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

to be,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

WHITMAN'S ART a new thing in literature. It

a fresh start.

Motive and content, vocabulary and verseform are without precedent in English letters. its

Whereas the older poetry depends for

appeal upon stirring action or dramatic

situation, or

the expression of some phase

of temperament

Whitman

in an exceptional

man,

in contrast aims to set forth

entire personality, not exceptional but possible to

any man, acting

definite as to time

and

an environment,

place,

which

offers

only the incitements and occasions of average daily

life.

His motive

the personality he records

new, in that

taken in

its

entirety, in the small equally with the large.

His method of

attack

he divests himself of

all

exalted station, unusual erudite achievement. free assuredness

different, in that

the trappings of

endowment, or

With ample

people

who

and

of bearing, he moves into

the page in the easy dress of a

The

gait

man

of the

earns his living by his hands.

stronghold of aristocracy in literature 53

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN is

stormed by an artisan of the

country-side,

upon

who makes

streets

himself at

and

home

the ruins and calmly builds himself

a shelter there.

Consequent upon

in emphasis, his

manner of address is necesin that it is the speech and

sarily different,

this shift

common men and things. workman could exchange his comfort-

terminology of

able natural blouse for the rigid coat of

evening wear more gracefully than such a

purpose could clothe

costume of polite

itself in

new form,

new

material,

that

Whitman

—

the court

New

letters.

motive,

this is the task

deliberately set himself to

achieve in poetry. Original and unique as the

book

is, it is

not to be supposed that " Leaves of Grass " is

an accident, or that

Whitman

from the past altogether. to his

new

public

the past or what

first

word

— the opening sentence

of the Preface of the

poems — reads

His

cut loose

first

edition of his

"America does not it

Digitized

repel

has produced under

by Microsoft®

its

WHITMAN'S ART forms."

period of seven or eight years

was the time of gestation of the book,

fol-

lowing upon a Jong apprenticeship to the established craft of letters. training, desultory as

own

will

His

literary-

was and quite

at his

and pleasure, reverted to sources

and models of supreme

excellence.

recognized the service of older literatures to their age and people, and he freely ad-

mitted his

own

obligation to them. " If I

had not stood," he

says,

" before those

poems with uncover'd head, their colossal grandeur

fully

aware of

and beauty of form

and spirit, I could not have written c Leaves of Grass.' " But though the " temper and inculcation of the old works " helped to

shape him, their chief profit to him was to furnish a basis of comparison and contrast

with reference to his

own purpose and

en-

model

for

vironment, and to supply

less a

emulation than a point of departure into the new.

As America

a child

of the past, but independent 55

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

and heir

now

in its

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN own

right,

poetry

and a new being, so Whitman's

made

possible

by elder achieve-

ment, an outgrowth from sion,

but

it is

none the

by transmis-

less in its

own time

The

self-begotten and self-sustained.

world had the poems of " myths,

old

fictions,

feudalism, conquest, caste, dynastic wars,

and splendid exceptional characters and fairs "

;

the

"realities

new world needs

the

af-

poems of

and science and of the democratic

average and basic equality."

Another land and time, another art. " Grateful and reverent legatee of the past," the poet ofAmerica to-day is the native-born child of the

new world. Acknowledging its

debt to precedent songs, " Leaves of Grass

presupposes something different.

The pro-

tagonist advances to the centre of the stage, a

new figure. The scene too is changed, and

with

it, all its

accessories. It is

no longer a

question of myth, legend, or romance, or

" choice plots of love or war " ; of heroes, great personages, or fine-drawn sensibilities. 56

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; WHITMAN'S ART

The theme of the new song is your average man, going

about his work, en-

practically

joying honestly his hours

and always

off,

direct actual contact with things. tre of his deeds is the

his glory

his

The

thea-

workshop or the fields

and illustriousness

to be himself;

recompense is to know reality. As Whit-

man

surveys the occupations and oppor-

tunities

of America,

stricted

environment of old-world poets,

seems to him "as

and dynamic

set off against the conit

poetry with cosmic

if a

features of magnitude andlim-

itlessness suitable to the

human

never possible before."

This poetry can

draw

its

and supply

inspiration

needed symbols from the

mon men. Common must come

soul,

life, if it is

lives

were

all

of com-

to find voice at

to expression in

its

own

all,

terms.

Fitly to celebrate the average man, we must

idiom

to glorify things

speak

his racy

in the

making, we need the vernacular,

language that

is still

;

fluid

and

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

still

plastic in the

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN mouths of men. There

shall

be no

rigid

forms, no polished reflecting surfaces; shall be

earth,

all

rough and fresh and smelling of the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the fragrance of new-cut timber,

the acrid tang of unset mortar;

movement the streets.

to tally the rush

With

must have

and hubbub of

aggressive deliberateness

and a fierce joy, Whitman denies himself all " stock ornaments." He will not give us a

"mere

make

tale, a

rhyme,aprettiness"

poem of

materials

;

he will

and show how

they furnish their parts toward the soul.

The true art, said Millet, with whom Whitman had so much in common, is " to make the trivial serve for the expression of the

sublime." Often with

Whitman

the

trivial

refused to unfold into the sublime, and be-

came

ridiculous.

But no

less often his per-

formance exceeded himself, and

his flight

outstripped his aim.

With

this

preliminary clearing of the

ground, Whitman

moved to the attack. He

approached his work, equipped with a pro58

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

WHITMAN'S ART gramme and armed with

a theory.

He pro-

posed to himself a definite task, and he had clearly conceived notions as

should accomplish

it.

how he

His sense of the im-

portance of his project, and the conscious elaborateness with which he set himself to

the assault, worked for both good and

Had

he been

less

ill.

ambitious in his aim, he

could not have carried so

far

;

but

his

very

comprehensiveness involved him in the tangle of the absurdly obvious and plunged

him

into the morasses of the obviously

absurd. his

Had

he been

less

conscious of

method, he could not have achieved

his

fresh sight of things, with his consequent

grasp of the actual and his transcendent vision of latent spiritual meanings.

But he

would not have attempted the impossible, and accepting the impartial verdict which derives from reference to external standards,

he would have been spared defeat where he believed himself to have compelled success.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Whitman's programme included nothing less than the universe. The macrocosm is

The

enfolded in the microcosm.

universe

renders itself intelligible in terms of man.

"In the centre of all, and object of all, stands the

Human

Being."

be most compre-

make the poem human being he

hensive in his scope, he will

of personality; and the

knows most about is of course have

will

life at

hand.

first

himself.

not

will

accept old-world traditions, " imported in

some

ship,"

nor "poems

from

distill'd

poems." Although there are emotions com-

mon make

all

their

mankind, yet

these, in order to

most intimate appeal

to the in-

dividual, must find expression freshly in the

man's own native idiom ; for the the form are one, says

pend

far

more on

place than ity

association, identity,

supposed." So

which he employs

as his

be set in the midst of and

momentous

and

spirit

Whitman, and "de-

spirit

and

facts

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

and

this personal-

symbol to tally

its

" the

imme-

WHITMAN'S ART diate days

and of current America." Walt

Whitman, in

own person and vicariously

his

for all

men,

Upon

this centre

the centre and the theme.

consequences and influences circles,

;

from

converge

effects, all currents

all

and

radiate in ever-widening

dipping beyond the verge of human

horizons and merging into all

events,

all

thoughts,

all feelings,

infinity, all acts,

the very essences

of all things.

Nor did Whitman undertake his programme lightly. He had his deliberate theory as to the poetic ideas as to practical

according to ary

men

clear

method.

The

poet,

Whitman, differs from

ordin-

not in kind but in degree. " The

others are as

good

and they do not." swerer.

and

office,

as he, only he sees

The

poet

the

An-

He resolves all idioms and tongues

into his

own;

into himself, so

he translates

all

things

by and through him any

man may translate the universe of his own personality. 61

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

into terms

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN It is

you

Tied

much

talking just as

myself, I act as the

tongue of you,

your mouth, in mine

begins to be loosen' d.

In the poet and the poet's experience, each finds the expression of himself and

man of his

own

experience.

deals with parts

Whole.

He is

The

man

ordinary

the poet presents the

;

compounded of particulars,

but he transcends particulars and becomes universal.

seeks to "aggregate

This principle

a living principle."

unity that underlies variety, and

message of materials to the

A be,

poet in this sense

nineteenth

America " demands

the

it is

the

spirit.

Whitman

and the poet of America

half of the

all

aims

in the last

Now

century.

a poetry that

bold,

modern, and all-surrounding and kosmical as she is herself."

must, though court-

eously, cut loose from even the greatest

models of the

past,

tire faith in itself.

and

must have

science, with all present-day

Digitized

en-

It will inspire itself with

by MicrosoftÂŽ

thought and

WHITMAN'S ART freedom, and

ward the

contact with

his

must bend

Tried by

future.

vision to-

its

his

own

direct

the accepted poetry

realities,

time seemed to

hopelessly inadequate.

Whitman

Either

signi-

its

ficance has passed with the passing of the

transient

manners and ways of thought

which

depicted and expressed, as was

the case with the earlier literature and later imitations of

it;

failed utterly to dis-

cern and to cope with the larger realities

which

Whitman knew. In

breakdown of poetry

his

ciated with the characteristics of

Therefore he fears

mind, the

in substance

its

" grace, elegance,

asso-

form. civil-

ization, delicatesse, the mellow-sweet, the

sucking of honey-juice." he

In opposition

rugged and the rude he speak a language " fann'd by the

will assert the

will

;

breath of Nature, which leaps overhead, cares mostly for impetus

A primordial

and

effects."

task, therefore,

proposes, truly a

work 63

Digitized

Whitman

of creation, as

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN launches himself upon the

new world.

be the inaugurator of a new-founded literature, not " to exhibit technical, rhyth-

will

mic, or grammatical dexterity," but a literature " underlying

life,

religion, consistent

with science, handling the elements and

competent power, teaching and training men." In any craft, he says, " he

forces with

and ever who contrib-

greatest forever

utes the greatest original practical exam-

programme

ple." After our excursion into

and theory, the

practical

example now en-

gages us as we turn to estimate results.

Considered

mal

aspect,

else

may

first

of all

in its

merely

for-

"Leaves of Grass," whatever be besides,

not to be wholly

excluded from the category of poetry. De-

nying himself the aid of sharply marked

metre and the sonority and graces of

rhyme, Whitman bases poetic office

upon two

his

title

characteristics of his

style: these areLthe imaginative

Digitized

to the

64""

by MicrosoftÂŽ

power of

;

WHITMAN'S ART his

As a proWhitman Isinter-

phrasing and his rhythm.

pagandisTaTrd-a-theorist,

esting and significant, but not convincing

or creative of beauty

when he he

is least

as with

;

Wordsworth,

most conscious and

affirmative,

But by native temper-

a poet.

ament and by chance experience of life, he maintained that original and fresh relation to things which

and he was

the

making of an

artist

gifted with an instinctive, curi-

ously just perception of musical values

which enabled him to achieve impassioned

and quickening emotional expression.

Whitman

has the authentic

nocence of the eye.

though

for the first time,

with delighted surprise.

sees

artist's in-

things as

all

and he

sees

them

This deliberate

freshness of vision, attended

by wonder,

maTces"po^sibIe a grasp of the salient and

the essential.

From

this follows the grav-

ing epithet, cutting the image with lightning-revealed distinctness; from evocative phrase,

summoning 6S

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

this,

forth

the the

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN very being of the thing,

—

a living spirit

now, transcending its material embodiment, playing upon our spirit and quickening us

and fusion. Whitman ranges all the way from the literal mention of hopelessly prosaic objects which not even to response

his

imagination

powerful enough to

il-

lumine, up to the ultimate sublimities of transfigured imagery and creative phrase.

One

sufficiently familiar with his cata-

loguing method. This strain and fibre his verse

usually the

first

charge to be

brought against him in any indictment of his

poetry.

Undoubtedly

Whitman

for

himself this pell-mell of names and things

had a certain imaginative value,

as repre-

senting the infinite diversity of the universe.

But no

less

undoubtedly

the same value for the reader.

has not

Art

not

the bald reproduction of actuality. Art interprets,

and makes

inert

translates material into

;

his uninspired

vital

moments

what was before

Digitized

mood. In

— of which

by Microsoft®

there

WHITMAN'S ART were

many

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Whitman

impression and

spirit

gives us not the

of chaos,

for the emotions, but chaos

import

its

very catalogues, he

lifts

actual

itself,

and unredeemed. Often, however,

in these

the single item out

of itself, translating the object into sensation

and kindling

own

feeling.

The

with the glow of his

carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his fore-

plane whistles

What

before

its

wild ascending

we may have passed

dred times without notice a

new

interest,

pleasure.

The

The heavy

lighted

hun-

up with

and we get a quick sting of

With him we

blab of the pave, talk

lisp.

tires

thrill in carts, slufF

of boot-soles,

of the promenaders, omnibus, the driver with his interrogating

thumb, the clank of the shod horses on the granite floor.

that fresh keen sight of his catches a

transient

group

and makes

in a vivid flash, arrests

permanent because so

The vividness of the image

carries

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

it,

real.

to our

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN own

experience so that

becomes a

vital

part of us.

The march of firemen

in their

own costumes,

the play of

masculine muscle through clean-setting trowsers

and waist-straps,

The

slow return from the strikes

fire,

the pause

when

the bell

suddenly again, and the listening on the

alert,

The

natural, perfect, varied attitudes, the bent head, the

curv'd neck and the counting.

Examples might be multiplied finitely.

reality

inde-

These swift touches with living

may

not repay the reader

he pushes through the jostling crowd of

common of these

For

things. little

my part, I do

vignettes

;

not

tire

them Whitman

new vision of the world. The commonplace becomes interesting after all;

gives

the daily round

richer than I

had sup-

posed. Glimpses and images such as these are the

upland

plateaus, of

heights he his

levels, the wide-stretching

Whitman's absolute.

verse.

The

exaltation of

thought and all-fusing intensity of 68

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

the

his

WHITMAN'S ART emotion compel

own supremely

their

ade-

quate, transfiguring expression. Analysis

cannot here penetrate the secret of his

The

alchemy. as

flight, lifted

come

in this transcendent

out of ourselves until we be-

the poet. This poetry works

eternal miracle. vision, his as he

is,

The

mood is

on the

our

speak words."

poet's vision

mood we ;

Many

own

our

are,

even

power

the divine this

transfiguring en-

ergy of his phrase he rests his

upon our

its

heights.

Whitman had "

mere

annulled

critical faculty is

are caught

claim

first

attention as readers of poetry.

of his

lines,

jottings

through an

even whole poems, are

— "glimpses caught," —

and fragments,

repro-

interstice

ducing the inconsequence of momentary experience. selves

Such

these justify them-

their vividness

communicating

quality.

and

Yet

their life-

to stop here

to stop at the very surface.

For under-

lying the apparently scattered

members of

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN this

poetry there

a penetrative

and per-

meating unity, a unity of feeling imparted to discrete objects

and sensations by the

temperament across which they

The

play.

of consciousness flows

individual stream

on unbrokenly, though gathering into itself tributary incidents, and swirling into eddies along

Whitman

says

" should be a the earth

is,

"My

borders.

its

manuscript

unity, in the

or that a

poems," note,

same sense

human body

that

... or

that a perfect musical composition is." In

the last clause we have the key to the sec-

ond and

larger appeal of

as poetry.

This

is its

Whitman's work

musical quality.

Not only are Whitman's words often unsurpassable for their image-making power,

now

sharply cutting,

caress, effusing

now lambent

in their

emotion and mood. His

phrases are sonorous on the tongue, and subtly modulated, and

guished

they are

tone-color

sensuous and musical. 70

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distin-

extraordinarily

WHITMAN'S ART Soothe! soothe! soothe!

Close on

wave

its

soothes the

wave behind,

And again another behind embracing and lapping, one But

Here

every

close,

love soothes not me, not me.

the hush of sibilants recurring in

regular measure

soothe, cloje,

embracing, joothej. Here

open vowels bracing

;

its,

soothes,

the calm of

wave, behmd, em-

soothe,

a calm

broken and so

intensified

by the huddling consonants, lapping every one

Then

close.

follow two lines heavy

with the weight of the late and lagging

moon. Low

hangs the moon,

It is lagging

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;O

I think

rose late,

it is

heavy with love, with love.

Here the rhythm changes the beat is slower and more prolonged. Now with crowding ;

consonants,

the

sea

breaks

and gently

spreads itself on the flow.

madly the

With

sea pushes

upon

the land,

love, with love.

Then ensue the huddle and

unrest of close

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN consonants,

thick-studded

vowels,

and

short syllables.

night

not see

breakers

What

that

my love

among

fluttering out

the

little

black thing I see there in the white

Now come the alarm and call of liquids and open vowels. Loud! loud! loud!

Loud I call to you, my High and clear I shoot

love!

voice over the waves,

know who is here, is You must know who I am, my love. Surely you must

here,

Finally, Low-hanging moon!

What

O O

it is

that dusky spot in your

the shape, the shape of

moon do

not keep her from

brown yellow ?

mate!

any longer.

Once more the sagging, weary weight of open vowels, and the repeated vibration and prolonged echo of "m " and ing moon, brown,

Then the abrupt ilants,

in hang-

moon, from, any

longer.

discord in the dentals, sib-

and close vowels of dusky 72

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spot.

WHITMAN'S ART last,

the long cry in the repetition and the

assonance of " the shape, the shape of

mate," ending in the

last line

with the sob

of broken rhythm and sudden lapse.

This mastery of musical

effects is

not lim-

ited to the bar of a single phrase or to the

turn of a sentence or brief stanza. Whit-

man applies it to his work in its larger masses. Characteristically he does not use metre. In-

dividual lines have a certain fluid stress, like

the emphasis given to spoken words where the placing of the sense to be emphasized coincides with natural breath-lengths.

the full sweep of his

But

rhythm completes itself

only in the larger group of the whole paragraph. Whitman's instinctive feeling for .

time-values helped

to the right placing

and modulation, but

his effects

more than merely mechanical.

An emo-

of the are

him

stress

tional influence radiates

from

his

rhythms,

given off like an aura, and enveloping them with an atmosphere of mood. In achieving these effects

Whitman

transcends estab-

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN lished poetic forms, his criterion

as a

his clue and

and takes

from Nature.

sees

all life

"procession with measured and perfect

motion." Correspondingly, the movement

of his verse

processional. It

"less de-

finite

form, outline, sculpture, and becomes

vista,

music, half-tints, and even less than

half-tints."

His music would compete with

the mystic trumpeter, the wind;

would

accord with the sweep of the plains and the thrust of mountain-ranges

;

would

catch

and reecho the ineffable influence of the sea. Traveling in his later years in Colorado, " hour after hour, amid all this grim yet joyous elemental abandon

—

this plenitude of

material, entire absence of art, untrammel'd

play of primitive Nature

— the chasm,

the

gorge, the crystal mountain stream, repeated scores,

hundreds of miles

—

the broad han-

dling and absolute uncrampedness

—

the

fantastic forms bathedin transparent browns, faint reds

and grays, towering sometimes

thousand, sometimes two or three thousand 74

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;

WHITMAN'S ART feet

—

high

at their tops

now and then huge

masses pois'd; and mixing with the clouds, with only their outlines, hazed in misty lilac, visible " in the presence of this workman:

ship transcending art, he exclaims, "

found the law of Spirit that

form'd

These tumbled

my own

have

poems!

this scene,

rock-piles grim

and red,

These

reckless heaven-ambitious peaks,

These

gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked fresh-

These

formless wild arrays, for reasons of their

ness,

know

thee, savage spirit

own,

— we have communed

to-

gether,

Mine

too such wild arrays, for reasons of their

Was 't

own

charged against my chants they had forgotten

art

To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse ? The

lyrist's

measur'd beat, the wrought-out temple's

grace

But thou

— column and

-that revelest

here

polish' d arch forgot?

—

spirit that

form'd

this

scene,

They have remember' d

thee.

[Whitman's rhythms cannot be analyzed according to the established formulas of versification, as

pentameter, hexameter ; they

cannot be subjected to the usual systems of 75

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN notation, as iambic, trochaic, dactylic, anapaestic.

Rather they are like the rhythms we

apprehend in natural processes they are the :

rhythms of shifting cloud-forms or of

the

unresting but measured roll of the sea fhey ;

push forward,

recoil,

and recur

like the in-

terweaving of tree-branches, throwing out lateral clusters

of twigs and leaves.""His

rhythms "show the rical

laws "

;

free

growth of met-

they bud loosely, but as unerr-

ingly as "lilacs

and roses on a bush"; and

again, they take shapes as

compact

"the

shapes of chestnuts and oranges and melons

and pears." By virtue of their very

elusive-

ness they give off an emotional quality shed like a

"perfume impalpable

to form."

Whitman

It i^cextalrijthat

has caught

and registered something of the "siffuous,

mighty pulse of Nature. In est parallel

of his work

poetry but in music.

poems

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

art,

the near-

found not

The

in other

structure of his

the statement of theme and of

contrasted or subsidiary themes, the ampli76

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WHITMAN'S ART fication, the recurrence

the inner progress, expression,

now

embodied

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

new

certain to the end, all

in appropriate

symphonic

lateral

gathering itself for a

push forward, but

mood

with modification,

now delayed by

rhythms, evoking in

plan,

variety,

and scope. Or again, he composes on the

model of

recitative

and

aria, as in Italian

knew so well. Although his large and free, leaving " dim

opera, which he

rhythms

are

escapes and outlets," his poetry does not lack a firm underlying structure and closely

woven texture of thought. His verses are not mere succession, they are development. Formal logic Whitman distrusted :

" the damp of the night drives deeper into

But

poems, from the

first

germinal inception in his mind to their

final

soul."

his

perfect flower of phrase

wrought out with a

and rhythm, are

sure, inevitable logic

of thought and emotion which matches the inevitableness of Nature's logic in the

growth and final form of tree or 77

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vine.

Con-

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN trasted with this free but unerring organic

growth, traditional verse-forms are mechanical and cold: the crystal rigidity of

the sonnet, the vain intricacy of ballade and

and rondeau,

villanelle

With such

but gem-cutting.

verbal dexterity

Grass " has nothing in

"Leaves of

common. In nim-

bleness of foot and deft jugglery of rhyme,

any hundred of verse-makers can outstrip Tried by the movements and

this poet.

ways of Nature and by the great things music,

Whitman shows

himself to be a

true master of form.

"Much grand

When

said,

style,' as if it

man,

artist

among

artists,

of 'the

were a thing by

itself.

or whoever, has health,

pride, acuteness, noble aspirations, he has

the motive elements of the grandest style.

The

rest

but manipulation (yet that

no small matter)."

Here is a clue to another aspect of Whitman's work,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

his craftsmanship

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and

tech-

WHITMAN'S ART nique.

was not so innocent

many

have supposed him of all that is involved " manipulation." Seemingly artless and

accidental,

Whitman was

est

power and

cite a

of high-

specimen instance of Whitman informs us that his

method was "the product of

poetical

impatience," and he adds

his

"If this imputes

him some fraudulency

much

as well as

and conceit, this cannot be helped."

laziness

artist

consummate craftsman.

criticism, a recent writer

against such ignorant and reckless or

malicious

assertions

own note-books and

this,

Whitman's

papers show the ex-

treme deliberateness and prodigious pains with which he wrote. small to curate.

call for his

detail

utmost

Among his papers

was too be ac-

effort to

a pencil-draw-

ing of a full-rigged ship, with the spars, and ropes

all

named;

sails,

was evidently

furnished him at his request by some one

who was an

authority on the subject: this

served as the chart for his 79

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little

poem,

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN "Old Age's

He studied

Ships and Crafty Death's." his materials at first

hand, and

he learned from the workman himself the In the " are " Fragments volume of Notes and technical terminology of his trade.

hundreds of jottings and memoranda of details to

be worked into his poems. of a

has notes

visit

forge

in the

Adirondacks, which he condensed into two lines of the " Song for Occupations."

Another

the record of a talk with an old

whaleman from him Whitman learned that :

the whale has but one calf at a birth. the 1855 and 1856 editions of

"Leaves of

Grass," he had a line, " Where the she-whale

swims with her calves." tion this

she-whale swims with trivialness

In the i860

edi-

"Where the her calf." The very

changed to read, of the change

significant; for

man who was lazy and impatient! Another note runs: "Whole Poem. Poem of Insects. Get from Mr. Arkhurst

this is the

the names of all insects

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; interweave

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a train

WHITMAN'S ART of thoughts suitable

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

also trains of words."

In the search for words he was untiring. In page after page of books in his possession, single words are underscored in pencil,

noted for his

own

future use.

His mind,

active than people realized in this big,

easy-going man, was constantly on the alert.

He carried

with him always some scrap of

paper, an old envelope^ or

odd

bits

pinned

together; anywhere and everywhere, at his carpentering, on ferry-boats or the tops of

omnibuses,

at the theatre,

down by the

sea-

shore, in the war hospitals, or basking in

the sunshine by a creek, wherever he was,

he made endlessjottings and notes. These

were carefully worked over, declaimed, weighed, revised, readjusted, before they

were

finally incorporated into a

poem. His

poetry was no chance of hit or miss. his phrases fine frenzy,

were not the ejaculations of a but were the

final patient selec-

tion out of many that might just do, so the

poem

as a

whole was definitely conceived 81

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and deliberately planned. Here

scheme

outlined in a fragment.

" Poem (idea), ' To struggle is not to suffer.' " Bold and strong invocation of suffering to

—

how much

try

" Overture

one can stand.

—

a long

list

of words

—

the senti-

ment of suffering, oppression, despair, anguish. " Collect (rapidly present) terrible scenes of suffering.

Then man

After a it

a God.'

poem was more

was subjected,

antly show, to

as his

over

book

Grass "

;

or less in shape,

manuscripts abund-

numerous and thorough-

was admitted to and even there, as " Leaves of

going revisions before his

Then he walks

all."

went through successive

editions,

many changes and improvements. manuscript note for his own guidance

he made In a

he wrote

—

" In future with the

Leaves of Grass.' Be more

final revision

do, not one

of the poem, nothing will

word or sentence, that 82

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not perfectly

WHITMAN'S ART clear

— with

positive purpose

— harmony with

the name, nature, drift of the poem. Also no ornaments, especially no ornamental adjectives, unless

come molten

they have

prove themselves. not one

at all

perfect transparent clearness, sanity

health are wanted if

hot, and imperiously

No ornamental similes

— —"

that

the divine

style

—

and

—O

can be attained

Whitman's departure from the lished forms of poetry, therefore,

due to fraudulency or those

who

tell

laziness, in spite

us glibly that he did not

"even take the trouble

N or was

estab-

was not

effected in

to write prose."

any

of license.

spirit

More than most versifiers, Whitman recognized the necessity of law. The difference is

that he goes deeper than most, in per-

ceiving that the true law of ar t

obedience,

nortD" "external form, but to inneFessential needs.

a tree grows andTTStesits-pfer-

fecT~shape and beauty in response to the

law of

its

own

but grows

;

being, so poetry

develops out of its 83

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not made

own

inner

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN necessity, in so far as the poet

not med-

dlesome but consents to be " the free chan-

pression of

its

as a tree, in the ex-

But

nel of himself."

being,

subjected to the

forces and conditions of the materials out

ofwhich it builds itself, so poetry also accepts the laws and conditions of its nature. Art a spirit ; technique

— the processes by which — employs

art is

given bodily form

als.

Art, therefore, in the conscious and

material elements of

" Exact

science," says

poet, but always his .

it, is

based on science.

Whitman, " and

its

movements are no checks on the greatest

practical

materi-

The

sailor

encouragement and support.

and traveler

—

the anatomist,

chemist, astronomer, geologist, phrenologist, spiritualist,

mathematician, historian, and lexico-

grapher, are not poets, but they are the lawgivers

of poets, and their construction underlies the structure of every perfect

poem." Again he

" The work of the poet

nomer's or engineer's, and his

deep as the astroart

fetch'd.".

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says,

by Microsoft®

also as far-

WHITMAN'S ART In

his

very recognition and acceptance of

the laws of his

art,

the poet shows himself

master, and then he bends the laws to his

own laws

will.

great poet

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they conform

followed by

to him."

True

art is

not conformity, but mastery.

"Whitman did

not, as

some have

cultivate eccentricity for

its

own

fancied,

sake.

His

break with traditional forms and the admitted canons of literature was not due to It

was

and the differences which

dis-

caprice or a desire for singularity. inevitable

;

tinguish his necessarily

and

work from other poetry follow

from

his choice

medium. "As

his point

of view, his aims,

and use of I

his material

and

have lived," he says, "in

fresh lands, inchoate,

and

in a revolution-

ary age, future-founding, I have

felt to

identify the points of that age, these lands,

my recitatives, altogether in my own way. Thus my form has strictly grown from my

purports and

them."

facts,

will

and

avoid

all

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the analogy of that

remote,

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN imported, traditional, and derived

gins at the beginning.

poems

" the

spirit that

will

he be-

;

make

his

comes from the

contact with real things themselves," as distinct

things "

from "the study of pictures of ;

and he

will

be "

faithful to the

perfect likelihoods of Nature."

mate ideal of style is

His

ulti-

simplicity. " To speak

and

in literature with the perfect rectitude

movements of animals,

insouciance of the

and the unimpeachableness of the

ment of trees roadside,

in the

woods and

the flawless

By such untrammeled

senti-

grass by the

triumph of

art."

intimacy with Na-

ture and absorption of her spirit,

and by

such immediate simplicity of diction, the poet achieves originality. Originality a mechanical trick

and

not

of speech, nor does

reside in external form. spirit,

born of the

must show itself"

binations and

in new comnew meanings where there

was before thought no greatness.

The style

of expression must be carefully purged of 86

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WHITMAN'S ART anything striking or dazzling or ornamental

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and with all

that

man

great severity precluded from

eccentric." In the result

truly original,

and a new voice

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

new

Whit-

personality

in literature.

Whitman was a pioneer and had his work to do for himself. With so vast a programme, with forms with so is

much

to be invented,

and

crude material to be fused,

not to be supposed that he maintains

a level or that he

invariably beautiful

or convincing.

Neither he nor

his public

undertook too much. was ripe for the

achievement. In spite of his heroic effort

and still

limitless good-will,

his material

was

too stubborn to yield wholly to such

transmuting energy

command. dross and

He left

as his

alchemy could

might have

cast

away the

the gold, but this he was

unwilling to do. Instead, he cheerfully pro-

claimed the dross to be as good as gold,

and not every reader agrees with him. 87

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The

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN human

vision

man's mind

not yet divine vision

;

and

has not yet the power to grasp

the Whole, in which opposites are reconciled.

Good and evil are still set in conflict

and we lent

still

reader of is

distinguish between the excel-

and the inferior. So

Whitman

that

evident to any

it is

much of his work

mistaken in theory and unredeemed in

practice.

Even

his admirers recognize this

element, and this

much they

freely concede

to critics in the opposite camp.

those

who hold Whitman

To be sure,

as primarily a

prophet are not greatly troubled by

it,

for

they value him for the content of his

message, with those

less

regard to

who consider him

its

form. But

as at his best a poet

of the highest order are not blind to

this

admixture in his work of the prosaic and

When Stevenson remarks that "the word 'hatter' cannot be used serithe bizarre.

ously in emotional verse," most of us are quite ready to agree with him.

posed to

feel that in

so far as 88

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We are dis-

Whitman was

WHITMAN'S ART own

unable or unwilling to be his

editor, in so far as reject, it

and

critic

failed to select

and to

artist. As Whitman was an extraordinarily

so far he failed of being an

happens,

shrewd and penetrating

many passages in his

literary critic, as

prose-writings abund-

antly prove. Setting aside the question of

Whitman's

ability in the matter,

our

atti-

tude toward " Leaves of Grass," with our

consequent estimate of

depends upon

it,

whether we regard the book from the poet's point of view or our own. Doubtless,

Whitman had done

had not done

this or

that,

it would have pleased you or me better.

But

after all the question

finally

means

pleased

to us

Whitman

on the

performance in

take

him

is>

basis of

its

work

what

ac-

full responsibility for

entirety ;

and we may

without speculation as to

what he might have been been something

his

actually to do.

cepted in himself the his

what

is,

only he had

else.

Taking Whitman

is,

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then;

we per-

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ceive that " Leaves of Grass "

a growth,

the slow unfolding through the years of the central germinal thought, conceived in

its

and finding

total unity in the beginning, lateral

and upward expression, leaf upon

leaf, in

due succession.

poems

are quite complete in themselves

Many of the single

and these successive expressions may be received in their

momentary completeness;

as such, they are satisfying, often surpass-

The poem entitled " Refor example, may be read by

ingly beautiful. conciliation," itself to

powerful effect; yet

infinitely fuller

in the

so,

whole

we miss

meaning

series

acquires

if set in its place

of "Drum Taps." Just

the larger significance of Whit-

man's book

fail

to realize that

not a mere aggregate of particulars, or accidental, loose accretion

" Leaves of Grass "

would have us

of random

ideas.

some

critics

not, as

believe, a scrap-book or

a rag-bag, into which

Whitman

tossed his

odds and ends of thoughts and phrases, 9Â°

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WHITMAN'S ART which he did not trouble himself to classify and to elaborate coherently. " Leaves of

Grass"

organic,

and

whole;

parts

its

are held together in vital interrelation ; it is

to be received

in its entirety.

and

and comprehended only

The poet aims to figure forth

the eternal flux of things, the wonderful diversity of

life,

and the greater wonder of

the unity underlying

any other his

poems

it.

His

characteristic of

are

style,

it, is

crowded with

beyond

fluid

;

and

jostling, heter-

ogenebus materials and images. Yet embraced by the cosmic sweep of his absorbing

and interpreting personality,

all

things

naturally into place, and diversity into unity.

many

Leaves of grass

much fibred

manifestations.

this poetry, not is

all

one

fall

fused spirit,

in Nature, so in

flower and fruit;

shaggy bark, and knotted, tough-

wood. There

are passages of su-

preme poetry, unmatchable

for sublimity

of thought and compelling beauty of phrase.

Mingled with them

are reaches of prose,

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

— prose

that

commonplace thought. But

incoherent in structure,

wording, and banal in

in it

not upon a part, how-

may

ever triumphant the part

Whitman have us

rests his

cull the

for a

day

peak

case.

be, that

would not

blossoms, to deck a room

nor try to skip from peak to

;

Olympian

disdain.

leave the

blossoms out of doors, and love the

which

will

possess

drop

the

fruit in its

landscape,

own

time.

— morasses

tree,

We and

tangled lowlands, no less than the mountain-tops.

In such a survey, necessarily we

take the bad with the good, the nonsense with the divine sense, the banal with the sublime.

We accept

the " hatter," "

that hoes in the sugar-field,"

Cudge

" Kanuck,"

and "Tuckahoe and we give thanks for " the light that wraps me in delicate equable ;

showers," for "the sun falling around a helpless thing,"

and

thoughtful night." as

find

it,

and

for

We try,

"the huge and take the cosmos

with such grace as

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;

WHITMAN'S ART we can command,

make

the necessary

The recompense

adjustments.

certain

and enough. "

A stretch of interminable white-brown sand,

hard and smooth and broad, with the ocean perpetually, grandly, rolling in

measured sweep, with

and many a thump

upon

it,

and

hiss

rustle

as of

with slow-

and foam,

low bass-drums."

This scene,Whitman

says,

though wholly

imaginary, for years at intervals came up before

him ;

tical life,

entered largely into his prac-

and into

color them.

his writings to

The

picture

shape and

symbol of

" Leaves of Grass."

Whitman's poetry is

like thesea. -It has

the same amplitude_and, power, the same uribrtctled swing, the same variety

in-vari ety;

it is

-has the sea's

and unity-

spacious-and composite ;

movement and

stir, its

imme-

diacy and its suggestions of infinity beyond.

plunge into

the

first recoil

it,

to encounter a

followed by a sense of 93

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and of escape out of cramping manners and dress into the nakedness of a wider, bigger element. The sea was for exhilaration

the symbol of the cosmos, and

Whitman

the criterion by which to test reality.

Had

I the choice to tally greatest bards,

Metre or wit the best, or choice conceit perfect rhyme, delight of singers; These, these,

Would you

sea, all these I

to wield in

'd gladly barter,

the undulation of one wave,

its

trick to

transfer,

Or breathe one breath of yours upon my And leave its odor there.

The

verse,

impression of Whitman's poetry in

the large

vastness and freedom. It

es-

of out-of-doors. His performance can " face the open fields and the sentially a poetry

sea-side";

meets "the broadcast doings

of the day and night." inspiration

Whitman

gets his

from Nature and natural men.

prefers the

ics,

boatmen, farmers, to the society of

companionship of mechan-

drawing-rooms and

libraries.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

Not

parts

WHITMAN'S ART of men but whole men, liberality, things as

what he

likes.

simplicity, candor,

God made

movement and

loves

masses and variety and space.

him by

its

too, like

illimitableness

him powerfully by of

scale.

Thus he

;

The

cities

York, drew

their sheer

says

sea held

and great

New

Brooklyn and

them, are

—

immensity

" The splendor, picturesqueness, and oceanic amplitude and rush of these great

cities,

the un-

surpass'd situation, rivers and bay, sparkling seatides, costly

and

lofty

new

buildings, facades of

marble and iron, of original grandeur and ele-

gance of design, with the masses of gay color, the preponderance of white and blue, the flags flying, the endless ships, the

tumultuous

Broadway, the heavy, low, musical ever intermitted, even at night

;

streets,

roar, hardly

the jobbers'

houses, the rich shops, the wharves, the great

Central Park, and the Brooklyn Park of I

wander among them

this beautiful fall

musing, watching, absorbing)

—

hills (as

weather,

the assemblages

of the citizens in their groups, conversations, 95

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN trades, evening

quarters

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

amusements, or along the by-

these, I

completely satisfy

motion,

and

&c, and

appetites,

and the

say,

give

of these,

senses of power, fulness-,

through such senses

and through

aesthetic

con-

science, a continued exaltation and absolute

ful-

filment."

To match the infinitely shifting diversity of things, which his poetic

minate. It

Whitman

form is composite and indeterhas " the loose-clear-crowded-

The

ness" of the night sky. of

this

feels so vividly,

form

peculiar value

His pur-

suggestiveness.

poses are as obvious and as intricate as Nature's

Grass "

are.

Superficially

"Leaves of

maze of contradictions, though

the underlying unity

finally there.

So,

in spite of his manifest assertiveness

and

loud voice, elusive

and

Whitman baffling

curiously reticent; is,

so that

quite fathom his ultimatereserve.

him again and again and yet

we never

We sound

again,

and do

not touch bottom. There are "divine things 96

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WHITMAN'S ART Where

well envelop'd." static,

Whitman

other poetry

dynamic. It has seemed

that perhaps the

most perfect

little

poem in English is Keats's " Ode on a Grecian Urn." Here content is absolutely matched by form tion

;

here thought and emo-

and the manner of expression

exquisite equilibrium. is

stable.

read the

latively beautiful it

complete, time.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

The

Ode and

I read

;

just as beautiful,

are in

But the equilibrium

find

super-

again and find

but not more so

here, now, once,

very perfection of

and

it is

for all

lim-

it is its

Whitman, and he seems to I read him again, and he seems more wonderful, ever more and more wonderful, disclosing new wonder itation.

read

me wonderful

;

and beauty without end. Keats's Ode

supreme triumph of

art.

Whitman

lenges comparison with Nature. etry

chal-

His po-

compounded of " influences that

make up, in nial

their limitless field, that peren-

health-action of the air 97

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call

the

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN weather

and

— an

forces,

atures,

number of

infinite

currents

and contributions, and temper-

and cross-purposes, whose

ceaseless

play of counterpart upon counterpart brings

constant restoration and vitality."

Hence

the irresistibly tonic quality of this poetry,

power

its

to stimulate

The wide

and to supply.

scope and the free form of

Whitman's work permit the play of many purposes and the inclusion of diverse materials.

In " Leaves of Grass," taken in

its

entirety, we may distinguish three elements.

The first is prose,

—

commonplaceness of

thought, the use of familiar things in

all their

unrelieved familiarity, and a literalness of

phrasing; this element his verse.

The

the bed-soil of

second element

the direct

statement of ideas ; under this head we have

championship of Democracy and his aggressive glorification of " these States," his his

critical

propaganda, with his programme for

new order of literature, and his philosophic

beliefs.

example of

this strain is,

Digitized

by Microsoft®

—

WHITMAN'S ART Did we So

it is

think victory great

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but now

help'd, that defeat

And

me, when

.seems to is

and dismay are

that death

Such sentences

cannot be

great, great.

are sown broadcast through-

out the " Leaves." Often there

literary

distinction in the phrasing, but the

manner

does not

differ

from the manner of a prose

Whitman's

essay.

attitude here

ual rather than emotional sertion.

agree with

;

his

intellect-

method is as-

him or

disagree, as

the case may be. If we do not accept his dic-

tum, he does not persuade us in spite of our-

by any beauty of image

selves

;

he does not

The

kindle us with any glow of emotion.

ideas are valued for themselves, without re-

gard to their form. This element is the stalk

and tough

fibre

of his verse.

The third

ele-

ment, redeeming the whole and making glorious, fruit

the radiant flower and perfect

this is his poetry.

knows rials

as well as

Whitman

another that "

do not become

real until

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himself

real

mate-

touched by

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN emotions, the mind." In his passages of true poetry, rest,

—

— and they compensate by

are kindled

ideas

feeling

and

Here content

by imagination.

lighted

for all the

not to be disengaged from the form. This the fusing and transfiguring

poetry has

power that

Some of the

characteristic of all great art.

sources of this power I have

In the result

tried to indicate.

makes

its

way, triumphantly, supremely.

Such are the currents of energy that pulse through the oceanic tides of Whitman's verse.

There

are cross-currents

dictory forces.

and contra-

be caught and swept

along by a single current

to be carried

out of our course. If we are to fare with

Whitman from

port to port, from birth

life to death and beyond, we must " keep our bearings. So " Leaves of Grass

through

to be truly

only in

its

apprehended and appreciated

entirety

to the whole. " I

tudes."

;

the part

am large

;

to be referred

contain multi-

Our enjoyment of Whitman

Digitized

by Microsoft®

the

WHITMAN'S ART measure of our own capacity. Like the sea's horizon, his bounds are traced by the range

of our

own

vision.

The

ocean's verge ad-

vances ever before us with our progress ; and there

The

ever an infinite beyond.

sky o'erarches here,

beneath our

We feel

feel

the undulating deck

feet,

the long pulsation, ebb and flow of endless

mo-

tion,

The

tones of unseen mystery, the vague and vast suggestions of the briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables,

The

perfume, the

faint creaking

of the cordage, the mel-

ancholy rhythm,

The

boundless vista and the horizon far and dim are here,

And

this is

ocean's poem.

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all

—

Ill

THE HUMAN APPEAL Publish

my name

and hang up

picture as that

the tenderest lover,

The

friend the lover's portrait,

lover

Who

was

was not proud of less it

whom

his friend his

fondest, his songs,

but of the measure-

ocean of love within him, and freely pour'd

forth.

tangled growth from wide

fields,

tough-fibred strands, gleaming in the

sun, bending to the sweep of winds, toss-

ing and falling in variant

over the sea,

—

rhythm like waves

this is the

symbol and ex-

pression of a vast and elemental personality.

The

impression

one of expanse and

free-

dom, of infinite complexity enfolded within a dominant unity. There are shifting vistas and

far

horizons

flashing light ity,

there

;

many

crests are salient,

with the bigness and divers-

also a wonderful sense

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of inti-

THE HUMAN APPEAL macy. Somewhere within, at the very centre, quickens a compelling force, exerting an

The

irresistible attraction.

sovereign as

essence.

appeal

the heart of

it is

power.

The secret of Whitman's power does reside in his craftsmanship.

holds for

its

Many phases, one

varied.

it is

not

His poetry

readers the delight which art

brings, in satisfaction of the aesthetic sense.

But

does not exhaust his signi-

his art alone

His

ficance.

verses are musical with subtle

rhythms and with

melodies

cunningly

wrought woven of colored words and lum;

inous images, they scape,

and move

like the

the eye like land-

multiform procession

pageant of the day and night. But

however ized,

fill

it is

may be characterWhitman that his art purpose. By means of

his technique

enough

for

adequate for his

he communicates himself. His purpose

establish

between himself and

his

readers an immediately personal relation, so that they

may

share with 103

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him

his experi-

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ence of

life.

not

satisfied, therefore,

merelyto create beautiful forms. Truly he is

not proud of his songs, but of the meas-

ureless ocean of love within him. In effect his art carries

beyond

says, "will get at

itself.

No one,"

my verses who insists upon

viewing them as a literary performance, or attempt at such performance, or as aiming

mainly toward

art

of his power

secret

or aestheticism." lies in

But Whitman's power himself.

The

the man. is

not wholly of

No one ever gave more freely than

Whitman gives, scattering with lavish hand all that he receives. The wealth of his personality

immense. Great currents of

energy and love flow from him and prevail, like the slow, sure, vitalizing forces

earth all

;

they envelop,

attract,

things in the contact.

But these

ences do not originate in him.

himself

of the

and quicken influ-

The man

not the source, but the appoint-

ed channel of currents that are universal.

Whitman

holds his powerful, responding 104

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THE HUMAN APPEAL personality as

in a cause.

were

in trust, for service

the very inception of his

great undertaking, before he sets himself definitely to the composition of "

of Grass," there

Leaves

granted to him an in-

vouchsafed a vision of God, and there

sight into the

meaning of

things.

revealed to him in awe and splendor the divine purpose in the world. Apprehend-

ing

now the universal laws and resting upon

them, he establishes himself a centre lation to the

in re-

whole of life. Identifying him-

self with Nature's processes, as

he becomes an instrument.

one of them,

The

great ani-

mating spirit of the universe works through

him

works through

through

skies,

spreading landscapes and the myriad that peoples them, through seas tains,

life

and moun-

through rocks and trees and the curl-

ing grass.

sees in himself

and

them

"the same old law." Whitman mingles with the crowd as few

But the reason why

men have

his gift is so precious 105

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mingled.

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and so potent

because he draws upon

the universal source.

Before he gives, he

"Will you seek

finds himself.

you surely come back

afar off?

at last."

not

dispersed and lost in "countless masses of

adjustments."

but in one's

The

versal ends.

But the

self.

sessed only as

truth

not out there,

self

truly pos-

merged again

it is

in uni-

that in fullest and

highest service of the cause, he permits

" to speak

every hazard Nature without

check with original energy." His whole being, ever y

wavejpf jnipiessiQn^and emo-

tion, every act, seal

of Nature.

authenticated with the

When

he speaks, the con-

verging authority of the universe weights his words.

Nature has chosen him

for her

prophet, and she fashioned him to the work. Immense have been Faithful

the preparations for

and friendly the arms

that

me,

have helped me.

All forces have been steadily employ' d to complete

and delight me,

Now

this spot I

stand with 1

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

robust soul.

THE HUMAN APPEAL Whitman

man

of quite exceptional en-

dowment. His whole make-up, mental, and emotional,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

physical,

a fortunate gift,

temperament formed to be played

upon by

the throbbing influences of things,

and to vibrate responsively

happy

accord.

rhythm and

His physical senses and

traordinarily acute;

are ex-

this acuteness

sense deepens into a sensibility, a refine-

ment of perception and feeling,

uncommon

exquisiteness of

This

however, does not diffuse its

sensibility,

itself

and spend

force in vague, unregulated emotion.

His is

man of such

with a

superb bodily health.

sensations are controlled, his emotion

mastered and directed, by

powers of mind.

and always to make ferent

his

triumphant

able everywhere

count.

life

Indif-

which chance happens, he follows

where the way

leads.

Unpremeditated and

undesigned things come to him haphazard.

With sublime

faith

drifts.

But

this

random contact with the world he shapes 107

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN o unified experience, ever widening, ever eepening, and profoundly consistent with

The

tself.

momentary

chaos of

oes not overwhelm

him

an turn and say, This s

a whole,

Himself

any point he

is life.

and he finds

eternally

living

meaning

sees

for

it.

and unshakably greater

than what happens to him, he masters

life.

This unified experience he is able to record

and to communicate. So the man becomes a poet.

Whitman

the poet of health and the

As he

joy of health.

defines

in retro-

spect,.be sees that his purpose has been

" to formulate

poem whose

every thought

or fact should directly or indirectly be or

connive

an implicit belief in the wisdom,

health, mystery, beauty of every process,

every

concrete

object,

every

human

other existence, not only consider'd from the point of view of

own

health,

all,

but of each." His

to the prostration that fol-

lowed the superhuman

strain

108

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of the War,

THE HUMAN APPEAL was perfect

when

;

broken, he

finally

his bodily strength

was

kept his power and

still

unconquerable cheerfulness of mind and his

sweet sanity of

the basis of life,

and

ism,

Undoubtedly

spirit.

Whitman's

attitude toward

in part the secret of his

his physical

magnet-

equipment. Immediate

contact with things, so keen and so finely

attuned are his senses,

The

light.

air tastes

thrills to

inexhaustible de-

good

to his palate.

the float and odor of hair,

and he discriminates the exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak, and

He hears

forenoon.

through the

all

the bustle of growing

wheat, and the labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals; the

moon

descends the steeps

of the soughing twilight. touch he I

the sense of

peculiarly responsive.

have instant conductors

all

over

whether I pass

or stop,

They

seize every object

and lead

harmlessly through

me, I

merely

stir,

press,

feel

with

ringers,

happy.

109

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and

— AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

He reaches to the leafy lips of white, sweetscented roses and to the polished breasts

of melons. " Press close magnetic nourishing night!" he cries; and to the sea he calls,

Cushion

soft,

rock

in billowy

Dash me with amorous wet,

this

count alone,

drowse,

I can repay you.

— though — easy

there are

other reasons as well,

it is

to un-

derstand Whitman's glorification of the

body.

Theoretically, as one clause of his

philosophic programme, he holds the body to be sacred

;

for

it is

the expression of the

soul and the necessary condition of finite existence.

But he

celebrates the

for the joy he has in

it.

For him,

things in Nature, health this respect, therefore,

tions

sweet.

are

also

as for

happiness.

Whitman

indecent nor immodest.

body

all

neither

All natural func-

him equally

beautiful and

Seeking to come as close to Na-

ture as he can,

when occasion

gloriously divests himself, I

Digitized

by Microsoft®

offers,

and becomes

—

;

THE HUMAN APPEAL " undisguised and naked." In

a secluded

nook along Timber Creek he basks

in ab-

original directness in the beneficent sun

and up and down the lonely shores of

Long

body

Island his bared

wind and the

sea.

somehow he seems

defies the

way, as he says,

this

to get identity with

each and everything around him, in

And

condition.

its

he adds,

" Perhaps the inner never-lost rapport we hold with earth,

&c,

light, air, trees,

alized through eyes and

mind only, but through

the whole corporeal body.

he or she to

whom

not to be re-

Perhaps indeed

the free exhilarating extasy

of nakedness in Nature has never been (and how many thousands really known what purity

there are is

— nor

eligible

has not

what

faith

or art or health really is."

This nakedness

man

Nature

a delicious primal fact.

for

Whit- jJk'

absorbs

the cosmos veritably through his pores,

and

in turn the

magnetic currents of the

earth radiate from

him

Digitized

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by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN But

it is

symbol

as well.

expressive

of the original and unmediated relation of each individual to his world. " Undrape !

Whitman's

call

Let

to the body.

life

flow in unhindered. But not for the body's

The

sake alone.

senses are the gateway to

the soul.

Nature and natural things! In

this inti-

mate, fresh j deligh ted contact with out-ofdoors.

The

Whitman

learns the secret

ward the world

is less

conviction than

it is

his

ness

His

issufi-isJiappiness.

attitude to-

a creed or

reasoned

His regnant happi-

temperament.

primarily natural and instinctive;

man he

sophy,

life.

the inevitable reaction

his relation to life follows

it is

is.

as they are.

In so

far as

upon

the kind

he has a philo-

supreme acceptance of things

the reception of

life

immense capacity for joy. Beyond most men he has a gift for being brings an

pleased.

" Wherever

have been,

have

charged myself with contentment and

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

tri-

THE HUMAN APPEAL umph." This dominant happiness he finds in his sense of vital kinship with all things.

sublimely at

home

in the universe.

Vividly and immediately he feels and practically knows " the harmony of things with

man." Where is

ordinarily in one's

life

conscious only of separateness and di-

vision, holding the external world assaults at

one

and impacts to be

and

its

irreconcilably

war with one's own individuality, Whit-

man on

the contrary feels that he

a nec-

essary and living part of the cosmic whole.

In terms of actual experience he realizes Such join'd unended

Each answering

Were it

all,

not for

links,

each hook'd to the next,

each sharing the earth with

this sense

all.

of kinship with

the vastness and the beauty of

would overwhelm him, but he confronts all

the shows he sees out of the stronger

wealth of himself. Dazzling and tremendous kill

how quick the sun-rise would

me,

If I could not

now and always

send sun-rise out of me.

i'3

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Whitman

himself coextensive with

feels

the universe. If

to see the

fail

as beautiful in its every aspect it is

and

world detail,

only because of our consciousness of

separateness ferent

we think

from us and

that

Nature

hostile to us.

is dif-

The

big

things are too big for us and disquiet us with the unwilling realization of our ness

;

and the

little

own

little-

things are discordant,

we cannot fit them into our experience. Hence the blindness and the pain. But

for

Whitman

finds only happiness, for he has

the clef which resolves

all

harmony.

makes common

Because

discords into

cause with Nature, because he too

channel of cosmic influences, he discovers a clue to the eternal meanings.

with other parts

whole

and

;

his

union

revealed the unity of the

adjustment to the world-order

his happiness therein are the

the ultimate Tightness of its

own place. Whitman has

all

things, each in

himself the instinctive 114

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THE HUMAN APPEAL and absolute Tightness of

His equilibrium time that he

all

natural things.

perfect.

the

same

able to give himself freely,

yet without loss, he becomes also a centre

of attraction for all that ine.

natural

and genu-

Out of the abundance of the universal

wealth of which he

the channel and in-

strument, he lavishes himself upon just as inevitably they are return. I

"These tend inward

his presence.

breathes, he absorbs

and

drawn to him

tend outward to them."

all,

me, and

convinces

unconsciously as one all

things into himself,

and every sentient being that comes within his

range submits to the gentle compulsion

of his personality. ings in bright

H e spends whole morn-

summer

weather, watching

the butterflies skimming, dipping, oscillating, circling,

mounting, "holding a

revel,

good-time." " I have one makes friends with them.

a gyration-dance or butterfly

big and

handsome moth down

and comes to me, likes me

to hold

iÂŤ5

Digitized

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knows

him up

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

extended hand." Another time up

along the Hudson, he mit. "

I first

falls in

met him once or

with a hertwice

on the

road, and pass'd the time of day, With

small talk

;

some

then, the third time, he ask'd

to go along

a bit

and

rest in his

hut

(an almost unprecedented compliment, as I is

heard from others afterwards)." sitting in Central

As he

Park, looking on at

the varied endless show, a policeman comes

"We grow quite forthwith." He tells

over and stands near him. friendly

and chatty

Whitman,

about the

life

answer to his questions, of a

New York

man, the pay, the hours, the

all

park-policeduties.

noting the incident he makes this comment: "

Few

appreciate, I have often thought, the

Ulyssean capacity, derring-do, quick readiness in emergencies, practicality,

unwitting devotion

and heroism, among our American young men and working-people the firemen, the railroad

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

employes, the steamer and ferry men, the police, the conductors and drivers the whole splen-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

did average of native stock, city 1

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and country."

THE HUMAN APPEAL Ever the most precious It is always this

in the

common

element of the natural

thatrWhitman represents

in himself

and

that he discerns and prizes in others.

Whitman

discriminates at

pouring of his sympathy, the

common

all it is

people. Nature

Mother^ afidthe- source of in

all

in the out-

in favor is

the great

that

best

So Whitman has a special love for common people, for they are closest

life.

the

to the earth

there

tween them and likely to be

intends.

less in the

reality,

and

way be-

and they are more

to express

what Nature

It is in this spirit that

Whitman

thinks he could turn and live with the animals, they are so self-contained.

goes freely with "powerful, uneducated persons," not because they are uneducated,

but because they are powerful, and because their

power

by the

not suppressed and nullified

restraints

tends to impose. ever,

which a formal training

The

issue at stake,

how-

not this or that external condition 117

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; being honestly and

of life, but sincerity,

frankly, for better or worse, one's distinction

self.

The

not one of class or station,

man

but inheres in the

himself.

Because of his passion for the natural and the real,

Whitman seems

moment

for the

unable to include within his sympathy the indoor, and from his point of view

artificial,

products of civilization and culture.

He en-

folds with a boundless love the outcast, the

despised, the felon

himself a child

for, as

;

of generous, tolerant Nature, he

feels that

he is of them and belongs to them. " forth I will not

deny them,

deny myself? " But

it is

for

H ence-

how

can I

hard for him sym-

pathetically to justify in the scheme of things

who themselves think they need no justification. Even for these, however, he

those

has no condemnation, but only pity. For he regards their mere culture and consequent self-sufficiency as a barrier

which separates

them from the best that

might otherwise

life

hold for them. 1

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

)

;

THE HUMAN APPEAL Of persons arrived at high positions,

ceremonies, wealth,

scholarships, and the like

(To me all

that those persons

from them, except

and

And

have arrived

at sinks

away

results to their bodies

souls,

often to

me those men and women pass unwittingly

the true realities of

life,

and go toward

false

realities,

And

often to

they are alive after what custom has

served thqm, but nothing more,

And

often to

they are sad, hasty, unwaked somnam-

bules walking the dusk.

Not only do such acquisitions cut

things,

external and mechanical

men

off

from the bigger

from sympathy that springs out of

the heart, from love and the happiness that

comes with the feels

gift

of one's

self;

Whitman

keenly the utter inadequacy of mere

learning to help

men

to the truths

which he'

himself has divined so deeply through love^ the truths which Nature

would teach, if onlyV

men would surrender to her and let her work them in her own way. Hearing the learned

astronomer, with his proofs and figures and 119

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and diagrams, unaccountably he be" came tired and sick," and rising and glidcharts

ing out, he wandered off by himself In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up

in perfect silence at the stars.

In the company of conventional and indoor people Whitman was confessedly less at ease than in the open, in so far as suited his free-

dom

movement and

was great

enough

expression.

to discern the

But he

good and

true qualities latent in them, however

much

were overlaid by broadcloth and trimmed to the mode. " The little plentiful these

mannikins skipping around in tail'd coats,"

collars

and

he was aware who they are;

the measure that they could receiveit, he had a word for them.

But for the most part they

turned their superior backs upon him

;

that

there could be any culture outside of colleges

and drawing-rooms seemed to them

absurd. But this man of the streets saw fur-

Whitman had erudition, though it was acquired in his own way, not

ther than they.

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE HUMAN APPEAL in the schools

;

was

much more extensive

than people supposed, for he held in

cheap

comparison with the realities of life. With

him, learning was quite incidental to living

he guessed ulterior values. ture, as

Whitman

conceives

The

best cul-

it, is

" that of

the manly and courageous instincts,and lov-

ing perceptions, and of self-respect." It

not limited to parlors and lecture-rooms, but applies to the conduct of the

common

round of duties and

To this culture

any man

is eligible.

affairs.

daily

It consists not in the

acquisition of facts, but in the discipline of

the intelligence through contact with real things, in the deepening of the sympathies,

and

in self-mastery.

The fruits of it

are not

information and social address, but personality; its richest

recompense inures to the

soul. Whitman's learning did not stop with itself; his experience of life, many-

sided and profound, issued in wisdom.

knew,

as learned

men

often

that

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

do not know,

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Wisdom Wisdom

not finally tested in schools,

cannot be pass' d from one having

not having

Wisdom is of the soul, own proof. Applies to

all

to another

it,

stages

not susceptible of proof,

and objects and

qualities

and

is its

con-

tent,

Is the certainty

of the

reality

and immortality of things,

and the excellence of things.

was not the erudite and

people, as people, that

tioned ;

self-sufficient

Whitman

ques-

was their erudition and their

self-

sufficiency that he rejected, for the very

sake of the learned ones themselves.

This exception made, exception,

Whitman

if it

be really an

gives himself unre-

servedly, with the uncalculating lavishness

of Nature.

great sustaining

sympathy

streams from him like light from the sun,

and envelops just, in its

all

men, the just and the un-

quickening flood.

What is

thus

primarily natural and inevitable with him,

Whitman

elevates into a conscious prin-

ciple of conduct.

The

practical solution

122

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE HUMAN APPEAL all

the complexities of

human

finds in comradeship.

relations he

Emotionally, this

bond of union between man and man, or

man and woman indifferently, is completely satisfying

;

for

comradeship includes not

only friendship, sympathy, and adhesiveness, but also love in the largest sense.

With Whitman, the love of man for woman is

not trouble himself with its infinite subtleties it

He does

a comparatively simple matter. its

psychology,

quite innocently and frankly, as

intends

it,

as the

ultimate design.

ceded,

means of

all

He takes

and shades.

Nature

fulfilling

her

Whitman, it must be con-

The

not a woman's poet.

glory

of motherhood he celebrates with a divine enthusiasm and cosmic rejoicing ; gust mission and destiny that

woman

hers

lifts

to the highest station in the uni-

versal order. it

this au-

But

seems to him,

in all the other and, as

dite, intricate

of life, she

lesser relations

does not enter into his scheme.

The recon-

play of a woman's "23

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mind and

;

AN APPROACH feeling

WALT WHITMAN

T.0

removed from

his observation

the recesses of her heart, flashed open to

the touch of love, are closed to him.

quite ignores the countless sensitive adjust-

man to woman. Whitman conceives woman in the ments involved

large

she

in the relation

not the beloved, hardly even

the wife, but the heroic mother of stalwart

men. Her status tire

thus defined with an en-

and she

simplicity ;

figures in his poetry

with a corresponding mass and breadth.

Whitman places woman with reference to his own conception of universal purposes and ends strument.

;

she stands as a type and an in-

reckons with woman, but

not with women. diate practical

life

ual experience of

far as

in terms it,

regards

imme-

of her individ-

Whitman

not a woman's point of view.

clearly has

takes

her as more and as less than she feels herself to be.

He makes too much of the great enough of the little. He

things and not

sees her as cosmic,

and

fails

124

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to understand

THE HUMAN APPEAL her

she

;

only she

In so pret

is is

Whitman

to herself,

unable to inter-

and through under-

standing and sympathy to his

loved.

far as

woman

human,

willing to be only

make

her

life

own, in that measure of course he misses

theoretic completeness circle

and

of experience. But

own

as concerns his

not absolute.

fails

to close the

in practice, so far

reaction, the break

For the same enthusiasm,

imagination, romance, and poetry that are

commonly accorded to love, he lavishes upon comradeship. With Whitman, comradeship

is at

once an ideal and a passion.

Into this relation he pours

all

the

tionalism in which his full nature rich.

In sentiment,

emois

in fervor, in all the

transfiguring emotions that

make

life

new

and glorious, comradeship lacks nothing. It supplies

physical, I

him

it is

a happiness that

have perceiv'd that to be with those

stop in

purely

so actual and immediate.

company with

125

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I like is

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

enough,

— AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh

pass

enough,

arm

ever so lightly round his or her neck for a

mo-

among them ment, what

or touch

do not ask any more

this

any one, or

then

delight, I

Comradeship brings him

rest

swim

as in a sea.

also the satisfac-

tion of his deepest emotional needs. Earth's richest,

most majestic shows

modeled

—

the perfect-

of day

battleship, the splendors

and night, the vaunted glory and growth of the great not

city spread

move him

around him

like the glimpse

—

can-

he has of

two simple men on the pier parting the parting of dear friends.

He does

not envy

the fame of heroes nor the victories of gen-

he does not envy the President in his

erals,

Presidency nor the rich in his great house, But when

I hear

of the brotherhood of lovers,

how

was with them,

How

together through

life,

through dangers, odium,

unchanging, long and long,

Through youth and through middle and old age, how unfaltering,

Then

how affectionate and faithful they were,

pensive

—

I hastily walk

the bitterest envy.

iz6

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by Microsoft®

away

fill'd

with

THE HUMAN APPEAL Not

reputation and applause, not material

possessions, not culture, nor worldly

power

can offer him the joy and peace he finds in the companionship of his friend. all

the effort and the struggle,

life

in this world,

he dreams of and

— such

perfect compensation. realized as

And for

— the

price

friendship as

able to realize,

Such

satisfaction is

wisdom, and transcends expres-

sion.

When

whom

I love travels with

while holding

When

the subtle

me by

air,

sits

a long

the hand,

the impalpable, the sense that

words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,

Then

am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further.

Whitman makes

of comradeship a new

evangel. It

the base of

underneath

all

philosophies and

he sees "the dear love of rade."

metaphysics;

man

exalt'e,

gospels

com-

main pur-

found

a superb

previously unknown." IZ7

Digitized

all

for his

believes that "the

port of these States friendship,

all

by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN is

De-

large

and

Through comradeship, and only mocracy

to be realized

enduring

scale

His

intention

therein lies

;

and

for the present

on any

its

hope

for the future.

and

will

Re-

present consti-

tuted, he refuses to take sides parties,

assurance

its

wholly constructive.

garding society as

all

so,

;

he renounces

not ally himself with

existing organizations.

neither for

nor against institutions, but he

will estab-

lish

Without

The

edifice or rules or trustees or

institution

Whitman's terms

are

vague here, for he

tain regions cial

any argument,

of the dear love of comrades.

becoming somewhat

moving now

in uncer-

of political speculation and so-

theory ; but at the base of his terms

there

practical

a definite reality.

sympathy.

This

reality

To explicate that sym-

pathy, to reveal

its possibilities

application of

and make

all relations of life, " leading motive in Leaves of Grass." it

sent out the book, he says, iz8

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

THE HUMAN APPEAL " to

set flowing in

young and

men's and women's hearts,

old, endless streams

of living, pul-

them

sating love and friendship, directly from

to myself,

now and

ever.

more or

pressible yearning, (surely

human

underneath in most satisfied appetite for

less offering

this terrible, irre-

souls)

—

sympathy, and

of sympathy

mocratic comradeship

—

this

less

down

this

never-

this

bound-

this universal de-

old,

eternal, yet

ever-new interchange of adhesiveness, so emblematic of America

—

fitly

have given in that

book, undisguisedly, declaredly, the openest expression."

And " It

he adds

—

by a fervent, accepted development of

comradeship, the beautiful and sane affection of

man

for

man,

that the United States of the

future are to be most effectually welded together, intercalated, anneal'd into a living union."

Thus Whitman interprets the world and construes human relationships out of his own nature. Life is for him always " a poem of new joys," because he is in himself so 129

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN one with the forces and

perfectly at

ences that play through

His response

harmony same

all

influ-

natural things.

to their impact

a complete

that issues in happiness. In the

spirit

of trust and joy that he yields

to the persuasions of the external world,

he gives himself to his fellows.

The grate-

which floods his being overflows

ful love

universally.

mere kinship

all

and truest sense

not held by the

men

ties

are in the deepest

his brothers.

not

limited to a few chosen intimacies, to the

There

exclusion of the mass outside.

no strangers now there ;

are

are only comrades.

Attachment and devotion usurp the place of enmity, and banish lover

the one with

fear.

whom

His

friend

and

he happens to

This humanly accidental, divinely intended, companionship is enough. " He be.

ahold of

me."

is difficult

iveness of

hand has completely

Whitman's sympathy

possible to measure

its

;

it is

beneficence.

130

Digitized

satisfied

to conceive the inclus-

by MicrosoftÂŽ

im-

That

THE HUMAN APPEAL sympathy

living

and potent to-day, not

only through the miracle of the printed page, but bridging in

its

impetus the chasm

of death, and triumphing

in its intensity

over time and distance.

To know

man

go one's way en-

to feel

and

it,

Whit-

riched and enheartened.

This

But

the

word

Accepting

human

still

life

appeal of Whitman.

remains to be spoken. it

with thankfulness

and joy, he yet

interprets

spiritual values.

The power

terms of

of which he

the reverent and happy instrument

God.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

IV THE SOUL'S ADVENTURE

too take ship

Joyous

soul,

too launch out

Fearless for

unknown

shores

trackless seas,

on waves of

ecstasy to

to thee, I

sail,

Amid

the wafting winds, (thou pressing

me,

thee to

soul,)

Caroling free, singing our song of

God,

Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.

Immense befell

were the satisfactions which

Walt Whitman on

way through in the inner

the world, yet his whole

meaning of it,

immediately

human

good comrade does not self as

life,

figures itself as

an eager, unremitted quest. his

his leisurely

So potent

appeal, that this

once reveal him-

a spiritual pioneer.

Those who

knew him

in the life

irresistibly

by the undefinable

were drawn to him attraction

of his presence, without perhaps divining 132

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THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

the true sources of his poise and power.

Something more than

compelling per-

his

sonal magnetism, however, distinguishes

him from the mass which

his

there are depths, of

abounding sympathy

overflow and expression.

but the

Endowed though

he was with an heroic physique of singular perfection and beauty, yet the essential fibre

of his nature

and

practically,

spiritual.

extent

realizes

that

granted only to a chosen few to realize, that the central reality of being

The motive

force of his

the soul.

the passion

life is

and the struggle to possess the soul's inheritance.

Gladly upon

ture he dares

all,

this

high adven-

risks all, suffers

happiness

to pursue the quest.

compense

Whitman as

one

all

His

re-,

know God. launched upon experience

in love with

inousness. nature,

all.

life,

all its

multitud-

Indoors or out, in art or in sights

odors and

and sounds,

tastes, in

contacts,

solitude or with

'33

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all

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN companions,

in the rush

streets, across

the fields and hillsides, or by the sea, what-

ever and wherever,

—

a wonderful and

it is

vivid rapture.

How

curious

how

real

Underfoot the divine

But Whitman ality.

Out of the

in contrast

overhead the sun.

aware too of another rewelter emerges an entity

and seeming opposition to the

external order. this outer

soil,

However

world and

its

curious and real

actualities

citements, yet " they are not the self."

Experience resolves

itself,

and ex-

my-

therefore,

into two realities, the soul and that other that

not the soul. and

But how in

the

mystery, here

stand.

to reconcile the contrast,

opposition

daunted,

this

Whitman

find

peace?

and

Un-

confronts the mystery.

the fullest reaches of his strength he

undergoes " the vehement struggle so

only.

For

fierce

But not

in himself

his great heart leaps

out to the

for unity in oneself."

•34

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by Microsoft®

— THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

throng and press of human agonies, and the long

of the sons of

file

men

passes be-

fore his vision, Wandering, yearning,

curious,

with

restless

explora-

tions,

With

questionings,

baffled,

formless, feverish,

with

never-happy hearts,

With

that sad incessant refrain,

soul? and Whither

Insatiably the soul

thus

Few men have had so happiness as Whitman have

human

life

questions

life.

great a measure of

compassed, but few

gone so deep to win

finally

happiness

Wherefore unsatisfied

mocking

it.

His

not achieved upon the merely

plane of instant desires and fleeting

gratifications:

the soul.

fundamental, and of

comes of the harmony he

able actually to realize with the "mighty,

elemental throes, in which and

upon which

we float, and every one of us is buoy'd." Along the way, he knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it means to be alone. It is granted him to taste the joys of life,

—

the lavishness of Nature's goods, i3S

Digitized

by Microsoft®

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and the

fruitions of love

and comradeship.

knows, too, the sustaining power of

faith

and hope. But lacking yet one thing,

these are not enough.

There

is still

To what

insistent, ever-recurring question,

end

Not

here, not there,

all,

— "is

object,

the

immanent

may-be

removes," Has

by surrender

;

—

of every

The

It is

and

the

reason- why

the restless ocean of the en-

the dissatisfaction

the urge and spur

life

something never invisible

life

God

Would you sound below Would you know

every

wander' d far?

world

achieves.

many and many-a-more God is there.

strangely hidden

tire

hu-

yet

estray

finite

completion in

isolation the soul finds

the infinite

the answer,

Out of

but within and above.

man

the

still'

—

never entirely gone ? the

need of every seed

the central urge in every atom,

(Often unconscious, often

evil,

downfallen,)

To return to its divine source and origin, however distant, Latent the same in subject and in object, without one exception.

136

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by Microsoft®

THE This

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

the soul's adventure

God. The voyage

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to find

and perilous across

far

the uncharted spaces, but resolute, the soul fares forth.

O my brave soul O farther farther sail O daring joy, but safe

are they not

all

the seas of

God?

farther, farther, farther sail

As Whitman is billowed through the shows of earth's pageantries, taking his

them, he

and

origin.

fill

ever seeking the great source

The que st

truly the c entral

urge of h is whole being, transfiguring

making

its

sorrows glorious,

feats a "victory,

supreme

and sealing

its

human

life ,

de-

joys with the

sanction. Embarked~orTtnis^hIgfi

emprise, the soul its

may not

use of the things

rest.

It will take

encounters,

will

gather the love out of men's hearts, but

must not be held by any earthly or merely " Whoso loveth father or personal ties :

mother more than

not worthy of

137

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Me." In less as it

was beginningless,"

"in the

all

You

journey to "that which

its

start

but arrive

you

You

shall

settle

are call'd

which you were

destin'd,

yourself to satisfaction before

by an

irresistible call to depart,

who

remain behind you,

beckonings of love you receive you

answer with passionate

You

must merge

be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings

of those

What

end-

of superior journeys."

the city to

you hardly

shall not

kisses

allow the hold of those

shall

only

of parting,

who

spread their

reach' d hands toward you.

Onward, forever onward, the soul

passes.

In the fulfillment of its mission it comes to " know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls."

Whitman

He He

does not

on the

falter

quest.

eager to seek and patient to endure.

follows the open road, through dark-

ness into light, meeting suffering and pain,

yet singing always a glad, exulting, cul-

minating song of joy.

does not with-

hold himself from any experience, however counter or remote, for seeing 138

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

life

under the

THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

aspect of eternity, he transmutes into good.

One

ideal

sovereign purpose sustains him. faith is

things

guide, one

his

all

And

his

not betrayed. His high daring and

devoted singleness of

effort receive their

triumphant reward. As one who has come

through great tribulation, he worthy.

Whitman His

vision.

fic

vouchsafed the beati-

granted him to

God. In rapture of the vision he

cries,

counted

the blessedness of the

pure in heart, for see

—

Thou

transcendent,

Nameless, the Light of the

fibre

light,

and the breath,

shedding forth universes, thou centre

of them,

Thou Thou

mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving,

mora], spiritual fountain

—

affection's source

—

thou reservoir,

—

Thou

pulse

That,

circling,

Athwart the

thou motive of the

move

stars, suns,

systems,

in order, safe, harmonious,

shapeless vastnesses of space.

So the radiance of God's presence, " light rare, unreliable, lighting the

i39

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by Microsoft®

very light,"

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN floods the soul. After years of search and

longing, in the crowded ways of men, in spaces of open fields, in the bafHing soli-

tude of the

sea,

ination.

Whitman filled

knowledge that pass the earth.

With

receives illum-

with the peace and all

the argument of

a certainty

and proof, he knows that the is

beyond spirit

of God

the brother of his own. Veritably,

man

The

possessed of God.

logic

Whit-

vision

indeed the crown of his endeavor, but he does not here resign the quest. God's instant presence lights his way, but the soul

has yet a consummation to achieve. Surges

of the " sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief" toss and constrain him; "wrapt in these little potencies tics,

of progress, poli-

culture, wealth, inventions, civiliza-

tion," he loses recognition of the silent,

ever-swaying power of the vital universal force that quickens

The

struggle

through

all life

toward

its

never to be remitted

goal. ;

but

he presses on to the ultimate 140

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THE fulfillment,

SOUL'S

when

the soul shall be forever

and perfectly one Reckoning ahead

The

seas

all

ADVENTURE

God.

O soul, when thou, the time achiev'd,

cross' d, weather' d the capes, the

voyage

done,

Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain' d,

fill'd

with friendship, love complete, the Elder

Brother found,

The Younger

melts in fondness in his arms.

Whitman's inmost experience

Only

be told in words.

the soul

not to

may know

God, and the soul has no vocabulary. Whitman's religious experience is so intimate and personal that he has himself succeeded in

communicating such symbols

in his poetry only

as his imagination could wrest

from the current language of men. One fact, however, defines that the is

sum and

religion.

itself as salient,

namely,

essence of Whitman's

In a wholly

practical,

life

less

than mystical, sense, his supreme concern is

the soul's relation to God.

ceives

and

lives

it,

religion

141

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As he

con-

not a part of

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN man's experience, though indeed the highIt is the entirety

part.

est

giving their import to

all

of existence,

the varied forms

of man's activity, and making " the whole coincide." It,

magnificent,

beyond

materials, with continuous hands

sweeps and provides

for all.

This conception of the scope and ficance of religion determines

signi-

Whitman's

attitude toward the world. Certain

beyond

peradventure of the essential spirituality of things,

all

and sustained by

his conviction

of the profound religiousness of every

act,

he sees that the struggle ofcontending forces in

which man finds himself enmeshed is but

the necessary condition of the soul's progress to

its

goal,

its

union with the divine.

welcomes every experience that can be-

fall

him, for through

His purpose

God is working out

for the soul.

interpret

the world in the light of the illumination

vouchsafed to him

the motive of his

poetry. 142

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THE Know

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

you, solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater religion,

The

following chants each for

Whitman

kind I sing.

thus expressly declares him-

His vision of ultimate truths

self a prophet. is

its

authentic; his immediate experience of

God, ecstatic and transcendent, is yet reality.

proud

title,

a vital

however, that he

arrogates to himself, that of a prophet of a

"greater religion." Its justification

to be

sought in Whitman's relation to thegeneral religious experience of the race. Its value

may

perhaps be suggested by a considera-

tion of life

its

practical consequences for

men's

they too are engaged in a

toÂŤ-day, as

like adventure.

In point of

intellectual content,

mari's faith has elements historic religions.

as a

Whit-

common

Although he

garded in some sense other messiah,

with

to be re-

new voice,

as an-

among many, to whom God

has given a special revelation ofHimself, yet

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;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN he gladly acknowledges faiths

and

his

debt to the older

to the prophets of all times.

His

it, is

" following many

and follow'd by many,"

to "inaugurate a

mission, as he takes

religion "

;

and he sings " a worship new."

Yet Whitman has the

historic sense,

and he

recognizes that the religious consciousness

of man

a development.

tive character,

identifies

his representa-

himself imagin-

atively with worshipers of every degree in

the evolution of the race.

he makes a fetich of the

With the

first

savage,

rock or stump

"to Shastas and Vedas admirant," he helps the eastern lama or brahmin as he trims the

lamps of the idols oracles,

and

as a

;

he waits responses from

Greek, he dances through

the streets in aphallicprocession;hedoesnot ignore the Koran.

He accepts the

" accepting Him that was assuredly that

Gospels,

crucified, knowing

He is divine." He is

in turn

Catholic, Puritan, Quaker, Methodist. Interpreted, this

symbolism means that the

modern man, as whose representative finally 144

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

Whitman speaks, is a growth out of the past. In all times and in all lands, God has granted a revelation of

Himself to men, according

to the measure of their capacity to receive

His

it.

versal;

revelation it

gressive.

not

not limited but uni-

static

and

final,

but pro-

Each new experience of God

vouchsafed

the

becomes

individual

His unfolding

a further manifestation of

purpose, a new epiphany to the race.

So Whitman, in

who

his

own

person, as one

has walked with God, taking

up the

message as his forerunners have delivered it,

comes "magnifying and applying." In

man's

earlier conceptions,

fied in the things fire

and wind and

stones.

length

makes God

Him

with

objecti-

of Nature, in the sun, in rain, in rivers, trees,

He is

in his

human

God

personified.

own

will

and

Man

image, endowing

and emotions. But

Whitm an takes a step in advance. H e names, each with his name, the

Gods of old, Jeho-

vah, Zeus, Osiris, Brahma, Odin, Allah,

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Taking them

all

for

what they

are

worth and not

a cent

more, Admitting they were

and did the work of their

alive

days,

Accepting the rough

deific sketches to

fill

out better in

myself.

The elder beliefs, which thus personify God, represent but a stage in the evolution of the religious consciousness.

There is a measure

of truth and of reality in them

;

they were

men

the best and the furthest that

could

conceive in their time. But such conceptions necessarily limit

what

now known

A personified

to be illimitable.

God

that very fact only finite; whereas the

demands and the heart craves the

is by mind

infinite.

Whitman has had this fuller revelation. Because of his own immediate knowledge of God, he

able to

fill

out these rough

sketches better in himself.

deific

Out of his own

experience he transcends the limitations of

formal systems.

He is great enough in him-

self to guess, if h e

cannot fully comprehend,

the inconceivable and ineffable greatness of 146

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THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

God. So he goes beyond the mere anthro-

pomorphic conception of the Deity, for God is

too vast to be contained in a formula or

a person.

man and God

tween

The

Yet none the

springs of

life

less the relation

be-

a personal relation.

are not a blind, inscrut-

able force or energy, inherent in matter, and

operating inexorably according to

The

self-constituted laws.

huge machine,

quite

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

how

set

its

universe

own not

going nobody knows

or why, but

now running

itself,

a monster engine whose methods of oper-

ation

man may observe and describe,though

quite without feeling toward

On the con-

mystery, the wonder, and the

trary, the

beauty of

it.

processes rouse a response in

its

the soul ofman.

He beholds them with awe,

with adoration and worship and love. It a living power,

drawn to

and

and man enters into com-

The soul God by its human need of Him,

munion with is

finds

it.

God

Him

a spirit.

through love.

sesses utterly the heart,

and man's

147

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pos-

life is

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN do His

will in

relation is

joy and thankfulness.

natural, not supernatural.

The God

not throned afar in another world, but

reigns immediate

and instant

in this world.

The whole earth is full of His glory. Whitman does not wish to see God any better than this day, for he sees " something of

God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then." There are no bounds to His pervasiveness. If He is higher than the

He is

heavens,

deep in the hearts of men

ranging the immensities beyond space,

The universe

breathes in the curling grass. is

God.

And

every least particle of

it is

the

expression of His thought and love.

But, it

may be objected, is

not this gener-

ous recognition of the divine principle in everything a loosening of the

man

to his

vine, then

ties

that bind

God ? Where everything

di-

by reversing the application of

the standard, nothing

divine.

of distinctions and differences,

become confused.

all

values

How shall man find God, 148

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THE as

God,

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

nothing that

if there is

not

God ?

by a

corre-

Is not this diffusion attended

sponding relaxation ? That depends. If a man's reliance

upon

the external world,

whether the natural world actually around

him

or a supernatural world, reproducing

in all its essential features the present order

man

only on a higher plane, then such a likely to tinct

come

demand an

and separate

objective

whom

entity, to

in supplication.

over-ruling power,

God,

a dis-

he may

For him, God

who may be moved by

the petitions of His servants

for him,

;

God

must be concrete and definite. For such a man, the conception that the kingdom of heaven

within him, that

God is a spirit in

the sense in which Jesus truly meant the

words,

may

indeed tend

undermine

the very foundations of his faith. Because

the same habit of

demand an

mind which

leads

external and objective

him

God, and

so to mistake the symbol for the reality, will require

him

confound 149

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God

with the

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN and so God becomes no God. For such a man, of literal and materialistic

object

itself,

Whitman's conception, bridging the chasm between man and God, substituting bent,

identity for separateness,

judgment with love, his sense bility.

may

and superseding tend to subvert

of moral obligation and responsi-

Whitman's conception of the Deity,

however,

not a vague pantheism.

does not teach that the object

itself is

God,

but rather that in and through the object,

God

revealed.

does not limit the

revelation of Himself to bibles

and

oracles;

He speaks not only by the mouths of prophets. He manifests Himself in every object, He breathes in every living thing, He moves

in every

understood,

thought and

this

act.

conception,

Rightly

affirming,

through the primacy of the soul, the vinity

man and

the

God, brings man

into

ever fuller

richer

and

immanence of

more immediate and communion with

God. 150

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THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

Though Whitman,

resting securely in

certain fundamental convictions, wishes to

"leave

all free,"

yet in one

poem he

has

attempted by comparison and contrast to define in the accepted formulas his

own

conception of the nature of God. Recognizing that

God

finally inefFable,

theless he ventures to set forth in

never-

human

terms what he humanly conceives of the divine principle in the universe. traces the

" Square Deific." His

not pretend to represent it

God

So he

figure does

Himself;

shadows forth only man's image of Him.

Whitman employs for his terms the symbols hallowed by the usage of the centuries.

his

mind ranges

the circuit of being,

the poet sees active in the moral and religious

which

life

may

man

four powers or forces,

be named abstractly

first,

law

and judgment ; second, love and forgiveness evil

;

third, rebellion

and the tendency to

fourth, reconciliation

and the fusion

of all in one. These powers he personifies 151

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Holy

Jehovah, Christ, Satan, and the

Spirit.

The

underlying fact of the universe, in-

evitable

and inexorable,

Law.

Man can-

not escape himself, nor avert the law of his

own

being. Unpersuadable, relentless,

without mercy or remorse,

God

decrees

compensation and exacts retribution. Je-

hovah

But

judge.

this

only the base of the Square.

Intercepting the

Lord

Law and turning its diFrom this side, lo the

Love.

rection, rises

Christ gazes, Consolator most mild,

with gentle hand extended, the mightier

God. Love diverts Law but continues and

Love does not abrogate redeems

man from

its

hope and all-enclosing vidual

Love tion

the Law, but

tyranny, offering charity.

The

indi-

destined to an early death, but

abides.

it,

necessary to complete the Square.

The

Saviour passes

;

salva-

eternal.

the other extreme of the line of 152

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Law,

THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

and opposite to Love,

rises

The

Revolt.

individual asserts himself and his

own

will

Here from his side, " permanent, equal with any, real

against the divine will.

Satan

Where Law

as any."

gression be.

There

there

must

trans-

no good without an

In the

evil corresponding.

human

is,

finite

world of

experience, the principle of evil

a necessity, and

must

be, so long as fini-

tude endures.

There

yet another principle, however,

which completes the whole. Closing the Square, parallel with Law, mastering Evil,

and

Love,

fulfilling

Spirit.

This

the

Ultimate Reality, the one essence of things.

It includes not only Saviour

Satan, but also

all

and

God Himself conceived

a person. Ethereal, pervading

all,

(for without

what were God Essence of forms, positive,

of the

life

me what were all ?

?) real identities,

permanent,

(namely the unseen,)

Life of the great round world, the sun and stars,

of man,

I, the

general soul.

IS3

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and

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Thus Whitman ive idea of

God.

reaches the most inclus-

the finite plane he

recognizes the necessary antinomies of hu-

man thinking and human experience. Good and

evil are actual in this

world ; " the

ference between sin and goodness

lusion "

there

sin

and there

responding need of salvation.

dif-

no de-

the cor-

Hence Satan

and the Saviour, hence rebellion and the ministry

of love. There

the unescapable law

of compensation and retribution. Hence Jehovah, eternal Lawgiver and Judge. These antinomies of the

finite

plane

Whitman

does not attempt to efface or to reconcile,

but he recognizes them only to transcend

them. All

finite

contradictions are resolved

in the universal Consciousness, at

which

once the Thinker and the thought;

the limitations of a personified

God

are

gathered up and lost in the general Soul.

With Whitman, God perience.

realized as ex-

not a tradition, a doctrine, '54

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THE

SOUL'S

or a postulate.

own

Whitman

As he welcomes

soul.

For the

a presence.

of God,

fullest revelation

to his

ADVENTURE turns

the partial

conceptions of Deity of earlier eras for the

measure of truth they have

though he

able out of his

them,

own

al-

experi-

ence of reality to transcend them, so he accepts the bibles of humanity in so far as

they

tally

with what he already deeply

knows of God. Assuredly they are divine. But they are not the last word. They have all

grown out of men, and may

out of them give the

life.

it is

universe itself

wherein

every instant

God reveals Himself in characWhitman does not " object

the living ters

grow

not bibles, but men, that

The whole

infinite bible,

still

light.

to special revelations,"

" a curl of

smoke

my hand just as

but he considers

or a hair on the back of

curious as any revelation."

So in respect to the authority of the written word, he " would leap beyond, yet nearer bring."

Whitman

reaches his truth through 155

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN whole being,

his

— through

his

deep need

of God, through the presentments of the external world, through the response of his spirit to the call

verse.

and welcome of the uni-

He takes his

any man may have from

Whatever

The

own

his

authority finally where

" cheapest," namely,

soul. true;

satisfies souls is

soul has that measureless pride

every lesson but

its

which

revolts

from

own.

In a stray manuscript fragment, Whit-

man

notes

" The

—

certain evolution of (not ecclesiasticism

but) Religion through is

(in

of humanity and

would soul,

that

ard

be, that a

and there it

—

literature. The summum of it man cannot go beyond his own

nothing higher than the soul;

settles questions

own

its

own

stand-

of authority, calibers of

that relates to Deity, just the

same

the ostensible standards, settles

them

all

— whatever its

stages and happenings

finally settles all things

Deity, and

all

opinion) the inevitable developement

standards."

156

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[Facsimile]

rfie£f Hg^%£^^

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THE SOUL'S ADVENTURE In the result, Whitman's position

not a

negation of authority but a higher affirmation.

The immediacy of the soul's relation to God is the centre from which Whitman looks out upon the world. The radiance of the Infinite burns in the discrete forms

of the

finite.

The

light of

God's counten-

ance illumines the path of men.

this

light

Whitman

facts

of experience as they are presented to

his scrutiny.

philosophy.

endeavors to interpret the

His

religion determines his

The name that should be given

to his philosophy case,

even

not important in

if exact definition

his

were possible.

Whitman expressly ordains himself "loos'd of limits and imaginary lines "

"Who

cognizes no bounds. thest

for I

would go

;

he re-

has gone far-

farther."

Moreover,

the accepted labels of the schools do not fit

precisely

Whitman was physician.

this

speculative

wayfarer.

a thinker but not a meta-

He was

versed in Oriental mysi57

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ticism,

and he was familiar with the

results

of German speculation, notably the work of Hegel. But he was in no sense a professional student of the history of thought.

man

got his philosophy where every

finally gets his

in his life

own,

if it

counts practically

namely, out of himself. In

;

its

philosophic aspect, " Leaves of Grass "

to be regarded rather as a contribution to-

ward

world-view than

physical system; for

as a definite

Whitman

meta-

does not

attempt to formulate a philosophy.

merely puts himself on record, what he thinks and

feels, for

the most part in rather

inconsequent and haphazard fashion.

comes

takes experience as

simply, and he sets

down

forest in

;

his reaction.

He does

holds himself passive. to seek occasion

to him, quite

comes

not go out

to him.

draws the rain by subtle influences

response to

Whitman, by confronting

its

need of nutriment, so

force of his very courage in

life,

by the magnetism of 158

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his

;

THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

compelling sincerity, attracts

His

to himself.

faith

world-order does not

and

itself is a prayer,

fail

experience

all

and the

great

;

him.

The need

God

answers

it.

the unfolding vistas he reads the revelation.

vast

Rondure, swimming

Cover' d

all

in space,

over with visible power and beauty,

Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness,

Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars above,

Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees,

With

inscrutable purpose,

some hidden prophetic

in-

tention,

Now first

seems

thought begins to span thee.

Consequent upon

his receptive attitude

follows the seeming chaos of his world of

impression, for he takes things as they

happen, without selection or effort toward arrangement. But as he

immediate

registering each

emotion in

fact or

all fidelity,

then experience begins to widen and deepen gradually

shapes

itself

more and more

into an ordered, purposeful whole.

'59

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Though

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN he does not attempt to systematize, his words, ever faithful to the fact they represent,

become surcharged with

What he cess.

sets

His

down

fluid

implications.

philosophy in pro-

thought, embracing the

increasingly remote, diverse regions of cir-

cumstance and emotion, penetrates appear-

ances.

a noiseless, patient spider, to

explore the "vacant vast surrounding,"

launches forth filament after filament out

of itself, so his soul, surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans

of space, ceaselessly

musing, venturing, seeks the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

you

need be form'd,

will

till

the ductile

anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread

you

fling catch

somewhere

soul.

Finally thus he achieves the end of the soul's quest, the vision of

The

God.

realization of the instant presence

of God, in Nature and in the spirit of man, 1 60

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THE transfigures

life.

universe, the

the

Whitman

the objective world, in It is all

spirituality.

in the sense,

felt

" soul."

Not

however, that Whitman denies

the reality of matter.

have

interprets the

of consciousness and

facts

phenomena of

terms of

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

Few men,

indeed,

vividly and powerfully the

compulsions of the physical world. " The physical and the sensuous, in themselves or in their immediate continuations,"

man wrote in 1876, "retain me which I think are never leas'd

;

and those holds

holds

Whit-

upon

entirely re-

have not only

not denied, but hardly wish'd to weaken."

Actual direct contact with things

nourishment to him, and is

immense. Philosophically,

signs to matter

its

;

cosmic whole and

Matter and

fullest

also,

he as-

just valuation in the

universal scheme. Matter

nied or ignored

his delight in

it is

not to be de-

necessary to the

inseparable from

spirit are

it.

not contrasted and

irreconcilable opposites, but rather they are 161

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN mutually complementary. " Lack one lacks both, and the unseen

proved by the

way or another Whitman

seen." In one

and again that " the soul

affirms again

Even his unrecommunion with God does not

not more than the body." mitted

withdraw him from the material, objective world, but impels him the it.

more deeply

For with Whitman, God

into

hardly to be

conceived apart from His concrete manifestations.

man

Though

deals very

comes

him

keen thinker, WhitLife

in abstractions.

little

as sensation

and image

;

apprehends the universal as everywhere particularized in the single instance.

perience builds itself

for

him

cession of kaleidoscopic sights

as a suc-

and sounds

and contacts, which he absorbs with very body.

luxuriates in

elemental abandon.

The

Ex-

his

them with

richness and in-

exhaustible variety of these riotous shows

brims the measure of his joy, and he

moved

to cry, out of the fullness of the 162

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THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

beauty and power of things that

The

earth,

sufficient

But Whitman Though he thus tire

does not rest just there. assigns to matter

en-

its

emphasis, yet he recognizes equally an-

other principle, which gives the whole

its

meaning. Having looked

at the objects

the universe, he finds that there

" no one

nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul."

"the

will

make

spiritual corresponding."

the

poems of materials,

objective world of matter reality.

But

it is

not

mediate. Its function

final is

;

for they

be the most spiritual poems.

are to

spirituality, the

he demands of material ob-

translatress," jects

Invoking "

The

an undeniable its

character

embody the soul,

impart individuality to the universal in

particular manifestations.

its

Whitman's prim-

ary assumption in respect to the external

world

" the temporary use of materials for

identity's sake." finite

The condition of the soul's

existence in the individual 163

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the body.

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN the joy of

soul leaning pois'd

identity through materials

itself,

receiving

and loving them, ob-

serving characters and absorbing them,

soul vibrated back to

from them, from

sight,

hearing, touch, reason, articulation, compari-

memory, and the

son,

The

real life

senses

and

like,

and

senses

flesh transcending

flesh.

In Whitman's sense of it, the objects of the material world are

more than merely

limited and passive symbols. So convinced is

he of the actuality of the soul, that mys-

tically

he imputes consciousness even to

inanimate things. 1

swear I think

now

that every thing without exception

has an eternal soul

The

trees have,

sea

rooted in the ground

have

the

weeds of the

the animals

He hears the redwood tree murmuring out of its myriad leaves, and You For

untold I

know

life

this

is its

chant

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of me,

I bear the soul befitting

me,

I too

have con-

sciousness, identity,

And all the rocks

and mountains have, and

all

the earth.

Only so, by virtue of this common element of soul in which all things share, can 164

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THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

he explain the response which his

meets in Nature.

The

spirit

air that serves

him

with breath to speak, the objects that

call

from diffusion

his

meanings and give them

shape, the light that wraps him and all things in delicate equable showers, the paths in the irregular hollows

worn

by the roadside, he

believes they are " latent with unseen existences," they are so dear to him. Practically

feels his

kinship with the engaging

forms of the outer world. Reflection discovers that the link and the soul. It

bond of union

through the soul,

also, that

man is enabled to apprehend the Infinite. Were it not for this capacity and power, the sheer conception of God would overwhelm the finitude of man. Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of

At Nature and

its

wonders,

God,

Time and Space and

Death, But that

I, turning, call to

thee

soul, thou actual

And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs, Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death, And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space. 165

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

Me,

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN In Whitman's cosmos, therefore, the essential reality

names

it,

is spirit,

the soul. It

or, as

he more often

not a metaphysical

abstraction, but a present

and immediate

commonplace

actuality. Just this familiar

world of everyday experience

mani-

its

festation.

Was somebody See, your own

asking to see the soul

shape and countenance, persons, sub-

stances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers, the

rocks and sands.

Philosophically regarded, the soul

the

absolute within the relative, and compre-

hends

it.

universal.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

It links the individual with the

in the being

its

of man, in the

"fains, rivers, trees,

of skies and

separate manifestations,

stars,

life

of continents and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

it still

through

dis-

figured forth as eidolons.

This conception serves as " light entrance-song for

ments

seas,

remains of one

essence. Its various activities crete forms are

of mourrt-

all."

to the circle,

and

and gathers up every 1

Digitized

for all

It unites the seg-

by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

Out

single unit of each life into a whole.

of the hues and objects of the world eidolons.

The visible is

rise

but their womb of

birth. Materials, ever-changing, crumbling,

recohering,

body them

The outward

forth.

forms of wealth and strength and beautyexpress them. at

The

eidolon

once the animating

mood, the

the ideal,

of the

spirit

artist's

scholar's studies, the toils of

martyr and of hero, and also the end which their efforts seek to accomplish.

the

soul's mate, the real I myself, which gives

purport to the body. It life

of life, the entity of

lon," therefore,

the permanent

By " eido-

entities.

Whitman seems

what Plato meant by "Idea."

to It

mean is

the

archetypal pattern, spiritual in essence, and eternal, to

which material

its

momentary

and shifting moulds endeavors to conform.

Yet with

this difference

from Plato, that

whereas the Platonic Idea nally,

Whitman's eidolon

progressive. 167

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

static eter-

dynamic and

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Ever the dim beginning, Ever the growth, the rounding of the

Ever the summit and the merge

circle,

at last, (to surely start

again,)

Eidolons! eidolons!

From

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the old, old urge,

Based on the ancient pinnacles,

lo,

newer, higher pin-

nacles,

From

science and the

Unfixed yet

modern

still

impell'd.

they sweep the present

fixed,

The prophet and

to the infinite future.

the bard, in higher stages yet, shall

mediate to the modern, shall pret,

God and its

idealism of

application. all

ages,

far-reach-

common

with

postulates spirit as

the universal principle. But, further,

man

inter-

still

eidolons.

This conception of eidolons ing in

still

brings his speculation into

Whit-

harmony

with the most advanced thought of his time, in that trine

it allies

of evolution.

itself

with the doc-

It allows for progress

in the continuous self-realization of

through the world. 1

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God

this conception,

by MicrosoftÂŽ

THE also,

SOUL'S

Whitman

ADVENTURE

resolves the paradox of the

finite division of the infinite, of separate

identity within the universal.

aware

of eternity, but he does not deny the

ment.

The

individual

mo-

once bounded

and boundless, limited by identity but limitless in possibilities.

Man

infinite past into the finite

rises

out of an

being and

mo-

ment of the present, and straightway he looks toward an infinite future,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

beginning and the merge

" to surely

start again."

individuality does

dim

essential conflict.

not

another, for " there can be any

supremes."

the

Because of the fluid character

of eidolons, there

One

at last,

Though

countervail

number of

capable of endless

modifications and progressive manifestations, the soul

The are

remains constant in essence.

shifting forms of the objective world

one with the divine, eternal Being.

Matter and

Spirit,

Nature and Man,

are

" disjoin'd and diffused no more," but are gathered up in the all-fusing One. 169

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN In

this interpretation

perience, unity.

it is

of the data of ex-

easy to postulate the cosmic

Distinctions and the innumerable

diverse problems of finite

human existence The

are resolved in the " idea of the All."

world needs, says Whitman, "a class of bards

who

will,

now and

ever, so link

and

tally

the rational physical being of man with the

ensembles of time and space, and with

this

vast and multiform show, Nature, surround-

ing him, ever tantalizing him, equally a part,

and yet not a part of him, harmonize, is

satisfy,

as to essentially

and put at

the goal of man's search.

rest."

The

Unity

artist la-

bors for unity in each single composition.

The scientist observes,

describes, analyzes,

and formulates,

hope of penetrating

to the one

in the

Law of Laws. The thinker strives

to reconcile opposites

and to embrace

things in a unity of thought.

The religious

consciousness finds the solution of

blems and the in the soul's

satisfaction

union with God. 170

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

all

its

pro-

longings

;

THE When

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

the full-grown poet came,

Out spake pleased Nature, (the round impassive with

all its

globe,

shows of day and night, ) saying,

mine;

But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled, Nay, he

— Then

mine alone;

the full-grown poet stood between the two, and

took each by the hand;

And to-day and ever

so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly

holding hands,

Which he will never

release until

he reconciles the two,

•And wholly and joyously blends them.

This

the philosophic task which Whit-

man, consciously practice,

as a poet, undertakes. In

he harmonizes

life

by bringing

all

the facts of experience into relation with his

own

identity.

absorbs

all

objects, all

existences, as they play across his tempera-

ment.

Of them, one and all,

he weaves the

song of himself. " I see in myself and them

He takes the world both

thesameoldlaw." as

many and as one.

Life is made up of parts

"time, always without break, indicates self in parts."

But the

single fact

it-

linked

with the universal whole, and the present 171

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN. The

instant pulses forward into eternity.

secret of Whitman's reconciling interpreta-

tion

that he accepts the parts as parts,

not as isolated, independent fragments ; and always with implied reference to the whole.

" The diverse

shall

be no less diverse, but

they shall flow and unite

The

— they

unite now."

idea of the All, which links the parts

in a universal

common

relationship, gives

them meaning. Whitman apprehends the enclosing circle; and any point within it, any phenomenon, is defined and interpreted

by reference keep

able to

to the circumference.

So he

his bearings, as he steers his

course through the drifting shows of expe-

His purpose

rience.

To To

compact you, ye parted, diverse

lives,

put rapport the mountains and rocks and streams,

And

the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and pine,

With you

soul.

The common element in all material ituality

— brings

—

infinity within reach

172

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spir-

of his

THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

He does notdoubtthat "the majesty

hand.

and beauty of the world are latent in any iota of the world."

The whole cosmos

em-

braced and revealed, by implication, in any fraction

Hence

of space or divided moment of time.

supreme reliance on the universe

his

He is master of continents and seas, he is lord of the day and of all days. He deas

it is.

clares

himself " an acme of things accom-

plished and an encloser of things to be."

He stands time. yields

at the centre

Here and now to up its meaning.

In this cosmic unity rily

of all space and

the soul the world

Whitman

necessa-

recognizes the operation of law.

vital principle

all

One

or energy works through the

universe, manifesting itself in infinitely di-

verse ways.

To discover these workings and

to describe their

ways

the task of science.

In so far as science reveals more of order

and of wonder in the world, Whitman eagerly accepts

its

acknowledges the service to i73

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gladly

human

living

conclusions.

by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN accomplished by the efforts of investigators in every field of inquiry.

He salutes the lexi-

cographer and grammarian, the chemist, the pioneer voyagers, the geologist, the biologist,

and the mathematician,

with him

in the great quest.

does not rest in the

They are

facts

as co-workers

But the poet

of the

scientist.

not his dwelling; but by them he

enters an area of his dwelling.

For his words

are less the reminders of properties told than

the reminders oflifeuntold. Positive science

and exact demonstration, these are the starting-point whence he launches into the mysteries.

real,

for."

" There is," he says, " a phase of the

lurking behind the real, which

it is all

Joy fully accepting modern science and

loyally following

without the slightest

hesitation, he conceives " still a higher flight,

the eternal soul of

man, (of all else too,) the

Faith has been " scared away by science," but now faith is

spiritual, the religious."

by the cooperation of science to be restored. Mystical as

Whitman's

religious experi-

"74

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THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

ence, therefore, he facts

still keeps close to the of earth. Conceding everything to sci-

ence that

fullest

demands

for itself, he yet out

knowledge declares that " the su-

preme and

final science is the science

God."

The

recognition of law in the universe

does not lessen the wonder of life but rather

enhances its

it.

simplest,

than in as a

its

Whitman most

sees the world, in

familiar processes

less

far-flung governance of the stars,

never-ending miracle.

Why, who makes much of a miracle ? to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether

dart

walk the

streets

of Manhattan,

sight over the roofs

of houses toward the

sky,

Or wade with naked

feet along the

beach just in the

edge of the water,

Or Or

stand under trees in the woods, talk

by day with any one at

I love, or sleep in the

bed

night with any one I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with the rest, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon, 175

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;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet

and bright,

the exquisite delicate thin curve of the

new moon

in spring

These with the

The whole

one and

all,

be here,

it is

miracles,

and in

its

place.

wonderful to breathe, to see,

wonderful to

be.

Each new day

wonder, each experience tion.

are to

wonderful to depart, wonderful to

It is

rest,

referring, yet each distinct

new

a larger revela-

In his fresh reception of

life,

amazed

and delighted, Whitman has the heart of

At the same time he realizes, to the fullest capacity of a mature mind, how deep is the mystery, how great God is. Whitman a child.

does not solve the mystery; instead, he

propounds mystery. His very sense of the greatness of what

of his

own

is still

greatness.

beyond

The wonder

mark is

re-

vealed to him, not because he has thought little, but because he has felt so much. This insight into the mysteriousness of

176

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THE common

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

things, this sense of -the wonder-

fulness of being, sanctifies the whole of life,

and

issues in

worship and joy.

The practical consequence of Whitman's interpretation of

an immense and

life is

unshakable optimism. Superficially

seem that the is

basis

constituted harmoniously.

senses extraordinarily

attuned, so great

and

his delight in

exclaim,

may

In exceptional meas-

purely physical.

ure he

of his joy of the world

keen and perfectly

his

it,

With

abounding health

that he

moved

"All comes by the body, only

you rapport with the universe." This is true as far as it goes. But Whitman takes a step beyond, when he says, " The earth shall surely be complete to him or her health puts

who fully

shall

be complete."

interpret

life

and aright taxes the powers of the

whole man. In the end, Whitman's assurance of the ultimate worth of things a facile

optimism nor cheaply bought. 177

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not

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN had stir

" the abrupt curious questionings within him ; and he had his dark hours felt

when he " ebb'd with the ocean of

life."

would not have compassed the circuit of human experience, if he had not sounded these depths. ant.

The

But

his faith rises

triumph-

knowledge of God

sure

closed to his vision furnishes

dis-

him the

in-

terpreting and reconciling principle. Give

God

to sing that thought,

Give me, give him or her In

Thy

I love this

quenchless faith,

ensemble, whatever else withheld withhold not

from us, Belief in plan of

Thee

enclosed in

Time and

Space,

Health, peace, salvation universal.

God

"enclosed in

Time and Space";

the Infinite manifests itself in and through all finite

Taken

forms.

all

The

parts are but parts.

together, the universe

God.

man may attach to it, whether good or evil as man Every

part, therefore,

conceives

it,

whatever value

equally the expression of

the divine substance. In this faith, as see178

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THE ing

things from the point of view of the

all

Universal, Whitman is

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

no imperfection

able to say, " There

and can be

in the present

none in the future." His doctrine of present perfection is

means

ought to

does not " cause she

thing

what

it is

its

call

everything

when taken on its own own standards. He

be,

terms and tried by

this, that

its

the tortoise unworthy be-

not something else." Every-

perfect in the measure that in the total scheme,

and so

appointed destiny. That which

period and place leaf

of grass

work of the "what called

time,

bad

stars."

called is

less

than the journey-

perfect,

and what

the same

quite recognizes the appar-

ent dualism of the world,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the contrasts,

object and subject, evil

matter and

spirit,

and good

but he knows that

;

fills its

this sense, therefore,

just as perfect."

Whitman

equal to any, and " a

good

fulfills

finally these

opposites are not irreconcilable.

not seek to escape evil by denying 179

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

does

its

ob-

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN jective real existence

merge the finite

self,

and by attempting

through negation, into

an Absolute Being which content.

emptied of all

does not affirm that evil

form of good. Whitman boldly grips just as

ing

it is,

as a reality

as evil,

clear vision

evil

and in recogniz-

;

he so transcends

it.

he discerns differences

apprehends a unity deeper than ence.

;

With but he

all differ-

is actual, but it is finite and " Only the good is universal."

Evil

partial.

If Whitman's theoretical optimism seems at times

somewhat too resolute to be wholly

convincing, yet in practice he does not ig-

nore the evils of

them. In the

life

spirit

or seek to equivocate

of a messiah, he takes

upon himself all the sufferings and sins of men. There is no meanness, no shame, no agony, that

may

all.

accepts

not be imputed to him.

this

matter

no abstract philosopher.

reason about evil until

ment and phantom, or

Digitized

Whitman does not

becomes a

mere term

by MicrosoftÂŽ

fig-

in a

THE

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

syllogism. Evil

man knows what it is to own experience and in His

others.

practical

suffer,

both in

his

the sufferings of

sympathy

bound-

Patient, tender, compassionate, he

less.

looks out world.

upon

the sorrows of the

all

He sees, hears,and is silent. Though

he knows that sin

is sin,

—

it is

—

obscured, or theorized away,

not judge.

not to be

yet he does

Man

who was brought

be-

the transcendent

Sorrows said to her fore

Whit-

a bitter reality.

him for judgment, " Neither do

con-

demn thee " so Whitman says to the fallen one, " Not till the sun excludes you do I ;

exclude you." pities,

less is

loves.

" like the light

And

falling

loving, he

around

a help-

This attitude of acceptance

thing."

one with the divine principle, which

allows for evil, in awaiting the evolution

of the good. realize

itself

Opposition

In process, the good can only

by overcoming

evil.

the necessary condition of

growth. 181

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by Microsoft®

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Growth, therefore, the

Things

finite.

the explanation of

them-

are complete in

selves, yet lead onward. "

Do you

suppose

I could be content with

all if I

thought

them

their

own

finale

the cosmic scheme,

" In his survey of

Whitman

postulates

perfection and allows for progress. In

this

Amid

broad earth of ours, the measureless grossness

Enclosed and

and the

slag,

safe within its central heart,

Nestles the seed perfection.

In the whole range of

finite things, there

no part but contains within itself the " by every life a germ of its perfection, is

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

share or

or less "

velopment. But as ical

;

and

awaits de-

evident in the phys-

world, so also in the moral

life

and

the spiritual realm, development can

only through

Hence

"it

opposition

and

come

struggle.

provided in the essence of

things that from any fruition of success,

no matter what, thing to

make

shall

come

forth some-

a greater struggle

182

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

neces-

THE

Whitman

sary."

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

versality of the

rests his case

He does

germ of good.

ignore the portentous fact of to

minimize

justify

it.

its

actuality

Victory

may

;

or seek

evil,

but he

not

able to

the outcome of con-

tending forces. Virtue position.

on the uni-

won through op-

He perceives, therefore, that evil must

be, indeed

good.

Roaming

verse,

he sees the

be, transmuted into

thought over the uni-

little

that

Good steadily

hastening toward immortality, and the vast all

that

itself

called Evil hastening to

and become

lost

merge

and dead. The pur-

port and end of the whole cosmic scheme, as

Whitman interprets The central reality, of the universe tial

it, is

spiritual

primal and ultimate,

the soul. For

flows to the permanent; for

to the ideal tends.

growth.

The

soul

it, it,

the parthe real

the

mean-

ing of the "mystic evolution." This is the " guiding thread so fine along the mighty labyrinth." In the light of future but certain attainment,

Whitman triumphs 183

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

over

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN the sufferings of the present time, which are not

worthy

glory which are saved

compared with the

to be

be revealed in us.

shall

by hope. " For the earnest ex-

pectation of the creature waiteth for the

manifestation of the sons of

God."

Secure in the assurance that there

purpose

makes

in the

world and that

for good,

front calmly

problem of

Whitman

this

purpose

able to con-

and victoriously the ultimate life,

—

the meaning of death.

Manifestly, the perfection that he conceives as the purport of the universe, the goal all

endeavor, and the justification of

and

evil, is

strife

not to be achieved in the one

brief span of years

upon

the earth. With-

out the "exquisite transition of death " and the promise of immortality, what life

call

would be vain indeed. Development,

Continuity, Immortality, Transformation,

—

this is

static

Whitman's formula. Life

but progressive. It

plained from within on

its

own

184

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by Microsoft®

not

not to be explane. Its

THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

unlocked only by a key which is beyond life. " All I see and know, I believe

secret

have

main purport

its

be supplied." For

death and " entrance to

grounds."

illimitable

there

it is

this

will yet

key

sovereign, dim,

its

In this

no breach. Death

but a change;

what

Whitman,

transition

not cessation

not the end, but only a

new beginning. Toward this unfolding and release all life tends. I have .

Is to

dream' d that the purpose and essence of the

known

life,

the transient,

form and decide identity

for the

unknown

life,

the permanent.

Whitman mortality. its

does not attempt to prove im-

He asserts

certainty

His conviction of

it.

intuitive,

but vivid to the

point that leaves no room for question. mortality

Im-

the presupposition of his entire

experience of

life,

and

its

interpretation.

This conception determines his way of thinking, and " from the first, and so on throughout,

more or

less

185

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

lurks

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN underneath every page, every

writings, line,

everywhere." Immortality resolves

problems of the

The

finite plane.

all

world

has no meaning, on any other terms. So certain

claims, I

—

he of

swear I think there

That the

preparation

all

and

life

nothing but immortality!

scheme

exquisite

for it

it is

for

identity

for

—

for it!

not a philosophic

more than

a faith. It

a boy, the vision

him

in the

reft

of his mate.

loss.

— and

certitude of the beneficence

of death's ministry

reality.

and the nebulous

it,

and materials are altogether

Whitman's postulate;

for

and the cohering

float is for it,

And

necessity that he ex-

its

had come to

symbol of the mocking-bird be-

sees love

banceaby

He questions the night and the stars.

Then on

the island shore, in the flicker

of the sagging yellow moon, the rustle of the

sea,

blending with the wail of the

bird, whispers the

low and delicious word,

death. 1

Digitized

by Microsoft®

)

THE Which

do not

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S forget,

But fuse the song of my dusky demon and brother,

That he sang

on Paumanok's

in the moonlight

gray beach,

With

the thousand responsive songs at random,

My own And

songs awaked from that hour,

with them the

key,

the

word up from

the

waves,

The word of the

sweetest song and

That strong and

delicious

all

songs,

word which,

creeping to

feet,

(Or

some old crone rocking the

cradle,

swathed in

sweet garments, bending aside,

The

me.

sea whisper' d

month upon weary month, Whitman hourly bowed before the "dark mother always gliding near with In the war-hospitals,

soft feet."

In the generous years that re-

mained to him following the War, he himself dwelt in the Valley of the Shadow. But his

thought mounted thence to the supreme

of vision and poetic utterance, meditating the mighty themes of God and heights

im mortality finest

Throughout

his

work, his

passages are those inspired by his re-

ligious passion

and those

which he chants

187

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Here

the praise of death.

truth and beauty

blend in a paean of exaltation, and from

summit he

the

Come

calls,

—

lovely and soothing death,

Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, In the day, in the night, to Sooner or

all,

arriving,

to each,

later delicate death.

Prais'd be the fathomless universe,

For

and joy, and

life

And

for objects

sweet .love

for love,

—

and knowledge curious,

but praise! praise! praise!

For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death.

Dark mother always

Have none chanted Then I chant it for

gliding near with soft feet,

for thee a chant

I bring thee a song that

come

it is

fullest

welcome 1 all,

when thou must indeed come,

unfalteringly.

Approach strong

When

thee, I glorify thee above

so,

deliveress,

when

thou hast taken them I joyously

sing the dead,

Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee,

Laved

in the flood of thy bliss

From me Dances

death.

to thee glad serenades,

for thee I

and

propose saluting thee, adornments

feastings for thee,

188

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THE And

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

the sights of the open landscape and the high-

spread sky are

And

and the

life

fitting,

fields,

and the huge and thoughtful

night.

The night in silence under many a star, The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose know,

voice I

And

the soul turning to thee

vast

and well -veil'

death,

And

body

the

Over the Over the

gratefully nestling close to thee.

tree-tops I float thee a song, rising

fields

and sinking waves, over the myriad

and the

prairies

Over the dense-pack'd

wide,

cities

all

and the teeming

wharves and ways, I float this carol

In the

with joy, with joy to thee

Whitman approximates teaching of Jesus. More than

any other prophet,

and genius

seer,

history of the race, Jesus

The

revelation

marks

festation

his

among

in the

had the secret of

and immediacy of

fullness

uniqueness

Whitman

death.

result,

the essential

God.

his

primacy and absolute

the sons of men. I hold

to be a later and lesser mani-

of the

spirit

that was

189

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him.

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Whitman,

too, was granted the beatific

In the light and the strength of

vision.

this revelation

felt

himself free of for-

mulas and creeds.

walked with God.

Announcing the message

so intrusted to

him, he ventured to regard himself as a

chosen prophet, recognizing, however, that

he in his turn was not are yet to

come

final,

announce anew the glad

Inevitably, he was conscious of his

tidings.

spiritual kinship with the spirit to

but that others

Master. "

yours, dear brother," he exclaims,

not mind because

many sounding your name do

not

understand you, I

do not sound your name, but

I specify

you with joy

and

to salute those

since,

That we

all

O my

and those

I understand you,

comrade to

who are with

come

salute you,

you, before and

also,

labor together transmitting the same charge

and succession,

We We,

few equals

indifferent of lands, indifferent of times,

enclosers of all

all

continents,

all castes,

allowers of

theologies,

Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,

190

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THE We

ADVENTURE

SOUL'S

walk unheld,

the whole earth over, journey-

free,

ing up and

down

till

mark upon time and Till

and

saturate time

we make

eras, that the

of races, ages to come,

lovers as

not in his

our ineffaceable

the diverse eras,

may

men and women

prove brethren and

are.

own person

that

Whitman

speaks thus, but as the simple vehicle of

The

the spirit of God.

equality ascribed

not to be imputed to the individual.

The

greatness of the revelation, taking posses-

makes

sion of his soul, equal.

the matchless beauty It

its

prophets

achieved in

and purity of Jesus.

enough that a ray of this glory fell upon and

a later seer life

all

Its fullest expression is

its

radiance transfigured

for him.

The

great fact about

Walt Whitman,

gathering

all

ments of

his

tremendous personality into

the incredibly varied ele-

one inclusive unity of purpose and expression, this,

and making "the whole coincide,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that he was

bring to

men

given to the world to

a revelation

of God.

191

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What

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Jesus expressed in completeness for

Whitman

time,

and

new

for a

reality

presence of God.

From

to the

central

immediate

his experience is the

this follows

controlling motive of his life,

God

The

generation.

all

own phrases

reaffirms in his

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

men and women

the

to interpret

of his own

day, in terms of America and democracy of

the nineteenth century. Necessarily, there is

much

in his teaching that

But

local.

this

partial

necessary emphasis

and

upon

conditions that are finite and merely tem-

porary need not deflect or obscure the essentials

of his experience and doctrine that

are of universal validity

and

application.

Courageously he embarks upon the soul's adventure, unfalteringly he pursues the quest, triumphantly he brings It

its issue.

granted him to see God. Realizing

the oneness of his spirit with God's in

spirit,

joy and thankfulness he becomes an in-

strument of God's manifestation of self to

men.

Him-

He renounces all private inter192

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THE estSj

SOUL'S

he surrenders

ADVENTURE

his individual will to the

universal will, and in his special way, ac-

cording to his capacity and powers, he devotes his

life

to the cause.

himself the freedom from

—

all

secures for

private

divesting himself of the holds that would

hold him,

him

— which

go out

makes

all

men

and sustaining

passion

unto him,

possible for

equally in

love.

said

Behold, thy mother and thy

brethren

And

{

Who is my mother

And

he looked round

answered them, saying,

com-

"They

brethren without seek for thee.'

ties,

about on them which sat about him, and said,

Behold

ren!'" So there

man

denies his practical sympathy and lov-

,ing helpfulness.

my brethone to whom Whit-

mother and

God

and the

Love

the secret.

Love

in the heart, possessing the will life,

and love of

all

creatures, ex-

And Whitman

pressed in service.

has the

secret.

Religion and

life

are one. '93

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This

what

;

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN means

the soul's adventure

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Whitman,

absolute, joyous, and unquestioning de-

votion of one's self to the cause, the merging

private interests in universal ends,

all

a triumphant, sustaining faith in

God,

and immediate and unremitted commun-

Him.

ion with

man, he sends up and of praise All

battered, wrecked, old a

song of consecration

God.

emprises have been

speculations,

fill'd

with Thee,

begun and carried on

plans,

thoughts of Thee, Sailing the

deep or journeying the land for Thee

Intentions, purports, aspirations mine, leaving results

Thee.

Results are indeed with God. It

not for

the individual himself to assess the value

his

achievement.

But the supreme to

him

that at the

One With

does not know.

of the worth of

test

life

has been apportioned him,

end he can thank

more, rny

effort

That Thou

altar this bleak

O God my

life

God

for

it.

sand

hast lighted,

ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,

194

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;

THE

SOUL'S

ADVENTURE

Light rare untellable, lighting the very light,

Beyond

all signs,

For that

descriptions, languages

God, be

latest

word, here on

knees,

Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee.

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

TO YOU I

man who,

sauntering along without folly stop-

ping, turns a casual look

upon you and then

averts his face,

Leaving

you

to prove

and define

it,

Expecting the main things from you.

open The beckons

road to which

Whitman

has brought us along devi-

ous ways. Through

evil

in victory balanced

by defeat, we have

and through good, at-

tended the great companion with mingled faith

and questionings. Obscured by

torting shadows, he has us, only to

dis-

seemed to elude

emerge again into strange and

splendid light. But this towering gray ure, with the scars of the years

fig-

upon him,

radiant with assured majesty, inspires confidence;

and we have trusted him, though

are not sure

quite understand him.

Manifestly, there

single formula

196

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

TO YOU Whitman.

for

the measureless tan-

gled undergrowth has parted to reveal the heights

of vision

and achievement, so

Whitman's own nature violent contrasts.

compounded of At moments he is grosslyis

physical in his assertion of the natural

but

it is

fibre

man;

equally evident that the essential

of his being

and pluck forever

" Muscle

spiritual.

" he cries

;

but the same

stanza ends with the line, "

Nothing en-

dures but personal qualities."

He believes

"the

flesh

and the appetites "

;

and yet

the central reality of the whole universe for

him

all

assaults

fectly

the soul. His arrogance

upon

matched by

his personality

among is

per-

his humility of spirit in

the presence of God's manifestations of

His mysterious way. Absolutely unconstrained

and inconsiderate

onward movement he

in his irresistible

through

experience,

mastered by a tenderness that passes

the love of

woman. His

ness of himself

and of

acute conscious-

his original relation

197

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN him into

to things betrays

know Whitman

a pose

;

but to

be convinced

at all is to

of his entire singleness of purpose and

immense

sincerity.

this counterplay of

contradictory forces, one fact

For

able.

his

unmistak-

Whitman

better or worse,

tremendous, incalculable power.

Imping-

ing on the character of his reader with a persuasive pressure that said,

not to be gain-

he leaves no one passive or indif-

ferent. titanic

impossible to confront this

energy without submitting, for the

moment

at least, to its positiveness

inherent authority.

himself

The

reader

may

and

wrest

be the more confirmed in

free, to

own manner of life. It cannot be helped. Whitman is content merely to affirm himhis

self,

just as he

or disguise. his life as

it is

is,

without embellishment

enough

for

him

apportioned him, to follow

where the way

leads.

Lest there be any

misunderstanding in the matter, the

to live

new person drawn 198

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you

are

to him, he gives

by MicrosoftÂŽ

TO YOU you

fair

warning, before you attempt him

further, that he

but

not what you supposed,

Defining thus the prob-

far different.

able terms of his companionship, he offers

But the choice remains

himself freely.

The issue

open.

of the encounter he com-

mits imperatively and unreservedly to you.

For

himself,

Whitman

asks only to be

by experience. His appeal

tested direct.

acterizes his

own

life

char-

contact with the world

he communicates in his poetry all

That vivid immediacy which

distance instantly to you.

now

A big,

Whitman

con-

from out

crete, living personality flashes

the printed page.

across

not pro-

fessionally a poet.

dainty dolce affettuoso I,

Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck' d, forbidding, I have arrived,

be wrestled with as

I-

pass for the solid prizes

of the

universe,

For such

This of an

I afford

whoever can persevere

win them.

not the voice of some idle singer

empty day. Here speaks 199

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man

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN

And

the flesh. aesthetic

what he

enjoyment:

offers

nothing

it is

no mere less

than

the stern, rough, but rapturous actualities

use

some medium of communication; but he

in his poetry

the

way

will

have nothing hang

between himself and

like a curtain

you, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " not

hand. Necessarily he must

at first

life

even the richest curtains."

asks that his performance be tried by

Nature and the elementary If you would understand

laws.

to the heights or water-

shore,

The

nearest gnat tion of

The

an explanation, and a drop or mo-

waves a key,

maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second

words.

He intends that his poems shall be " a book separate, not link'd with the rest nor felt

by the No

intellect."

shutter' d

room

But roughs and

He this

or school can

little

promises that

will stop

day and night, we

origin of

all

commune with me,

children better than they.

poems

Digitized

;

and

with him

shall possess the this,

by MicrosoftÂŽ

we come

; ;

TO YOU see, is

not to master the accomplishment

of verse, but to be "

There

Have you

faithful to things."

no hint here of

art for art's sake.

reckon' d that the landscape took substance

and form

that

Or men and women

might be painted

that they

in a picture f

might be written

of,

and

songs sung?

morning-glory

window satisfies him more than the metaphysics of books and "the cow crunching with depress'd his

head surpasses any statue." Life surably rich in and of reach of words. earth springs a

The

immea-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beyond

itself,

press of his foot to the

hundred

scorn the best he can

affections,

which

to relate them.

The words of his book he

conceives to be

nothing, but " the drift of

everything "

he means that untold latencies shall to every page.

pression, his

the

When

thrill

he does achieve ex-

words communicate the very

sensation of the thing

itself.

rhythm of the unquiet

sea,

He catches the

and he emulates

the melodious character of the earth

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;

his

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN verses breathe the tonic fragrance of ocean,

and touch us as with the caress of the sunset breeze. " Leaves of Grass " is an excursion into ble

life

takes us

through woods and

morning ram-

fields,

animate with

myriad presences and vocal with sounds;

all

natural

an afternoon saunter down

Broadway with and against the great human tides, or a ties

glimpse at

and occupations ;

into the night, in

many it is

diverse activi-

a lonely venture

communion of spirit

with

you,

the eloquent silence of the stars.

whoever you sage,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

life,

are, this is

"immense

and power," but ways You

at first

shall

in passion, pulse,

immediately and

al-

hand.

not look through

things from

You

life

Whitman's mes-

eyes either, nor take

me,

shall listen to all sides

and

filter

them from your-

self.

So Whitman defines himself

less as a

poet or as a teacher than as an influence.

first

he imposes by sheer

Digitized

scale.

by MicrosoftÂŽ

The in-

TO YOU tense positiveness of his personality and

the magnitude of his compass coerce and

overwhelm.

But unaccountably, we are him as well. More potent than

drawn to

his assertiveness,

range of his thought,

inclusive than the his love.

Once we

yield to

him

flood of

sympathy with which he would

at all,

envelop us.

authority,

his

we cannot

wins our assent, not by

but by the nobility and

beauty of the ideal he embodies.

by contagion. sents,

escape the

The

which use

ideals

He works

which he repre-

his personality as their

instrument of expression, the ideals love, of

sympathy, of the culture of the

and

self in order to a larger self-devotion

fuller service in the cause, these ideals are

communicated to us to modify the very fibre

of our character. If we read

aright, is

it is

Whitman

not to become his disciples

in ourselves to be love

and

service.

;

The

external details of his experience were special

him

an individual. 203

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The outcome

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN of that experience plication.

him.

They become

so far as he

them

capable of general ap-

Whitman's makes

results are true for

true for the reader in

trial

of them and finds

to be the expression also of his

own

nature. It is Whitman's attitude rather than his acts, it is his

method rather than

clusions, that finally counts.

ment, however,

may

his con-

For the mo-

help toward a tenta-

tive estimate of Whitman's significance, to

formulate his teaching with reference to

its

general application, remembering that when all is said,

he expects " the main things from

The cardinal point of Whitman'sdoctrine is'the

importance of the individual. About

this theme~"ffis"""tliiragliL plays

from begin-

ning to end with uncompromising

insist-

ence; but at the same time his conception

of it undergoes an evolution. in ever enlarging,

It amplifies

more inclusive circles. In

the expanding compass of his thought, the individual retains always his individuality,

204

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TO YOU but the particular becomes merged

As becomes

universal.

in the

evident before

reach the end of Whitman, he really means

But

the soul. ticular

at the instant,

he sees the par-

with such intense distinctness that his

expression imputes to acter that it

ception of

man, the

an exclusive char-

does not possess in his total conit.

Here,

as elsewhere in

Whit-

part, to be rightly understood,

must be referred

to the whole.

Whitman starts with the external and the physical.

He celebrates the well-begotten,

well-born, well-framed

man in

man and woman.

admires the healthy and the normal, the or

woman who

strong, firm-fibred

body, and sane of mind.

He glorifies the

power that comes with abundance rather than from singularity. It is the averageman, not the exceptional,

who

has in him the

makings of a hero. Moreover,

in his doc-

trine Whitman does not distinguish between

the

man and the woman. Not only

are they

absolutely equal in capacity and opportun205

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN true for one

What

but he sees no difference in them.

ity,

just as true,

and that

respects, for the other. Invariably

all

when he

invokes the man, he invokes the woman too. " I say to any man or woman "; " The man

and woman

love"; "I launch

women forward," — ally I

all

the phrase

men and continu-

his lips.

the poet of the

woman

the same as the

man,

And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

makes no distinction in staWhether the President

Similarly he

tion or condition.

Cudge that hoes in the

sugar-

whether successful or defeated

as this

at his levee or field,

world goes, whether prophet or felon, Each of us

inevitable,

Each of us

limitless

upon the

Each of us

us with his or her right

earth,

allow' d the eternal purports of the earth,

Each of us here It

— each of

—

as divinely as

matters not

who

have your chance,

any

or what

— you

206

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by Microsoft®

here.

you

are,

you

an individual.

— TO YOU

soul,

that

we have

positively appear'd

enough."

With the desire to set forth a complete human personality in all its activities and meanings, Whitman is led to include within his total

sex.

scheme a

series of poems celebrating

To him, fatherhood is

and divine than maternity.

less beautiful is

not neces-

sary to discuss here the question of his wis-

dom

or unwisdom. In

prose writings

many passages in his in "A Memoran-

— notably

dum at a Venture," and in in

"Specimen Days

Emerson

his

account given

" of a conversation with

— he has explained

and he has found able and

his

purpose;

brilliant

pionsamongbothmen and women. ceivable that one

may question the

chamis

con-

absolute

success of the result, whether on the score literary

workmanship or on the ground of

expediency with regard to conventional morality.

His sex poems

are not his best

work

;

]

here the propagandist overcomes the poet, j It is impossible,

however, not to concede 207

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Whitman, whether

that

in the result,

by reference

was

justified in his attempt

to his total

a personality in

or not successful

purpose to present

entirety.

its

By way

of a

may be said that these muchdisputed poems mean simply what they happen to mean to the individual reader. If they are an offense, they are an offense. Yet much of Whitman still remains. On the other hand, they are right to those who see them single

so.

word

side-light

comes from

this controverted topic

a writer

who was

the extreme

opposite of Whitman in his attitude toward the proprieties. Quite without reference to

"Leaves of Grass," Ruskinsays ern Painters":

There

Mod-

dismiss this matter of vulgarity in

and few words,

plain art.

may

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

in "

at least as

never vulgarity

however commonplace.

far as regards

in a

whole truth,

may be

unimport-

ant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is

only in concealment of truth, or in affecta-

tion."

208

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

;

TO YOU Says the crystal-souled Emerson, from the

clear,

cold ether-purity of his snow-

—

wrapped summit:

All are needed

by each one

Nothing

or good alone.

To Whitman

is fair

every part

beautiful, be-

cause he sees the whole. I

will not

But

I will

make poems with reference to parts, make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference

to ensemble,

And

I will

not sing with reference to a day, but with

reference to

And

poem

days,

all

make

will not

poem nor

the least part of a

but has reference to the soul,

Because having look'd find there

the objects of the universe, I

no one nor any

particle of

one but

has reference to the soul.

be at

all

—

this is the starting-point.

At first it seems to Whitman that all proceeds ." from " beautiful blood and a beautiful brain But from the power that comes with physique he passes,

a natural

and inevitable

transition, to the personal qualities. are in some

These

easure a gift of Nature, in which

209

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN the individual himself has no choice,

which perhaps

fact

ficiently recognize,

Whitman does

— but they

—

not suf-

are also cap-

able of cultivation. Just here, then, begins

the suggestive and helpful part of Whit-

man's teaching.

means

personal qualities he

self-respect, self-mastery, individual

freedom under divine law, and the devel-

oped capacity

for self-devotion to the serv-

of others in love and sympathy.

ice

qualities

The

he prizes, therefore, can be achieved

by any one, independently of external conditions. self;

Whitman exemplifies them in him-

and he communicates them

force of natural contagion.

to another

Moreover,

they are of such a character as to recom-

mend themselves by virtue of their own evident worth and beauty. Their appeal, once they are truly known, it is

compelling.

;

and he leaves

"to you." In assessing values

initiates his

own

standard. ZIO'

Digitized

and

Whitman's function is

reveal their true nature rest

in themselves;

by Microsoft®

the

in life,

For the con-

TO YOU ventional goods that the world esteems, he

new worths.

substitutes

sets

store

by the possession of material things.

admires the animals because they are

self-

contained and are not " demented with the

mania of owning things."

makes no

account of ownership anyway, " as to

own

upon

if one fit

things could not at pleasure enter

all,

and incorporate them into himself

or herself."

and the

The real goods

rain, the air, the

life,

the sun

beauty of earth,

and do not need to be possessed be enjoyed. " I or you pocketless of a

are free, to

dime may purchase the pick of the earth."

Any man,

only he have the capacity in

himself, has access to

all

the gifts of the

The personal qualities, therefore, Whitman celebrates are not limited

universe. that

to a class,

but are eligible to

all.

He discerns

"what vast native thoughts" may look "through smutch'd faces."

He strips ofFthe

husks of conventional estimates and penetrates to the central

manhood of each 21

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indi-

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN vidual.

Tot>e human, that is the main thing.

abolishes class distinctions, breaks the

pride of caste, wrenches us out of our traditional

background, and plants us squarely

on our own

feet, to

stand or

are in ourselves.

of things and for inherent

fall

for

by what

"the

fibre

men and wo-

men." In order to emphasize the universality of the true goods that

life

holds,

Whitman

chooses for his exemplar the "average man."

The

phrase

not quite exact, but his mean-

ing is clear enough.

He will not reckon with

the exclusive and the elect, though he does

not deny them their chance as well. It

sometimes remarked that by a curious irony the very people that /fies are least able to

Whitman most glorigrasp the significance

The

of his work.

average man, it is said, " --does not read Leaves of Grass." For himself,

Whitman

real culture

those

likes best those

from

who do

life

who

get the

and not from books,

not pretend to read but are

Digitized

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;

TO YOU closest to actuality, sailors, artisans.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

farmers, woodsmen, Such people, the " roughs

and little children," do not understand " Leaves of Grass," perhaps, but they un-

Whitman. And they understand him to-day, when once they have passed the

derstood

barrier

of the printed page, when they hear

the living

spoken word and touch the pre-

sence that

moves within

which

Whitman pleads is

personality, the return ards

it.

The culture for

the culture of the

from external stand-

and supports to one's own native force

and the authority inherent in one's

self.

one have the natural qualities, that is enough.

"I do not ask who you portant to me."

The

are, that is

not im-

individual becomes a

man, not by allowance or good-fortune, but

own right. He constitutes himself own centre. Taking his stand upon his

in his his

necessary Tightness in the

he comes into laws, s

scheme of things,

harmony with

the universal

and achieves equilibrium. From him,

a perfectly poised centre, radiate influ-

213

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN ences which have the weight of the whole

world behind them.

But there may be

many

there are individuals. "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

centres as

There can be any

one does not counnumber of supremes tervail another any more than one eyesight countervails another, or one vails another."

life

counter-

Whitman's hero differs from

the hero of Carlyle, in that he does not assert himself at the

expense of others, but

develops in cooperation with them. Carlyle divides

mankind rigidly into two

The

the hero and the masses.

classes

hero

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

strong and able man, of extraordinary natural gifts

and exceptional opportunity. All

others are the masses

;

and they but furnish

the background against which the hero ad-

vances his preeminence. Whitman, on the contrary, declares that " there

no trade

employment but the young man

ing

one's

may become

self.

inferiority

a hero."

Mastership

It is all in

not relative to the

of others, but

214.

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

the absolute

TO YOU

â&#x20AC;˘;

development of one's own powers and positive qualities with reference solely to one's

own

possibilities.

a hero,

have

may be

even though he seem to others to

failed.

Vivas to those

And And And

In this sense one

to those

who

have

fail'

whose war- vessels sank

to those themselves

who

in the sea

sank in the sea!

to all generals that lost engagements,

and

all

over-

come heroes!

And

the numberless est

heroes

unknown heroes

Such mastership therefore, It

rests

equal to the great-

known! as

Whitman

conceives,

within the reach of every man.

with him, independently of

external conditions, to achieve

it.

all

Whit-

man's special doctrine of individuality

may

be denned more clearly, perhaps, by contrast

with the teaching in this regard of two

other contemporary Americans

and Emerson. Thoreau

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Thoreau

concerned with

the destiny of an individual, namely,

David Thoreau. His to the

working-out of

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Henry

efforts are directed

his

own

by MicrosoftÂŽ

salvation in

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN seclusion from the world and

assert-

ing himself against the ways of men.

scheme of

may

life

fectly for

him. But his truth

ception

men

;

And

one

upon

even in

feels,

for his part,

writes

his highest flights

most potently and

Emerson

dealing with

an abstraction, and not a concrete

which one can achieve It

its

the individual, generically.

persuasively, that

son.

by ex-

the elements of

Emerson,

destruction.

and when he

true

Universally applied,

in the mass.

discourses

not capable of extension to

contains within itself

own

His

have succeeded per-

in one's

reality

own

per-

not an individual nor the indi-

vidual, that

Whitman

has in mind, but

individuals.

not with abstrac-

deals

tions but with actualities as they

promisingly

are.

vidual limits.

uncom-

He does not obscure indi-

One fact, though

linked with

facts,

and though capable of devel-

opment from

within, remains indefeasibly

all

other

itself to all eternity.

216

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TO YOU Underneath I

individuals,

all,

swear nothing

good

me now

that ignores indi-

viduals,

The American compact is altogether with individuals, The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,

The whole to

theory of the universe

one

single individual

By the term

"individual,"

a very definite reality.

ever and whatever

directed unerringly

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; namely

You.

Whitman means

He means you, who-

you

are.

There

mistaking his intention, or the application of his doctrine.

But Whitman lives to

aware, too, that no

himself alone.

man

The development

and self-realization of the individual soul, which he

work it is

glorifies

tends,

and toward which

not for

for the sake

its

own

of the mass

his

sake only

as well.

One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,

Yet

utter the

word Democratic,

the

Although the destiny of man

own

personality, yet

word En-Masse. is

Whitman

fulfill

his

considers

individuals always in their relation to the 217

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN natural world around them, relations to ety.

one

sees

and

in their

another in organized soci-

that

the

necessary condi-

tions of attaining the mastership

which he

conceives for each individual are the seem-

modes of freedom and

ingly conflicting

operation.

By freedom he

understands an

independence of all external

complementing

restraints, and,

harmony with

this, a

co-

one's

self and with the universal laws, as the only

means whereby the individual can enter There must be

into his natural heritage. also,

on the other hand, cooperation with

one's fellows, and not opposition or subju-

gation

;

est self

for the individual reaches his high-

only through love and sympathy.

So the problem of society

same time that tion,

twofold: at the

provides for organiza-

must leave scope

ual for his freest It

and

to the individ-

fullest

development.

cannot be said that the individual

for the sake of society, or that society

the sake of the individuals 218

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The

for

interests

TO YOU of one are the interests of the other the convex

and the concave of an

;

arc,

they

must exist together. The social order which seems best to provide the necessary conditions for the highest

the individual

a democracy, in that

him the

furnishes

largest opportunity for

expression and growth. is

development of

And

conversely,

the aggregate of freest and most powerful

personalities that

makes

possible the truest

and best democracy. In the remarkable essay entitled " cratic Vistas,"

an essay which

Demo-

will

repay

reading for its timely pertinence, shrewd insight,

and profound suggestiveness, Whit-

man outlines

his

programme. Though

in the formative stage, the

still

United States

perfectly supplies the conditions for the realization

man

of the democratic

ideal.

Whit-

expressly takes issue with the oldartificial

sys-

social exclusiveness.

world civilizations for their

tems of caste and rests his

whole case upon " the theory of 219

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN development and perfection by voluntary standards and self-reliance."

has no

about the present order of things America. " Society, in these States, is

illusions in

canker'd, crude, superstitious, and rotten."

But he

not without hope, for he sees a

remedy, and he is

immense

trusts the future.

America

in material resources, in the

numbers of

its

people, and in the sturdy

immense also its possibilities for expansion. However,

character of the vast average, in

Whitman

not content with merely

And

the remedy.

here

this.

pleads for a

great moral and religious civilization as the

only justification of a great material one. It is

not enough that a country possess free

political institutions,

dustrial resources

and material and

in-

of prodigious extent and

So much we have althe United States. " But woe to

incalculable wealth.

ready in

the age or land in which these things,

move-

ments, stopping at themselves, do not tend to ideas."

The

real

purpose of the best

220

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TO YOU social order is the

The

last,

humanity

making of personalism.

best dependence itself,

and

its

to be

own

inherent,

normal, full-grown qualities."

upon

this

end

everything must be constrained to minis-

Democracy must have its own forms of art and literature, for the soul of man

ter.

needs what

addressed to the soul. "

literature, songs, esthetics,

The &c, of a coun-

of importance principally because

try are

they furnish the materials and suggestions

of personality for the that country,

women and men

and enforce them

in a thou-

sand effective ways." But greater than

all

Culture are "the fresh, eternal qualities

of Being." So far as a civilization

develop these qualities,

fails

completely.

it fails

Material wealth and intellectual acumen are of

the soul.

avail unless they

Democracy, if it

highest ideal

over

its

and so

tend toward

inspired

by the

able to triumph

necessary limitations, makes this

development possible. For

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

seeks not

AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN only to individualize but also to universalize.

" What Christ appear'd spiritual field for

for in

human-kind, namely, that

respect to the absolute soul, there session of such

moral-

the

by each

in the pos-

single individual,

some-

thing so transcendent, so incapable of gradations, (like life,) that, to that extent,

on a common

places

level, utterly regardless

tinctions of intellect, virtue, station, or

all

beings

of the

dis-

any height

or lowliness whatever,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so democracy as a social order, whenthorr

Whitman pleads for equality of men and of

oughly spiritualized it,

recognizing the

souls,

toward

worthy of our most earnest

its

realization.

in this matter retical.

Whitman's

interest

more than merely

The aim which he has

and profoundly

at heart

efforts

theo-

so genuinely

to be reached

every possible means. If a social order can

be so framed as to contribute to this end, then that way our duty

Digitized

lies.

by MicrosoftÂŽ

TO YOU A great city is that which has the greatest men and women, If it be a few ragged huts

it is

still

the greatest city in

the whole world.

In his

and

social

in the lesson

political

of his

his

propaganda, as

purpose

the

conception of the

full

life,

building of great personalities.

From Whitman's

import of individuality follows his morality.

And it is

indeed a morality for heroes.

Admitting no standards other than those of his

own

nature harmonized with universal

laws, the individual accepts the fullest con-

sequences of what he chooses to be. There can be no delegated responsibility and no

The individual own Satan.

vicarious atonement.

own Saviour Each man

or his

to himself

word of the

and each

past

one can acquire

for

to herself,

and present, and the

of immortality;

woman

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

another

Not one can grow

for another

The song is to the The teaching is to

singer,

true

his

the

word

not one,

not one.

and comes back most

him,

the teacher, and comes back most to

him,

223

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN The murder

The The The

theft

love

to the thief,

and comes back most

him,

to the lover,

and comes back most

him,

gift is to it

murderer, and comes back most

to the

him,

cannot

Nothing

comes back most

the giver, and

him

fail.

fails

of its perfect return.

We can-

not escape ourselves. Reward and punish-

ment

are not

meted out by an overruling

external power; they inhere in the act self,

and

rests

to choose.

it-

with the individual freely

are beautiful or sinful

in ourselves only."

This law of natural

compensation operates inexorably, but

should not determine the motives of conduct. Constructively, is

Whitman's morality

the morality of health and affirmation.

There

lieves in

no element of

fear.

be-

the fullest self-expression, not

with reference to punishment or reward,

but for is

its

own sake. The standard of action

not conformity to an external code, but

inner rightness. in freedom.

The

individual

Freedom may be won 224

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

to act in

its

TO YOU inception by opposition to the lesser law,

but the highest freedom

harmony with must be

the highest law, the universal. It

confessed that this morality

men.

ideal.

and

That

way and

Whitman's is

not for

little

It appeals to the best, not the worst,

in man,,

the

meant

presupposes the

winnows the

leaves fault

them

but

in its scope

mit of

many

struggling,

;

and

it is

not

universal

and application

interpretations,

laws of Nature.

along

His teaching

theirs.

to be inclusive

enough

loftiest

unfit

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to ad-

the

But likethelaws of Nature,

wh en ignorantly or willfully misunderstood it carries with it its own retribution. That Whitman's declaration of independence

may

be perverted to excuse license

raignment of

its

ar-

righteousness and justice.

himself and

It reverts to the individual

the measure of his

own

morality.

The

watchwords of Whitman's ethics are Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom, set in the sky

of Law. 225

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN Throughout, Whitman's ideal ofachieve-

ment

and

life

spiritual its

manhood. The purport

fruition are of the soul.

The

material and the physical are redeemed by

conquering spirituality; the

his

glorious because

Earth takes

its

human

incarnates the divine.

meaning

discern in

Forms, objects, growths, humanities, to

spiritual

images

ripening.

his rapt vision the seen is the

of the unseen.

With

prophecy

this faith, glorying in

the present goodness of earth and secure in the

promise of the future, he confronts

all

problems.

Whitman trusts

the soul, and

development through he knows " the amplitude of

willing to await

aeons, for

*'â&#x201E;˘e "

God is and results are in His hands.

The

culminating impression of Whit-

man's personality a

man who,

in spite

the sense that here

of his unconventional

manner and strange fashion of life, does finally and intimately understand me. One 226

Digitized

by MicrosoftÂŽ

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

TO YOU man knows what

feels that this

has been its

all

the

into

some

and

men and

things has been

but the re-

He has sufknown my grief.

not for himself alone.

fered in

The

heights

His many-

fruitful for himself;

sults are

The joy

its

point, he has entered

particular experience.

sided contact with rich

way round it, he has walked

deep places, he has mounted

somehow,

life is

sorrows and

that he had of

life,

impalpable sustenance of

from

all

things at

all

hours of the day,

The

glories strung like

beads on

smallest sights

and

hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage

over the river,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these may be my joy and

glories.

And

finds intensification

my sustenance my joy his own

too, in

and

its

crown.

Whatever our mood, whatever our need, we can turn to Whitman and meet response. his

His understanding

sympathy universal.

and be nothing, but he

complete,

We can do nothing will enfold us.

227

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN knows our

and our weaknesses, and

faults

he accepts them.

has the same in him-

self. I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

Blabb'd, blush'd, resented, lied,

stole,

grudg'd,

Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dar'd not speak, Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant,

The The

wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,

cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous

wish, not wanting, Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness,

none

of these wanting.

So he understands with an understanding born of experience ; he reaches us with a

sympathy born of

love.

which Whitman effused

in life

from the personality that

Out of the

ems. is

The magnetism is

still

radiates

vital in his

po-

past a voice speaks which

as a presence with us at the instant

and

a secure possession for the future.

When

you read these

that

was

visible

am become

invisible,

Now

it is

you, compact,

visible, realizing

seeking me,

228

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

poems,

TO YOU Fancying

how happy you were

if I

could be with you

and become your comrade;

as if I

were with you. (Be not too with you.)

certain but I

am now

Yet Walt Whitman I

not

final.

myself but write one or two indicative words

for the

future, I

but advance a

moment

only to wheel and hurry back

in the darkness.

never loses sight of his merely repre-

Again and

sentative character.

again, in a

thousand different ways, he brings

genuinely intends

shall be

only a preparation

the lesson to you. that his

poems

home

and a beginning. The words of

the

true

poems give you more than

poems,

They

give

you

politics,

daily

form

for yourself

life,

and every thing

His Leaves of Grass leaves alone

poems,

war, peace, behavior,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

religions,

histories, essays,

else.

are but roots

and

" love-buds put before you

and within you whoever you are." 229

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AN APPROACH TO WALT WHITMAN If

you bring the warmth of the sun open and bring form,

them, they will

color, perfume, to you,

you become the aliment and the wet, they come fruits, tall branches and trees.

The

significance of Whitman,

himself conceives

it, is

will be-

even

what awakes

in the

individual reader as the result of contact

with this germinal personality. It

press desire and purpose to carry us himself. learns

under

most honors

his

beyond

style

who

to destroy the teacher."

However deep our gratitude for what he may have done life's

his ex-

Whitman

for us along

way, however intense our loyalty to

person and name, we should not mis-

take the

man for his message.

to worship fruits

Whitman.

an error

reap the

full

of his teaching in the measure that

we worship what Whitman worshiped and what he was sent into the world to show forth. Life spreads before us,

Walt Whitman

an open road.

one of the Great Companions along the way. " Allons whoever is

230

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by MicrosoftÂŽ

TO YOU you

are,

come

travel with

We may

accept his example as suggestive and illuminating.

We may acknowledge his

ing influence. Finally, road, each for himself.

Whitman

sustain-

we must travel the At the last and best,

comrade

in the soul's ad-

venture.

As he

reaches a genial hand to us in

token of comradeship, he beams the assurance,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Failing to fetch

Missing I stop

me one

at first

somewhere waiting

Digitized

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place search another, for

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you.

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