Edward Thorstenberg - The Walt Whitman Cult in Germany, 1911-01-01

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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.


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