Edward Carpenter - Days with Walt Whitman, 1906

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Days with Walt Whitman

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Days

with

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Walt Whitman

With some !A(ptes on Life and Work *+ *+ *By

his lx

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Edward Carpenter

New York: The Macmillan Company London

:

George Allen

Mdccccvi

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &Âť Co.

Edinburgh

PREFACE \

AY

first

acquaintance with Whitman's

writings (William Rossetti's edition

of the Poems) was

made

Cambridge

at

during the Long Vacation in the

of 1868 it

—

or

was not

it till

may have been 1877 that

Atlantic and paid In

1884

I

my

was again

I

first

were

and

the

visit

in the

written finally

occasions

out

a

at

published

in

But

'69.

crossed the

saw Whitman several times.

made on

summer

to him.

States,

and

The

notes

of these

visits

later

period,

the Progressive

Review (February and April

1897)

in

Preface

form

the

same

The

other papers

belong to a

still

as in

they the

later

now present

date,

stand.

book

and, with

one exception, have not been published before.

E. C. April 1906.

CONTENTS

.....

Preface

A

Walt Whitman Walt Whitman in 1884 Visit to

Notes and Appreciations

Whitman

as

1877

as Pro-

phet

The

Poetic

1

71

.

Whitman

v

33

—

Prophet

Appendix to

in

Tags

94

Form of "Leaves of

Grass"

....

Walt Whitman's Children Whitman and Emerson

.

103

.

137

.

153

PORTRAITS Walt Whitman From

at the age of 35

Fronthfiea

a Daguerrotype taken in 1854 (Photogravure)

Walt Whitman

at the age of 53

From a Photograph

Tofact p.

71

„

153

taken in 1872

(Photogravure)

R.

W. Emerson

(at the age of 52)

From a Photograph taken (Photogravure)

in 185s

A VISIT TO WALT WHITMAN IN

1877

—

A

TO WALT WHITMAN

VISIT

IN 1877

TT

—

I

May

was on the 2nd of

—

*

crossing the water

knocked

Street,

from Philadelphia

door of 431 Stevens

at the

Camden.

1877, that

The

house, a narrow

three-storied one, stood in one of those

broad tree-planted

mon

in

the

streets

States

;

which are com-

and Whitman was

staying there, boarding with his brother

Colonel

George Whitman

and

wife

making the establishment at any rate his headquarters, though frequently absent from

it.

I

waited a few minutes in a

ting-room of the usual type

ornamental

tables,

—one

or

sit-

two

with photograph books, 3

Days with Walt Whitman under

things

shades,

glass

&c.

—while

He

" Walt " was called upstairs.

soon

came down, slowly, leaning heavily on the banisters, always dragging somewhat his paralysed leg

old

man with

—

at first sight quite

an

long grey, almost white,

beard, and shaggy head and neck, grey dress too sight

;

but

not so old

—

and

erect,

tall,

a

florid

at closer

fresh

com-

plexion, pure grey-blue eye (no sign of

age there), and

full, strong,

well-formed

hands.

At

the foot of the staircase he took

by the hand and

"I was

said,

should miss after all"

—

found

me

hold of asked

my

in his

hand, he sat

War

I

had made.

manner

;

having

and then only leaving

a seat,

me "what news

Britain."

we

this in reference

to a previous unsuccessful call

There was no hurry

afraid

me

down himself and I

brought from

had just been declared

between Russia and Turkey. 4

Like other

Whitman

in

1877

Americans, his sympathies lay with Russia,

His idea was that Russia stood

need of

in

a southern outlet (Constantinople) for her

people and growing energies, that

was

Turkey

and that England was beginning to pursue " the wise policy falling in pieces,

of absolute non-intervention." sation then turned

on England.

about friends there

some

;

also

Conver-

He asked

about myself

questions.

Meanwhile

in that first ten

minutes

I

was becoming conscious of an impression which subsequently

marked mense ality.

not

—the

vista or

If

know

eccentric,

grew even more

impression, namely, of im-

background

in his person-

had thought before (and

I

that

I

had) that

unbalanced,

I

do

Whitman was

violent,

my

first

interview certainly produced quite a contrary

effect.

considerate, I

No

one

could be

may almost

more

say courteous;

no one could have more simplicity of 5

Days with Walt Whitman manner

wrigglings; and

gave

me

from

freedom

and

never met any one

I

who

more the impression of knowing

what he was doing than he and beyond certain

egotistic

this

all

Yet away

was aware of a

I

power

radiant

did.

him, a large

in

benign effluence and inclusiveness, as of the sun, which

he was

—yet

and sadness

in

Some such in

member how face,

out the place where

with something of reserve

moteness and

gathered

filled

too,

it

and

a sense

of re-

inaccessibility.

impressions, at any rate, I

the I

first

interview.

I

re-

was most struck, in his

by the high arch of the eyebrows,

giving a touch of child-like wonder and

contemplation to his expression eyes,

though

full

plative but perceptive

—

lying

yet his

of a kind of wistful

tenderness, were essentially not

receptive

;

—

contem-

active rather than

far back,

steady, clear,

with small definite pupils and heavy lids of

Whitman

in

1877

A face of majestic

passion and experience.

simple proportion, like a Greek temple as

some one has

said

;

the nose Greek in

outline, straight (but not at all thin or

narrow, rather the contrary), broad be-

tween the brows, and meeting the the

forehead without any great direction

of

horizontal furrows,

high;

with

the forehead high,

;

of

line

change

but not excessively

the head domed, and rising to a

great height in the middle, above the ears

—not

projecting behind

finely

formed

mouth

;

A

quite concealed by hair.

gether impressing one by

by a certain not

After

some

proposed a Putting

its

but almost

head

alto-

height,

untamed " wild hawk "

uncommon among

and

ears large

;

full,

and

look,

the Americans.

conversation

Whitman

walk across to Philadephia.

on

his

grey

slouch

hat

he

sallied

forth with evident pleasure, and

taking

my arm

as a support

walked slowly

Days with Walt Whitman the

best

of a mile to the ferry.

part

Crossing the

was always a great " His " Brooklyn Ferry

ferry

pleasure to him.

and the section entitled " Delaware River Days and Nights" in " Specimen Days,"

—

sufficiently

prove

this.

The

and of the people was so

streets

The men on

dear.

near, so

ferry steamer

the

were evidently old friends

of the

life

;

and when we

we were The man or

landed on the Philadelphia side before long quite besieged.

woman street,

selling fish at the corner

of the

the tramway conductor, the loafers

—

on the pavement

a

word of recognition

from Walt, or as often from the other Presently a cheery shout

first.

from the

top of a dray; and before we had gone

many

yards farther the driver was

and standing in front of us

—

down

his horses

He

given to the care of some bystander.

was an old Broadway " stager," " had not seen

Walt

for three or four years "

;

and

Whitman were in his eyes

tears

We were

in

he held his hand.

as

now brought

others gathered round

1877

and " George " was ill,

to a standstill, ;

and Walt must go and see him. was a message for the children, and

There in his

pocket the poet discovered one or two packets of sweetmeats ones.

for

absent

But for the most part

were few.

It

his

reserve.

Thus we rambled through

—mostly

Philadel-

The

using the tramcars.

Yankees do not walk large

words

was the others who spoke,

and apparently without phia

little

the trams in their

;

towns are very complete, and are

universally used for all but short distances.

Whitman

could

not walk

far.

I

content being with him anyhow. certainly

was restfulness

itself.

was ringing

the boat, but

—we

He

When we

reached the Ferry on our return, the bell

was

last

might have caught

Whitman seemed not to The boat went, and

think of hurrying.

Days with Walt Whitman he

down

sat

to enjoy

waiting for the

life

next.

A

few days

later,

Walt having gone

into the country to stay with his " dear

and valued friends," the Staffords,

him

a visit there.

Kirkwood, station

was

the

line

;

paid or

fourth

or

third

from Camden on the

and Atlantic

I

"White Horse,"

Camden

and consisted

at that

time of only some half-dozen houses and stores,

forming a centre to the scattered

and outlying farmsteads of that Staffords'

farm lay

little

half or so

from the

The

part.

mile and a

a

station

—

a

five

or

six-roomed wooden house, a barn, one or

two

fruit trees,

down 300

or

and a few

400 yards

fields

running

to a little stream.

The

country level, very slightly undulat-

ing,

wooded here and

some seen

there, not

unlike

parts of Cambridgeshire that I have

—

neither

unattractive.

particularly

Here on

attractive

this

farm,

or

and

;

Whitman working

it

in

himself,

with his family

1877

lived

Mr.

Stafford

;

he a loyal Methodist,

sometimes acting

as local preacher, silent-

mannered, dark-skinned, of bilious temperament, subject to

and faithful

;

illness,

his wife

and

cultured expression

hard-working,

a fine

woman

spiritual

pretty well absorbed in domestic

two

young

sons,

Harry,

at this

in

office

fellows, one

favourite of Walt's

time,

family, to

it

the

Stafford

a

;

grown-up daughter,

Here Whitman

weeks or months and

living

with

and

at

the

and attracting the members

of

himself to them, with

Mrs. of enduring friendship. " He is a once said to me :

good man I

stay,

boarding

him,

ties

work

of whom,

a great ally and

and one or two children.

a

mind,

time working in a printer's

Camden, was

would often

of

;

I

think he

is

the best

man

ever knew." It

was

his delight,

and doubtless one of

Days with Walt Whitman the chief attractions of this favourite resort, to

go down and spend

a large part

of the day by the " creek " which I have

—

spoken of and which figures so largely in " Specimen Days." At a point not a quarter of a mile distant from the house it

widened into

rounded by able birds

;

a

kind of

trees, the

lake sur-

little

haunt of innumer-

and here Whitman would

for hours in an old chair

;

silent,

the scene, becoming a part of

sit

enjoying

it,

almost,

himself; or would undress and bathe in the

still,

At

deep pool.

was nearly sixty years

old,

this

time he

and for some

eight years on and off had been stricken

with paralysis.

buted the

As

his partial

beneficence

is

well known, he attri-

recovery very largely to

of this creek, with

its

water-baths and sun-baths and open-air influences generally.

That day being Sunday I found the all at home, and Whitman in the

family

Whitman

When

midst of them. occurred

grown up

1877 the opportunity

him something of the

told

I

of

appreciation

in

England during those

in

After a pause he asked

if

edition was out of print.

I

W.

so.

"

:

hope

I

it

is

years.

the Rossetti

said I I

;

had

that

writings

his

thought

approved of

plan for the time being, but

Rossetti's

now would

rather appear without altera-

tion."

am

[I

my

notes

are

not

as I

here simply transcribing

made his

a day or

exact

two

after

words, but

"

could remember.]

was so much

me

I

England.

whom

that America, to

addressed

confess

myself,

is

I

I

am

so

but

I I

said I

surprised

utterly

silent.

the

critics,

all

crude, inartistic

think that?" criticisms,

interest in

am

have especially

I

Lowell, and indeed almost say that

good

had hardly

I

realised that there in

these

;

as

— do

you

had heard such

did not myself think his

work crude and hasty; on •3

the contrary,

— ;

Days with Walt Whitman

much of

seemed to

it

me

to have been

written very deliberately and

and

of

as to the question

carefully

art, I

thought

he had laid an altogether broader basis of (instancing

style

some of

a great foundation

here and

there

upon

W.

altogether attained, but

the seed

;

work.

My

it is

could bring fore

them

did, in

:

cannot think that

I

;

had

he

"I much before

re-write and destroy

published

but

it,

struck the main lines. fact,

would build

others

;

poems)

his

I

I

have

I

have planted

for others to continue the

original idea

men

was that

if

I

together by putting be-

the heart of man, with

all its

joys and sorrows and experiences and sur-

roundings,

it

would be

a great thing

to this time I have had in view,

but

America

this appreciation

England makes me think

I

of

;

up

chiefly

me

in

might per-

haps do the same for the old world also. I

have endeavoured from the 14

first

to get

—

Whitman free as

much

attitudinising

in

from

as possible

—

1877 all literary

to strip off integuments,

—and

to speak straight

from and to the heart."

[In reference to

coverings, bridges

he said at another time that it had been a " whim " of his when writing " to this,

discard

all

conventional

poetic

phrases,

and every touch of or reference to ancient or mediasval images, metaphors, subjects, styles,

&c, and

words and

own

to write

de novo

appropriate

phrases

to

with his

days."]

When we went in to dinner Mr. Stafford was already seated

think he was about

Walt, with greater grace,

to say grace.

stood for a

I

;

moment bending

from behind, and clasped in

his

silence.

great

hands

What

;

over

him

Stafford's

head

then passed on in

a large sweet presence

so benign, yet so determined

dren loved him, and the lie coiled, lost,

on

!

little

The

chil-

boy would

his knees, half-asleep, »5

Days with Walt Whitman half-awake,

hand

Walt's

and

covering

compressing his entire face. In Philadelphia, the day before, Whit-

man had friends,

me

introduced

the

Mrs.

Gilchrists.

widow of Alexander

A

two daughters and

Gilchrist,

Gilchrist,

the

bio-

capable and large-

grapher of Blake, was a

minded woman.

to his English

year earlier she, with

a son,

had come from

England for a two or three

years' visit to

the States, and had settled in Philadelphia.

As

is

well known, she was the

Englishwomen to

fully

cognise (as she did in

first

of

and publicly re-

some printed

letters)

the splendid genius of the poet, and that at a time

(1868 or '69) when "Leaves of

Grass " to most of the literary world was little

better than the incoherent ramblings

of a maniac. relate

to

More

than once did she

me how, on

volume, when her eye

opening the

first

fell

upon the

nearly full-length engraving (taken 16

fine

from

Whitman

in

1877

a daguerrotype) of the author,

claimed

" Here at

:

last

is

she ex-

of

the face

which the painters have so long

Christ,

sought for "

;

and she always maintained

book

that the reading of the

but confirm and deepen that

itself

first

did

impres-

sion.

At the

Gilchrists'

house

Whitman would

not unfrequently stay.

Indeed there was

of prophet's

chamber for him

a

kind

And

there, always ready.

that he was about to pay

was arranged that

They

lived

numbering

streets

it

a visit there,

1929, North

22nd

American

method

and houses

Philadelphia

practical. ;

you

find your

geometry.

The

it

come.

is

like

way by

streets

of being a

chess-

co-ordinate

are

from

of

prosaic,

is

certainly has the advantage

board

happened

also should

I

No.

the

If

Street.

it

at

as

straight,

parallel,

and

not

length.

The

address being put in your

far

'7

infinite

in

Days with Walt Whitman you know

hands,

to which

are destined.

remember very well

I

in

you

at once the exact spot

hand, and finding the whole family

(a general

warm steps

custom

in Philadelphia

—Whitman

the

young

—

some old god

him

in the midst, in

of evenings

a

I

pleasant

and hair glistening looking

moonlight,

redeeming

Instead of

made one of it

was

it

the party.

Whitman had

!

enjoy-

life

from commonplaceness.

making you

do) that the Present

is

feel (as so

a

many

kind of squalid

necessity to be got over as best in

like

After this for a week

knack of making ordinary

able,

an arm-

the others grouped around

or at his feet.

"How

on those

evenings) sitting out on the door-

chair, his white beard

in

bag

arriving,

may

be,

view of something always in the future,

he gave you that good sense of nowness, that faith that the present

which imparts

colour 18

and

is

enjoyable,

life

to

the

Whitman

in

thousand and one dry

As

1877 of existence.

details

have hinted before, he was no great

I

talker,

and would generally

versation ebb and flow at

without

effort,

the con-

let

own

its

will,

ready apparently for grave

or gay alike.

Unlike many highly important people

who seem

to enjoy holding forth to

general audience,

Whitman,

a

as I thought,

preferred to let conversation turn on the

pivot of personal relationship.

Often

as

not he would have his listener by the

hand force,

;

and

his

from

words too had an very

their

attractive

and

simplicity

purity from affectation or display.

I

think

he did not really care to have conversational dealings with people except

a basis of personal as

he did

blers,

not

bores,

—he became

To

affection.

like

—

to

all

on such such

mere gab-

spying and prying persons as a precipice, instantly

Certainly

utterly inaccessible. 19

it

and

was one

—

Days with Walt Whitman of the pleasures of always fide,

felt

his

society that

you

he was there in person, bond

not by deputy

;

and no current notion

of politeness could make him do a thing he did not enjoy doing. One evening we

were looking over some

fine engravings,

mostly portraits, Gainsboroughs, Reynolds, Lelys, and

others,

collection.

He

and very

from Mrs.

enjoyed

Gilchrist's

them

greatly,

and

deliberately, dwelling long

long over some of them, criticising

style,

workmanship, composition, character, &c.

But when he had had enough of well, he said so

!

I

have seldom

it

all

known

any one who, though so cordial and near to others, detached and withdrew himself at times

more

who on

the whole spent

solitude.

character

decisively than he did, or

more time

Also no rough draft of

in his

would be complete which did

not take into account the strong Quaker

element

of obstinacy which

existed

in

!

Whitman him

—but

in

1877

might require

this

separate

a

chapter

To

return to our evenings.

I

have said

something about Walt Whitman's manner conversation;

in

reproduce

such

transcribe

remarks

as I

the

Germans,

notion

notes

W.

:

"

I

of roughness, one

about them

same good ness I

of his

upon

My

refined.

Germans

may ;

fancy they are like

more

only

true, affectionate folk,

ness,

of some

to just

will

I

conversation turned

that the

is

but

have by me.

One evening the Chinese.

attempt

cannot

I

effect,

its

are

but there

is

simple, a kind

almost say brutish-

the Chinese have the

qualities,

with a certain

alert-

and grace which the Germans lack."

quoted some accounts of Japan by a

man

who had lived there for a long time, and who told me that the manners of the old Japanese aristocracy were so elaborately perfect

that

he himself would go

any

Days with Walt Whitman distance to get out of their way, feeling

such a boor compared with them

"

Whitman seemed to tally Gilchrist Mrs. his own idea."

amused with

;

wondered,

with

regard

to

and Orientals

of India

W.

climes

of

must

they ;

do

"

:

in

and that the

women

in

did not

I

suppose that

the

people after

live,

and

all

times

and

treatment

masses in every

And

Thus Romans the

here

comparison

he of

its

all,

West,

special

The

of Nature.

must have had

the

the

part of the globe are dominated

the Greeks and

of

East only applies to

the

the upper classes.

necessities

that

deterioration

among the masses of women (and men too) much as they do in as

natives

women

about a gradual

the whole race.

the

generally,

the degradation of the bring

This

!

also

the

among

peasant-life

races of fine

cited

by the

Juvenal, effeminate

women." and lady

his

of

Whitman time

his

with

the

mothers" of the

in

1877

" stern

magnificent

early days of

Rome.

Going on to Oriental literature, Whitman spoke of " Sakuntala," the Indian drama,

" modernness "

its

— the

comic

scenes especially being as of the times of ; and of the great Hindu epic, " Ramayana " ; and told the story of the

Shakespeare

Yudisthura, which occurs as an episode in

the

— East—

presently

cramped the

Conversation got round

latter.

think in reference

I

life

of "high-born"

to

the

women

in

to the shoddiness and vulgarity

of modern well-to-do

life.

W.

:

"

It

seems a strange thing to me, this love of

gilt

cans

—

and upholstery among the Ameri-

that people leading a free natural

open-air a little

life

should, directly they

money, want to go

make

in for sofas,

expensively furnished rooms, dress, and

the like;

yet

it

seems to be a law, a

kind of necessity, that they should do S3

so.

;;

Days with Walt Whitman I

suppose

it

is

each

that

partly

man

wishes to feel himself as good as others, to feel that he can have of the

democracy showing

'

itself for

best a

'

too

time in

that way, reducing the borrowed old-world

standard of superiority to an absurdity

and

guess

I

We eleven.

will not last for ever."

it

did not generally Breakfast

sit

was

at

up

later

7.30

than

or

8.

Walt's arrival in the morning was as exhilarating as a fine sunrise. fast

and a chat we would separate to our

respective occupations.

almost every day

I

who was

there, the

poet

visit his sister-in-

at that time confined to the

house, and to

much

In the afternoon,

was

went off to Camden to law,

After break-

attached.

whom, I believe, he was As I have said, Walt was

very simple and domestic in his ways;

and would quite enjoy, on a rainy afternoon, having a game of twenty questions such as he had " often played in camp with

H

— Whitman

in

1877

the soldiers during the war," or would take

some

pleasure in preparing

own devising One evening we

his

He

would not

little

dish of

for the evening meal.

pressed

him to

recite anything of his

read.

own

;

but he read out Tennyson's " Ulysses " in a clear, strong,

subtle harmonies of the effloresced

Tennysonian verse

under the treatment, but the

sterner qualities of the

We

finely.

said

:

poem

stood out

He

expressed admiration.

"I guess

sonian poem."

it is

about the best Tenny-

Another evening,

member, he told us how, when

New

The

and rugged tone.

York, he had had

I

re-

living at

a " fancy " to visit

Sing-sing prison, the great penal establish-

ment up the Hudson

He

river.

permission to do so, got to

obtained

know one

or

two of the warders, and for some time went there pretty frequently. letters for the prisoners,

whim." *5

&c.

He

wrote

"It was

a

Days with Walt Whitman

We had

a long talk on

Most of us agreed

manual labour. a

good

thing for all classes to take part in

—not

it

would be

Walt main-

to be left to one class only.

like, that it

"

people

for

instance)

did not feel the need of any change.

Many

about

felt

me

people came to

slavery,

was so I

the

was no good trying to benefit

people (labouring

who

to reforms and

with regard

tained

quiet that

and

'

about

one time

at

wondered it;

abolitionists

but,

'

in

that

I

truth,

making

were

quite noise enough, and that there were

other

things

just

as

important

had to be attended to." ing of

— —and

Abraham Lincoln

reference

to

We

got talk-

suppose in

I

slavery

which

mentioned

I

the story that Lincoln went out of his

mind and nearly committed a love affair.

Walt,

who

suicide over

always was a

great admirer of Lincoln, and a

good deal about him and 26

who knew

his history,

— Whitman

in

1877

gave this a most emphatic denial, saying that Lincoln was " never even near being crazy."

One of

my

the most amusing incidents of

one morning shortly

stay occurred

after breakfast,

when

a, visiting

card was

handed in bearing the ominous inscription " Madame Dorbiney D'Aubigne," and was quickly followed by the appearance of an elderly

and loquacious

little

lady.

She

was one of those detached women with a

who

the world in " quest of anything interesting." She had reticule

travel about

been, she told us, seen

to

Europe without

and

over the States and

all

many celebrities, but it

could not return

visiting

Whitman

was only by a piece of luck that

she had found out where he was staying.

that

However, her

it

interest

soon began to appear in

Walt was not

so

great, naturally, as in herself; for after a

few preliminary compliments she settled *7

— Days with Walt Whitman down

to

us

tell

about the wonderful

all

D'Aubigne family to which she belonged. It ramified .all

she

said

were

and the name was

;

many

ever so

they were

all

each

other

Walt amused manner, and for

minutes was quite

ten

Then

courteous and patient. perceived '

but they

same family,

to

related

in

own name indeed showed.

listened in an

about

spelt

different ways,

branches of the

all

as her

over the civilised world,

that

precipitous

'

the

;

I

little

suddenly

becoming

was

face

his

decently

woman

of

course was addressing him, no one else

being of any importance to

be

becoming

speculation in

awful

;

vainly

for

to

a

eyes

his

but he seemed

;

there

deaf,

it

;

was

no

was rather

minute or two she tried

effect

lodgment

a

for

her

words, to get any kind of handhold on the

sheer

up her

surface,

tackle,

and

then gathering

made

she 28

the

best

of

— a

Whitman

in

1877

hasty good-bye, and

a bad job, bade a

disappeared. I

told

Walt about

a visit I paid to Oliver*1

Wendell Holmes, and the " Leaves of Grass " which occasion.

I

of

criticisms

heard on that

saw the " Autocrat of the

I

Breakfast Table " at his house in Boston.

He

was then about 70 years of age

dapper active

man,

little

full

of

— and

life

go, rather enjoying the visits of strangers

—

"

Oh

yes,

I

people write to all

have a large

me and come and

parts of the world

homage but my ;

Longfellow's

But

this

is

—not

call

'

from

authors

are

parish

is

not as big as

as big as Longfellow's.

not a good time for you to see

Boston

Boston.

—we

parish

you know, and quite enjoy a

rather vain, little

'

very empty

is

now

up and glancing through the window) very empty you might almost (getting

;

see

&c."

a

fox run I

said

down

the

street

;

&c,

something about American z9

:

Days with Walt Whitman literature

Whitman,"

he

—Whitman

you what,

you know,

won't it's

skilful

faintest odour, the fcetida,

dish it

it

something cooks

the

say that

can believe that

I

Nature

with

coquette

but to drench

;

garlands of roses for her

won't do.

The

won't do.

and

but

;

goes at her like a great hirsute it

like this

merest whiff, of assa-

in assafostida, no, that

poets

well

give a piquant flavour to a

will

—and

!

—well—well —he has do— won't do.

very

all

it

Oh

"well

said,

is

capacity, but I tell

"

and " Leaves of Grass."

Now," he

weave

Whitman man no,

—

continued, "the

other day Lowell and Longfellow and I

were chatting together, and the subject

Whitman turned I can't think why stir about Whitman of

up.

;

I

'

it

—/

I

can't see

Well,' said Longfellow, 30

is

all

this

have read a good

deal of his poetry, but

thing in

Lowell,

Said

there

'

can't see any-

anything '

in

I believe

it.''

the

—

Whitman

in

1877

man might have done something had only had

As

cation.'

my own

opinion, why,"

Holmes, "I have already given you

said

So you

that.

in

to

he

if

and edu-

a decent training

America."

see

Whitman was

knew

a

good deal

good

part,

pretty well already

what

amused, and took saying he

what we think of him

it

in

all

they thought.

As more

the days went by

the poet's terior.

simple and

see

unconcerned ex-

own heads; they

bigger than themselves.

seemed to

fill

all

talk a little

But Whitman

out " Leaves of Grass," and

form an interpretation of that

to.

Literary persons, as a rule, write

over their

see

began

I

which lay behind

clearly the depths

it.

I

began to

he had written there was

matter of absolute personal, experience

you might be sure that what was said was meant. There was the same dethat

liberate suggestiveness 3"

about his actions

";

Days with Walt Whitman and manners that you find

—

in his writings

only, of course, with the added force of

bodily presence

were

;

and

enough

clearly

strong

and

strange

omnivorous

contrary

far

down too

visible

the

there

same

moods, the same egotism,

controlled

and restrained by that wonderful genius of his for human affection and love. " Who has the most enamoured body ?

were words which somehow often suggested.

It

his presence

was with

my

real

re-

luctance that, a

week

bade adieu to

that friendly household

and

the

the

stern

flat

shores

lighthouse

all

next

that

arrival, I

morning but one, from

of the of

after

Siberia,

New

watched

the

and

the

England,

marks the entrance to

Boston Harbour, recede and dip below the broadening waters of the Atlantic.

31

WALT WHITMAN

IN

1884

WALT WHITMAN rT"'HE next time

saw Walt Whitman

I

He

was the 17th June 1884.

-*

then

but was

his brother,

Camden,

in

He

living

still

a small house which he

had himself part-purchased Street.

had

Stevens Street, owing to the re-

left

moval of in

IN 1884

had

— 328 Mickle

at that time, for

keepers, an elderly

workman and

house-

his wife,

whom he was whom he had

Mr. and Mrs. Lay, with

on

easy terms, and with

his

meals.

In appearance

the same as in 1877 haps,

and

certainly

I

—

a

thought him much trifle

more

thinner per-

infirm.

expression of weariness too I thought

which would likely

arise 35

Some I

saw,

from the increased

—

Days with Walt Whitman confinement of his

he

"much

said,

"

life.

I

Then,

from

Visits

my chief diver-

English friends are perhaps sion."

keep going,"

the same.

after tender inquiries, espe-

Mrs. Gilchrist (who was now in London), " have just had a visit from cially for

Oscar Wilde land

;

I

steady

a

Bucke's book

much like till

cared I

it.

1

so

my

fairly

better

1

you can

'

;

from

others.

—not —but I

all

along,

out of patience,

and

make

I

am

it

or no

it

authentic as I

caved

" Walt Whitman," by R. Maurice Bucke,

36-

to

the best of the

whereupon

Philadelphia, 1883.

just

intend

I

out whether you like

you had

rather

friends

matter and help to make far as

—and

'Now

said,

you,

as

—

letters

opposed the book

obstinate it

friend

by

Bucke, getting

bring

the talking

going off slowly

is

for

came one day and as

about Eng-

have occasional

I

—

me

told

made him do

liked him.

Dowden

—who

in,

M.D.

Whitman

in

1884

laughing heartily, and wrote the account

my

of

birthplace and antecedents which

occupies the

twenty-four pages of

first

the book."

"I thought idea '

that there was a germinal

—

book

Bucke's

in

Leaves of Grass

pression of the

O'Connor's

any

woman

with her

—

so to

—

must say

I

likes a

—whether

man

a help to

New York had

I

Just

to

like

as

to fall in love

she returns

it

or not

have once aroused so eloquent

all

was there

—

I

is

reassuring

We then spoke of the

me."

money-making and

it

that

an ex-

As

are comforting.

and passionate a declaration and

idea all

Moral Nature.

letters

They

them.

the

was above

'

gentility

remarking that

business at I

thought

increased considerably since I in

'77,

and he corroborating,

though holding that

it

probably had to

be gone through "for reasons."

Here

I

find

the 37

following

passage

Days with Walt Whitman among my

notes

"

:

am

I

impressed

more than ever with W.'s contradictory, self-willed, tenacious, obstinate character,

strong and even extreme moods, united

with

infinite tenderness, wistful love,

studied tolerance says

*

:

;

and

also great caution [he

the phrenologists always say that

caution

my

is

you know that

chief ?

characteristic

and

']

—did

certain artful-

a

ness, combined with keen, penetrating and

determined candour there,

still

'

the wild-hawk look

;

untamable, untranslatable,' yet

with that wonderful tenderness at bottom."

The

next

Walt came

day

noon, to Crowell's hotel, where ing

we dined and went

;

Park

Carlyle, in

withstanding talists

all

men

I

at

was stay-

to Fairmount

Talked

in the afternoon.

W.

about social questions. like

over,

:

"

I

a little believe,

I

think that not-

set-offs

the great capi-

;

and masters of private enterprise

have, in

America

at

least,

been useful.

Whitman I

have myself had

1884

in

all

along a tender feel-

ing for Co-operation, but for that doubt

whether a committee or an elected person

As

could or would do the work."

to

England, he seemed to think that emigration

would

relieve

it,

and he looked

upon the law and custom of the

" hard-pan

institutions."

underlying "

even

agitation,

Carlyle have

I

your

but

fiercest,

little belief in

Society, like a person in

as

social

and welcome

like

the

entail

all

like

reform talk.

middle

life, is set,

and you have to make the best of

it.

I

hope, a bit of a reformer myself.

am,

I

Yes,

we must grow

generous, ungrasping

masters of industry; absurd as the idea

would seem to most now-a-days, that

The

is

the upshot of what

creation

of

a

large,

is

I believe

going on.

independent,

democratic class of small owners

—though

main thing

it is

is

the

never once men-

tioned by our economists and politicians. 39

Days with Walt Whitman I

am satisfied

that for

America Free Trade

and open admission of

all

integral part of its theory

the world

and

is

foreigners

is

an

the future of

;

one of open communication

solidarity of all races

and

;

that

if

problem cannot be solved in America

it

cannot be solved anywhere."

We

drove to Fairmount Park in a 'bus,

walked a tables,

at

sat

little,

refreshment

the

and listened to the band

—Walt

and quiet for the most

absorbed

recognised by a few

among

part,

the well-dressed

crowd, but seeming to hold himself aloof

with almost an fine

withal

in

—looking

of hauteur

air

grey suit and with

his

grey uncovered head, tho' perhaps a weary.

He

my

and doings

life

The

asked

following

supper with

me somewhat at

about

home.

evening

Whitman

little

I

stayed

to

in the little kitchen

of his home, in company with Mr. and

Mrs. Lay.

They seemed homely 40

decent

Whitman

1884

in

Walt,

people, rather dull and quiet.

was dressed just

in shirt

the weather was hot

Afterwards we

and trousers

—kept things

sat in the front

who

— for

going.

room with

Folger McKinsey, a young Philadelphian

who had come

of literary leanings,

Walt

in.

talked about Shakespeare, the Bacon

theory, the greatness of the historical plays,

the " dragon-rancours " of the barons,

"

Lear, &c.

King

will not be positive about

I

Bacon's connection with the plays, but

am

behind

that

satisfied

Shakespeare there ing,

and

far,

is

the

I

historical

another mind, guid-

far reaching, giving weight

and permanent value to what would otherwise

have been only two plays a year

written for a witty, alert, jocose audience

—

The death.

it

;

gallants."

conversation turned

W.

ferent affair

of

young

chiefly of

:

" It

is

somehow on

in reality a very dif-

from the romantic stage view

deathbed speeches and 41

'

scenes

'

are

!

Days with Walt Whitman of the rarest occurrence.

hundreds of deaths, and just a matter of course

I

have witnessed

as a rule

—

seems

it

like having

your

breakfast, or any other event of the day,

and met with

indifference

the

at

last,

and with apathy, or unconsciousness." After an hour or two we went out and

walked

through the Camden

a little

—Walt,

as usual,

He

to passers-by.

coming into

streets

with plentiful greetings

would

on our

insist

shop and having some re-

a

freshment, and then a few minutes later at the corner of a street, left us, I remember,

with that queer brusque manner of his

which so often offended

—

his friends

-just

coldly saying "Ta-ta," and going off as if

he didn't care

The last

if

he never saw us again

next morning (June 30) was

visit

to

Whitman; we had

and intimate conversation. friendly

and

affectionate,

He

and

my

a long

was very

sat

by the

open window downstairs enjoying the wafts 4*

Whitman of fragrant

air,

while he talked

about

"What

behind

"Leaves of Grass." '

Leaves of Grass

1884

in

something that few,

is

'

lies

very few, only one here and there, perhaps oftenest seize.

women,

are at all in a position to

behind almost every line;

It lies

but concealed, studiedly concealed passages left purposely obscure.

something

hen

You

!

down

a

my

in

some

;

There

is

nature furtive like an old

hen wandering up and

see a

hedgerow, looking apparently quite

unconcerned,

but

presently she finds

a

concealed spotj and furtively lays an egg,

and comes away

happened '

That

is

Leaves of Grass.'

me I

!

as

'artful'

though nothing had

how

I felt in

Sloane

—which about

Kennedy hits the

think there are truths which

sary to envelop or

that

all

writing

wrap up."

it is

I

calls

mark. necesreplied

through history the old mysteries,

or whatever they

been held back

;

may have been

called,

had

and added that probably 43

Days with Walt Whitman we had something

yet to learn

in these matters.

W.

think there

more to come we must rather look to

anything

is

from that source

modern

;

Personally,

thing

is

my

in

in the

This was the

last I

left

him

sitting

in his downstairs

and

the

poems

think that the

I

more present

poems than

later

I

'

Time

science to open the way.

alone can absolutely test one's.

from India

" I do not myself

:

'

or '

some-

my small

some of

Song of Myself

there

—

"

saw of Whitman.

by the window

room, close to the

passers-by

any

his

street

eye

clear

un-

dimmed by

age, his rugged, loving nature

unaltered

though there was

;

certain

a

grave weariness in his otherwise majestic presence,

sadness

which

nearly eight years to

physical

one a

gives

when one thinks

touch of

that he

had

still

pass of increasing

disablement and of continually

diminishing vitality, culminating at serious bodily

last in

misery and wretchedness, 44

Whitman before

might

death

burden of the It

in

1884

relieve

him of the

flesh.

seems strange at

first

that

Whitman's

death should have been of such a lingering

—three months, from

character 1

Christmas

891, to near the end of the following

March,

a

in

dying state nearly

much

time, with

restlessness, sleeplessness,

misery, and even pain at times.

some ways physical

this

was

in

temperament

voluminous hold on his

the

all

But

in

consonance with his

—

his extraordinarily

life, all

phases of

it,

extreme tenacity, his strong implication of the body and the senses, his

in the life

affectionate his friends,

egoism

—

all

and unceasing love towards

and

his

marked and obdurate

things which held

and needed

a long process

ment,

by

fibre

him to

life,

of disentangle-

fibre as it were, before

he

could be released.

—voluminousness —was

Volume

Walt's most notable features. 45

one of

Physically

;

Days with Walt Whitman was so

it

tions, his

—

as witness his

keen and well-furnished senses

mentally the same interested

weighing,

ample propor-

—

mind

a

every

in

subject,

its

balancing,

slow-moving, but

comparing,

never retracing

well stocked,

steps

;

emotionally and

by temperament the same, with an im-

mense range of emotion, and volume of feeling

when

roused, but slow, deliberate,

cautious, lethargic, and at times even

is

This voluminousness

immovable.

ishly

lump-

the key to his literary style, which at is

magnificent

culled

from every

best

life,

—thought side

after

and department of

ranged in successive line and phrase,

marshalled and held in suspense as in

huge

array,

till

upon the reader worst

It is this

is

it

were

at last they are hurled

one mass and with

in

overwhelming power its

its

thought

;

but which style at

cumbersome and

disjointed.

voluminousness which goes with

the whole florid full emotional nature of 46

Whitman

in

1884

the man, fond of materials and plenty of materials, not especially careful of order

or arrangement, not too studiedly clear or concise in thought and expression, but

always ample and inclusive.

Another main point acter

I

is,

word " cussedness." it

once or twice

in

Whitman's char-

best expressed by the

think,

:

I

have touched on

the

contrary moods,

the spirit of refusal, the wilfulness, which

by their

at

times

and antagonism to

humanity

formed,

necessary opposition his

ample and loving believe,

I

tragic element in his nature

great

a

— and possibly

prevented him ever being quite what called "

happy

brates in his

in love affairs."

poems the

disposition, but often river

than

fixed, silent,

a thing

He

fluid, all-solvent

was himself

the rock.

is

cele-

In these

less

the

moods,

and unquestionable, he was

you might try your strength upon,

but which you were not 47

likely to

move

!

;

Days with Walt Whitman downward

In the slow

from back to his eye it

slope of his head

and

front,

in the lines of

and brow, tenacity was written

looked out upon you from the small,

well-defined

pupil

curtain-like lid

have

a precipice, sheer,

One

can imagine

character, at

must

under

said,

long,

its

and there was

;

in his face, as I

set

at times

the look as of

with breakneck ledges.

how

this portion

of his

any rate in his younger days,

have conflicted with

equally

his

innate and imperious craving for

human

love and fellowship, and what suffering

the conflict times.

R.

must have brought

W. Emerson

to

said to

him

me

at

once

(1877) of Whitman that when he came to

know him he found him

fanciful

man."

1

" a wayward,

This was not probably

meant to be a complete account of the man, yet

it

indicates

Emerson's perception

of certain characteristics in him. 1

See

infra, p. 166.

48

In later

—

Whitman the

years

equable

large,

asserted itself

in

1884

human

heart

more and more, and nothing

could be more beautiful than the tolerance

towards old and young of

he exhibited

came

all

sorts

which

while the waywardness be-

;

refined into something majestic.

remember old Philadelphia,

Mr.

Pearsall

I

of

Smith,

who knew Whitman

very

one of the things which

well, saying that

impressed him most about Walt was his

" magnificent No " !

—how sometimes when

invited out, or asked to

do anything which

he did not care to do, there would forth

—

roll

unqualified by any thanks, or ex-

planation, or excuse

—the simple

negative,

with a great round O, and yet, as a rule, with a large sunny amiability which made offence impossible. I

have two portraits

which

1890

I

am

fond of comparing with each

One

other. ;

—photographs

is

of Whitman, taken in

the other, taken at about the same d 49

;;

Days with Walt Whitman time and at the same age (seventy years), is

of an Indian Gnani or

seer.

faces of the highest interest

but

how

different

Both

are

and import

That of Whitman

!

deeply lined, bearing the marks of

life-

long passion and emotion, aggressive and determined, yet wistful and tender, full

of suffering and serenity,

ample as

of love, indicating

full

yet markedly turbid and clouded,

in

brow and frame and flowing

of one

humanity

touching and at

all

hair,

mingling with

points — withal

wonderful majesty and grandeur,

of as

a

of

the great rocks (to return always to that simile)

whose summits pierce

at last the

highest domain.

The

other portrait, of a

man

equally

aged, shows scarcely a line on the face

you might think for that and for the lithe, active

form that he was not more

than forty years old

;

a

brow absolutely

calm and unruffled, gracious, expressive

Whitman lips,

in

1884

—

well-formed features, and eyes

dominant

—dark

of his countenance

characteristic

and

intense,

and illuminated by In this face you

the vision of the seer. discern

command,

the

control, gentleness,

and

the most absolute inward unity, serenity,

and peace passions

the soul sense

;

flit ;

no wandering emotions or across the crystal mirror of

self-hood in any but the highest

has vanished

were, returned to

—the

its

self

has,

birthplace

—

as

it

leaving

behind the most childlike, single-hearted, uncensorious, fearless character imaginable.

Yet just here one seems to miss some-

—

thing in the last character

human and is

the touch of

earthly entanglement.

Here

not exactly the great loving heart which

goes a few steps on the

of man here domed brow which child

;

problem of standing

life

evident

and

is

not the ample-

tackles science.

signs 51

way with every

of

each

new

Notwith-

culture

and

Days with Walt Whitman experience in

the

notwithstanding

past,

power of concentration

vast

matter or

affair

when

shows that heart and

come

in

any given

necessary, the face intellect

have be-

quiescent, that interest in the actual

has passed or

is

passing away.

Whitman's immense moody and emotional

temperament

bulent"

—he

himself—-forms

calls

it

"tur-

a factor of his

character and writings, which has perhaps

not been sufficiently considered

by some of

his admirers,

who,

—

especially

as so often

happens, are more concerned to present

an ideal personality than a real portrait.

There

who

are indeed

some of

his biographers

are at pains to explain that

his expressions

many of

of sympathy and participa-

tion in the weaknesses

and

sins

of humanity

are to be taken as theoretical or allegorical expressions, having interpretation.

by no means a personal

Yet surely

this is to take

the clay out of the brick, the marble out 5*

;

Whitman

While

of the statue.

no man could have

1884

in it

in

is

obvious that

one lifetime run

through all the experiences mentioned in " Leaves of Grass," the whole point of the matter

is

that the author actually finds in

himself the capability of these experiences,

and quite personally them.

It

is,

identifies

himself with these

fact, just

in

earth

entanglements, in a character so cosmic in

range as

its

his,

which are of

im-

special

port as giving direction and effect to his individuality is

clear

it

and to

his

that without his

enfoldment in the earth-life shirt

of Hercules

Not only

work.

voluminous

—the Nessus-

—he could not

well have

performed the mighty works that he did but

it is

difficult to see

how, without some

of that obduracy and egotism of

could

have

held

his

own

his,

against

he the

great surge of obloquy and ridicule which

covered his of literature.

first

appearance on the

field

Whitman saw (somewhere 53

;

Days with Walt Whitman

man of

withinhimself) the typical era

a

new

and he gave himself to the utterance

;

of what he saw.

It

stood in the most

glaring and irremediable contrast to the

genteel

of the civilisation

ideal

Alone,

him.

whole of modern strength

ever,

Now then, if needed. Now then

was

be made the most they were such

the

society.

tenacity, obstinacy, wilfulness

could

as

;

If they

of.

ill

His was perhaps the most daring advance ever

and

around

he had to confront

made

in

they had to

were faults be spared. deliberately literature

difficult to believe that it

could

have been made except by one in

whom

it

is

rocky

the

elements of

has

this

quality

of

"thereness"; and when the

had

their say

upon

it,

touched

it

—

and expended still

were

" Leaves of Grass "

abundantly present. itself

character

undeniable critics

have

all their shafts

remains solid and un-

like the

earth, 54

which survives

;

Whitman

1884

in

the theories of the geologists and sur-

all

renders itself to none.

There

is

In many ways human evolu-

a third point.

Whitman marks

a stage of

tion not yet reached, and hardly suspected,

by humanity this

more

at large

true

capacity of Love.

man's

life

you

he gave

that

but in no respect

;

than in If

respect

you consider Whit-

Love ruled

will see that his

life

for

love.

were other motives no doubt, but ultimately dominated

them

all.

this

one

It

per-

led

life

it

and the hospi-

him

(before the war) deep into the

and comradeship of the people

phases

;

succour of the wounded soldiers

tals in it

battlefield

it,

There

meates like a flame his entire writings

took him to the

is

of his

;

after

the war

it

united

—

him

all

in

bonds of tender and life-long friendship 1 with many, both 1

See

men and women

his Letters to Fete Doyle, published

" Calamus," by Small, Maynard U.S.A.

title

55

&

;

it

under the

Co., Boston,

—

;

Days with Walt Whitman surrounded his death-bed with devotion,

and

For

thousands to his funeral.

brought it

he gave away his possessions and

the material means of

he gave

life,

his

prospects of professional success, he gave health,

fame

—

all

that a

man

can

give—

and accepted illness and obscurity, and oftentimes

long

and

and betrayal even of love

He

was a man

in

loneliness

painful

whom

itself.

the

1

power of

1 See that remarkable poem printed in the i860 edition of " Leaves of Grass" (p. 355), but afterwards

omitted, perhaps as being too personal

:

" Hours continuing long, sore and heavy-hearted, Hours of the dusk, when I withdraw to a lonesome

and unfrequented spot, seating myself, leaning my face in my hands ; Hours sleepless, deep in the night, when I go speeding swiftly the country roads, or through the city streets, or pacing miles and forth,

miles, stifling plaintive cries

Hours discouraged, distracted

—

for the one I cannot content myself without, soon I saw him content himself without me ;

Hours when

I

am forgotten, (O weeks and months are I believe I am never to forget !)

passing, but

56

Whitman love was developed

1884

in

to an

extraordinary

Yet (thanks to him)

degree.

no attenuated or merely

this

spiritual

but was a large and generous

love,

passion,

and emotional of course, but

spiritual

well

was

rooted in the physical and sexual In

also.

him the various

festations

sides

and mani-

of the passion were so blent,

that instead of weakening they recognised

and reinforced each other Sullen

and

it is

suffering hours

useless

—

I

am

!

(I

;

and, coming

am ashamed—but

what I am ;) I wonder if other men ever

—

Hours of my torment have the like, out of the like feelings ? Is there even one like me distracted his friend, his lover, lost to him ? Is he too as I am now? Does he still rise in the

—

morning, dejected, thinking

—

who

is

lost

to

him ? and at night, awaking, think who is lost ? Does he too harbor his friendship silent and endless ? harbor his anguish and passion ? Does some stray reminder, or the casual mention of a name, bring the fit back upon him, taciturn and deprest ? Does he see himself reflected in me? In these hours does he see the face of his hours reflected?" 57

— ;

Days with Walt Whitman into touch with humanity, as he did with a

from

kind of careless equalness

these sides

;

and folds of of race,

he drew

character, occupation

of space and time

distances

men and women of and

nature

varied

through differences

caste,

climate,

despising

habits

saved them from their

from

their

— and

own

united

own

little

them

the

himself,

to

little selves

and vices

virtues

common

"Leaves of Grass"

attachment is

the meet-

ing-ground of the human race. every

every

nationality,

trade, every

sented,

and

are

There every

creed,

atom of humanity all

most

in the solidarity of

humanity, by their to him.

all

piercing through the layers'

fused in

is

repre-

the great

loving soul that overbroods them. If

it

seems

difficult

to reconcile this

great and abounding charity of

with

his

strong

egotism,

it

Whitman

is

not needful to reconcile them. 58

perhaps

They

Whitman may have

At any

spiritual

rate to assert

emotional,

sexual,

physical,

to

all

races,

castes,

most despised and degraded, to the

to the

near

— —extending

love

1884

been two necessarily opposite

poles of his nature. this

in

home and

far off, to the virtuous

and to the criminal, to men

women,

as well as to

to the animals even

phases and utterances

—

and to

;

in

all

egoism, plainly, unblushingly, in

forms

— confidence, and delight

desire,

and

powers

it

has

self-esteem,

the

appetites

come

lives

fame,

in

to

natural

— Whitman

de-

In doing so he

former and formal

but some day

;

—when

be recognised that the

which the true

and moves nor

all

and exposed himself to the

opposition

medium

its

in

(necessarily) upset all

fiercest

all

pride,

liberately set himself.

moralities,

its

assert this

is

ego,

neither

the soul,

gain

nor

duty nor denial, but indeed

love and love alone

— 59

it

will be seen that

—

Days with Walt Whitman " Leaves of Grass "

perhaps

is,

of

all

books ever written, the most natural and nobly inevitable.

A

fourth point which

I

will venture

to touch on in this estimate of

Whitman

—perhaps expressed —

seized

impossible

'

most

the to is

of

all,

but or

may be called his " Leaves of Grass," of

what

illumination.'

course,

vital

adequately

be

would

have

not

been

written

without it ; it runs behind every page " the vision and the faculty divine." This perception in the universal, this power of seeing self,

things

apart

from the mundane

and independent of their

relation to

that self, appears to be a kind of trans-

man

cendent faculty in

which occasion-

and which brings him

ally manifests itself,

—

;

—into

relation

with another order of existence.

Indeed

it

may

perhaps be said

the

strangeness

of

the

intoxication

of this vision, 60

the

sensation,

and

appears

Whitman

in

1884

sometimes to be so great that

—

as in the

case of the blinding glare at the

mouth

of Plato's cavern ("Republic," bk.

—

the beholder after witnessing

hinged for ordinary the

see

what it is, '

else

of the

things

accustomed it

light, is

life,

nor

.

vii.)

un-

is

it

and can neither world

their

in

describe

clearly

This

that he has seen.

no doubt, that constitutes the partial of the poet (Plato's " Phaedrus"),

mania

'

and which accounts

many people of

also for the fact that

mystical tendency, after a

momentary illumination of the

kind, re-

lapse into a sort of drivel for the rest of their natural lives

—

circling always

round

something which they have neither clearly

apprehended nor can conclusively forget

—but out of the hatch

systems

memory of which and

dogmas without end.

we

suppose, with

faculty

is

one that

'revelations'

And

Dr. Bucke, is

61

they

and

indeed, that

if

the

gradually evolving

Days with Walt Whitman human

in

more

can be nothing

nature, there

likely than

that

its

should be accompanied by

and

and

illusion

intelligence

exercise

first

much doubt of

disturbance

generally,

the

and even of the

moral nature. In the case of

immense his

Whitman, however, the of

sanity

his

and

intelligence

immense grasp of the actual world

prevented any serious dislocation of the

kind

;

and, though the mania and intoxi-

cation are at times almost terrific (as in

the 'Song of Myself), he never loses his

hold on actual to draw

them

facts,

but manages at

in a great

web over

last

himself,

and to show the whole world transparent with the illumination within.

This faculty of perception in the universal

must not be looked upon

intellectual discrimination

or objects;

it is

as a

of certain

rather, I take

it,

scious identity with the object ("I 6z

mere facts

a con-

am

the

Whitman

1884

in

mash'd fireman with breastbone broken"); in

which consciousness the emotional and

sensational elements are fused

with the

intellectual, just as they are in the

own

of one's

sciousness

It

falls as it

were on the

is

it

of

their abiding relation to

And

each other. itself

the faculty begins to

normally in those

one

(as

would expect) whose emotional and nature

tellectual

When

all

to penetrate to their very essence

and to perceive

develop

which

light

interior side

the person that moves

objects, enabling

along

and

existence

universal

a

actions.

con-

becoming universal.

is

sympathy and

ordinary plane have

man

bring the

in-

intelligence

grown

into free

on the

so far as to

and unprejudiced

relation with almost every phase of exist-

ence,

then

upon him

;

this

new

perception

dawns

the scales fall from the eyes

which have always before seen by the light

of

self,

and he 63

sees

by the

light

Days with Walt Whitman "which

was

never

on

sea

or

land."

" Willst geh'

du ins Unendliche schreiten, nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten,"

says

Goethe

through the the

'

not that the mere travelling

;

infinite,'

human

of

finite

itself

but that

being as

it

it

brings one to

prepares

the

were for his transla-

when the time comes. With Whitman it would seem that he

tion into

it,

had travelled along the

finite

in

pretty

well every direction, when, about the age

of thirty-five or time,

this

thirty-six, or

new order of

near that

consciousness,

and of being, opened out upon him.

In-

stead of upsetting his broadly-based volu-

minous nature,

it

immediately established

that nature, forming the nucleus to

endless

ramifications,

reconcilement

of

its

and the contrary

its

key and

moods.

His luxuriant turbulent emotional pasself acknowledged instantly its

sional

Lord

in the universal ("swiftly arose 64

and

Whitman me

around

spread

knowledge that pass the

earth ")

;

in

18,84

the

peace

all

the argument of

and became dedicated to

that service thenceforward

and

;

must be

in

justification

such a case

and

— to

their use.

and the fish-eggs are

With Whitman

nature

—

and of general nature were seen

the

all

own

elements of his

conflicting

and the

they

as

have their

"The moth

in place."

the

new perception was

eminently sane and undistorted.

It

is

probable indeed that never in historical

times has the cosmic intuition found a fuller it

and more complete utterance

;

for

was not dwindled away into any mere

thin

and other-worldly

in a

kind of spiritual excess the claims of

denying

ecstasy,

the body and the intellect, but was blent

and harmonised,

in fiery union,

with the

very widest practical experiences and the inferences

For the

of

first

a

singularly

time

in history 65

rich

nature.

do we hear E

Days with Walt Whitman the voice of a prophet

and

really

human The

the

accepts

who

really

whole

knows

range of

life.

/

last twenty-five

of Whitman's years

were overshadowed by the clouds of par-

and intermittent

tial

From

paralysis.

the

miracle of health and strength which he

had been before the war, to

come near

his lot

literary ;

was

his destiny

to being a chronic invalid.

Unfitted for active

much

it

life,

unfitted even for

work, he quietly accepted

and being unable to express

his

message in any more resounding way, was content to fashion the commonplaces of his daily life to its utterance I

think,

;

and no one,

could witness the dignity and

simple beauty of this later

life

without

feeling that here, in its way,

was

a

as

pregnant as "Leaves of Grass."

and humane

Gentle

rocky bases

— such had been conspicubefore — now covered with tender

of his nature ous

in manners, the

poem

if

66

Whitman

in

1884

herbage and flowers, making the most of small details, fond of children, and with a pleasant cheery word for all, letting life come and go with large equanimity, he was a

man whom

without

the simplest could approach

effort,

and who was loved by

hundreds who never read a word of his If he

writing.

for the " scious,

him

had a preference,

common

people."

it

was

The uncon-

uncultured, natural types pleased

best,

and he would make an

approach them.

The

to approach him.

67

effort to

others he allowed

NOTES AND APPRECIATIONS

UUjxW

C (l

'

Ju tt> ha,-t i

WHITMAN DR.

R.

AS

PROPHET

MAURICE BUCKE,

his

in

"Memories of Walt Whitman," 1

speaking of the years 1853-55, and of the inception of " Leaves of Grass," says,

"A

very few years before these dates

find

Walt Whitman

sketches,

way

writing tales, essays,

and even poems, which are

from that

distinguishable

writes the greatest

1

in

no

mighty tells

day by day from the power-

presses of civilisation.

tury.

'

which Carlyle

tide of ditch water'

us flows

we

Where

did

All at once he

book of

a great cen-

he get the stuff to

"Walt Whitman Fellowship Papers"

delphia, 1894), p. 42. 71

(Phila-

— Days with Walt Whitman

How

.put in it?

minute, as

him

My

were?

it

why

before,

did he get

Or,

did

it

all in a

it

if

it

was

in

not show itself?

memories of Walt Whitman include

many

which

talks, in

obtain light

my

did

I

best to

upon these and related prowould pass over

Generally, he

blems.

the subject with a half-answer or a return question

more

;

at

other

he would be

times

he was one day in the

explicit, as

summer of 1886, when he Grass was

of

there,

all the time, in

'Leaves

though unformed,

whatever answers as the

laboratory of the mind. less

said

conscious of

it,

I

was more or

and thought often of But, you

taking action in that direction.

much to deter impulse to move had

can understand, there was

—

that

until

the

become very strong, nothing would be done.

I

enterprise

—

could clearly see that such an

would meet with

—

at all events at first 7*

that

little it

favor

would be

—

Whitman hooted at (as

The

down. and

it

as

Prophet

was) and perhaps hooted

Review

Democratic

essays

came from the surface of the

tales

mind, and had no connection with what lay below

—

a great deal of

the time to

come

when

which indeed

At

was below consciousness.

came

the concealed growth had

to light, and the

first

Leaves of Grass was written lished.'

last

edition of

and pub-

"

This phrase, " the concealed

had to come to

growth

light," thus preserved for

us by Dr. Bucke, helps

much towards

the

appreciation of the prophetic and unex-

pected character of " Leaves of Grass."

We

do not of course understand why out

of green foliage and branches a sudden

and unexpected blossom

—

yet evidently

long prepared in the heart of the plant

should appear

;

nor do we understand

why, often amid quite unpromising foliage of the

human mind, 73

a great

work of

art

;

Days with Walt Whitman or prophecy arises

we seem

yet

;

to see

that the processes are very similar.

of

centre

growth,

Prophecy

unnoticed,

hitherto

long hidden, has come to

light.

at all times has this inevit-

of some-

able spontaneous character, as

thing

arising

consciousness,

reason that

it

from below the ordinary which just for the very so arises cannot be deliber-

quenched or stopped

ately

almost

— something gaining

hardly

inarticulate,

sphere of definition

irrational,

;

of joint with accepted things inconvenient, contrary

new

The

order.

for they are clasts.

They

The

the

and out

subversive,

;

annunciative of a

;

prophets are stoned

obviously

liars

and icono-

are charged with inconsis-

tency, and, poor things

the charge.

A

!

they cannot deny

They cannot

help themselves.

flower unfolding out of

cannot unfold other than

it

its

own

roots

does.

By many such marks Whitman's work 74

—

Whitman

Prophet

as

And

shows a prophetic character.

while

he does not claim to deliver a new Gospel, he seems to claim to take his place in the

who have handed down

of those

line

world

-

old

treasure

mankind.

"

of redemption

for

"To Him

that

In his poem,

was Crucified,"

1

he says

My

spirit to

Do

not mind because

a

:

yours, dear brother,

many sounding your name

do not understand you, I

do not sound your name, but I understand you,

I specify you with joy,

O my

comrade, to salute

you, and to salute those that are with you, before and since, and those to

That we

all

come

also,

labor together transmitting the same

charge and succession,

We

few equals,

indifferent

of lands, indifferent

of times,

We, enclosers of

all

of

all

continents, all castes, allowers

theologies,

Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,

We

walk

silent

among

but

reject not

that

is

1

disputes

and

assertions,

the disputers nor anything

asserted,

" Leaves of Grass," p. 298. 75

Days with Walt Whitman

We

hear

the bawling

and the

we

din,

are

reach'd at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side,

They

close peremptorily on us to surround us,

my

comrade,

Yet we walk unheld,

free, the

ineffaceable

whole earth over,

till we make our mark upon time and the diverse

journeying up and

down

eras,

Till

It

we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers as we are."

will

be

noticed that in this great

poem he speaks not merely as a successor of him that was crucified, but as a continuer of

some world-wide and agelong

And

tradition.

that the root of realised

since

we cannot doubt has been known and

in truth it all

the

farthest

history;

the

charge and succession have certainly de-

scended out of dim obscurity from the

How

much exactly Walt Whitman may have known of the Vedic earliest times.

and other

early writings

is

doubtful

that he had read here and there 7ÂŤ

;

but

among

— "

Whitman

as

Prophet

them, quite enough to gain an insight into

message was continuous with

his is

know

of them, and to

heart

the

"These

quite certain.

thoughts of

men

are really the

and lands,

in all ages

they are not original with me."

Vedic scriptures, and, in

from

that

theirs,

In the

lineal succession

Buddhist and Platonist

these, in the

and Christian writings, in the Taoists of China,

of

the Mystics of Egypt, the Sufis the

Persia,

and

is

clearly

root

present,

to

be found

distinguishable

same from which has sprung.

is

[It

—the

" Leaves

very

of Grass

would be too long

by quotations

from

writings, to attempt to prove this in

an Appendix to this

in

very

paper

at

these

all

but

;

have,

I

imperfect fashion, dotted

in

a

number of

parallel passages from them and from " Leaves of Grass," and these

may

A

serve

glance

to at

illustrate

these

what

I

ancient and 77

mean.]

modern

Days with Walt Whitman utterances assures us that

the

same

loving

all

down

universal

looked out, making

its

enclosing

cession

continents,

The same

theologies.

has

passed

Yet of course

We

it

diverse

and

castes,

Whitman

and

in his turn.

there

are

differences.

Whitman

cannot say that

is

more

more penetrating, more profound

subtle,

many of

than

the

charge and suc-

on,

voices and transmits

has

spirit

voice heard from

time to time, harmonising eras,

history

before.

who have gone

those

would be hard

It

imagine

to

anything more subtle and profound than passages in the Upanishads. respect he

is

certainly

prophets, and that

and breadth of

is

But

one

unique among the in the universality

appeal.

his

in

He

seems

to liberate the good tidings and give

it

a

democratic scope and world-wide application

even

unknown

the

in

in the sayings

elder

of Buddha. 78

prophets,

Whitman The

difficulty

Prophet

as

with the earlier prophets

no doubt was that around them

limita-

on

Races,

tions

existed

peoples,

religions,

from each

other.

exclusiveness

was

every

hand.

were sharply divided In the early world

The

indispensable.

peoples and nations could not have

up

if

each had not believed that

of the others.

and war were the nurses

of growing humanity's powers radeship, organised

life,

—of com-

community of

timent, courage, self-sacrifice, and early

own

&c, were

customs, morals, religion, race, infinitely superior to those

Exclusiveness

grown

its

virtues.

Problems of

all

social

sen-

the life

and character, which could never have been solved in a general ocean of mankind, were easy to define and determine in

small

communities.

Ignorance

and

prejudice were necessary fences between

one

state

another.

or

And

system

of

however 79

society

great

and

certain

Days with Walt Whitman individual teachers past

—however outlook on

real

act

may have been

in the

generous and wide their life,

they

could only

still

and speak subject to the very

definite

1 limitations prevailing around them.

Joels,

Jeremiahs,

—stung pulse in

messages their

Carlyles,

no doubt by incontrollable imblaze

to

them

Mohammeds,

The

— have :

have

forth

called

which was

that

delivered

their

special

people

the

of

time to gather themselves round

some new centre of

life

moral

or

or

religious

and inspiration, racial

;

and

in

doing so have anathematised every other

code

of

morals

or

form

of

religion,

called all outside people Gentiles or Bar-

them to the They have done work priceless

barians,

and

put

sword. in their

1 We have to remember, too, that their sayings have come down to us only through priestly, local, racial media. There is not a sacred book that has not been tampered with, and its teaching distorted in the direction of narrowing and exclusiveness.

80

Whitman time and

so,

on and com-

locality, insisting

some

pelling each

step in

Prophet

as

human

certain

progress

and necessary

and having done

;

they have gone their way and been

superseded,

because

message

their

was

only a part-message.

Only

not been superseded.

Teachers like the

a

Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth,

few have

St.

Francis,

and the Syrian Bab, 1 belong to no race or nationality

they press the claims

if

;

of religion or morality, insistence

may

be said to be spread

humanity.

all

rather than deniers

prophetic

little

on any particular scheme or code,

that their net

to catch

with so

it is

gift

in

;

its

inclusive utterance

;

They

are accepters

they represent the deepest and most

and

it

is

difficult to

think of them as becoming antiquated or

out of date.

Yet

—though

it

would not be acceptable

1 See "Abbas Effendi," a study of the religion of the Babis, by M. H. Phelps (Putnams, 1903).

81

F

Days with Walt Whitman make comparisons of greatness we may say that even among these Whitman was (with the exception perhaps or desirable to

—

of the Bab) unique in the realisation of the world-wide and universal character of

The

his message.

others had messages

of world-wide import to perhaps they hardly

Whitman

though

deliver,

knew

this

the

at

from the

time

;

first

that this universality was the very key

but

and centre of

realised

his utterance,

self deliberately to

and

emphasise

set

it.

him-

Many

things conspired, with him, to this result

—the

girdling

of the earth

in

his

time, and the extraordinary developments

of

locomotion

and intercommunication

which were bringing together East and

West, and

all races

and

classes,

creeds and

customs, into close touch and

ledgment of each other.

The

acknowpeoples

were being compelled to see that none of

them has

a

monopoly of

excellence or

;

Whitman but that

defect,

The

the

Press,

all

forms

ways,

various

as

Prophet

illustrate,

in

of necessary

their life.

Locomotive, the Wire,

were pushing more and more insistently to

The

conclusion.

this

down Whitman and breaking

;

a

fences

were

new Era was shaping

himself, by a nature and

temperament of extraordinary balance and fulness, physical, mental,

can

resist

and moral ("I

anything better than

my own

diversity"), was fitted to respond to all

—

to

swim

in this ocean

it

of humanity

as in a sea.

[Yet even

and allowing for the

so,

occasioning causes, his utterance,

sweep,

in

it

must be

somewhat staggering

is

said

that

daemonic reach and

its

!

Through

" Leaves of Grass " pours a torrent of trades,

classes,

characters,

races, nations, morals,

opinions — beautiful,

things

occupations,

manners, incidents,

generally

accounted

and things unbeautiful, things *3

Days with Walt Whitman good or huge

proper

evil,

or

in

indifference, all apparently accepted

on an

equality, dismissed

It

to

is,

and

—

improper

at

certain

folk,

on an

equality.

most confusing,

times even revolting and

terri-

fying.]

Of

this

new Era, with

all

splen-

its

Walt Whitman may

dours and terrors,

"barbaric

Through the yawp" and seeming-random

medley of

his verse

be said to be the prophet.

at

times in

its

— inarticulate

enough

very endeavour to include

and accept every phase and feature of

human

life

— break

out the deep-rolling

organ-tones of Creation's primal music.

We

hear the same

symphony of

all

agelong theme and

historic

time,

through whatever imperfections, freer expression

by virtue of

more extended key-board and virtue of

its

its

gaining, a larger

so

much

orchestra,

discords and sequences

by

more

daring than ever used in literature before. *4

—

Whitman And fined

it

the

Prophet

as

Theme

Whitman

?

very directly at the

of his poems

has de-

first

:

" One's Self I sing, a simple separate Yet utter the word Democratic, En-Masse."

The

and

Creation's mass

continuous

— that

person,

the

word

and separate, yet

Self, individual

conjoined

outset

is

throughout

the theme which

undoubtedly runs through the whole of his

poems and prophetic

it is

utterances.

And

the theme of the eldest Upanishads

of the Vedic sages.

It

the

is

theme

which has come down through the ages

—variously

balanced,

now someon one aspect, now with

what more

insistence

somewhat

more on another

expressed

and

illustrated,

variously

;

in

religious, or philosophical form

;

poetical,

variously

coloured, confined, or conventionalised by race and tradition

;

but inevitably gaining 8S

—

Days with Walt Whitman long-run in freedom and fulness

in the

of utterance. almost

In

Whitman

unconsciously

—

breaks out

it

certainly

less

as

the result of any intellectual process or

argument than by force of an impulse

—into

—

men and women,

sinners

saints, the stars, insects, solar

systems

shows,

its

and

all

be

a strange torrential paean

Everything, the whole earth,

of identity. all

irresistible

envisaged in

beings are

with

identified

One

the

;

order to

they

are

accorded each their unique unapproachcharacter

able

be embraced "

We

and

perfection,

only

to

:

make our

ineffaceable

mark upon time and

the diverse eras, Till

we saturate women of

brethren and lovers as

So

in

Whitman

and moonlight

men and may prove

time and eras, that the races, ages to

all

we

come, are."

the purblind morals

ideals

of the

past

are,

whether directly or by implication, broken 86

Whitman

as

up (hence storm and

Prophet

world-old

the

eternal

"

I

many) and

terror to

led back to their most

motive,

central

of

revelation

the

Self,

and inseparate.

ascend

from the moon, I ascend from the

night, I perceive that the ghastly

sunbeams

And

is

noonday

central

from the

glimmer

reflected,

debouch to the steady and offspring great or small."

Always the inward, the enduring, the central,

the vital,

honoured

;

acknowledged and

is

the external, the temporary,

the unessential thrown all

off.

morals, manners, races,

the original greater

human

than

soul and

Underneath titles,

classes,

its affections,

Underneath clothing,

all.

costume, ranks, trades, and occupations, the bodily form,

Underneath and

all

fraternity.

its

needs and physiology.

and

art

social

Greater than

all

life,

temples, galleries, and museums, the 87

sex

houses, life

— Days with Walt Whitman of the open

and

air

In such

its lessons.

simple elementary things as these

human

universal

—

in the

soul, rediscovering itself

in all forms, in the healthy

and beautiful

human

body, in sex and fraternity, in

the

with the earth and the open

life

Whitman

root

the

sees

future humanity will

sprung

the

in

past)

air,

of which

out

spring (as

it

has

out of which

:

a

society of proud, strong, free individuals,

who may "

shall

easily

Now

if a it

Now

also

thousand perfect

arise

:

men were

to appear

would not amaze me,

if a

thousand beautiful

appear'd

We

be brethren and lovers,

and naturally

may

it

forms of

women

would not astonish me."

indeed say

that,

with

the

"Leaves of Grass," the hour has struck for mankind of liberation, of emancipation, from mere outer signal appearance of

rules

and limitations

reference of creeds,

and

all life,

;

the hour for the

irrespective of colour,

principles, to its central essence, gg

;

Whitman It

may

Prophet

as

be, for reasons already hinted, an

Not

hour of danger. formulae,

warning

accustomed

a few,

walk by well-worn

only to

!

will

lose

He

and

paths

"Take

way.

their

me

traveling with

needs

But

the best blood, thews, endurance." it

is

and

an hour which must needs come it

opens for humanity on an era of

unexampled glory.

And It

will

here

a

word about by

be recognised

Whitman

all

of the Individual,

a

is

"

feature of his teaching. all

readers of

that his insistence on the per-

manence, the immortality, life

Individuals.

known

reverence

whoever you are." yourself for ever

I

the

supreme

most marked

The sum

add up

of

you

in

"Yourself! yourself! !

and ever "

"I

sing

the songs of the glory of none, not God,

sooner than

of you." its

essence

I sing

the songs of the glory

For Whitman every is

Self

in

individual, eternal, , perfect,

accruing to itself alone 89

:

"

I

swear

I

think

"

;

;

Days with Walt Whitman now

" Each man is

And

exception

!

and each woman to herself present, and the

to himself

word of the past and word of immortality

the

true

No No

without

everything

that

has an eternal soul

— —

one can acquire for another one can grow for another

yet (strange paradox

!

not one

not one."

) all

are

One.

" Have you thought there could be but a single Supreme ? There can be any number of Supremes one does not countervail another any more than one

—

eyesight countervails

another, or

one

life

countervails another."

Each

is

may

and

a simple separate person,

yet en-masse with the rest. say that

I

think

we

no former teacher has quite

dared to give this side of the truth as

Whitman

has

done, nor given

it

with

so free and so splendid an expression.

Thus

it

may seem

that if in the matter

of pure philosophical statement

Whitman

does not stand out in the great charge 9°

Whitman

Prophet

as

and succession so strongly his predecessors,

work

least his

to,

brotherhood

in

a

to

his

with,

all

on the

of every Individual from everlasting

(though quite

in fact

of

insistence

his

at

namely, in the

:

and

root-existence everlasting

unique

determination

and

creation,

two respects

yet in

and

universality

appeal

is

some of

as

—

his

protest,

indirect),

mere doctrine of absorption

against in

the

Universal.

One

other point

I

should like to note

—and goes with the preceding remarks —namely, Whitman's extraordinary it

con-

creteness,

and

and

his consistent

set avoid-

ance of abstract doctrine in the highest

"

regions of thought. is

I

better than to tell the best,

to leave the best untold." is

swear

I see it is

This avoidance

so subtle and determined that

readers are deceived by

what

always

it

many

into not per-

ceiving " beautiful things well envelop'd," 9'

Days with Walt Whitman and into thinking Whitman himself did

The

not perceive them.

Whitman

clear.

self to

reason of

He

saw that

with regard to the highest truths

They must be

way.

To

as thought. as

felt

as

the

feeling,

the

method of

of Life and as

of

all

great

—the

Art and Literature all

its

power,

till

it

profoundest deeps of the soul.

Whitman's pages

all

the

—the

concrete ex-

perience, penetrating, far-reaching, in

method

the Earth, as well

appeal through sense and

lative

must

one must use

Indirection

Time and

a

and con-

sciousness of the highest facts, one

proceed in another way;

is

to create the

awareness

direct

well

alone,

one would prove a syllogism,

And

is

them

them

try to think

kind of blasphemy.

it

impart

useless to try to seize or

that

is

refused to address him-

Brain alone.

the

it

cumu-

wake the Through

shows of the

Earth, and myriads of concrete images, 9*

Whitman

as

Prophet

surge and break upon the sensitive mind-

—who

surface of the reader as

little

understands

or

in

suspects

meaning and intention

their

of

child

Man

many

is,

as

cases

what every

suspects the meaning

of

the winds and waters that play around

him

as he walks.

Nevertheless they con-

They wake and

vince by their presence.

build

up new ranges of

They

filter

Is

and

fibr e jiis

this concreteness, this

feeling in him.

blood.

And

it

power of indirect

appeaT7~whtclTTCOTislitute--WhTtmarn—g*ea,t-

among

the "PaeTs^^veh as his unrivalled

knowledge of the actual world and of actual

life,

and

the same, give

among

his absolute acceptance

him

of

so high a distinction

the Prophets.

93

,

—

APPENDIX TO WHITMAN AS

PROPHET {Seepage 77)

from

Passages ings

1

early

prophetic

" He, the Highest Person, who while

we

is

awake

in us

are asleep, shaping one lovely sight

after another is

writ-

:—

that indeed

;

is

the Bright, that

Brahman, that alone is called the Immortal." Katha Upanhhad. " He is the one God, hidden in all beings, all

— 1

"

Compare the

O Thou

following from " Leaves of Grass "

:

transcendent,

Nameless, the fibre and the breath, Light of the light, shedding forth universes Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God, At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death, But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou .

actual

And lo

.

.

Me,

thou gently masterest the orbs, Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death, !

And fillest,

swellest full the vastnesses of Space." (P- 32I-)

94

—

—

Appendix

to

;

Whitman

pervading, the Self within

over ness,

beings, the wit-

one,

free

from

Svetasvatara Upanishad.

qualities."

"The

all

the only

the Perceiver,

Prophet

beings, watching

all

works, dwelling in

all

as

sun does not shine [show] there, nor

moon and the stars, nor these lightnings, and much less this fire. When he shines, every-

the

thing shines after him [world]

is

;

by

" As rain water that has ridge runs sees

down on

them on

fallen

all sides,

between

a difference

this

his light all

Svetasvatara Upanishad.

lightened."

on a mountain

thus does he

qualities

who

run after

all sides.

" Light rare untellable, lighting the very light, Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages." (p. 324.) " Whoever you are you are he or she for whom the !

earth

You I

solid

and

liquid

are he or she for

hang "

is

in the sky."

whom

the sun

and moon

(p. 178.)

celebrate Myself,

And what

I assume, you shall also assume," (p. 29.) " Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,

Stands amused, complacent, compassionating,

idle,

unitary,

Both in and out of the game, and watching and wondering at it." (p. 32.) " Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me, I

stand indifferent."

(p. 46.)

95

—

—

—

:

Days with Walt Whitman "As

pure water poured into pure water re-

mains the same, thus, a thinker

"

O

who knows."

Gautama, is the Self of Katha Upanishad.

By

the serenity of his thoughts a

all

actions,

out

man

whether good or bad.

blots

Dwell-

ing within the Self with serene thoughts he obtains imperishable happiness."

Maitrayana-

Brahmana Upanishad. " And he and the Self from

beholds

all

beings in the Self,

in all beings,

he never turns away

man who

understands, the Self

it.

"When has

who

become

to a all

what sorrow, what trouble, him who once beheld that

things,

can there be to " Vagasaneyi-Samhita Upanishad. ?

unity

The "Both "

What

Blessed one [Buddha] said to

the is

bad

ocean

called is

good

and is

my

perfect,

just as perfect."

Ananda

doctrine

become

and what

is

called

(p. 337.)

" Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument "of the earth."

(p. 32.)

array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death." (p 76.)

"

No

"

My spirit

has pass'd in compassion and determinaaround the whole earth. have look'd for equals and lovers, and found them ready for me in all lands." (p. 120.) tion

I

96

Appendix

to

Whitman

gradually deeper.

under

all

changes.

upon the dry thenceforth all

Both preserve their identity Both cast out dead bodies

As

land.

falling into the

Prophet

as

when

the great rivers,

main, lose their name and are

reckoned as

the

ocean,

great

the castes, having renounced their

so

lineage

and entered the Sangha [brotherhood], become brethren and are reckoned the sons of Shakyamuni.

The

ocean

is

the goal of

all

of the rain from the clouds, yet overflowing and never emptied is

;

streams and is

never

it

so the

dharma

embraced by many millions of people, yet

neither increases nor decreases.

As

ocean has only one

of

doctrine has

taste, the taste

it

the great

my

salt, so

only one flavour, the flavour of

emancipation.

Both the ocean and the dharma

one of my changes of garments. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person." (p. 60.) " I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete." (p. 179.) " All parts away for the progress of souls,

" Agonies are

—

All religion, all solid things, arts, governments that was or is apparent upon this globe, or

all

any

and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the globe, falls into niches universe."

(p. 127.)

97

6

—

;

Days with Walt Whitman gems and

are full of

pearls

afford a dwelling-place for

"My

doctrine

and jewels, and both

mighty beings.

pure, and

is

it

makes no

dis-

crimination between noble and ignoble, rich and

My

poor.

cleanses like

all

unto

doctrine

fire

in

it,

is

like

ample room,

He who can be

judgment.

girls,

takes

all,

for

22.

iii.

believes that this spirit can kill,"

killed,

"and he who thinks

both of these are wrong in

It neither kills,

nor will

"As

room

is

the powerful and

nor

not bornj nor dies at any time. origin,

My

and small. for there

for the reception of

boys and

says Krishna to Arjuna, it

all

earth, great

is

things that exist

Mahdparinibbdna Suttanta,

the lowly."

that

My doctrine

unto the heavens,

men and women, "

unto water which

like

which consumes

between heaven and doctrine

is

without distinction.

it

is

It

killed.

is

had no

It has

ever have an origin.

man abandons worn-out clothes and other new ones, so does the soul quit a

" Allons whoever you are Traveling with me you !

come find

travel with

me

what never

!

tires."

(p. 125.)

" This

is

the meal equally

set,

this

the meat for

natural hunger, It is for I

the wicked just the same as the righteous with all." (p. 43.)

make appointments

—

Appendix

to

Whitman

as

Prophet

worn-out bodies, and enter other new ones.

Weapons cannot

cleave

nor can water wet

it,

— Bhagavad "I

am

foe nor

it.

Fire cannot burn

nor can wind dry

it,

it."

Gita.

the same to

I have neither

beings.

all

But those who worship me

friend.

with devotion dwell in me and I also in them. " He who discovers inaction in action, and action in inaction,

is

wise

among

mortals.

"

The practiser of Yoga, whose spirit is purified, who has subdued himself and vanquished his senses,

whose Self

is

the Self of

not polluted even by action."

is

"

I

all

creatures,

Ibid.

swear I think now that everything has an immortal soul swear I think there is nothing but immortality." 1

I

(P- 337-)

"

Who,

constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,

The

past, the future, dwelling there, like

inseparable together." " 1 doubt not

I

space,

(p. 304.)

have myself died ten thousand times

before. I

receive

my

now again

await me." "

of

my many

translations,

from

avataras ascending, while others doubtless (p. 382.)

You can do nothing and be nothing but what infold you."

(p. 66.)

99

I

will

•

—

Days with Walt Whitman "Tao

as

great rivers

exists in

it

and

seas

from the valleys. " All pervading

is

the world

is

the great Tao.

It

once on the right hand and on the things depend on not.

accomplished,

Its task

and nourishes

It loves

act as master.

"We to

it,

yet

and

for life,

it

It

may

is

the

all

it

it

can be at

rejects

takes

All

left.

no

them

credit.

things, but does not

ever free from desire.

All things return

call it small.

We

does not act as master.

it

like

which receive the streams

may

call it great.

"The

whole world

will flock to

him who come

holds the mighty form of Tao.

They

and receive no hurt, but find

rest, peace,

By non

and

Sayings of Lao-tzu.

tranquillity."

"

will

- action

there

is

nothing which

" All truths wait in all things,

They

neither hasten their

sist

The "

I

it,

.

.

insignificant

am possess'd

own

is

as big to

me

I

will toss

as any."

(p. 53.)

!

Embody all presences outlaw'd "

delivery nor re-

.

or suffering.'' (p. 64.)

a new gladness and roughness among

them,

Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me, Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless

me."

(p. 123.)

100

Appendix

to

cannot be done.

Failure

Prophet

as

the foundation of

is

and the means by which

success,

it

achieved.

is

and who when the turning-point will come ? He who acts, destroys he who grasps, loses.

Success

can "

Whitman

the lurking-place of failure

is

;

tell

;

Therefore the sage does not destroy

" Only he

who

and so does not

does nothing for his

can truly be said to value " When the great Tao

life's

lose.

sake

his life. falls

into disuse, bene-

and righteousness come into vogue.

volence

Cast

act,

he does not grasp, and so he does not

;

your holiness,

off

yourself of your

rid

and the people dredfold."—/^.

cleverness,

will benefit

an hun-

"I am the Way [Tao, the open Road], the Truth, and the Life. " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites

!

ye shut up the kingdom of heaven

for

men

against

for

:

neither suffer ye " Vivas to those

"

What

ye neither go in yourselves,

them

that are entering to go in.

who have

fail'd

!

"

(p. 43.)

providence is indivisible, Declines to separate one part of is

part,

Knows

.

.

that the

his life

life

from every

.

and

young man who composedly peril'd lost it has done exceedingly well

for himself without doubt."

(p. 291.)

—

;

;

Days with Walt Whitman

Woe crites

unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo!

ye devour widows' houses, and for a

for

make long

pretence

prayers

therefore ye shall

:

receive the greater damnation.

"Come

unto me,

all

ye that labour and are

heavy laden, and I will give you

my

am meek

and lowly

in heart

:

me

and ye

unto your souls. " For whosoever will save his

Take

rest.

yoke upon you, and learn of

for I

;

shall find

rest

but whosoever shall lose his

life shall lose it

life for

my

the good tidings, the same shall save

" And

lo

I

!

am

with you alway, even unto

the end of the world." " Sleep

sake arid

it.

Jesus in the Gospels.

—

I and they keep guard all night Not doubt, not decease shall dare to lay finger upon you. I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you

to myself,

And when you what I " Camerado, I give you

rise in the

you is give you

so."

tell I

my

love

my

morning you

will find

(p. 66.)

hand,

more precious than money."

(p. 129.)

"

Toward you I

all,

in America's

name,

raise high the perpendicular hand,

I

make

the

signal,

To remain For

all

after

me

in sight forever,

the haunts and

homes of men.'' IOZ

(p.

1

20.)

THE POETIC FORM OF "LEAVES OF GRASS" /^\F all the tribes of specially literary ^~S people (one sometimes thinks), of the

Popes, Drydens, Swinburnes, Paters,

the Brownings or Tennysons even, not to

mention hosts of

lesser

them,

after

as

except

for

all,

certain

names

time

—which of and

goes on,

antiquarian

interests

and a few passages which represent the real

unloading of the writers' hearts, will

really

be

affectionately

persistently read

of verse or

—and

words

remembered

!

or

few pithy passages,

enshrining

tale,

sharp experience a deluge of

A

?

some

for the rest

The touch on 103

vivid

what actual

Days with Walt Whitman

which animates

society, yes,

a

The

so thin, so poor, so ignorant.

life

Rape of

itself

round

Lock, or discusses Broad

a

Church questions over the walnuts and the wine,

there

is

what?

A

—but

of the great world,

shade

of

thought, interesting

sentiment

enough, no doubt,

and which may happen to be

among

of

or

a certain class

—but

in

vogue

of the great

human passion and experience how much -or how little ? Words, words, reaches of

—

and fine-spun forms out of the thinnest basis

of material

At

!

every turn of the

page gross misapprehensions and

igno-

rance of the actual lives and conditions

of

life

and heart of the thousands and

and

millions earth

!

readers

thousand-millions

How

those whose

equally blinkered

its

appeal

its is

the

can these things hold any

except

work has

of

?

The

outlook

purely literary

interest, has its place

so limited. 104

is

;

but

—

Poetic

Form

" of " Leaves of Grass

With Whitman, normal (or

man who

course the

and wins

a

man

—

He his

for the

former mode of

who

he

and uses

form for

literary

expression—and with

a

life

same

the

where

stays

own

his

direct-

and mastery that he uses towards

Hence

literature

with

man

comes, not as a

master-workman

a

time,

first

the

life.

the

is

a literary ideal, but as

in order to seek

ness

of

and representative way,

into literature.

is

the

for

from them

—comes,

deliberate

who abandons

workman,

deals with materials

living

his

normal man in

the

" average ")

life

a

directly,

which

literature

lovingly

new

era of literature

appealing to

absorbed

and

who

know what

will

by

all

be

the

deal it

read millions

is,

and as

time goes on.

We may perhaps say that artist

there

is

in every great

something of the manner

of the workman.

In Michel Angelo, in i°5

Days with Walt Whitman Beethoven, in Velasquez, in Pheidias, in

Dante

—a

clearing

certain

economy,

for

good workman wants to make

That

absolutely effective.

The

The

decisiveness.

directness,

thought.

action,

is

his

work

his

first

great artist will not stop

short of the most clear and perfect expression.

He

will

do nothing

to cloud

In a note of Whitman's, for his

we

find

recommended

position " the

most translucid

without variation." feel that

form

is

the

first

Expression.

x

own

as a rule for

And

it.

use,

com-

clearness

every one must

and root-criterion of If the

work conveys

the meaning perfectly, then obviously any change of form (which necessarily

bring

must

some change of meaning with

will be a loss.

Therefore, the expression

being perfect, the form

The two

it)

is

also

cannot be separated.

perfect.

We

may

i " Notes and Fragments," left by Walt Whitman, and edited by R. M. Bucke (1899), p. 70.

106

—

" of " Leaves of Grass

Form

Poetic

form

analyse or examine the case

—but

foolishness.

Him

in

such a is

mere

Read again the poem

"To

to propose to alter

it

that was Crucified," quoted in the

preceding paper, and realise the wonderful

burden of thought and emotion conveyed, realise that a single

word

displaced or altered anywhere in the

poem

and then also

would blur or diminish

its

total

message

and expression. possible indeed in these cases of

Is it

perfect excellence, to stop and examine

the form as a thing apart that

it is

impossible

Are

difficult.

;

but

there not

I

do not say

it is

surely very

?

some

pieces of

music so beautiful, that though we try again

and again while hearing them to

analyse

do so

their

?

which the syllables.

And

form, are

mind

we simply fail to there not poems of

refuses

to

count the

Read, for example, the follow-

ing from "Leaves of Grass": 107

;

!

Days with Walt Whitman

RECONCILIATION Word

over

all,

Beautiful that

must

That

beautiful as the sky

war and

all

its

be utterly lost

in time

the hands of the sisters incessantly

!

deeds of carnage

wash

softly

Death and Night and

again,

ever

again, this soil'd world.

For my enemy is

I look

is

where he

lies

Bend down and touch white face in the

feels

a

divine as myself

white-faced and

coffin—-I draw near

Here

man

dead, a

dead.

;

lightly with

the

all

the

lips

one

time,

subtle impalpable metre pulsing.

possibly

may

be

able to dis-

entangle and define that metre confess that I can't I

my

coffin.

underneath,

Some one

time

in the

still

—simply

read, the meaning holds

my mind

too

full.

Let

;

but

I

because, each

and

fills

a thing be said

with such animation and directness that

you try

in vain to think

surely that

The

form

is

of the form, then

perfect,

whatever

form vanishes in the meaning 108

it is ;

and

"

Poetic that

what our bodies

is

—not

of " Leaves of Grass

Form

will

one day do

disappear from sight, but so glow

and be suffused

There

what they convey,

in

no need, to - day, to

is

as

any separate existence. 1

to cease to have

justify

Whitman's forms and rhythms, any more than there

need to justify those of

is

Beethoven or Brahms or Wagner. are

There

good country folk who delight to

and beat time with village

band

;

sit

hand or foot to the

and there

are folk

who

recognise a ballad metre in poetry

they need not detain us.

;

only

but

Ballad metres

have an excellent and charming use and 1 " I had not dreamed," says Mrs. Gilchrist in A Woman's Estimate of Wall Whitman, "that words could cease to be words, and become electric streams

like these.

I

do assure you

that, strong as I

am,

I

had not bodily strength to read many of these poems. In the series headed ' Calamus,' Songs of Parting,' the for instance, in some of the sometimes

feel as if

I

'

Voice out of the

poem beginning

Tears, such a weight of emotion, such a tension of the heart, that mine refuses to beat under it stands quite still and I am obliged to lay the book '

Tears,'

&c, there

is

—

—

down

Sea,' the

for a while." 109

'

Days with Walt Whitman do not cover the whole

quality, but they

ground.

There

two things

are

which demand expression

On

in

literature

—roughly,

brain

hand,

mere

on the

other,

mood, emotion, mental colouring.

As

and

heart.

fact, description,

the extreme

the

one

argument

;

type of the one,

books of law,

we have

mathematics

science,

;

as

the extreme type of the other, and lying

beyond

literature,

proper, there

is

music.

In literature

always of course a blend

or admixture of the two elements

those works which

express

nance of the mental and

a

prose,

but

predomi-

scientific

come under the head of

;

element

and those

which express predominant emotion come under the head of poetry and approach the musical in form.

every

mood

of dances,

has

its

lulling,

Just as in music

rhythm

—

light jingles

swaying cradle-songs,

ballad-refrains, swelling love-songs, strong

;

" of " Leaves of Grass

Form

Poetic

marches, or great symphonic metres including these there

there

is

—

" Wherever

so in poetry.

emotion concerned in the thought

will

language

be

—that

emotional is,

effects

there will be

the

in

rhythm

and the wave-like rhythms and rhymes and recurrences

and

on the simplest

will take

briefest, or the

most complex and

far-

reaching forms, according to the character

of the emotion concerned."

The

1

underlying and dominant

mood

of

Whitman's poems, corresponding to

his

and

in-

theme, clusive a

is

extraordinarily

—and

rhythm of

character.

tions

as

it

requires for

its

expression

similarly broad and flexible

It is

he

vast

obvious that such emo-

deals with

could

never be

caged in a symmetrical verse or stanza. "

I have not so

much emulated

the birds

that

musically sing, I have

1

abandoned myself to

flights,

broad

"Angels' Wings," by E. Carpenter (1898),

circles,

p. 73.

— Days with Walt Whitman The hawk, the sea-gull, have far more possess'd me than the canary or mocking-bird. have not

I

felt

and

to warble

however

trill,

sweetly, I

have

felt to soar in

freedom and

in the fulness

of power, joy, volition."

But

thus soaring in freedom and

in

the fulness of power and joy he finds a

rhythm and says

Anne

syllables

a

music of

Gilchrist, '" that

reveal

will

the music

and that

;

"

own.

his

I see,"

no counting of

mechanism of

the

this rushing

spon-

taneity could not stay to bind itself with

the fetters

know

of [formal]

that the music

would not

I

is

But

metre. there,

I

and that

for something change ears

who cannot hear it." x Whitman needed for his expression

with those

poetical

form of the utmost

a

flexibility

capable of adaptation to the widest ranges

of 1

his "

immense

A Woman's

personality.

Estimate,"

the papers in "In Philadelphia, 1893).

re

now

It

is,

in fact,

republished

among

Walt Whitman" (McKay.

" of " Leaves of Grass

Form

Poetic

his personality

which forms the organic

He

centre of " Leaves of Grass."

the latter (see "

A

calls

Backward Glance

o'er

Travel'd Roads") "an attempt from

first

to

last,

human

to put a Person, a

being

(myself, in the latter half of the Nine-

teenth Century, in America) freely, fully,

and truly on record."

As

a

work of

art,

therefore, " Leaves of Grass " ought to

stand whole,

unbroken,

undivided,

and

grouped round the central presence of the

"Who

author.

touches

man." — " In regard

struction of the poems," says

roughs in

"The

touches a

this,

to the unity and con-

John Bur-

Flight of the Eagle,"

"the reader sooner or

1

later discovers the

true solution to be, that the dependence, cohesion, and final reconciliation of the

whole are in the personality of the poet himself.

.

a poem,

it is

1

.

.

When Tennyson

sends out

perfect, like an apple or a

"Birds and Poets" (New York, 1877), 113

p. 234.

H

—

;

Days with Walt Whitman peach it

;

slowly wrought out and dismissed,

drops from his boughs holding a con-

ception or an

makes

it

whole.

and separate

to

past,

call

is

but

it

Whether or not the

itself.

consent, as in

hereafter

the

only beautiful creations of

But

remains to be seen.

this sort Poems,

this

or might be

and centres and de-

a thing of itself,

world will

his,

It carries his quality,

pends upon

and

it

completed, distinct,

It is

—might be

any man's. is

that spheres

idea

what Walt Whitman

certainly not

does, or aims to do, except in a few cases.

He

completes no poems, apart and sepa-

from himself, and

rate

in hints to that effect

" Let

others

'

his

pages abound

:

specimens

finish

—

I

never

finish

specimens I

shower them by exhaustless laws, does, fresh and

His

lines

of force,

are

modern

pulsations,

indefinite

thrills,

dynamics, 114

as

Nature

continually.'

waves

formless,

—

Form

Poetic

" of " Leaves of Grass

from

emanating

constantly

the

that

And

is

again

I will not

But

them

in a

unprecedented in literature."

Whitman

says (I

ing from the edition of i860) "

living

and they carry the quality of the

centre,

author's personal presence with

way

;

am

quot-

:

make poems with reference to parts, make leaves, poems, poemets, songs,

I will

says, thoughts, with reference to ensemble

And

I will not sing with reference to a day, but

with reference to

And

I will not

make

all

a

days,

poem, nor the

least part

of a poem, but has reference to the Soul, Because, having looked at the objects universe, I find there particle

is

of the

no one, nor any

of one, but has reference to the

Soul."

The

ultimate form therefore of

man's poems

is

Whit-

the form of himself, of

the Soul as individualised and uttered in

him.

As

looking at the ocean, boundless

and reaching far beyond our ken, we yet recognise in each sea

which gives

it

wave the form of the birth

"S

;

so in reading

Days with Walt Whitman "Leaves of Grass" we recognise

poem

each

in

or poemet the form and unifying

law of the author.

resemblance in

singular

sured

Indeed there

yet

irregular

a

mea-

the great

roll

is

of Whitman's

the onset of waves along a shore

lines to

—now

creeping white and low in

successive array,

long

now madly surging and now lipping sunlit and

towering in spray,

Every mood,

blue upon the land.

time or another, nised

—

is

at

one

there and to be recog-

yet underneath, and greater than

all,

and

and

life

illustrated

by them

of the ocean

While

all

itself.

Whitman's poems

parts of a whole,

the law

all,

are thus

and must gain their deepest

meanings and interpretations through a study of the whole, there are some which are almost unintelligible except in this relation

—mere

ejaculations, single sentences,

or not even so (see

much

as single sentences

Kosmos, "Leaves of Grass," 116

p. 303,

"

Poetic

Form

of " Leaves of Grass

Of these,

also pp. 217, 218).

Burroughs'

remarks about their non-completion, except in relation to the poet's personality, are

Of

true in the most literal way. there

a decided sense of artistic

is

though

pletion in themselves,

to

sidiary

others,

the

total

work.

still

And

comsubit

is

interesting, with regard to this subject

of

form, to see

how Whitman

gains in these

latter cases his artistic unity.

One of

the most frequent and char-

acteristic devices

of

his writing is the use

of a very long sentence.

of his

lines

By

the phrasing

the construction of a very

lengthy sentence can be kept clear and effective,

of till

it

while the meaning and burden

can be piled up and

at

last

elaborated,

the total can be discharged

upon the reader with overwhelming

Many

of his poems

(e.g.

"

When

I

effect.

heard

the learn'd astronomer," p. 214; or, sit

and

look out," 117

p.

215;

or

"I

those

—

Days with Walt Whitman two from Children of Adam, "Ages and ages returning," and "

we were

fool'd,"

We

too,

how long

pp. 92 and

93), are

They

constructed on this plan.

are just

one single sentence, and convey one uniOthers, though consisting of

tary effect.

more than one sentence, are

the same

Often by repeating the form

in principle.

of the sentence (" I

still

I see, I

see

;

"

"I

wonderful poem in

hear,

What

hear "), he gains a like result.

a

that Salut au Monde,

is

which these sights and sounds, of the

whole world, these

lists

and processions

of earth-dwellers, these appeals to you, you, you, " whoever you are," pile up, in strange surging

—

at last

till

down

and swelling

they break out and break

in the final four lines

" Toward you

reiteration

all,

in

:

America's name,

I raise high the perpendicular hand, I signal,

To For

remain all

after

me

in sight for ever,

the haunts and 118

homes of men."

make

the

—

Poetic

Form

Here the

" of " Leaves of Grass

immense

picture of the

and the poet's relation to

it, is

In another, the

motive.

the figure which holds

all

And

the central

open road together.

another, the Brooklyn Ferry.

the broad axe.

earth,

is

In

In another,

in all, as I

have said

before, a deep pulsating music, easy to catch,

though

difficult to define.

Often the music

is

" that of " recitative

—sonorous,

bold, free, not returning into

itself like a

melody, but moving forward

with suggestions of

This

is

things

to

follow.

perhaps the most general and

characteristic of

Whitman's musical

See, for instance, that strange

poem

effects. :

" As Adam early in the morning, Walking forth from the bower refresh'd with sleep, Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach, Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body."

How

finely that

—solemn, read

might be

set to

music

mystic, appealing, oracular

"Old

!

Or

Ireland" (p. 284) in the same 119

Days with Walt Whitman poems or " " Ox-tamer In the

connection, and countless other portions of poems.

307) there

(p.

effect,

with more