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THE WALT WHITMAN In one of his conversations
CULT
with
his
IN GERMANY friend
Tr?ubel,1
in the
is said to have made
the following charac year 1888, Whitman to know what a real live teristic remark: "I have always wished A would make of me." German ? a German born and bred? to this remark from the fact that it is unique interest attaches recent works have received years that Whitman's only within a 'hearing' in Germany, which the. enviable despite reputation even long before his the poet enjoyed in other foreign countries death.
In England, William Rossetti and Robert Buchanan had es poused his cause as early as 1868; the former, in his introduction to the first English edition of the Leaves of Grass, the latter, in a separate a short time after this, essay. Only comparatively ? some of the foremost men of the Stevenson, literary country Clifford ? Morris, Swinburne, Dowden, Tennyson, Symonds, had become less well
his most
known
theless
exerted
of letters
enthusiastic
friends and admirers.1 Though than in England, Whitman has never an appreciable influence on modern French men in France
ever since
with him, they made their first acquaintance in 1872, through an article published Madame Blanc in the by Revue des Deux Mondes? But these poetry other
his reputation two countries. had
been
abroad was Even
favored
long to remain confined to the end of the seventies, his a friendly in several reception not
before
with
of Europe, notably Russia, Italy, and Scan From then on through the eighties dinavia. and nineties, Euro to spread with increasing in pean interest in the poet continued countries
seemed to be swept tensity until certain sections of the Continent tidal wave of Whitman enthusiasm which has by by a veritable no means wholly subsided even at the present time. Naturally in Camden, xCf. With Walt Whitman New Tr?ubel. York: by Horace D. Appleton & Co. p. 389. 1908. 3Cf. Atlantic XCII (November, Monthly, 1903), p. 714 ?f., and Methodist Review for November 1897, p. 952 rf. sCf. Current XLV. No. Literature, 3 (September, 1008), p. 286 ff.
The
72
Review
Sewanee
as well as other circumstances its causes, its effects, enough, coun connected with with the different it, have differed tries.
to What sustain relation, then, does Germany particular or this wide-spread Whitman abroad? Whitman cult agitation is very similar to that of England, her position Chronologically, for it was in the year 1868 that Ferdinand first called Freiligrath the attention
of
the German
public
the very year in which with his Leaves acquaintance
hence
English of Grass.
own knowledge of the poet doubtless to the first English introduction
name
to the
readers
of Whitman, their first
made
In
fact, Freiligrath's its source in Rossetti's
had edition
of this
collection
of
poems.
announcement of the poet and his work appeared Freiligrath's in the form of an essay4 accompanied translations by specimen to from the Drum the r?le which very Owing important Taps. toWhitman, in sub reference has played this, the first German sequent
a somewhat references, find a place here.
full abstract
of its contents
might
properly As if he were
an outburst of general surprise and anticipating a skeptical at the of shoulders among his countrymen shrugging announcement of a 'real' American the enthusi German poet, ast sounds
as
as possible: "Walt answer a Whitman! Who is: poet! A new American His admirers poet! say: the first, the only up to poet that his country has produced specifically American the present
his
note
time.
loudly and directly is Walt Whitman? The
one who
Not but
one
muse, European the prairies and pioneer the mighty rivers; fresh
treads
paths of the scene fresh from the
the beaten
who steps upon fresh from the coast and settlements; from the seething crowds of men at the
fresh from the battlefields of the South,? his hair, harbors; as a beard and clothing it scent with the very of were, suffused, a totally unique figure, one who soil from which he has sprung: on his own American stands firmly and consciously feet. Nay, say his admirers, *To The
be
essay Stuttgart.
Walt
Whitman
in the Augsburger found is also taken up in Vol. 1876.
is in reality
the only poet
in
for April 24, 1868. Allgemeine Zeitung Gesammelte 4 of Freiligrath's Dichtungen.
The Walt
Whitman
in Germany 73
Cult
age, has found age, our struggling, inquiring the the poet par excellence; poet." adequate expression; as to what the essence of Whitman's To the question poetry Walt Whitman "In the first is, Freiligrath place, replies: really
whom
the present
this ego is a part of the universe.
his ego. But himself, the earth, of humanity,
a part of of America, Such he feels himself
to things trivial and attaching equal importance world things sublime, he unfurls before our gaze a magnificent and to, with, panorama, returning always beginning always are dominated America. Whitman and his Americanism by to be,
and,
a cosmic
impulse, as we find it in medita spent days of solitude on the beach, nights to face the starry heavens of the prairies?face
what might be called tive minds who have of solitude with
under
.
immortality.
whatever
.
.Whatever
he
sees
or
or
hears
touches,
comes
into his presence, though it be the lowliest, the ? most trivial and commonplace it is all regarded by him as a Or rather, higher, something symbol of something spiritual. matter and spirit, the real and the ideal are to him one and the same
And thus he stands forth as an emanation of him thing. self ; thus he moves along chanting his songs ; thus, as a proud, free being, and only a human being, he reveals to us social and broad as the world itself." political perspectives to Whitman's With reference of conventional forms rejection of
poetry, Freiligrath observed more closely new associate ars
po?tica,
of theirs all
our
continues: by our poets who
aesthetic
"He
deserves
indeed
to be
as a strange and philosophers our whole to overthrow threatens
canons
and
theories.
.
.
. Have
we
come
to the point where im life, even in poetry, really new our demands modes of expression? Has age so periously no longer many important things to tell us that the old vessels then
Is it true that we are standing suffice for the contents? before a new poetic era, just as a music-of-the future has been promised us now for some years? more And is Walt Whitman than Richard These
Wagner?" outbursts they were
of enthusiasm com failed of their purpose received with a totally indifferent attitude on pletely, seem almost the part of the German public. In fact, it would as if the very ardor of Freiligrath's of in instead endorsement,
74 confidence,
spiring public
suspicion, the real
The
Sewanee
had
had
thus cause
Revietv
the
effect of arousing opposite its own end. this However
defeating of the
indifference displayed by the to be sought in the great disparity existing at the time between the fundamental in Whitman's spirit life. poetry and the leading ideals of German a In the first place, in whom the tra people like the Germans, a into profound of centuries had crystallized ditions regard for
may be, Germans
is doubtless
and legendary past, could cherish no natural fondness for a poet who made it a part of his creed to spurn all things re life of lating to the past and draw his themes from the every-day his own times. their inborn conception of a dual re Moreover, lation as existing between the visible and the invisible world, be the heroic
and spirit, was doctrine pronounced
tween matter man's
the artistic finish lastly, had fostered classic writers
And own
not form, which would of the Leaves formlessness
of
his of
altogether incompatible with Whit or cosmic of monism identity.
poetry
were
destined
easily
of
the
in them
of their productions a sense for excellence
accomodate
itself
to
the utter
and of Grass-, and hence Whitman to pass unnoticed for a long period
years.
however, Germany Meanwhile, most transformations far-reaching and social
was
some of the undergoing in the intellectual, political, introduction and populariza
life of its people. The theories near the middle
tion of Darwinian
of the century re in a quickening interest in scientific soon which research, a cornplete in the attitude held to wrought change previously ward the natural all existing sciences, removing prejudices them and raising them to equal rank with the mental against sulted
and moral
away actual
after
In the second the close
of
of the place, the unification the Franco-Prussian war was
by an era of industrial development of turning the attention of thinking men from questions of speculative thought
followed effect
sciences. states
German
which had the more and more to problems of
life. Moreover, the popular movements for Liberalism and Nationalism to the culminated year 1870 previous during the last two quarters of the century in a lively agitation for or Social National Socialism In short, Democracy. Germany
The Walt
Whitman
was during this time passing in all the important changes
in Germany
Cult
a series
through
of
phases
75
of most
its national
significant life, and, as
in the departments of science, industry, and social organizations, in the province of literature and art,? idealism was being realism. the poets of the rising superseded by Accordingly, were renounce to all to the funda forced allegiance generation so also
mental
of classicism
views
treatment
of
dealing followed the
Then
life.
porary
and
themes
and romanticism, with the realities rise
to the
turn
of contem move
of the naturalistic
ment.
It was at this man
juncture for a second
readers
the well-known first
published
English a German
was
that Whitman this
time, author
time
to Ger
introduced
by T. W. of Lessing.
of a Life on Whitman
lecture
in
Rolleston, Rolleston 1883.
The
following year he translated parts of the Leaves of Grass, but in he "met with more serious his work for publication, offering than he had expected."5 "The work is ready," he difficulties to the "and could But the printer is go says, printer any day. not equally ready for the work. I offered it to four publishers before
to pay all expenses myself, I left Germany, agreeing to take it up. ... I am told there would pro with the police, who in Germany be difficulties exercise
and all refused bably a most
despotic have made at culties
power." the time
of one kind
What
further
efforts
Rolleston
not
does
or another
At all events, appear. must have continued for
may diffi some
of the proposed three or four years at least, for the next mention in edition seems to be the one by Whitman German himself, he the year 1888, when along splendidly." spoke of its "coming Rolleston had enlisted the interest and co-operation Meanwhile, of this country, and it was under the joint of Dr. Karl Knortz of these two men that the first German edition of the editorhip was in not in Grass Leaves but 1889,? of published Germany, in Z?rich.6 The appearance of this edition marks the beginning of the German Whitman 6 Cf. Horace
letter
his
to Whitman
Tr?ubel.
Published, ?bersetzt,
by
agitation.
Boston. under
the
in With
1906. title Walt
the Verlags-Magazin
Walt
p. 18 ff. Whitman. (J. Schabelitz).
Whitman Grashalme.
in Camden, In
Auswahl
by
Sewanee
The
76 The
introductionT
double
Review
to the Rolleston-Knortz
eagerness betrays the greatest create a favorable impression. of all, as the poet of the age, "the well as he in reconciling
collection
on the part of the translators to Whitman is here heralded, first as for no one else had succeeded
spirit of analysis with all-denying a flattering In reference of the all-affirming spirit democracy," to the supremacy in the nineteenth of German thought century,
he is rated as "the
of that which greatest poetic representative a prime focal point in German philosophy." of cleverly drawn parallels between the American poet
considered
is usually By means
and some of Germany's one of the and Uhland, national
German
pride.
are always
favorite
for example, Beethoven seeks to appeal to (Knortz)
sons,
translators
And knowing that the people of one to obtain renewed confirmation of their
glad country to it his special business another, he makes regarding opinions have but that the Americans inform his German compatriots one ideal in life, namely that of material gain: he then proceeds to supply to show that Whitman had arisen the very ideals American
which had
done
interest to prove at first.
all
lacked. and Knortz society Truly, Rolleston to be that could asked of them stimulate German
in the poet and his work,? fruitful of positive results,
and their though
labors were somewhat
soon slowly
the ten years immediately the publication of During following edition of the Leaves the Rolleston-Knortz of Grass, no other either of Whitman's German collection, poetry or of his prose in print ; nor does the number of essays on writings, appeared the poet himself seem to have been very large, the whole number to only seven noted amounting in all. However, the original must have been favored with a fairly of translations collection large circle of readers, for it was only ten years after its issue that a second title of Walt
edition Whitman-.
the second*decade
of it was
published by Knortz, Der Dichter der Demokratie*
of German^Whitmanism
(1899-1909),
under
the
During on the
'A translation of this introduction is included in In re Walt Whitman. D. McKay. Cf. tuso Geschichte der Nordamerikanis Philadelphia: 1893. von Karl Knortz. chen Litteratur Berlin. IL, pp. 1-24. 189T. Bd. 8 : Walt Whitman Der Dichter der Demokratie. Zweite Auflage. Leipzig Fr. Fleischer. 1899.
:
The Walt
Cult
Whitman
in Germany
77
in all, three separate German there hand, appeared of Whitman's three editions of the Leaves of Grass, prose works, one translation of an English biography of the poet, and besides, other
or thirty German ranging essays on Whitman, twenty-five article to a from an ordinary newspaper in size and importance in book form. study or monograph these figures together, we find that the twenty years Putting the are bounded by the dates which 1889-1909 have witnessed some
of Whit translations of no less than five German appearance and one of his "Life," man's poetry, three of his prose writings, to some thirty or forty German in addition essays or mono and on the poet himself. translations These various graphs essays have been shorter notices. characterized
accompanied by a large number of reviews and are to Whitman Most of the references a supreme admiration which, in some instances,
by or deification. even to the point of fanaticism in intensity for the poet which It is this extravagant admiration justifies the as a whole. use of the term cult as a name for the agitation rises
spirit of the German Whitman prevailing trated best, perhaps, by the various metaphorical some of the most ardent admirers of with which The
attempted
to
their
epitomize
content
individual
cult
is
illus
designations the poet have of him. conceptions
to call him "a most
remarkable Julius RodenbergMs have in the world's Others literature." and unique.phenomenon a few of which are men made use of more specific designations, to his Poet In the introduction tioned below. of Democracy, to which Johan Knortz calls him "the optimist par excellence," nes Schlaf10 objects very emphatically, saying that he is neither nor pessimist: "he is energy itself {er ist Kraft)." In optimist u Schlaf calls him "the first poet-seer of a third another place of the the first perfect man, the first free representative gospel, new
Karl
monistic
Federn
spirit,
12 says
a
perfect
the same:
one-and-only-one."
"he
In
substance,
is, first of all, a prophet,
a for 1899. In Deutsche Rundschau pp. 501-506. 10 Kreisende Walt Whitman. Ringe. 1897. Verlag 11 Echo for 1899. Das Litterarische pp. 65-66. 12 In his zur Amerikanischen Litteratur. Essays Cf. also his Walt Hendel. Whitman. p. 94. 1899. Minden. Auswahl, 1904.
Halle a.d.S. Grashalme.
and
Otto Eine
The
78
Sewanee
Review
is a gospel for our own age as well as for ages to come; Benzmann" he is a physically and psychically perfect man." understands in the sense that Nietzsche calls him "a superman by Len for of his that term." America, importance Speaking his work
trodt14 calls him "an inexhaustible "He upon as follows: enlarges of a first great
fountain-head new
epoch
well." is
This
figure Lessing16 and center, summit, life of the in the intellectual the
world."
Equally Whitmanites known
are the parallels which some of the German significant their hero and certain well have drawn between Karl Federn says that in the case personages. alike "the man and his work are in and Whitman
historical
of Goethe
united." separably "Whitman follows: is the embodiment, American literature
a makes Lessing is the greatest poet the representative, in the
same
sense
as comparison, . . . He since Goethe.
similar and
the
illuminator
of
is of
the
that Dante
the English, of the Ger and Goethe our to "The likens Nietzsche. poet Johannes more we read ourselves he says, "the greater into Whitman," is our surprise and astonishment to find between him and Friedrich a certain Nietzsche of nature (Wesensverwandt consanguinity in and for of feeling the one is in fineness sckaft); capacity Italian, man."
Shakespeare
of
Schlafl6
The boldest parallel, however, every sense the other's equal." one is perhaps the After mention Sch?lermann.1' by Wilhelm as the three American and Whitman Thoreau, ing Emerson, writers dence
who
have
of European
succeeded influence,
best
in maintaining their Sch?lermann continues:
indepen "Whit
for February, 13Nord und S?d p. 204. 1903 (Bd. 104.-Heft 311). 14 In the Vossische No. ??>x 1904. Zeitung 15. 16 In Auswahl Walt ?bersetzt. M?nchen und Whitman, Prosaschriften, R. Piper & Co. author's This views have been p. xxvi. 1905. Leipzig: modified since then. his and 'Whitman his very materially Compare Critics' German ix. No. and Germ. Philol. Vol. of Eng. (lourn. 1), where a "I myself to a guilt he says: confess of serious of Whitmania, attack I tried to be moderate in my statements and made Whitman although only . . . Nations a superman a as instead of God had done. my predecessors a Goethe that have produced and an Emerson not needs and should not a Whitman as one of their heroes." worship von Walt In Auswahl 16Grashalme Whitman. ?bertragen. Leipzig. p. 9. 1907. 11!Walt Whitman. Grashalme. In Auswahl ?bertragen. 1904. Leipzig. p. iv.
Cult
Whitman
The Walt
to a class of individuals
man belongs who spring
in Germany
who
are more
79 than life size, on exuberance
of lavish in a moment into existence . . . Beethoven nature. the part of procreative and Bismarck a number of are men of similar calibre; Whitman also betrays man-of-men traits in common with that awe-inspiring {Ganz his exalted, for example, tender Jesus of Nazareth, menschen) his heroic love. . . . The healing power of this kind kindness, ness and goodness, that ancient miracle-performing gift which causes also
the blind
to see and the lame to walk,
that gift Whitman
possessed."
draw any clear lines of distinction between the different view of from have given which the German enthusiasts points an to of Whitman their estimates the is, least, say extremely so far as can be ascertained, difficult task. None of his admirers, a comprehensive have attempted after an study of his works To
or plan,? to say nothing all of them have been content
method
organized
Practically nected accounts
of individual
of a critical to give received
analysis. loosely con from a cur
impressions and these accounts sory reading of certain parts of his works, are for the most part written in the spirit of a propaganda, eager at all times to seize upon the first opportunity for praise and and shortcomings. And equally eager to shield all weaknesses
yet there are certain which his German
elements
or features
inWhitman's poetry out with sufficient pointed to give us a fairly good notion of what and uniformity emphasis as characteristic the greatest and as having fasci they regard reader. have to for for the nation find believed, example, They in our poet peculiar of language and style which originality a mysterious, a new effect; furthermore, spell-binding produces friends
have
and universality doctrine of optimism ; religious and philosophical or Americanism. and lastly, a new gospel of democracy the Whitmanites As and style, have, of language regards certain glaring course, been forced to recognize imperfections, of by making imperfections they have readily disposed no as or of in little with appear consequence comparison to be found in Whit of beauty and power the many elements
but these them man's
lines.
the songs
Federn
of the Psalms
calls
his poems "simple and crude like or of the Edda" and likens them to the
8o
The
Review
Sewanee
"but these unwieldy cyclopean walls of Grecian masonry, are the last fruit, the ideas he which metres," says, "proclaim Hans Benzmann maturest product of the nineteenth century." or rather, readily admits that in view of its lack of poetic form, to say nothing lack of harmony, of its vagueness, confusedness, it would be fundamentally of prosaic passages, and abundance oldest
to speak of Whitman's work as of the highest type of on "it may the other hand," "But says Benzmann, poetic art. this art has a rhythmic be remarked that in certain respects us it and affects force which carries us irresistibly along with on with an extremely charm, partly impressionistic suggestive, account of the peculiar meaning given to individual words from
wrong
they are used." characterizes Whitman's
the connection Julius lowing tradict
in which
Rodenberg style in the fol "His rhetorical language: style appears at first to con we to heretofore? have been accustomed that everything
neither
nor
verse-form
a billowy, rhythmically elemental ings, whose mass
surging
strophe,
no
rhyme,
ocean
no meter,
but
rather,
and
of
feel thoughts is unrestrained by form, a one and crushing overthrowing
undulating vehemence
of
pictures, life were now for the first time another, as if organic issuing us of the cataracts reminds forth from chaos. Whitman's poetry roar of Niagara, which be of his native land, of the deafening comes
melodious
only
after
our
senses
have
become
accustomed
and end." beginning primeval melody without Schlaf, who has perhaps done more for the cause of
to it, the eternal,
Johannes carried is completely Whitman than any one else in Germany, .... It has the "W7hat his with language! away language: . . Psalmists and of old Hebrew the prophets. vigor and energy is as human as any, at times simply enumerating This language and yet, it prosiness; things as they are with almost American that of differs from which is filled with a fascinating every pathos It is other poet: an interminable rhythm, a ceaseless melody. storm
its rhythm, rising, subsiding, like the like the rhythm of ocean waves, anew; like the of in the hot singing sunlight, quivering nature The itself. of the ceaseless agitation like the
warmth
with
of healthy
blood
pulsating
freely
and
rising
atmosphere like birds,
and vigor and briskly through
The Walt
Whitman
in Germany
Cult
i
8
an unheard of energy and profound genuine body; all the phenomena into of life of feeling which penetrates accom and abandons itself with glowing fervor to the agitation the
ness
its own genesis and change; like atoms quivering and in like the motion free and ; easy breathing vibrating perpetual of perfect animation of healthy eyes, the lungs, the sparkling of unweakened muscles: all this gives to the songs of robustness
panying
their vigor and their pathos and sets them free from to include under the name of that we are accustomed
Whitman everything art
or
art's
accessories."
of the German
Another
admirers1S
and one who
of Whitman?
? very much fascinated with his language and style that he "cast believes aside of rhyme" purely the shackles from an effort to give direct and unhampered to the expression verses. of the contents of his Richard M. Meyer19 immensity seems to be of a similar opinion: sentences "Detached approach is likewise
most avoid somewhat; ing the language of the Bible rigorous ance of conventional as : adornment in the churches of the poetic content to Reformed the of the word alone is be effective. party, No
No incense! image-worship! Only of the organ in a combination of rhythms." From
the
rumbling
sound
the very first, Rolleston had expressed the view that the one of Whitman's in this fact of his re strength lay a of conventional "We find in him forms. wealth of poetic '' he says, "whose beauty impresses us the more profoundly
real secret jection
power, and lastingly
for the very reason that it is not made '' And this leads us to the consideration
aim in itself. feature
which
is very
and
language Here reader. for
closely
style,
namely again we may
connected that of
with
an end and of another
the question on produced
the effect
let the German Whitmanites
of the
speak
themselves.
In general, their references to the poetic effect of the Leaves are in Grass their manner of character perfect keeping with of Whitman's and or It is the suddenness izing language style. 18S. Lublinski, 19 Die Deutsche p. 861 ff. Deutsche
Cf.
Die
Bilanz
der Moderne.
Litteratur also
Rundschau
his
article for
Berlin.
des Neunzehnten
1900
1904.
Jahrhunderts. on "Die Weltlitteratur und (Bd.
CIV.),
p.
p. 355 ff. Berlin,
1906. in
die Gegenwart"
276 ff.
6
82
The
Sewanee
Review
they have found to be the most Ernst Schur20 says: "It is quality of his verses. as though one were from the open plains stepping suddenly on high. tree towering into a forest to gaze upon a primeval new A world-unit, like the turbulent tones, striking entirely over the ocean. roar of a storm passing he The boundless of effect
spontaneity characteristic
understands
how
Theodor
Heuss21
had been
to put
into words, into rhythms." the of how he gives following description "The first acquaintance with Whitman has
affected:
a staggering
which
I still
effect.
recall
the uncanny, very distinctly impression which the first few lines of suggestive, spell-binding It is like coming his left on me some years ago. from a room all marks of the refinement and traditional culture and bearing out into the strange, mad of hurricane stepping suddenly a passion which is overthrowing all the old columns and idols. is revolutionary that Whitman feels But One throughout. we learn to know to him better, we begin later on, when the comprehend of this desolating
consistency,
the
inner
laws
and
necessities a man who
and from it all emerges passion, in the harmony of his personality, in the unique of his work and consciousness and of his goal. is shaping and proclaiming the new, American indi
is remarkable earnestness Whitman vidual."
of Whitman's Federn speaks of the impressiveness as one "He of is which secret, possesses spell: poetry hypnotic secret of the real poet, namely that of calling the profoundest We are suddenly forth in the reader his own mood. raised on Karl
into the sphere of his own emotions, to high, wafted compelled exult with him and to mourn with him. We read the dirge on the 'When lilacs last in the door-yard death of Lincoln, bloom'd,' and even before we
have had
time
to realize
what the poem is the words, by their by mournful rhythm, to feel the whole grief occasioned by the death ' ' a requiem-mass. of a beloved friend, just as if we were attending about
we
are forced
,0 In Das Magazin fur 21 two articles Cf. his 13 and
14.
the
Litteratur on Whitman
sad music
for
of
1908 (LXX, in Die Hilfe.
7, 8). Beiblatt
for
1906.
Nos.
The Walt
Whitman
in Germany
Cult
From what has been said, one might be led the is through sheer force of words, through has thus completely of his lines, that Whitman German readers ? hypnotized them, as it were. a be after all, it is the mistake, for, certainly his verses, the poet's own "Weltanschauung," as well
them
the deepest "The Leaves
83
to believe
it
that
rhythmic
melody his captivated But this would content
inner
of
left on
has
which
as the most
lasting impression. "are the first says Sch?lermann, of Grass," in of the the form, age present poetic glorification epic-lyrical first real affirmation of life as it is, not as it might be or as it was at some time in the past." the same Achelis29 expresses thought romantic
terms: stronger and sentimental
in somewhat
"In
of neo
the midst
is a coddling Whitman not of of the base, living; healthy joy of life materialistic affirmation kind, to be sure, but of a genuine as we see it exemplified in glowing love for mankind. In his there is a rough but healthy breath which quickens productions in our hearts our faith in ourselves." effeminacy of the most representative
Schlaf
combines
of his monism
the thought
in the
following
of the poet's panegyrical
optimism with characterization
that of
as the one great poetic representative, not only of his own own of and his for ages but of all countries generation, country more us to toc?me: he is worth all than that has "Perhaps
him
come
out here
in Europe
under
the name
of poetry since the our best-known poets
of the century. For, while even a malady of criticism, afflicted with skepticism, and aesthetic affectation, Whitman pessimism yearning, is thoroughly the first great sanguine and affirmative, positive
middle
prove morbid
to be
apostle
of the new monistic
spirit of future ethics, new art. with his writings
spirit, which
is to be the procreative new religion, new with
humanism, teeming Whoever has once become will
concede
that
familiar
thoroughly
I am not
too much
saying the great religious prophets of the past, as a dis he I maintin that and when stands forth pre-eminently of life, the first poet-seer of a third gos penser of the blessings I class
when
w
In Das
Whitman
him with
Litterarische in Die
Gegenwart
Echo
for October for
1904.
No.
15, 17.
1904.
Cf,
also
his
article
on
The
84
us and to evoke from to set everything free within to attain to of light and free the new spirit wishes as of a new vigorous, of life. . . . joyous conception
pel destined us whatever dom, Who
Review
Sewanee
as well
in the whole
be considered
realm
of our old European civilization could call him Friedrich Nietzsche
his equal, you may else you like?"
or whatever
the prevailing inWhitman's Regarding spirit of universality ? a term which used is here with monism poetry synonymously ? Lublinski or cosmic "A of the combination says: identity the machine, the immensity metropolis, factory noise, politics, the aboriginal of prairie nature, wildness of barbaric instinct, on the one hand; on the other, a humanism with flashes charged of wonderful This
future.
tenderness, presentiment world of the most variegated
and
of
promises
the
contrasts
and dazzling in the pious and unspeakably submerged profound monistic own of the with soul, which, arrogance feeling poet's mingled and humility, adored every single manifestation of nature, of inexhaustible life. . . . The whole modern world, prominently and modern science, among other things, the modern metropolis
was
thundered verses."
and puffed
and groaned Benzmann
makes
of universality.
a
and quivered
similar
in his to
reference
the
strange poet's
"In
the rhythms of this poet," he of vitality in the American feeling mighty people ; their personal as well as thirst for liberty ; their individualism
philosophy says, "the
sense
of homogeneousness of the primeval forest; metropolis; and Darwinism,?have ; pantheism mysticism in a peculiar poetic form." their
democratic
the vigor
Benzmann,
as we
see,
mentions
Whitman's
; the
spirit of the Germanic primitive found
Americanism
expression
only
as a part of his poetic doctrine of universality. Others have as this side of his creed emphasized lying at the very basis of at any rate, as being the most all that he has produced, charac teristic feature of his work and as giving him the real right to be called
the representative We remember poet of America. that Freiligrath of him as from the first "the spoke very only had produced poet" that his country specifically American up to that time (1868), referring to him as "a totally unique figure, who stands firmly and consciously feet." upon his own American
The Walt We
recall
American peare parisons
to relation of Whiman's comparison to the Italian, Shakes that of Dante com to the German. and Goethe Similar
lights
Longfellow, but Twain,
our poet and some of the of his own country, for example, Bret Harte, and Mark Thoreau,
between
in the literature
Poe, with
Emerson, this difference,?that
it isWhitman
instances
in Germany 8$
also Lessing's literature with
to the English have been made
brightest
Cult
Whitman
who
in each forth
of
the
latter as
the pre-eminenly to of America. not his he is German poet friends, According in main poet who has fully succeeded only the first American taining his independence only one who has given almost
stands
of European to the world
he is also the influence; a correct picture of the of the country, impressive
boundless
of his expanse its mountains, woods, rivers, and lakes ; and above grandeur a true account and vivid of the and in all, industrial, political, of its people. tellectual strivings of
"His
"is built up on colossal Rodenberg, a from it of the immensity gains picture of his country ever had before: such as we have scarcely in these unconnected these broken chords, these inter sentences,
dimensions.
says poetry," . . . One
and parentheses, the magnificence of his country moves one . . .The countless a in the form of say, along, might giant. manifestations of American life flit by as if chased by a whirl jections
wind."
One of the German enthusiasts has referred to Whitman's to social and political America importance by calling him "the a of in all walks of life and the proud apostle independence of American Another harbinger-elect government." popular cautions
us not to use
the word
in connection with democracy in the sense. ethical "To poetry, except, higher, is no aesthetic game of certain privileged him," he says, "poetry on the contrary, classes or individuals; it is the unfolding of the human element in all the and situations manifestations of purely life. . . And yet, however much he emphasized the equality of men, however much he hated the idea of giving separate rights to privileged classes, just as heartily did he, on the other hand, voice the importance of personal and in this individuality, he should be classed as an with Emerson respect equally pro
Whitman's
86
The
Sewanee
Review
even goes so far as to say that be regarded, above everything else, as the first awakening the first great of Teutonic America, intellectual and the purest ex product of the country, original, a in the act of of of civilization and culture pression spirit a to life." its in American national asserting right place nounced
individualist."
the "Leaves
of Grass
Schlaf
should
Edward Yale
University.
Thorstenberg.