Robert Louis Stevenson - The Essay on Walt Whitman, 1900

Page 1





THE

ESSAY O N

WALT WHITMAN ROBERT LOUIS

STEVENSON

WITH

A

LITTLE

JOURNEY TO THE

HOME

OF

WHITMAN BY

ELBERT HUBBARD

THE ROYCROFT SHOP-MCLM


l-

Copyright, 1900, by Elbert Hubbartl.



Walt Whitman After the Has relief by

ami Jerome Roycroft


All seems beautiful to me. I

can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me I would do the same to you,

I I

will recruit for myself and you as I go. will scatter myself among men and women as I go,

I

will

toss

a

new

gladness and roughness

among them. Song of the Open Road.

396064



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO THE HOME OF WHITMAN



I

AX NORDAK Virote

a

bock

with his tongue in his cheek, a dash of vitriol in the ink, & with a pen that scratched. wrote

it

And

^[

the

first critic

who seem

ed to place a just estimate on the work was Mr. Zangwill (who has no Christian name).

Mr. Zangwill made an attempt

to swear out "

writ de lunatico inquirendo against his Jewish brother, on the ground that the first a

"

symptom of

insanity

is

often the delusion that

being so, Dr. Nor dau was not a safe subject to be at large. But the Assize of Public Opinion denied the pe others are insane

;

and

this

and the dear people bought the book from three to five dollars per copy. Printed

tition at

in several languages, its sales have mounted to a hundred thousand volumes, and the au

thor

s

net profit

No wonder bursting,

it

forty thousand dollars. that, with pockets full to

is full is

Dr. Nordau goes out behind

the

house and laughs uproariously whenever he thinks of how he has worked the world !

If Dr. surely

Talmage

we may

is

call

Barnum of Theology, Dr. Nordau the Barnum

the

of Science. His agility in manipulating facts

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

*&

Hermanns now-you-see-it and now-

equal to

you -don

Hermann

with pocket handkerchiefs. Yet exhibition is worth the admittance

t

s

and Nordau

book (seemingly written in collaboration with Jules Verne and Mark Twain) would be cheap for a dollar. But what fee,

I

object to

as

s

Prof.

is

Hermann

s

disciples posing

Sure-Enough Materializing Mediums and

Lombroso

Prof.

Scientists,

when

followers calling themselves each goes forth without scrip

s

or purse with no other purpose than to sup ply themselves with both.

Yet

it

was Barnum himself

who

said that the

delights in being humbugged, and strange it is that we will not allow ourselves to be thimble-rigged without paying for the

public

privilege.

Nordau

s

sumption

success hinged on his audacious as that the public knows nothing of

Law

of Antithesis. Yet Plato explained that the opposite of things look alike, and the

sometimes are

alike,

and that was quite awhile

ago.

The

multitude

devil";

devil

Many

and

is

answered

"

:

of them said:

mad":

Thou "He

hast

a

hath a

Festus said with a loud


voice

"

:

Nordau that

Paul, thou art beside thyself/ And shouts in a voice more heady than

of

more throaty than

Pilate,

Festus

"

Mad

of

mad beyond

Whitman was

the cavil of a doubt

that

"

!

In 1862, Lincoln, looking out of a window the dooryard bloomed) (before lilacs last in

on one of the

streets

of Washington, saw a

in shirt sleeves

workingman

to a friend, the President said

man

go by. Turning There goes "

:

The

exclamation sounds singularly like that of Napoleon on meeting Goethe.

a

"

!

But the Corsican the poet

s

who

man

him

ear,

s

remark was intended

while Lincoln did not

was, although he afterward. his

came

to

for

know know

Lincoln in his early days was a workingman an athlete, and he never quite got the idea out of his head (and I still a hewer of wood.

am

He

he was glad) that once told George

William Curtis that he more than half ex pected yet to go back to the farm and earn his daily bread by the work that his hands found to do he dreamed of it nights, and ;

whenever he saw hailing the

man

a splendid toiler,

as

he

felt like

brother and striking hands 3

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

with him.

When

Whitman strollhe took him for a steve

Lincoln saw

in S majestically past,

dore or possibly the foreman of a construction gang-

Whitman was

fifty-one years

old then. His

long flowing beard was snow white and the shock that covered his Jove-like head was iron grey. His form was that of an Apollo who had arrived at years of discretion. He

weighed even two hundred pounds and was just six feet high. His plain check cotton shirt was open at the throat to the breast and he had an independence, a self-sufficiency, and ;

withal a cleanliness, a sweetness, a gentleness,

although he had a giant s strength he did not use it like a giant. Whit man used no tobacco, neither did he apply hot and rebellious liquors to his blood and that

told

that

with unblushing forehead woo the means of debility and disease. Up to his fifty-third year

he had never known a sick day, although at thirty his hair had begun to whiten. He ha4 the look of age in his youth and the look of youth in his age that often marks the exceptional man. But at fifty-three his splendid health was

crowded 4

to the breaking strain.

How

?

Through


hour

wounded, sick and dying men hour, day after day, through the watches of the night. From 1864

for

caring

:

after

long silent to the day of his death in 1892, physically, he was a man in ruins. But he did not wither

he held the healthy optimism of boyhood, carrying with him the perfume of the morning and the lavish heart at the top.

Through

of youth. Doctor Bucke,

it all

who

has been superintendent of a hospital for the insane for twenty years, and the intimate friend of Whitman all the time,

His build, his stature, his excep health of mind and body, the size and

has said tional

"

:

form of his features, his and body, the grace of

mind movements and

cleanliness of his

and especially the mag the charm of his presence

gestures, the grandeur,

netism

of his

;

voice, his genial kindly humor ; the simplicity of his habits and tastes, his freedom from con

man

vention, the largeness and beauty of his

ner

;

his calmness

forbearance

and majesty

;

his charity

his entire unreseitfulness

&

under

whatever provocation his liberality, his uni versal sympathy with humanity in all ages and lands, his broad tolerance, his catholic friend;

5

WALT WHITMAN


WALT liness, and his unexampled faculty of attractWHITMAN m & affection, all prove his perfectly propor tioned manliness/

But Whitman differed from the

disciple of

Lombroso in two notable particulars He had no quarrel with the world, and he did not wax rich. One thing thou lackest, O Walt :

"

Whitman

"

we might

have said to the poet, you are not a financier." He died poor. But this is not proof of degeneracy, save on !

"

Change. When the children of Count Tol stoy endeavored to have him adjudged insane, the Court denied the application and voiced the wisest decision that ever came out of Russia

not saves

A man who

gives away his necessarily more foolish than :

money he

is

who

it.

And with Mr. Horace L. Traubel I say: Whitman was the sanest man I ever saw.


ME

men make themselves WALT homes; and others there be who WHITMAN rent rooms. Walt Whitman was essentially a citizen

the world was

mankind were his

friends.

his

:

home and

There was

man

in the

of the world

a quality

peculiarly universal a strong, vi rile poise that asked for nothing, but took

what

He

it

:

needed.

loved

men

as brothers, yet his brothers

understood

after the flesh

him him

not

he loved

;

they turned to instinctively but he had no children of his own he loved children

;

women and yet this strongly sexed and manly man never loved a woman. And I might here xsay as Philip Gilbert

Hamerton

said

of Tur

He

was lamentably unfortunate in this throughout his whole life he never came un "

ner,

:

der the ennobling and refining influence of a

good

woman."

make a home. The first home was made when a woman, cradling in It

requires

two

to

her loving arms a baby, crooned a lullaby. All the tender sentimentality we throw around a the result of the sacred thought that live there with some one else. It is our

place

we

is

7


WALT home. The home is a tryst the WHITMAN we ret re an d shut the world i

place

where

out. Lovers

home just as birds make a nest, and unless a man knows the spell of the divine passion I hardly see how he can have a home make

a

He

only rents a room. separated from the city of Phila delphia by the Delaware River. Camden lies low & flat a great sandy, monotonous waste

at all.

Camden

is

of straggling buildings. Here and there are straight rows of cheap houses, evidently erect ed by

staid, broad-brimmed speculators from across the river, with eyes on the main chance. But they reckoned ill, for the town did not

boom. Some of

these houses have marble steps and white barn-door shutters, that might with

stand a seige. When a funeral takes place in one of these houses the shutters are tied with strips

of mournful black alpaca for a year and

a day.

Engineers, dockmen, express drivers, and mechanics largely make up citizens of

Camden. Of course, Camden has its smug corner where prosperous merchants most do congregate where they play croquet in the :

front yards, and have window boxes, and a piano and veranda chairs and terra cotta stat8


uary, but for the most part the houses of Camden are rented, and rented cheap. Many of the domiciles are frame and have

the happy in

streets

tumble-down look of the back Charleston

where white

or

Richmond

those

merges off into pros perous colored aristocracy. Old hats do duty streets

trash

in keeping out the fresh air where providence has interfered and broken out a pane ; blinds

a single hinge ; bricks ney tops threaten the passers-by

hang by

on the chim ;

stringers

and

mark the

place where proud picket fences once stood the pickets having gone for kindling long ago. In the warm summer posts

evenings steps

men

and

in shirt-sleeves

stolidly

sit

on the front

smoke, while the children

pile up sand in the streets and play in the gutters.

with Mickle

block away, are railway tracks. There noisy switch engines, that never keep Sabbath, puff back and forth, day and night, sending forth showers of soot Parallel

Street, a

and smoke when the wind

is

right (and

it

straight over Number 328, where, according to John Addington Symonds and William Michael Rossetti, MoBi lived the mightiest +J

usually

is)

i

a

^i

^^^

9

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

of the century the man whom they ran ^ with Socrates, Epictetus, St. Paul, Mi chael Angelo, and Dante.

seer

It

was in August of 1883 that

up that

a

street

little

I first

walked

summer

hot sultry

evening. There had been a shower that turned the dust of the unpaved roadway to mud. The

was

air

up

right

and muggy. The houses,

close

to the sidewalks, over

which

gutters the steaming sewage ran, have discharged their occupants

built

in little

seemed to into

the

of the day. Barefooted children by the score paddled in the mud. All the steps were filled with loungers some of street to enjoy the cool

;

men had

discarded not only coats but shirts as well and now sat in flaming red un

the

derwear, holding babies.

They

woman s work is never done," women of Mickle Street this does

say that

but to the

"

not apply, but stay never done. Anyway, sat

on the curbs

"

from

lives

?

10

I

remember

that

is

women

all

seemed supremely

care.

Can you "

I

work

in calico dresses or leaned out

of the windows, and free

perhaps their

!

tell

asked

me where Mr. Whitman a portly dame who was rest-


ing "

her elbows on a window-sill near by.

who

"

?

Mr. Whitman You mean Walt Whitman "

"

!

"

"

?

"

Yes." "

Show

the gentleman, Molly, he

a nickel, I

m

11

give you

"

sure

!

had not seen Molly. She stood behind me, but as her mother spoke she seized tight hold I

of one of

claiming me as her the other children looked

my

fingers,

lawful prey, and all on with envious eyes as little Molly threw at them glances of scorn and marched me off.

Molly was five, going on six, she She had bright red hair, a grimy

me. face and told

chapped feet that made not a sound we walked. She got her nickel and carried

little

as it

in her

mouth and

ficult.

After going one block she suddenly

stopped, squared "

Them

is

he

"

!

this

made

conversation dif

me

around and pointing and disappeared.

said,

In a wheeled rattan chair, in the hallway, a little back from the door of a plain weatherbeaten house,

sat

the coatless philosopher, his

and head wreathed in a tumult of snowwhite hair.

face

ii

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

had

a little speech, all prepared weeks be^ore anc^ committed to memory, that I in I

him how

tended to repeat, telling

I

had read

poems and admired them. And further I had stored away in my mind a few blades from Leaves of Grass that I proposed to his

"

"

bring out at the right time as a sort of certifi cate of character. But when that little girl

me

right-about-face and heartlessly de serted me, I stared dumbly at the man whom

jerked I

had come

a

angling for fetch "

my

"

!

He

"

;

Hello

Don

held out his

on the

The

t

go

!

here,

Joe/ he said to a smoking a cob pipe.

woman

s

!

a

it.

yet,

step,

old

come

boy and there was hand,

grasp with meaning in

"

began

speech, but could not

little

called the philosopher, out of the

white aureole

"

to see. I

it.

Hello

^[

hundred miles

calling

man

me,"

seated

said the

swarthy Joe. Joe evidently held truth lightly. So long, Walt "

"

!

"

Good-bye, Joe. ^[ I sat in the "

Now

lar

is

n

t it

Sit

down,

doorway queer

lad, sit

down

"

!

at his feet.

that fellow

is

a regu

philosopher and works out some great 12


problems, but he s ashamed to express em. He could no more give you his best than he could fly. Ashamed I s pose, ashamed of the best that

way

is

all but-

gardless of lous or not

him.

in

me

We

are all a

-I try to write

little

my

that

best, re

whether the thing sounds ridicu regardless of what others think

or say or have saidy Ashamed of our holiest, Is it not too bad ? truest, and best !

You are twenty-five now ? Well boy, you may grow until you are thirty and then you will be as wise as you ever will be. Have n t "

you noticed that men of vision than

we life

men

of forty

sixty ?

have no clearer

One reason is that we know all about

have been taught that and death and the mysteries of the grave.

But the main reason to shove out

is

that

we

are

ashamed

and be ourselves. Jesus expressed

own individuality perhaps more than any man we know of, and so he wields a wider influence than any other. And this though we his

only have a record of just twenty-seven days of his life. "

Now

and he

that fellow that just left is an engineer, dreams some beautiful dreams, but he

never expresses

them

to

any one, only hints 3

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

me, and this only at twilight. He is e a wease l or niink or a whip-poor-will, he comes out only at night.

them

^

"

*

to

If the weather was like this

the time,

all

people would never learn to read and write/ said Joe to me just as you arrived. And is n t that so

?

Here we can count

hundred people and not one is read a

up and down this street, ing, not one but that is just

lolling about, ex they are only happy

cept the children and when playing in the dirt.

if this trop

we would Islanders You

weather should continue

ical slip

Why

back into South Sea

!

all

can

only raise good men in a little strip around when you get the North Temperate Zone out of the track of the glacier a tender heart ed, sympathetic man of brains is an accident."

The

man

suddenly ceased and I im agined that he was following the thought out

^[

in his

The

old

twilight

street

We

own mind. fell,

silent

sat

for a space.

and the lamp-lighter

lamp on the

corner.

He

sitting

on the

he

passed. doorstep, across the the ashes out of his

smoking, knocked pipe on his boot-heel & went indoors. 14

street,

the

stopped an in

stant to cheerily salute the poet as

The man

lit

Women


called their

but

still

children,

played on.

who

Then

did not respond, the creepers were

carried in, to be fed their bread and

milk and

put to bed and shortly shrill feminine voices ordered the older children indoors, and some ;

obeyed.

The

night crept slowly on. I heard old Walt chuckle behind me, talking incoherently to himself, and then he said :

"

You

are

why

wondering

I

live

in such a

"

place as this ? Yes, that is exactly of! "

what

I

was thinking

"

You

belong in the country, in some quiet shady place. But all I have to do is to shut my eyes and go there. No man loves the "

think

I

woods more than

was born within sound of the sea- down on Long Island, and I know all the songs that the sea-shell sings. But this babble and babel of voices pleases me better, especially since

I

my

I

legs

went on

a strike, for

although I can t walk, you see I still mix with the throng, so I suffer no loss. In the woods a man must be all hands and feet. I like the folks, the plain, ignorant, unpreten tious folks ; and the youngsters that come and

15

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

slide

on

m

bit. I

my

cellar

door do not disturb

me

a

from Carlyle you know noise-proof room where he locked different

he had

a

himself

in.

Now when

a huckster goes by, the blinds and often

crying his wares, I open wrangle with the fellow over the price of things. But the rogues have got into a way lately

pay.

of leaving truck for To-day an Irishman

me

and refusing

passed

in three

quarts of berries and walked off pretending to be mad because I offered to pay. When he

was gone,

I

beckoned

to the babies over the

they came over and we had a feast. I like Yes, I like the folks around here the women, and I like the men, and I like

way "

;

the babies, and I like the youngsters that play in the alley and make mud pies on my steps. I "

expect to stay here until I die." You speak of death as a matter of course

you are not

"

?

boy, death is as natural as life, and a deal kinder. But it is all good I accept it all and give thanks you have not forgot "

(

afraid to die

Oh,

ten "

I

no,

my

Not

I

my

chant to death

"

?

?)

repeated a few lines from 16

"

Drum

Taps/


He

followed me, rapping gently with his cane on the floor, and with little interjectory re-

marks

of

"

That

"

s

so

true

"

Very

!

"

!

And when I faltered and Good, good The lost the lines he picked them up where "

"

!

"

voice of

my

spirit

the

tallied

song of the

In a strong clear voice but a voice of sublime feeling he repeated bird."

full

:

Come, lovely and soothing Death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving

In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later, delicate Death. Praised be the fathomless universe

For

And

and joy, and for objects and knowl edge curious,

life

for love, sweet love

but praise

!

praise

!

praise

For the sure enwinding arms of

cool,

folding Death. Dark Mother, always gliding near with

en soft

feet,

Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome ? Then I chant for thee, I glorify thee above all, I bring thee a song that when thou must in deed come, come unfalteringly, Approach, strong

deliveress,

WALT WHITMAN


WALT When it is so, when thou WHITMAN I J ? 011^ si n g. the ead

hast taken

them

<!

.>

,

Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death. From me to thee glad serenades, Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee,

And

adornments and feastings for thee, the sights of the open landscape and the

And

high spread sky are fitting, life and the fields, and the huge and

thoughtful night. night in silence under many a star, ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know, And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well veiFd Death, And the body gratefully nestling close to thee. Over the tree-tops I float thee a song, Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the prairies wide, Over the dense-packed cities all, the teem

The The

&

I

ing wharves, and ways, float this carol with joy, with joy to thee

O

Death.

The

playing youngster had silently disap peared from the streets. The doorsteps were deserted save where across the way a young last

man and maiden versing in 18

sat in

low monotone.

the gloaming con


The

clouds had drifted away. great yellow star shown out above the chimney tops in the east.

A

I arose to go.

wish you d come oftener I see you so seldom, lad," said the old man, half plaint "

I

ively. I

did not explain that

fore

that I

posely to see

And The

so

had come from him.

he did

rest

was

or name,

we had

He

irrelevant.

what booted

New York

pur he knew me. thought

much

as

never met be

As it

?

as I

to

could impart.

my

occupation

he had no curi

concerning me. I grasped his outstretched hand in both of my own. osity

He I

word neither did I. turned and made my way to the said not a

;

ferry

past the whispering lovers on the doorsteps, and over the railway tracks where the noisy engines puffed. As I walked on board the

boat the wind blew up cool and fresh from the west. The star in the east grew brighter,

and other

stars

came

out, reflecting themselves

gems in the dark blue of the Delaware. ^[ There was a soft sublimity in the sound of the bells that came echoing over the waters. like

19

WALT WHITMAN


WALT pssigjOST WHITMAN H^RKl B the7

writers bear no message

I

Cari

7

:

no torch Sometimes -

they excite wonder, or they

may

amuse and divert divert us from our work. To be diverted to a certain degree may be well, but there is a point where earth ends and cloudland be

and even great poets occasionally befog

gins,

the things

which they would

Homer was truth

much

seemingly blind to

Virgil carries

;

reveal.

simple

you away from earth

;

Horace was undone without his Maecenas Dante makes you an exile Shakespeare was ;

;

singularly silent concerning the doubts,

and

culties,

common

Byron s Corsair toil, and in his

lives

common people

of

does not help you in your fight with English Bards and

we

crave neutrality

caught in the meshes of Pope s is not pleasant and Lowell s ;

"

above

is

all

thor of

"

only

poets

another

who

"

"

"

"

;

to

be

Dunciad Fable

Dunciad."

have ever

Leaves of Grass

humanity. Milton knew

;

life

Scotch Reviewers

Critics

diffi

lived, the

"

for

But au

was the poet of

about Heaven, and Dante conducts us through Hell, but it was left for

20

all


Whitman

to

show

high that setto, neither does goes so

His voice never

us Earth. it

breaks in impotent

fal-

growl and snarl at things it does not understand, and not understanding does not like. He was so great that he had no it

envy, and his insight was so sure that he had no prejudice. He never boasted that he was higher, nor claimed to be less than any of the other sons of men. He met all on terms of absolute equality, mixing with the poor, the lowly, the fallen, the oppressed, the cultured, the rich simply as brother with brother.

And when he

the outcast, Not the sun excludes you will I exclude you/ voiced a sentiment worthy of a god.

He

said

was brother

tains,

them free,

the

seas,

to

"

he

moun

to the elements, the

the clouds, the sky.

till

He

loved

and partook of them all in his large, unselfish, untrammelled nature. His heart all

knew no in granite

limits,

and

and feeling

his footsteps

his feet mortis

d

tenon d in infinity

he knew the amplitude of time.

Only the great

are generous

are forgiving.

Like Lot

s

;

backward

most poets and those who

wife,

look back over their shoulders are not looking

only the strong

;

insist that

we 21

shall

WALT WHITMAN


WALT look into the future, WHITMAN ^ e whole scribbling Man

and the

vast majority

of

rabble accept the pre

but always to be blest." grieve for childhood s happy days, and ^[ long for sweet rest in Heaven and sigh for mansions in the skies. And the people about "

cept,

never

is,

We

us

seem

so indifferent,

warm and ;

and our friends so luke

no one understands

really

us,

and

our environment queers our budding spirit uality and the frost of jealousy nips our aspi rations

"

:

O

Paradise,

growing old free where love

is

;

who is

O

Paradise, the

never

cold."

fearsome dyspeptics of the he,

you bloodless

world

would not be at rest and So sing the

stylus.

O

anaemic

she, nipping at crackers, sip

ping at tea, why not consider that although the evolutionists tell us where we came from

and the theologians inform us where we are going to, yet the only thing sure of is that we are here ^[ !

we are really The present is

the perpetually moving spot where history ends and prophecy begins. It is our only pos session

:

the past

memory, halting

we

reach through lapsing

&

belief; recollection, hearsay we pierce the future by wistful faith or anx ious hope, but the present is beneath our feet.

22


Whitman

and the glory of rebukes our groans and sighs

sings the beauty

the present.

He

on every side at the wonders of creation, and at the miracles with bids us look about

in our grasp.

He

own, introduces

lifts

us up, restores us to our

us to

man and Nature and

thus infuses into us courage, manly pride, selfreliance, and the strong faith that comes when

we

He

our kinship with God. was so mixed with the universe that his

feel

voice took on the sway of elemental integ rity and candor. Absolutely honest, this man was unafraid and unashamed, for Nature has neither apprehension, shame, nor vain-glory. In Leaves of Grass Whitman speaks as all "

"

men in

have ever spoken

themselves

who

oracular,

without abasement

believe in

without

fearlessly.

He

God

&

apology, of the

tells

powers and mysteries that pervade and guide all life, all death, all purpose. His work is masculine, as the sun is masculine ; for the prophetic voice is as surely masculine as the lullaby

and

lyric cry are feminine.

Whitman

brings the warmth of the sun to the buds of the heart so that they open and

bring forth form, color, perfume.

He becomes 23

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

them aliment and dew; so these buds become blossoms, fruits, tall branches, & stately for

trees that cast refreshing

shadows.

There are men who are to other men as the shadow of a mighty rock in a weary land such is Walt Whitman.




WALT WHITMAN



name of WALT Walt Whitman has been a WHITMAN

F

late years the

good deal bandied about in books and magazines. It has become familiar both in good and ill repute. His works have been largely bespattered with praise by his

admirers, and cruelly mauled and mangled by irreverent enemies. Now,

whether

poetry is good or bad as a matter that may admit of

his

poetry, is a difference of opinion without alien could not ating those who differ.

We

peace with a man who should put forward claims to taste the

keep

and yet depreciate the choruses

but I think we shake hands with one who sees

"Samson

may

in

Agonistes";

no more in Walt Whitman s volume, from a literary point of view, than a farrago of incompetent essays in a wrong direction. That may not be at all

our

own

opinion.

We may 29


WALT think that, when a work contains so WHITMAN many unforgettable phrases, it cannot be altogether devoid of literary mer it. We may even see passages of a high poetry here and there among its ec centric contents.

Walt Whitman

But when is

all is said,

neither a Milton

nor a Shakespeare; to appreciate his works is not a condition necessary to salvation ; and I would not disinherit a son upon ,the question, nor even think much the worse of a critic, for I should always have an idea what he meant. What Whitman has to say is another affair from how he says it. It is not possible to acquit any one of defect ive intelligence, or else stiff prejudice,

who

is

not interested by

Whitman

s

matter and the spirit it represents. Not as a poet, but as what we must call lack of a more exact ex (for a prophet, he occupies a pression)

30


curious

& prominent position. Wheth- WALT

he may greatly influence the fu- WHITMAN ture or not, he is a notable symptom of the present. As a sign of the times, it would be hard to find his parallel. I should hazard a large wager, for instance, that he was not unacquaint ed with the works of Herbert Spen er

cer;

and yet where,

books, shall

we

lay

in all the history

our hands on two

more incongruous contemporaries

?

I had al Mr. Spencer so decorous most said, so dandy in dissent; and

Whitman,

like a

large shaggy dog, just unchained, scours the beaches of the world, baying at the moon. And

when was an echo more curiously like a satire, than when Mr. Spencer found Synthetic Philosophy reverberated from the other shores of the Atlantic his

in the

"

barbaric

"

yawp

of

Whitman ?

3

1


HAT

WALT WHITMAN

Whitman

to a system,

it

writes

up

cannot be

explained. He was a theorizer about so

too

ciety

soon

before he was a poet.

He

first

perceived something wanting, & then sat down squarely to supply the want.

The

reader, running over his works, will find that he takes nearly as much

pleasure in critically expounding his

theory of poetry as in making poems. This is as far as it can be from the case of the spontaneous village min strel dear to elegy, who has no the

whatever, although sometimes he may have fully as much poetry as ory

Whitman. The whole of Whitman s work is deliberate and preconceived.

A man

born into a society compara tively new, full of conflicting ele ments and interests, could not fail, if he had any thoughts at all, to reflect upon the tendencies around him. He 32


saw much good and evil on all sides, WALT not yet settled down into some more WHITMAN unjust compromise as in older nations, but still in the act of settle

or

less

And

he could not but wonder what it would turn out; whether the compromise would be very just or ment.

very/ much the reverse, and give great or little scope for healthy human en ergies.

From

speculation

is

idle

wonder

but a step;

&

to

active

he seems

been early struck with the inefficacy of literature and its ex treme unsuitability to the conditions. What he calls Feudal Literature could have little living action on the tumult of American democracy ; what he calls the Literature of Wo/ meaning the whole tribe of Werther and Byron, could have no action for good in any time or place. Both prop ositions, if art had none but a direct moral influence, would be true to have

"

"

"

33


WALT enough; and as WHITMAN Whitman s view,

seems to be they were true enough for him. He conceived the idea of a Literature which was to in here in the life of the present ; which was to be, first, human, and next, American ;; which was to be brave & this

cheerful as per contract , to give cul ture in a popular and poetical pre sentment ; and, in so doing, catch &

some democratic ideal of humanity which should be equally natural to all grades of wealth and education, and suited, in one ,of his stereotype

favorite man."

phrases,

To

the

such literature

as

to

"the

average

formation of some this his

to be regarded as so

many

poems

are

contribu

one sometimes explaining, some times superceding, the other and the whole together not so much a finished tions,

:

work

He

as a

body of suggestive

hints.

does not profess to have built the

34


but he pretends he has traced the lines of the foundation. He has not made the poetry, but he flatters himself he has done something to wards making the poets. His notion of the poetic function is ambitious, & coincides roughly with castle,

what Schopenhauer has

laid

down

WALT WHITMAN

as

the province of the metaphysician. /

The poet men, and

to gather together for set in order, the materials is

of their existence. He is The An swerer"; he is to find some way of speaking about life that shall satisfy, if only for the moment, man s endur ing astonishment at his own position. And besides having an answer ready, it is he who shall provoke the ques tion. He must shake people out of "

their indifference,

make some

and force them

to

election in this world, in

stead of sliding dully forward in a dream. Life is a business we are all

35


WALT WHITMAN

apt to mismanage

;

either living reck-

from day to day, or suffering ourselves to be gulled/ out of our moments by the inanities of custom. lessly

We

should despise a

man who

gave

activity and forethought to the conduct of any other business. But in this, which is the one thing of all others, since it contains them all, we cannot see the forest for the trees. as little

One

brief impression obliterates an other. There is something stupefying in

things.

of unimportant only on rare provo can rise to take an

recurrence

the

And

cations that

it is

we

outlook beyond daily concerns, and comprehend the narrow limits and great possibilities of our existence. It isythe duty of the poet to induce such moments of clear sight. He is the declared enemy of all living by re flex action, of all that is done be twixt sleep and waking, of all the

36


pleasureless pleasurings and imaginary duties in which we coin away our

invaluable years. He has to electrify his readers into an in hearts

and

fritter

stant unflagging activity, founded on a wide and eager observation of the

world, and

make them

direct

their

ways by a superior prudence, which has little or nothing in common with the maxims of the copy-book. That

many of

us lead such lives as they

would

heartily disown after two hours serious reflection on the subject is, I

am

afraid, a true,

and

I

am

sure, a

very galling thought. The Enchanted Ground of dead-alive respectability is next, upon the map, to the Beulah

of considerate virtue. But there they all slumber and take their rest in the middle of God s beautiful and won derful

universe;

the

drowsy heads

have nodded together in the same position since

first

their fathers

37

fell

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

asleep ; and not even the sound of the last trumpet can wake them to a single active thought. The poet has

him

a hard task before

fellows to a sense of their

other people

And

it

up such own and

to stir

principles in life. happens that literature s

is,

in

some ways, but an indifferent means to such an end. Language is but a poor bull s-eye lantern wherewith to show off the vast cathedral of the world; and yet a particular thing once said in words is so definite and

makes us forget the absence of the many which re main unexpressed like a bright win dow in a distant view, which dazzles memorable, that

it

;

&

confuses our sight of

ings.

There

are not

its

surround

words enough in

Shakespeare to express the merest fraction of a man s experience in an all

The

speed of the eyesight and the hearing, and the continual in-

hour.

38


in ten dustry of the mind, produce, minutes, what it would require a laborious volume to shadow forth by

comparisons

& roundabout

approach

If verbal logic were sufficient, life would be as plain sailing as a piece es.

of Euclid. But,

we make

as

a matter of fact,

a travesty of the

simplest

process of thought

when we put

into words

words are

;

for the

all

it

col

ored and forsworn, apply inaccurate and bring w ith them, from former ly, uses, ideas of praise and blame that r

have nothing to do with the question in hand. So we must always see to it nearly, that we judge by the realities of life and not by the partial terms that represent them in man s speech ; and at times of choice, we must leave words upon one side, and act upon those brute convictions, unexpressed

and perhaps inexpressible, which can not be flourished in an argument, but 39

WALT WHITMAN


WALT which are truly the sum and fruit of WHITMAN our experience. Words are for com munication, not for judgment. This is what every thoughtful man knows for himself, for only

fools

and

silly

schoolmasters push definitions over far into the domain of conduct ; and the majority of women, not learned in these scholastic refinements, live all-of-a-piece and unconsciously, as a tree grows, without caring to put a

name upon their acts or motives. Hence, a new difficulty for Whit

man

s

poet

;

scrupulous and argumentative he must do more than waken

sleepers to his words ; he persuade them to look over the

up the

must book

with their own eyes. This side of truth is ever present to Whitman; it is this that he means

and

at life

when he

tells

us that

"

To

glance

with an eye confounds the learning of all times." But he is not unready.

40


He

never weary of descanting on the undebatable conviction that is is

upon our minds by the pres ence of other men, of animals, or of

forced

inanimate things. To glance with an eye, were it only at a chair or a park railing, is by far a more persuasive process,

and brings us to a

far

more

exact conclusion, than to read the works of all the logicians extant. If both, by a large allowance, may be said to end in certainty, the certainty in the

one case transcends the other

to an incalculable degree. If people see a lion, run if they

away;

only apprehend

a

they

deduction, they

keep wandering around in an experi mental humor. Now, how is the poet to convince like nature, and not like books ? Is there no actual piece of nature that he can show the man to his face, as he might show him a tree if they were walking together? Yes,

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

there

In

is

one: the

fact, if

man s own

the poet

is

thoughts.

to speak effica

ciously, he must say what is already in his hearer s mind. That, alone, the hearer will believe; that, alone, he

be able to apply intelligently to the facts of life. Any conviction, even if it be a whole system or a whole religion, must pass into the condition of commonplace, or postulate, before will

it

becomes

fully

excursions and

may

interest,

operative.

high-flying

they cannot rule faith is not the highest

but

Our truth that we perceive, but est that we have been able behavior.

Strange theories

the high to assim

very texture & method of our thinking. It is not, therefore, by flashing before a man s eyes the

ilate into the

weapons of

dialectic;

it is

not by in

duction, deduction, or construction;

not by forcing him on from one stage of reasoning to another, that

it is

42


man

be effectually renewed. He cannot be made to believe anymade to see thing; but he can be

the

will

that he has always believed this is the practical canon. It

it.

is

And

when

and the reader cries, Oh, I know to see how is, perhaps, half irritated "

"

!

his nearly the author has forestalled own thoughts, that he is on the way

to

what

is

called in theology a Saving

Faith.

Here we have the key attitude.

ideal

To

to the

to

Whitman

s

give a certain unity of

average population of

America to gather their activities about some conception of humanity that shall be central and normal, if the poet must only for the moment Like portray that population as it is. human law, human poetry is simply declaratory. If any ideal is possible, it must be already in the thoughts of the people; and by the same reason,

43

WALT WHITMAN


WALT in the thoughts of the poet, who is WHITMAN one of them. And hence Whitman s own formula: "The poet is individ ual

he

complete in himself: the others are as good as he; only he sees it, and they do not." To show them how good they are, the poet must is

study his fellow-countrymen

& him

somewhat like a traveller on the hunt for his book of travels. There is a sense, of course, in which all true books are books of travel; and all genuine poets must run their risk of self

being charged with the traveller s ex aggeration; for to whom are such books more surprising than to those

whose own life is faithfully & smartly pictured ? But this danger is all upon one side; and you may judiciously without any like lihood of the sitter s disowning it for flatter the portrait

a faithful likeness.

has reasoned

44

:

And

so

Whitman

that by drawing at

first


hand from himself and his neighbors, WALT accepting without shame the incon- WHITMAN sistencies and brutalities that go to make up man, and yet treating the whole in a high, magnanimous spirit, he would make sure of belief, and at the same time encourage people forward by the means of praise.

45


IOWADAYS we

WALT WHITMAN

tomed

are accus

to a great deal of

puling over the stances in

circum

which we are

The

great refinement of many poetical gentlemen has rendered them practically unfit for the jostling and placed.

ugliness of life, and they record their unfitness at considerable length. The

bold and awful poetry of Job s com plaint produces too many flimsy imi tators; for there is always something consolatory in grandeur, but the sym phony transposed for the piano be comes hysterically sad. This literature of woe, as Whitman calls it, this Maladie de Rene, as we like to call it in Europe,

is

in

many ways

a

most

humiliating and sickly phenomenon. Young gentlemen with three or four

hundred a year of private means look down from a pinnacle of doleful ex perience on all the grown & hearty


men who

have dared to say a good word for life since the beginning of the world. There is no prophet but the melancholy Jacques, and the blue devils dance on all our literary wires. ^j It would be a poor service to spread culture, if this be its result, comparatively innocent and cheerful ranks of men. When

among

the

our little poets have to be sent to look at the ploughman and learn wis dom, we must be careful how we tamper with our ploughmen. When a man in not the best of circumstances preserves composure of mind, & rel ishes

ale

and tobacco, and

his wife

and children, in the intervals of dull and unremunerative labor; where a

man

in this

predicament can afford a

lesson by the way to what are called his intellectual superiors, there is

plainly something to be lost, as well as something to be gained, by teach-

47

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

him

think differently. It is better to leave him as he is than to teach him whining. It is better that ing

to

he

should go without the cheerful lights of culture, if cheerless doubt

and paralyzing sentimentalism

are to

be the consequence. Let us, by all means, fight against that hide-bound stolidity of sensation and sluggish ness of mind which blurs and decol

poor natures the wonderful pageant of consciousness; let us teach

orizes for

people, as

and they

much

as

we

can, to enjoy,

will learn for themselves to

sympathize; but let us see to it, above all, that we give these lessons in a brave, vivacious note, and build the man up in courage while we de

molish the substitute, indifference.

Whitman

is

that, if the

alive to all is

this.

to be of

He

sees

any help, he must testify to the livableness of life. His poems, he tells us, are to be poet


hymns of the praise of things." They WALT are to make for a certain high joy in WHITMAN "

living,

or what he calls himself

And

a

freedom s ath he has had no difficulty

brave delight letes,"

"

for

fit

in introducing his

optimism

enough with

:

it

fitted

system ; for the average man is truly a courage ous person and truly fond of living. readily

One of Whitman head

is

his

remarks upon this worth quotation, as he is there s

and does precise he designs to do throughout: ly what Takes ordinary and even common throws them place circumstances; perfectly successful,

out, by a happy turn of thinking, into significance and something like beauty; and tacks a hopeful moral lesson to the end.

The passionate woodmen, early "

tenacity of hunters, risers, cultivators of

gardens and orchards and fields, the love of healthy women for the manly

49


WALT WHITMAN

form,

seafaring

persons,

drivers

horses, the passion for light

of

and the

an old unvaried sign of the unfailing perception of beauty, and of a residence of the poetic in outdoor people." There seems to be something truly original in this choice of trite exam

open

air,

all is

You will remark how adroitly Whitman begins, hunters and wood men being confessedly romantic. And ples.

one thing more. If he had love of healthy

men

said

"

the

for the female

he would have said almost a silliness; for the thing has never been dissembled out of delicacy, and is so obvious as to be a public nuisance. But by reversing it, he tells us some thing not unlike news; something that sounds quite freshly in words; and if the reader be a man, gives him a moment of great self-satisfac tion and spiritual aggrandizement. In form,"

50


you find pas- WALT sages more remarkable for grammar, WHITMAN but few of a more ingenious turn, & none that could be more to the

many

different authors

point in our connection. ity

of

many

The

tenac

ordinary people in ordi

nary pursuits is a sort of standing challenge to everybody else. If one man can grow absorbed in delving his garden, others may grow absorbed

and happy over something else. Not to be upsides in this with any groom or gardner, is to be very meanly or ganized. A man should be ashamed to take his food if he has not al chemy enough in his stomach to turn some of it into intense and enjoyable occupation.

Whitman

tries to

reinforce this cheer

by keeping up a sort of out door atmosphere of sentiment. His book, he tells us, should be read fulness

"

among

the cooling influences

of


WALT external nature; WHITMAN mendation, like

and

recomthat other famous this

one which Hawthorne prefixed to

his

collected tales, is in itself a character of the work. Every one who has been a walking or a boating tour, living in the open air, with the body in constant exercise and the mind in

upon

fallow,

knows

true

ease

and

quiet.

The

irritating action of the brain is set at rest; we think in a plain, unfeverish temper; little things seem

&

great things no longer portentious; and the world is smil ingly accepted as it is. This is the big enough,

spirit

that

parades.

He

atmosphere

Wisdom

Whitman

inculcates

and

thinks very ill of the of parlors or libraries.

keeps school outdoors.

And

he has the art to recommend this at titude of mind by simply pluming himself upon the reader, to

it

as a virtue; so

keep

the

that

advantage


over his author which most readers is tricked into professing the enjoy,

same view. And chief lesson,

is

this spirit, as it

the greatest

is

his

charm of of an un

work. Thence, in spite even and emphatic key of expression, something trenchant and straightfor ward, something simple and surpris He has ing, distinguishes his poems. his

sayings that the Bible.

come home

We

after the

write

from

fall

works of

to

one

like

upon Whitman,

so

many men who

better, with a sense of relief strain, with a sense of touching

when one

passes out of the flaring, noisy thoroughfares of a great city into what he himself has called,

nature, as

with unexcelled imaginative justice of the huge and thoughtful language, "

And

his

book

in

consequence, whatever may be the final judgment of its merit, whatever may be its influence on the future, should be in night."

53

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

parents & guardians as a specific for the distressing malady of being seventeen years old. the hands of

all

Green-sickness yields

ment

as

to

the youth,

a

to

his

treat

charm of magic; and

after

a

short course of

reading, ceases to carry the universe upon his shoulders.

54


IAMILIARITY

as

stars,

could not deceive Whitman. He considers it just as wonderful that there are myriads of that one man should rise

from the dead. on the back of ous

as

whole Sir

He his

any special

life is

to

declares

hand

hair

just as curi

His was to

revelation."

him what

Thomas Browne, one

miracle. Everything

"a

is

it

perpetual

strange, every

thing unaccountable, everything beau tiful; from a bug to the moon, from the sight of the eyes to the appetite for food. He makes it his business to

he saw them for the first time, and professes astonishment on principle. But he has no leaning toward mythology; avows his con tempt for what he calls unregenerate poetry"; and does not mean by see things as if

"

nature: "

The smooth walks, trimmed

hedges,

55

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

and nightingales of the English poets, but the whole orb, with its geologic history, the Kosmos, carrying fire and snow, that rolls butterflies, posies,

through the illimitable areas, light as a feather though weighing billions of tons."

Nor

is

this

exhaustive

acter of idealist

;

for in his char

all

impressions, all thoughts, trees and people, love and

astronomy, history, and relig ion, enter upon equal terms into his notion of the universe. He is not

faith,

-

against religion; not, indeed, against any religion. He wishes to drag with a larger net, not to

make more com

prehensive synthesis, than any or than all of them put together. In feeling after

the

central

type of man, h

must embrace all eccentricities; his cosmology must subsume all cosmol ogies, and the feelings that gave birth to them his statement of facts must ;

56


include

all

religion

and

all

irreligion,

and Boodha, God and the devil, The world as it is, & the whole world as it is, physical, and spiritual, and historical, with its good and bad, Christ

with

its

manifold inconsistencies,

is

what he wishes to set forth, in strong, picturesque, and popular lineaments, understanding of the average man. One of his favorite endeavors is to get the whole matter into a nut shell; to knock the four corners of the universe, one after another, about

for the

his

readers

ears;

to

hurry him, in

breathless phrases, hither and thither, back and forward, in time and space;

about his own mo mentary personality; and then, draw ing the ground from under his feet, as if by some cataclysm of nature, to plunge him into the unfathomable abyss sown with enormous suns and systems, and among the inconceivable to focus all this

57

WALT WHITMAN


WALT numbers and magnitudes and velociWHITMAN ties of the heavenly bodies. So that he concludes by striking into us some sense of that dispropoition of things which Shelley had illuminated by the ironical flash of these eight words: The desire of the moth for the

star.

The same ent

truth, but to

purpose

what

Whitman

!

s

a differ

moth

is

mightily at his ease about all the planets in heaven, and cannot think too highly of our sublunary tapers.

The

universe

so large that imagi nation flags in the effort to conceive it; but here, in the meantime, is the is

world under our feet, a very warm and habitable corner. The earth, that is sufficient; I do not want the constellations any nearer," he re Let your soul marks. And again stand cool and composed," says he, "

"

:

"

before a million

58

universes."

It

is


of a transcendental common sense, such as Thoreau held and sometimes uttered. But Whit the

language

man, who has clination for

WALT WHITMAN

somewhat vulgar in technical talk and the a

jargon of philosophy, is not content with a few pregnant hints; he must put the dots upon his i s; he must corroborate the songs of Apollo by some of the darkest talk of human

metaphysic. He tells his disciples that to confront the they must be ready "

growing arrogance of

Realism."

Each

for himself, the

keystone of this universal edifice. Nothing, not God," he says, greater to one than oneself is;"^ a statement with an irreligious smack at the first sight; but like most start

person

is,

and the occasion "

"is

ling sayings, a manifest truism on a second. He will give effect to his own

character without apology; he sees "that the elementary laws never

59


WALT WHITMAN

"

apologize."

I

he

reckon,"

adds,

with quaint colloquial arrogance, I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after "

The

all."

being;

level follows the

so,

will

unrelentingly,

everything, every person, his

law of

is

its

he;

good

in

place and way; God is the of all, and all are in one de

own

maker

For he believes in God, & that with a sort of blasphemous security. No array of terms," quoth he, no sign.

"

"

how much at am about God and about

array of terms can say

peace

I

death."

There

certainly never was a carried things with a

prophet who higher hand; he gives us less a body of dogmas than a series of proclama tions by the grace of God; and lan guage, you will fails

him

trepidations.

positively

how far he stands human doubts and

to express

above the highest

60

observe,


of truths to a person s sublime conviction of himself, comes the attraction of one person

But next

in order

for another,

word

the "

The

and

all

that

we mean by

man

for his

love:

dear love of

rade

com

the attraction of friend

for friend,

&

Of

the well-married husband

Of

of children and parents, city for city and land for land."

The

wife,

of the most sublime idealist is broken in upon by other people s faces; he sees a look in their solitude

eyes that corresponds to something in his own heart; there comes a tone in

which convicts him of a fellowstartling weakness for his creatures. While he is hymning the ego and commercing with God and the universe, a woman goes below his window; and at the turn of her skirt their voices

61

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

or the color of her eyes, Icarus is re^called from heaven by the run. Love is

so startlingly real that

it

takes rank

upon an equal

footing of reality with the consciousness of personal exist

We

are as heartily persuaded of the identity of those we love as of

ence.

our

own

And

so

sympathy pairs with self-assertion, the two gerents of human life on earth; and Whitman s ideal man must not only be strong, free, and self-reliant in himself, but his freedom must be bounded and his strength perfected by the most intimate, eager, & longsuffering love for others. To some identity.

taking away with the left hand what has been so generous has ly given with the right. Morality extent

this

is

been ceremoniously extruded from the door only to be brought in again by the window. We are told, on one page, to do as we please ; and on the 62


next

we

having done are

as the

author pleases.

assured that

first

WALT We WHITMAN

are sharply upbraided for not

we

are the finest

own right; and then it appears that we are only fine fellows in so far as we practise a most quixotic code of morals. The in clear ether disciple who saw himself a moment before is plunged down again among the fogs and complica tions of duty. And this is all the more overwhelming because Whitman in fellows in the world in our

sex,

not only on love between sex and and between friends of the same

sex,

but in the

sists

field

of the

political sympathies;

less

intense

and his ideal man

must not only be but a

a generous friend conscientious voter into the

bargain.

His method somewhat lessens the dif ficulty.

He

member, to be,

not, the reader will re to tell us how good we ought is

but to remind us

how good we 63


WALT WHITMAN

He

encourage us to be free & kind, by proving that we are free and kind already. He passes our corporate life under review, to show that it is upheld by the very virtues of which he makes himself the advocate. There is no object so soft," he says some are.

is

to

"

where in his big, plain way, there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel d universe." Rightly un derstood, it is on the softest of all ob "

jects, the

sympathetic heart, that the

and se easily curely as on a perfect axle. There is no room, of course, for doubt or dis

wheel of society turns

cussion about conduct, where every one is to follow the law of his being

with exact compliance. Whitman hates doubt, deprecates discussion, and dis courages to his utmost the craving, carping sensibilities of the conscience. We are to imitate, to use one of his absurd and happy phrases,

"

the sat-


isfaction

and aplomb of

animals."

If

of ranting Chrisa fit consequent to tianity in morals, the ranting optimism of his cosmol ogy, it is because he declares it to be the original deliverance of the human heart ; or at least, for he would be hon historical in method, of the hu estly

he preaches a

man

sort

heart as at present Christianized.

His is a morality without a prohibition ; his policy is one of encouragement all around. A man must be a born hero to come up to Whitman s stand ard in the practice of any of the pos itive virtues; but of a negative virtue, such as temperance or chastity, he has so little to say, that the reader need not be surprised if he drops a word or

two upon the other lay

side.

He would

down nothing that would be a clog

;

he would prescribe nothing that can not be done ruddily, in a heat. The great point is to get people under way.

65

WALT WHITMAN


WALT To the faithful Whitmanite this would WHITMAN be justified by the belief that God made all, and that all was good; the prophet in cry

his doctrine, has

only to

and mankind will gallop on the road to

"Tally-ho,"

break into a El Dorado. Perhaps, to another class of minds, it may look like the result of the somewhat cynical reflection that you will not make a kind man out of one who is unkind by any precepts under heaven; tempered by the belief that, in natural circum stances, the large majority

Thence

is

well dis

would

follow, that if you can only get every one to feel more warmly and act more courage

posed.

it

ously, the balance of results will be for good.

So far, you see, the doctrine is pretty coherent as a doctrine; as a picture of man s life it is incomplete & mis leading, although eminently cheerful.

66


he

This

is

knowledge; anything,

himself the

to ac-

prophetic in in his noble disregard

for if

it is

he

first

is

Do I contradict my of consistency. he asks somewhere; and then self? pat comes the answer, the best an swer ever given in print, worthy of a sage, or rather of a woman: "Very "

"

well,

with

then,

I

contradict

this addition,

myself! not so feminine &

perhaps not altogether so satisfactory I am I contain multitudes." large :

"

matter of fact, partakes largely of the nature of tragedy. The gospel according to Whitman, even if it be not so logical, has this ad vantage over the gospel according to Pangloss, that it does not utterly dis regard the existence of temporal evil. Whitman accepts the fact of disease and wretchedness like an honest man; and instead of trying to qualify it in the interest of his optimism, sets himLife, as a

WALT WHITMAN


WALT self WHITMAN He that

to spur people up to be helpful. expresses a conviction, indeed, all will

be

made up

to the vic

tims in the end; that "what is un tried and afterward will fail no one, not even "the old man who has lived "

without purpose and feels it with bit terness worse than gall." But this is not to palliate our sense of what is hard or melancholy in the present. Pangloss, smarting under one of the worst things that ever was supposed to come from America, consoled him self with the reflection that it was the price we have to pay for cochi neal. And with that murderous par ody, logical optimism and the praises of the best of possible words went irrevocably out of season, and have been no more heard of in the mouths

of reasonable men. us

all

treats

Whitman

evil

68

and

spares

cochineal; he sorrow in a spirit

allusions to the


of welcome; as an old seadog might have welcomed the sight of the enemy s topsails off the Span ish Main. There, at least, he seems to say, is something obvious to be done. I do not know many better things in literature than the brief almost

as

brief

pictures,

and

vivid like things

with which he by lightning, tries to stir up the world s heart upon the side of mercy. He braces us, on the one hand, with examples of he roic duty and helpfulness; on the other, he touches us with pitiful in stances of people needing help. He seen

knows how

to

make

the heart beat us with

at a brave story; to inflame

hunted slave; shame when of the drunken prostitute.

just resentment over the to stop our mouths for

he tells For all the

afflicted, all the

the wicked, a spirit

which

I

weak,

good word

is

can only

call

all

said in a

one of 69

WALT WHITMAN


WALT ultra-Christianity; and however wild, WHITMAN however contradictory, it may be in parts, this at least may be said for his book, as it may be said of the Christian Gospels, that no

one

will

however respectable, but he gets a knock upon his conscience; no one, however fallen, but he finds a kindly and supporting welcome. read

it,

70


IE

has

not been content

with merely blowing the trumpet for the battle of well-doing; he has given to his precepts the authority of his

own

brave example. Naturally a grave, believing man, with little or no sense

of humor, he has succeeded

as well

in life as in his printed performances. The spirit that was in him has come

most eloquently

forth

Many who

in his actions.

have only read

his

poetry have been tempted to set him down as an ass, or even as a charlatan; but I never met any one who had known

him personally who did not profess a solid affection and respect for the

man

s

character.

He

as

practises

he

professes; he feels deeply that Chris tian love for all men, that toleration,

that cheerful delight in serving oth ers, which he often celebrates in lit

erature with

a doubtful measure of 7

1

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

And

perhaps, out of all his writings, the best and the most hu success.

man and

convincing passages are to be found in these soil d and creas d little livraisons, each composed of a "

two of paper, folded small to carry in the pocket, and fastened with a pin," which he scribbled dur ing the war by the bedsides of the sheet or

wounded

or in

the

excitement

of

great events. They are hardly litera ture in the formal meaning of the

word; he has left his jottings for the most part as he made them; a home from the lips of a ly detail, a word dying

soldier, a

business

memoran

the copy of a letter short, straightforward to the point, with

dum,

none of the trappings of composi but they breathe a profound sentiment, they give us a vivid look at one of the sides of life, and they make us acquainted with a man tion;

72


whom

Whit- WALT man s intense Americanism, his un- WHITMAN limited belief in the future of These it is

States

(as,

an honor to love.

*J|

with reverential capitals,

he loves to call them), made the war a period of great trial to his soul. The new virtue, Unionism, of which he is the sole inventor, seemed to have fallen into premature unpopu All that he loved, hoped, or larity. hated,

hung

in the balance.

game of war was not only tous to him in its issues;

And the momen it

subli

mated his spirit by its heroic displays, and tortured him intimately by the spectacle of its horrors. It was a the was a place of education, it was like a season of religious revival. He watched Lincoln going daily to his work; he studied and fraternized with young soldiery passing to the front; above all, he walked the hos atre, it

pitals,

reading the Bible, distributing

73


WALT WHITMAN

clean clothes, or apples, or tobacco; a patient, helpful, reverend

of kind speeches. His memoranda of

this

man,

full

period are

al

most bewildering to read. From one point of view they seem those of a district visitor ; from another, they look like the formless jottings of an artist in the picturesque. More than

one woman, on

whom

I

tried the ex

immediately claimed the writer for a fellow-woman. More than

periment,

might identify him as a shoddy newspaper correspondent without the necessary faculty of style. And yet the story touches home; and

one

literary purist

you are of the weeping order of mankind, you will certainly find your eyes fill with tears, of which you have no reason to be ashamed. There is only one way to characterize a work of this order, and that is to quote. Here is a passage from a letter to a if

74


mother, unknown to Whitman, whose son died in hospital: "

as

Frank,

as I saw,

far

had every

thing requisite in surgical treatment, nursing, etc. He had watches much of the time. He was so good and well-

and

behaved,

affectionate,

I

myself

him very much. I was in habit of coming in afternoons and liked

the sit

ting by him, and he liked to have me liked to put out his arm and lay his

hand on

so

a long while.

was more

my knee

would keep

Toward

it

the last he

and

flighty at night often fancied himself with his reg

iment

restless

sometimes seem d as if his feelings were hurt by being blamed by his officers for something he was entirely innocent of said never in my life was thought capable of such a thing, and never was. At other times he would fancy himself talking as it seem d to children or

by

his talk

<I

75

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

such like,

suppose, and giving them good advice; would talk to them a long while. All the time his relatives, I

he was out of his head not one single bad word, or thought, or idea es caped him. It was remark d that

many senses

a

man

s

conversation in

was not half

so

good

as

his

Frank

s

delirium.

He

was perfectly willing to die he had become very weak, and had suffer d a good deal, and was per fectly resign d, poor boy. I do not know his past life, but I feel as if it must have been good. At any rate what I saw of him here, under the most trying circumstances, with a painful wound, and among stran gers, I can say that he behaved so brave, so composed, and so sweet and affectionate, it could not be surpassed. And now, like many other noble and "

good men,

after serving his

country


as a

soldier,

he has yielded up

his

the very outset in her service. Such things are gloomy yet there is a text, God doeth all things

young

life at

<

the meaning of which, after due time, appears to the soul. I thought perhaps a few words,

well/ "

though from a stranger, about your son, from one who was with him at the last, might be worth while, for I loved the young man, though I but saw him immediately to lose him." It

is

easy

to pick holes in the of this letter, but what are

enough

grammar we to say of and

its

tenderness

profound goodness

?

It

is

written

as

though he had the mother s face be fore his eyes, and saw her wincing in the flesh at every word. And what, again,

are

we

to

say

of

its

sober

truthfulness, not exaggerating, not running to phrases, not seeking to make a hero out of what was only

77

WALT WHITMAN


WALT an ordinary but good & brave young WHITMAN man ? Literary reticence is not Whit man s stronghold; and this reticence not literary, but humane; it is not that of a good artist but that of a

is

good man. He knew that what the mother wished to hear about was Frank; and he told her about her Frank as he was.


ERE

something should be WALT said of Whitman s style, WHITMAN for style is of the essence of thinking. And where a man is so critically deliberate as our author, and goes solemnly about his poetry for an ulterior end, every in dication is worth notice. He has chosen a rough, unrhymed, lyrical verse ; sometimes instinct with a fine

movement; often

so

rug can only be described by saying that he has not taken the trouble to write prose. I processional

ged and

careless that

it

myself that it was selected principally because it was easy to write, although not without recollec tions of the marching measures of some of the prose in our English Old Testament. According to Whitman, believe

on the other hand,

"

the time has ar

rived to essentially break barriers

down

the

of form between Prose and

79


WALT WHITMAN

for the most cogent Poetry purof those inland states, & poses great for Texas, and California, and Ore a statement which is among gon;" the happiest achievements of Amer .

.

.

ican humor. itatives,"

He

calls his verses

"

rec

in easily followed allusion

to a musical form.

"

Easily- written,

I loose-fingered chords," he cries, feel the thrum of your climax and "

close."

Too

often,

one who rhythm; and in only

I

fear,

can spite

he

is

perceive

the

the

of Mr. Swin

burne, a great part of his work con sidered as verse is poor bald stuff.

Considered,

not

as

but

verse,

speech, a great part of

it

is

full

as

of

strange and admirable merits. The right detail is seized; the right word, bold and trenchant, is thrust into its

Whitman

has small regard to free literary decencies, and is totally from literary timidities. He is neither place.

80


nor of being add, of being ri-

afraid of being slangy

dull; nor, let me diculous. The result prising

compound of

sentimental

is

most sur

a

plain grandeur,

and down

affectation,

right nonsense. It would be useless to follow his detractors and give in

stances of

how bad he

can be at his would be not

worst; and perhaps it much wiser to give extracted speci mens of how happily he can write

when he

is

at

his

best.

These come

most advantage in place; owing something,

in to

to

their it

may

the offset of their curious

roundings.

And one

thing

is

own be, sur

certain,

one can appreciate Whit man s excellences until he has grown accustomed to his faults. Until you that

no

are content to pick poetry out of his

pages almost as you must pick it out of a Greek play in Bohn s translation, your gravity will be continually up-

81

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

your ears perpetually disappointed, and the whole book will be no more to you than a particularly fla grant production by the Poet Close. ^[ A writer of this uncertain quality set,

was, perhaps, unfortunate in taking for thesis the beauty of the world as

now

not only on the hill-tops, but in the factory; not only by the harbor full of stately ships, but in the magazine of the hopelessly pro it

is,

mon tact.

To show

beauty in com things is the work of the rarest It is not to be done by the

saic hatter.

wishing. It ory, but

is

easy to posit as a the

to bring

it

home

to

men

s

minds is the problem of literature, and is only accomplished by rare talent, and in comparatively rare in stances. To bid the whole world stand and deliver, with a dogma in one s right hand by way of pistol; to cover reams of paper in a galloping, 82


headstrong vein; to cry louder and louder over everything as it comes up, and

make no

distinction in

one

s

enthusiasm over the most incompar able matters; to prove one s entire want of sympathy for the jaded, lit erary palate, by calling, not a spade a spade, but a hatter a hatter, in a this, in spite of apostrophe; the airs of inspiration, is not the

lyrical all

way

to

do

it.

It

may be

and very wounding

very wrong,

to a respectable

of industry, but the word "hatter" cannot be used seriously in emotional verse; not to understand this, is to have no literary tact; and

branch

would, for his own sake, that this were the only inadmissible expres sion with which Whitman had be decked his pages. The book teems with similar comicalities; and to a reader who is determined to take it from that side only, presents a perI

83

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

of fun. A good deal of the result of theory playing

feet carnival this

is

its

usual vile trick

is

because he

is

upon the artist. It a Democrat that

Whitman must have

in the hatter. If

you may say Admiral, he reasons, why may you not say Hatter? One man is as good as another, and it is the business of the

show poetry

"

great

poet"

in the life of the

one

to as

A

most incontro vertible sentiment surely, and one which nobody would think of con and here is the troverting, where where any beauty has been point shown. But how, where that is not the case ? where the hatter is simply introduced, as God made him and as his fellow-men have miscalled him, well as the other.

at the

sody a

?

man

ity

crisis

of a high-flown rhap

And what of

are

Whitman

we s

to say,

where

notable capac

for putting things in a bright, pic-


turesque, and novel way, simply gives up the attempt, and indulges, with

apparent exultation, in an inventory of trades or implements, with no

more

color or coherence than in so

many index-words out of a diction I do not know that we can ary say ?

anything, but that it is a prodigiously amusing exhibition for a line or so.

The

Whitman must have known better. The man is a great critic, & so far as I can make out, a good one; and how much crit icism does it require to know that worst

of

it

is,

that

capitulation is not description, or that fingering on a dumb keyboard,

with whatsoever show of sentiment

and execution,

not at all the same thing as discoursing music? I wish I could believe he was quite honest with us; but, indeed, who was ever quite honest

purpose?

It

is

who wrote is

a

flight

a

book

for a

beyond the 85

WALT WHITMAN


WALT WHITMAN

reach of

human magnanimity. One

other point, where his means failed him, must be touched upon, how ever shortly. In his desire to accept all

facts

within

loyally

and simply,

it

fell

programme to speak at some length and with some plainness on what is, for I really do not know what reason, the most delicate of his

subjects. Seeing in that one of the most serious and interesting parts of

he was aggrieved that it should be looked upon as ridiculous or shameful. No one speaks of maternity with his tongue in his cheek; and Whitman made a bold push to set the sanctity of fatherhood beside the sanctity of motherhood, & introduce this also among the things that can be spoken of without either a blush or a wink. But the Philistines have been too strong ; and to say truth, life,

Whitman 86

has rather played the fool.


We may be thoroughly conscious that WALT his

end

is

improving; that

be a good thing

if a

it

would WHITMAN

window were

opened on these close privacies of life; that on this subject, as on all others, he now and then lets fall a pregnant saying. But we are not satisfied. We feel that he was not the man for so an enterprise. He loses our sympathy in the character of a poet by attracting too much of our atten tion in that of a Bull in a China Shop. difficult

And

where, by a little more art, we might have been solemnized ourselves, it is too often Whitman alone who is

solemn

in

the face of an audience

somewhat indecorously amused.


WALT WHITMAN

INALLY, tant,

after all, to

beings state,

prudence which

most impor

as

in

what

human

our disputable

that higher was to be the aim and is

of these deliberate productions ? ^[Whitman is too clever to slip into a succinct formula. If he could have issue

adequately said his say in a single prov erb, it is to be presumed he would

not have put himself to the trouble of writing several volumes. It was his programme to state as much as he could of the world with all its con tradictions, and leave the upshot with God who planned it. What he has made of the world and the world s meanings is to be found at large in his poems. These altogether give his an swers to the problems of belief and

conduct; in many ways righteous and high-spirited, in some ways loose and contradictory. And yet there are two 88


passages

from

the

preface

to

the

of Grass" which do pretty well condense his teaching on all es "Leaves

&

sential points, yet preserve a ure of his spirit. "This

is

what you

in the one,

"love

shall

do,"

meas

he says

the earth, and sun,

and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your in come and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have pa

and indulgence toward the peo ple, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers of fam

tience

read these leaves own works) (his in the open air every season of every

ilies,

year of your

life;

re-examine

all

you

have been told at school or church, or in any book, and dismiss whatever

WALT WHITMAN


WALT insults your own WHITMAN dence of the greatest

soul."

in the other is,

^[

"The

poet,"

pruhe adds

and the greatest poet u

of course, himself

knows

that

young man who composedly per illed his life and lost it, has done ex the

ceeding well for himself; while the man who has not perilled his life, and retains

it

to old age in riches

and

ease,

has perhaps achieved nothing for him self worth mentioning; and that only that person has no great prudence to learn, who has learnt to prefer real

long-lived things, and favors body and soul the same, and perceives the in direct surely following the direct, what evil or good he does leaping

and on

ward and waiting to meet him again, and who in his spirit, in any emer gency whatever, neither hurries nor avoids

There these

death."

is

much

extracts,

90

that

is

Christian in

startlingly

Christian.


Any man

reader s

own

whatever

who

bears in

advice

and

insults his

own

find plenty that

is

mind Whit- WALT "

dismisses

soul"

will

bracing, brighten

ing, and chastening to reward him for a little patience at first. It seems hard ly possible that evil "

from

so

Leaves of

any being should get

healthy a book as the

which

is

simply comical wherever it falls short of no if there be bility; but any such, who Grass,"

cannot both take and leave, who cannot let a single opportunity pass by without some unworthy and un manly thought, I should have as great difficulty, and neither more nor less, in recommending the works of Whit

man

lending them Shakespeare, or letting them go abroad outside of the grounds of a private asylum. as in

91

WHITMAN


THE ESSAY ON WALT WHITMAN," BY SO HERE ENDETH ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE FRONTISPIECE BEING A PHOTOGRAVURE OF THE BAS RELIEF BY ST. GEROME-ROYCROFT, THE TITLE PAGE DESIGNED BY LOUIS RHEAD, AND THE WHOLE DONE INTO A BOOK BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THE ROYCROFT SHOP, WHICH IS IN EAST AURORA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, U. S. A., IN THE YEAR MCM. "

:



14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

LOAN

DEPT.

due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: Tel. No. 642-3405 Renewals may be made 4 days prior to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. This book

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