Ronald Douglas Sawyer - Walt Whitman the Prophet-Poet, 1913

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WALT WHITMAN THE PROPHET-POET

WALT WHITMAN THE PROPHET-POET BY

ROLAND

D.

RICHARD

G.

SAWYER

BADGER

.BOSTON I-

!

!

Copyright, 1913, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved

I A- A

THE GORHAM

PRESS, BOSTON, U.

S.

A.

TO

CLARENCE DARROW A FELLOW-TRAVELLER ALONG WALT S OPEN-ROAD

895703

PREFACE In that world in which I live and

have

my

move and

being, the chief source of formation,

growth, influence and impression, has been my There are many books and writings reading. to

which

tory,

am

I

eternally indebted;

literature,

ophy, which, at

economics,

works on

theology,

different periods of

his

philos

my

life,

have taken up and studied, and they became But there milestones along my mental journey.

I

are also books and writings of quite another character; works that

we read not

as sources

of information or from which to frame our

philosophy of tional

and

life,

are to be

but works that are inspira

read again and again.

Such

biography and autobi In this ography, religious writings, and poetry.

Leaves of realm The Gospel of Jesus," and

works

are

books

of

"

"

Grass,"

are books that have out-distanced

all

others in their influence upon me, and are books

which

I

want ever within reach.

5

PREFACE

6

In the early weeks of the year of 1907

my

eyes were very bad; evenings I could read but little;

sometimes

only a few

lines,

it

was

then

few pages, sometimes must close the book and a

I

brood, ponder, think over what I had read.

For such form of reading the poets surpassed all

others,

and

I

soon found that

passed the other poets the

strongest

;

of

stirrings

Whitman

from him

that

my

I

sur

received

emotions and

thoughts.

Thereupon I turned man; I had access to a

Whitman

matter,

to study this

fine private collection

and for several we \s

with

Whitman what he had ;

ago, but

Whitman does

he

he wears

many

I

saturated myself written,

That was

been written about him.

lasts,

of

as well as the public libra

ries,

ing at so

man Whit

what had six

years

not lose his grip on

he touches

life

and

me

feel

places that I believe he will last

and wear.

Much it

has been written about Whitman, and

has been well done but ;

a too technical vein (as

form

as

it

has ofttimes been in

Symonds), or

would appeal only

in

such a

to enthusiasts (as

PREFACE Traubel), or

in

7

too expensive form (as Binns).

need of a short, upto-date, popular presentation of the poet, and his aims and philosophy: to fill that need I have

Accordingly

I

have

felt the

written the following pages under the

Walt Whitman, The Prophet

title

Poet.

ROLAND D. SAWYER. August, 1913

Ample Manse, Off-the-beaten-path-a-bit.

Ware. Mass.

of

CONTENTS CHAPTER I

PAGE

n

THE MAN

II

His MESSAGE

III

His RELIGION

IV

THE NATURE

V VI VII

DEMOCRACY

....

20 31

LOVER

40

His NOTE OF JOY

46

THE

54

POET PIONEER

His PLACE

AMONG THE PROPHETS

.

.

67

WALT WHITMAN THE PROPHET-POET CHAPTER ONE THE MAN "

The

good, gray poet gone

:

brave hopeful Walt,

He may

not have been a singer

without

fault,

Yet there rang

True music through As he

his rhapsodies,

sang,

Of brotherhood, freedom, love and hope.

He shall find hearers, who in a slack time, Of puny bards and pessimistic rhyme, men adventure and rejoice: yawp barbaric," was a human voice;

Dared His

The

"

to bid

singer

was a

man."

London Punch.

NO

more

baffling figure

ever entered the

realm of literature than Walt Whitman.

When

he

first

issued his modest edition of one

WALT WHITMAN

12

"

"

thousand copies of Leaves of Grass in 1855, he was greeted on the one hand by Ralph Waldo Emerson, then in the height of his Con cord career, with a letter glowing

Emerson

which u

I

you

greet

said

at

among

the

in praise

other

beginning

:

in

things,

of

a

great

career."

On

the other hand, the conventional literary

reviews greeted him with prompt and savage Said the Boston Intelligencer,

abuse.

of Grass,

The

is

the

"

work of some escaped

Criterion said,

"

The author

Leaves

lunatic."

of this book

must be possessed by the soul of a donkey who of

died

disappointed "The

be publicly

whipped."

who

The London

author of this book ought to

Critic said,

viewers

love."

treated

Edward Everett Hale

There were

Walt with

a few re

forbearance,

for instance; and there

larger number of reviewers, who joined with readers of serious literature, and But treated Walt with contemptuous silence.

was

a

still

Walt Whitman was not

a figure to be treated

with indifference and thus disposed of, as he says

THE MAN "

13

have arrived,

I

Bearded, sun-burnt, gray necked, forbidding, To be wrestled with as I pass

For the

And

solid prizes of the

surely he

was

universe."

to be

reckoned with; smug conventionalism might perhaps have silenced the individual

more than an

Walt Whitman, but Whitman was individual, he was the voice of a

coming new humanity, the expression of coming changes in human life that were not to be checked.

If a touch with his personality

is

needed to

understand the literary work of any man, it is Vital surely so with Whitman. Dowden says, "

personal contact with

Whitman

is

essential to

knowledge of him." Triggs put it even stronger and declares that personal absorbtion a true

"

is

the price of understanding

seen to be true that

we must

him."

first

It

is

easily

look at Walt

himself in order to understand and appreciate his work, when we pause to think of the purpose

of

"

Leaves of

new kind of

a

Grass,"

which was to show us a

man, the

modern man.

roughs said in an essay in the Critic

Bur

(March

19,

i

WALT WHITMAN

4

In Emerson we see life through the 1898), Transcendental spirit, in Carlyle through the "

heroic

spirit, in

Hugo

Arnold through the through the

This

classic,

but in

in

Whitman

democratic."

indeed a splendid and accurate

is

fication;

through the Romantic,

and

is

it

essential to

classi

understand the

man, to see him, as Thoreau saw him, the great est democrat of his day then we can under stand his place and message.

primary sources,

("

Careful study of and of Leaves of Grass "),

secondary sources, (his biographers), will soon bring us in sight of the man described so well by

O

Conner

"Large,

calm, superbly formed:

clad in the careless and rough and picturesque

common

costume of the the

stevedore,

mechanic,

people

resembling

seaman or laborer,

passing leisurely along the pavement, such

Walt

is

Whitman."

This was the man, who by some sort of in tuition or cosmic consciousness, seems to have been

first

struck up

to feel the its

modern

spirit,

songs for the world.

and

to

have

A writer and

THE MAN who

poet,

15 "

as

Burroughs

quiry and will repay

provokes

says,

it."

Whitman was born

of good English stock

which he could trace as far back as 1560.

were

a race of solid,

lived,

moderately

Walt took was

moving,

friendly

Long

Hill,

and

He

people.

from them, and

these characteristics

weighed 212 pounds.

They

strong framed, long

tall,

a full six foot tall

West

in

in his best

was born

in

days

1819

at

Island, the second in a family

and two daughters; his boyhood was divided between Long Island and Brooklyn; he attended the common school till he was 13 and of

six sons

was then

From

sent

to

learn

the

printer

s

trade.

17 to 20 he spent his time teaching school,

writing

some

for the papers,

and occasionally

Around the working printing trade. of 20 he and a edited small sheet age published on Long Island for a year and a half; for sev at

his

eral years after, or his

trade in

New

till

1846,

Walt worked

at

York, occasionally writing

something for the newspapers,

attending the

various meetings and places that would attract

1

WALT WHITMAN

6

a serious

minded mechanic.

In 1846

Whitman

was appointed editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and held the position two years, when he

left

it

Orleans. for the

to take charge of a

In this Southern city

first

paper in New romance seems

time to have visited his

came between himself and

Love

life.

a Southern

woman,

apparently of higher social rank which caused her family to look upon any thought of marriage with disfavor.

Love grew

to intimate relations

woman became

the

the

mother of

Whitman very suddenly gave up returned- North, and reticent about the

of

it

from

his books,

unless to speak of

There seems

was ever

whole

it

however, and

affair;

a

child.

his position

and

after strangely

he tore mention

and seldom referred

to

it

as the tragedy of his life.

have been an agreeable under standing between him and the woman, for he seems to have visited her again, and it is not to

sure but that she later bore

him other

and one of the grandchildren him in the North.

is

children;

said to have

visited

Shortly after

Whitman

returned

home

his

THE MAN

17

father died, and a mixture of leisure, newspaper

work, carpenter work, and a good deal of quiet observation, reading and thinking occupied

for the next five years, or the putting out of his

"

till

Then came

1855.

Leaves of

Walt in

Grass,"

an

most of the typographic done by him

edition of 1,000 copies,

work, as well as the writing, being self.

Whitman

life

s

with some writing and

When

the

Quaker

the

passed along

work

war broke

traditions in

at his calling.

Whitman, true to which he was brought

out,

up, subscribed too strongly to Garrison

But

to enlist.

a brother

when he was wounded in

Dec.

1862,

till

George

s

ideas

enlisted,

and

Burnside campaign 1862, Walt at once started for the in the

When Walt got there

hospital camps.

he found

George was well and out, but the hospitals were full of sick and wounded soldier boys who needed him quite as much as George ever did, and in the hospital camps he stayed, ministering to

the wounded,

until

the

war

heroism and the love of Walt

and

a half years has

history;

it

is

said

closed.

in those next

no parallel

in the

he ministered to

The two

war

100,000

1

WALT WHITMAN

8

Such devotion and

men.

the

silenced

carping

sacrifice

of

cries

should have

the

outraged

who were ever criticising him.

Walt had no means of getting

prudes

and there was no pay so

his

ment position mornings, and

Walt kept up

He and

secured

friends

also kept later

as

a

his

in

here

clerk:

living,

hospital work,

him

for

a

a

govern

he

worked

visited the hospitals afternoons. this life to the close

up

his writing,

and

work did not prove

of the war.

his

war

quite so

pieces

much

a

shock to the sensitive nerves of the conventional people as had his

and

a

"

circle

growing fame became his.

Song of Walt Whitman," of friends, and a growing

In 1873,

Walt who had been

just ten years in

down

in

Washington, suffered his break health, a shock, from which he never

fully recovered.

home

He

was taken

to his brother s

Camden, N. J., and had not been long there before the mother for whom he felt such a in

great love died, and for the next three years, find

we

Walt, sad, sick and lonely, living with his By 1876 he had in a measure re

brother.

covered his health, and the next few years were

THE MAN of considerable activity.

with his brother little

home

set years

in

till

1884,

He

1892.

continued to live

when he bought

his

Camden, where he passed the sun

of his

life,

receiving the

increasing circle of admirers, in

19

till

homage of an

his life

went out

CHAPTER TWO MESSAGE

HIS

DEMOCRACY

"

I

speak the pass-word primeval.

I

give the sign

of Democracy."

an analysis of

IN world, upbn

its

there

is

Whitman

s

message to the

a very general

agreement Symonds and Bur

essential elements.

roughs are the standard interpreters of the poet, ,aad a glance at the following table will

how thoroughly Walt

s

they agree

show

in their analysis

of

message; they consider the poet under

these divisions

SYMONDS

BURROUGHS

Religion

Religion

Self-Hood

Self-Reliance

Sex Element

Sex and Morals

Comradeship

Democracy

The

artist

Pioneer

Democracy and poet

The

artist

and

Pioneer

Poet of Science Personality

Personality

his art

HIS MESSAGE

DEMOCRACY

21

Ingersoll in his short but excellent study of

Whitman, follows and

namely,

"

consider

Clarke

pher."

same

classification

and makes only one addition,

division,

to

exactly the

is

Whitman

the

Philoso

and speaks of the

shorter,

"

message under the heads of Religion, Democracy, Art and Personality." Whitman s

poet

s

biographers

make

same analysis Binn, the The Mystic," chapter on

the

best of them, has a

:

"

from any treatment by the above mentioned writers. Havelock Ellis calls which

is

different

Whitman

"

The Poet

considers his

of the

work under

New

Spirit,"

the heads, "

Pioneer, treats

him

Artist,

Dowden

Democrat, Personality as The Poet of Democracy," with ;

"

out definite analysis, and so does Triggs. evident that whatever faults

he did not is

and

"

fail to

no division

ing him. relation to

make

in his

his

Walt may have

is

had,

message clear; there

followers about understand

Burroughs reference

modern

It

science

is

to

Whitman

good, but

it

s is

Burroughs rather than Whitman who sees it, and it was not a conscious, integral part of Whit

man

s

teaching.

And

again Ingersoll

s

refer-

WALT WHITMAN

22 ence to

Whitman

well taken.

A

"

as

Philosopher," is

It is true that

see things, but

it

was

Walt had

to see

them

hardly

the soul to

as the poet or

seer, rather than the philosopher: to see them with the feeling rather than the reason.

He took in over

in his

everything, and turned

mind, but

it

was

rather than reason about their

knowledge by

over and

brood over

to

it.

it

it

Poets come to

intuition rather than

through

Walt

instead

the processes of reasoning, and

of being an exception to the rule, was one of its

clearest examples.

With

concensus of the opinion of is,

these omitted, the

Whitman

s

students

that to understand his message, one needs to

discuss

and understand,

His Personality His Literary art and aims His treatment of Sex His Religion His position as

a Pioneer

and Prophet

His Democracy, Comradeship, Self-hood, I

would agree that these are the

things to understand to

know Walt

s

etc.

essential

message

DEMOCRACY

HIS MESSAGE for us; but

which

I

would add two more

I

think are necessary that

and these

23

chapters,

we should

see,

His Note of Joy and His Love of Nature." I also would dissent from "

"

that classification that puts

element of

Walt s message,

do not so understand

I

"

are,

Democracy

one

as

alongside the others.

Whitman was

it,

the

poet of Democracy, and his democracy does not stand alongside of the other elements, but

embraces

it

all.

There

Symonds and Burroughs sage, but they

democracy racy

is

sister to

the

in

fault

mother of

all

with

mes

state the relation of

to the other elements:

Walt

democ

ideas, not a

s

any of them.

WHITMAN Thus

it

comes

DEMOCRACY

S

that

we

his message, but as the

warp and woof

Whitman

s

s

salient points in

message

that

Walt

consider

Democracy, not as one of the the

no

dissection of the

do not quite it

is

itself.

contains

all

It is else.

Democracy was that revolutionary

democracy that has been trying to express

itself

made

itself

in

stronger tones ever since

it first

WALT WHITMAN

24 heard at

all,

"in

the one

happy event

the French Revolution.

tory,"

Whitman

s

message,

is

in his

Democracy and

liberty, equality

in

fra

ternity.

His

a ual, the in his

liberty

is

the liberty of the individ

There was no excuse

whole individual.

mind for anything

that infringes on the

liberty of the individual.

This leads him to

those parts of his message spoken of as his individuality,

views, joy in his

body,

egoism,

self-hood,

sex

religion,

Liberty for the whole man,

life.

every part of

He

it.

resents

all

that

power,

restraint,

hamper

the freest development and expression

canons,

of the individual.

foremost

as

In

governments

he has,

all his writings,

in view, this healthy, free

person

ality. "

One

s self I sing,

a simple, separate

"

I

will effuse egotism,

I

will be the bard of

He vidual;

insists all

and show

it

underlying

all,

personality."

that everything

poems,

person."

is

doctrines,

for the indi art,

religion,

HIS MESSAGE

He

civilizations.

DEMOCRACY

even growls

at his

"

States,"

25

beloved

"

that they are giving

modesty, up and have become keyed "

honesty,

generosity,"

up by money religion,

he does ing to right,

money

ideals,

money men

"

politics,

money

(Camden, page 42), and

on the ground that they are neglect And he was develop the individual. this

he wanted to level up, but he saw money-

madness w as leveling down. Because of his zeal for liberty, Walt was ready to leave the r

"

Beaten

Road "

Path

"

Henceforth fortune

I .

.

I

am

travel

"

The

Open

ask

one of those

Presidents

not good

fortune

I

am good

.

Strong and content "

and

"

I

travel the open road.

who

look carelessly into the faces of

and governors as

to

say

who

are

you?"

b u

But Walt

s

an altru-egoism

self that

he does not want others to have on

equal terms. all

egoism is as Burroughs says, he wants nothing for him

":

He

men and both

is

for equality; equality of sexes.

This led him to

WALT WHITMAN

26

further radical sex views, to his humanity feel

and he becomes so intensely human and His conception of democracy is sympathetic. ings;

that of

an absolute equality.

the universe

creation

He all

is

sound, evil

He

it

is

God made

believes

good.

if

good

is

Everything in has a show.

The

just a part of

speaks the

word

and gives the sign of democracy. of

for equality,

woman

is

all

good and the cessful

is

en-masse,"

He

crys out

His

the strong comrade, and the mother

:

Whitman

it

"

men, of the sexes.

men not the weak toy and men are equal, the wise and of

good.

everything, hence

is

sweetheart.

the

rich

the bard of

them

evil:

and the

failures

All

the lacking: the

and the poor. all,

of the suc

as well; he

puts his

arms about the outcast and the prostitute: he is

as embracing as the sun in the skies.

Even

the hardships of the long-drawn and painful

do not phase Walt, and he would Cause and Cure of agree with Carpenter civilization

("

Civilization

that

it all is

a sort of

prolonged and necessary disease that will eventually lead to a fuller and better life.

Like Tolstoy, ")

,

DEMOCRACY

HIS MESSAGE Whitman had people

:

entered the

27

of the working

life

not the slums, not the poor degenerate,

but the working class.

And

he found

elements free in

among them of our human life, the

men and women;

friendship;

social

open-hearted,

the honest workers living

and

were the people who

for

little

caring

distinctions

the healthiest

formalities,

These

conventions.

Walt

in

thought were

s

the salt of the earth, and all of us

who have

touched the different classes agree with Walt.

And so he glories in the common-people, in the sun-tan, in the brawn,

in the

common;

exalts

the uncouth and decries the cultured and effemi nate.

He

goes forth to

ness and gladness

c

grit within is

you," "

for the

to level all

he

divine

up to the to

make

"

superb

Under His

is

Open your

men."

blow

common man and women,

them

persons."

the thought of

Walt emphasizes racy.

I

his passion

plane of the all like

"

His message

challenges. average,"

toss the

among

scarfed chin, while

new rough

"

comradeship,"

the fraternity side of

comradeship

is

not

democ

merely

the

WALT WHITMAN

28 delightful

emotions

social, yes

and

men

the faith in "

Come,

will

I

I

will

make

I

will

make

between

political

but

friends,

Walt has

bond.

a all

that Jesus ever had, he says

make

the continent indissoluble

;

the most splendid race the sun ever shone

upon,

With

And

divine magnetic lands,

the love of

comrades."

again he puts over against

stitutions,

states,

churches,

that one great institution of

comrades "

The The

He

all

human

property and "

all,

the dear love of

"

:

dependence of Liberty shall be lovers, continuance of Equality shall be

comrades."

looks forward in his message of

racy to the better day, to that friends,

in

when church and

state,

new

and

all

democ city

of

hamper

ing institutions and custom shall be dissolved,

and the Love of Comrades be the only bond in That may seem to some to-day, to society. be a very insecure bond, but to Walt s far-see ing vision, our present bonds of life are more insecure.

He

saw that

social

life

could not

DEMOCRACY

HIS MESSAGE

29

cohere by means of lawyers, agreements on paper or force of arms.

Walt

s

different

from

realization

in

when we reach then

till

then not something

democracy, it is rather the human life of his democracy; his

that free relationship

all this talk

To

chatter.

is

comradeship

we have

about having

the short-sighted

it

is

it,

mere

Walt may ap

pear only destructive, but to those who see farther in, he is ever constructive, he wants to

throw away the

shell,

the

emperors, armies, and have

And Walt saw

ship of democracy.

thing was working for

churches,

states,

in their place the

that every

and that when the

this,

ship

is

launched there will be stored

only

all

the present but all the past.

table

of

of the

analysis

would draw

it

poet

s

in

it,

not

To make

a

message,

I

thus

DEMOCRACY LIBERTY

EQUALITY

FRATERNITY

Self-Hood

Humanism

Comradeship

Sex Values

Sex-equality

Religion

Joys in

life

30

WALT WHITMAN

That Walt was no mere preacher, but was sincerely in earnest in this message is abund antly testified to

by

his hospital

work

in the

army, and such incidents as his assisting the sintrampled youth to escape the Boston police and escape into Canada.

CHAPTER THREE HIS RELIGION "

God in every object, yet understanding God not in the least.

In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropped in the streets and every one signed by God s name." I

hear and behold

WALT

Whitman was

a

profoundly reli was so

gious man, though broad and advanced, that he had

with

The time

the

organized

his religion little

sympathy

of

religion.

institutions

only religious order that he had at any

anything like

sympathetic

feelings

for,

were the Hicksite Quakers; their influence on his life

lived in

and views was considerable.

Walt

God, immortality, religion; but not

bein

Christ, the Bible or the church, at least accord

ing to the generally accepted Christian views.

Whitman

s

God, was the immanent 31

God

of the

WALT WHITMAN

32

most radical new theology,

whom

he

felt

40

years before these theologians deduced him.

Goethe sang "

God

dwells within and moves within the world and

molds,

Himself and Nature

and with sees

Walt

this agrees the

God

"

s

is

in

he

is

in the

on

every

view of Whitman, which

pray

This

object."

who

not one

whom we may

"

one form enfolds,

in

God

of

reveals himself, or to

in a Christian sense,

but

the Eternal Good-Will, which back there

Universe,

whom

the Cause of

is

the race

may

all things,

and

And

in confidence rely.

this confidence, or reliance on this God, this

state

of

mental

rest

which

Divinity in everything, was his religion, "

says,

"

it

upon

this

He

and permanent grandeur of

must be

He

feels

very high.

their

And

religion."

There can be no character or

religion."

and

what Walt meant by

and he ranked

the real

these states

sees

also teaches that

life

again,

without

we may

Good-Will for personal

life

rely

beyond

the grave, for immortality; as he expresses

it,

HIS RELIGION "

I

laugh at what you

Toward ing,

and a

Walt had reverence for him

the poem,

shows

call dissolution."

Jesus

"

Walking

a very tender feel as a great

To Him Who Was Walt speaks

this.

"

33

in

one

:

Crucified,-

place

of

the hills of Judea with the beautiful

God by my The Lord Jesus

gentle

side."

In another place he

"

calls

Teacher

pressions were

Christ,"

but these ex

not in the sense of ordinary

accepted Christian faith.

As

for the Bible, and

forms of worship and churches, he says, We consider Bibles and religion divine, that is, they "

Here he means to say that they are divine as we are divine, as everything Walt is divine, but not in any other sense. grow out of

saw no

us."

special revelation, in fact to

not needed,

all is revelation.

For

him

in

his

was

this religion,

this sort of a natural, pantheistic theism,

was ever urgent

it

Walt

demands, and he de

clares "

No man was

ever half devout enough

None have ever yet adored or worshiped half enough, None has ever begun to see how divine, he himself is."

WALT WHITMAN

34

And

I know I am we hear him say, mouse is enough to stagger "

again,

deathless."

"A

sextillions of

my

priests,

Whitman

s

"

I

infidels."

faith

the

is

religion

do not despise you of

greatest

faiths."

was then very near

that of

the advanced liberal of to-day, a sort of natural istic

tions

But with the

theism.

Walt found

little

liberal

denomina

more sympathy than

with the orthodox; the Quakers and their inner light

came nearest

And Whitman

to his ideas.

The

held his conceptions to the end.

attitude

of mind he reveals in his heart-to-heart talks with Traubel during the closing years, of

attitude

his

Camden show in

God,

in

It is true

whole

life.

to the last

These

Walt

s

is

talks

the at

strong belief

immortality, in the worth of religion.

Whitman

is

listed as a free-thinker,

and that he manifests a deep detest of preachers and churches, but the basis of all this was his religion, not his lack of

toward Jesus

it.

And

his attitude

in these last days, is the

same

as

that of earlier days, he sees in Jesus the great

prophet-comrade, nothing more. To quote from some of Walt s talks at Camden, he soul, the

HIS RELIGION speaking of Cable,

says (page 97)

thinnest man, the

he with

is

a typical

all

that

most uninteresting,

person

in the

"

he

I

is

the

ever met

Sunday School Superintendent

And what

signifies."

Walt, he shows us when he

to

35

says,

whom

world from

it "

I

signifies

The

last

should expect

any inspiration would be the average Sunday School teacher the typical good man of the

money bags of

the

churches,

criticise

criticisms of the ing,

a

Walt for such utterances was when he made them. Walt s

tendency to there

parish."

would not be to-day so strong

Probably there as

the

he says

in

churchVere indeed very search

one place,

of the church are to

"

The

negative virtues

me

very abhorrent; the morals of the church would be morals if they were not something else."

At another

place he remarks, about as

stoy later remarked,

"

That he had often

Tol tried

how Jesus and the churches got so how the institution came to destroy

to discover

divorced, the

spirit."

Walt took

John Wanamaker, who "

Leaves

"

as

a

concrete

case

refused to allow the

to be sold in his store.

"

The whole

WALT WHITMAN

36

ideal of the church a sort of

the

low, loathsome, horrible,

is

moral degradation, out of touch with of

contemporary complains Walt.

struggles

bitterly

When

was put

the question

humanity/

to him, if he

thought the churches could safely be destroyed, he replied, Yes, why not: I see no use for the "

church 4

The

world

if

it

lags behind the

age."

He

says,

distinctly preacher ages are gone is

done with sermonizing

I

the

am

not

in

his

sorry."

Walt was tremendously

interested

and gloried in Ingersoll s and his triumphs over his

friend

Ingersoll,

whacks

at the church,

antagonists, especially his triumph over

Glad

stone.

Yet Walt

distinctly

denies

toward the church; he says

in

"

talks,

People thought

against

the

church,

bothered me, and church "

I

it is

I

I

but

any bitterness

one of his

the

church

set

never

have never bothered the

a clean-cut bargain

have nothing at

Camden

was powerful

all

between

us."

with the letter of the

church, but that part of the church which

is

not

HIS RELIGION jailed in church buildings

anybody

Walt

s."

s

to

Corning and

who

visit

mine as well as

is all

about

feeling

reiterated in these last days,

37

is

Jesus

when he

declares

Clifford, the Unitarian ministers

him, that he holds the crucifixion of

Jesus to have been but one of

many

tragedies,

of Jesus was just another life, told big to be sure, but just another life." When Walt heard for the first time Ingersoll s

and that the

life

"

eulogy on the

"

Leaves of

Grass,"

he gratefully

acknowledged the tribute, but pointed out that Ingersoll had stopped short of the plain matter, "

full

was crammed

Leaves of Grass

and that

of immortality, bound together by the idea

of a resident purpose in humanity and the uni verse." People say the Again he declares, "

1

want

Leaves

in religion,

but

I

think

the

it is

it is crammed full of most religious of books faith is its one substance, without it, it faith would be an empty vessel." These statements

show

that

Walt never changed

his attitude

on

70 he held to the same faith as that his religion was worth some

religion, that at at 35.

And

thing to him,

is

seen by the support

it

gives

him

WALT WHITMAN

38

burden of

in the

those trying sick years of

The Song of

the

74 and 75,

"All,

all for

Universal,"

"

of

Speaking to

God

"

Belief in plan of

The Prayer of the Red Wood

immortality:

like the light, silently

Love,

wrapping

Thee

Few men have

enclosed in time and space,

felt

universal."

more secure of personal

immortality than Walt Whitman. "

believe in immortality; I

identity.

feeling than

yes

I

know

And

have arrived at

lest

soul,

mean

He

this result

by formal reason, but

says,

mean more by

and by that

I

I believe

it,

it."

he be misunderstood he declares

again a few days I

all."

of his faith he says

Health, peaces, salvation

I

in

"

The Song Hear him cry out,

Columbus," Tree."

or

like the

See his recorded moods

faith of St. Francis. "

It shines out in

his sickness.

"

later,

When

I

say immortality

identity, the survival of the personal

your survival,

my

survival.

not immortality then the universe

is

If there

a fraud.

is

I

HIS RELIGION agree with Epictetus, that what

good enough good enough for me; the Whitman immortal and so am

for the universe

universe

is

39

is

is

I."

one would agree with Thoreau in saying, world at a time," but he would go on to maintain "

that the very expression involved another world, as indeed I

it

does.

close this reference to

Whitman

referring the reader to his

Let those

bus."

"

s

religion

Prayer of

classical critics

who

by

Colum

say

Walt

could not write poetry, and those ecclesiastical critics who say Walt had no religion, tell us

what

to

do with

it,

if it

be not a genuine poetic

expression of deep religious faith.

Old, just

paralyzed,

worn and poor, Ocean of Death, Walt

battered,

on the margin of the

under here pours out the secrets of his soul, a thin historical disguise," as Binn well calls it. "

CHAPTER FOUR THE NATURE LOVER "

Doubtless there comes a time, and perhaps to me, when one feels through his whole

come and

pronouncedly the emotional part, between himself and Naflir^ which

the

it

has

being,

identity

Schelling and Fichte are so fond of I know not, it is pressing. but I often realize a presence here, in clear moods I am

How

certain of

it,

give the least

and neither chemistry nor

aesthetics will

explanation." <(

WALT

The Oaks and // Specimen Days.

Whitman

s

place

among

the pre

eminent Nature-Lovers of the world

can be disputed by no one.

His feeling for Nature was far beyond that of the average man.

Dr. Bucke says, "Walt s favorite was

to

away by

stroll

occupation about out of doors, sauntering

himself, looking at the grass, flowers,

trees, vistas of light,

changing aspects of the

sky, listening to the birds, the insects, tree-frogs, 40

THE NATURE LOVER and

all

41

the hundreds of natural sounds.

evident that these things gave

It

was

him a pleasure

beyond what they give ordinary people.

Until I knew him I did not dream that these far

things could give one the absolute happiness

they gave

him."

Bucke

s

testimony

is

truthful

and well deserved, for one has but to study Walt s life to see him the Nature-Lover. As a lad

we

him lying on the sand, gazing into spellbound by its awe and mysticism.

find

the sea,

We

him the robust man, seeing and

see

Nature

down

great heart.

s

in the

And

the

feeling

convalescent

lane at Timber-Creek finds healing

and happiness in the caressing air and sunshine, and he feels the all embracing love. The old man drives his horse into the ocean and sits an hour enjoying the sunset and gets the cold that Whitman has left us abun brings on death. dant testimony of what he

Nature;

I

felt

and saw

in

can here take space to pick up but a

few of these things "

Oxen

that rattle the yoke and chain or halt in the

leafy shade,

What

is

that

you express

in

your eyes?

WALT WHITMAN

42

me more

seems to

It

Or I

the print I ever

all

again, his feeling of

am

"

than

The Night

"

read."

"

one that walks with the tender and growing

night, I call to

Press

the earth and sea, half-held by the night.

bare-bosomed

close,

Press

night

close

mag

few

stars

netic nourishing night;

Night of the south winds, night

He

feeling by saying,

describe

pathos that years,

is

that he

I

us,

man.

my

to sleep.

1

And

comes from him

that

wrung from

am I

touch with Nature.

want

I

shall I it

the only tone of in the

his lips

an open-air man:

his

every night

must give up something of

this direct "

The Katy-Did, how

piquant utterance

its

me

soothes

by the thought this out-doors,

He am

old crippled

cries out to

an open-water

am

to get out,

fly,

swim,

But

my

feet are eternally

feet again.

:

night."

Katy-Did and records

listens to the "

for

of the large

nodding night, mad, naked, summer

Still

I

eager

gone."

But Whitman was not only the supreme feeler of Nature, he was also the creator of a literary style particularly adapted to the ex-

THE NATURE LOVER pression of the

great emotions

that

43

Nature

makes her appreciative children feel. When Bryant wanted to express these emotions, he found as Blake had found, that the rhyme and rhythm of ordinary verse were all insufficient, and he took recourse to the stately lines of But Walt went a step farther and

blank verse.

created a style of his own, a literary form of expression that

Ed.

most

distinctly the out-doors style.

is

Carpenter, disciple, says

to write in

who

is

Whitman

he has to go out of doors

Whitman

style,

that

if

but the minute he goes outside is

the result.

serene,

Whitman

untempered

gether,"

he attempt

on rhyming,

to write inside his thoughts insist

"

fore

s

Whitman

verse

verse and the great

facts of the

Earth go to

declares Carpenter.

The Crosby speaking on this point says, trim balance of a Christmas tree with colored "

candles and gilt balls and stars

way, but

make

And

it is

the

is

beautiful in a

want of symmetry that helps

the oak and the pine, kings of the forest.

even blank verse with

all its

grandeur is too suggestive of landscape gardening, or the

WALT WHITMAN

44

studied roughness of rock clusion

is

that

The

gardens."

Whitmanic verse

is

con

the natural

form of out-door expression. I can but here add my personal word, that for me, there is no form of expression so adequate to reveal the feelings

we

get in the soul

trees, as this style

Walt

s

of

when out under

Whitman

the

s.

rapture of Nature reaches the point

of a religion and has been often pointed out.

The note sounded by Goethe, that u God and

Nature

in

one form

enfolds,"

was

certainly ably

who declared he saw, heard and God in every object." Whitman tells us his book is to be read

seconded by him "

felt

"

Among

Nature."

the

cooling

And

influences

of

external

he goes on to define what he

means by Nature, not the smooth walks, trimmed hedges, butterflies, posies and nightin "

gales of the English poets, but the whole orb,

with fire

its

geologic history, the

and snow, that

rolls

,

carrying

through the illimitable

areas, light as a feather lions of

Kosmos

though carrying mil

tons."

Nature

to

him

is

the whole big world carry-

THE NATURE LOVER ing everything with

Leaves he

tells

In his preface to the

it.

us of the effect on one

of this love of the Earth, and

ming up of his feeling that it

in closing this "

This

is

it is

s

conduct,

the best

we have and

I

sum quote

consideration; he says

what you

and animals, despise asks,

45

shall do, love the earth,

riches, give

and sun,

alms to everyone

who

stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your

labor and income to others, hate tyrants, argue not con

cerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing

or to any

man

or

number

of

known

men; go

or

unknown,

freely with the

powerful uneducated people, and with the young, and with the mothers of families; read these Leaves (Leaves of Grass)

in the open air every season of the Re-examine what year. you have been taught in the or in the schools, church, or in books, and reject what

ever insults your

own

soul."

CHAPTER FIVE HIS "

I

dote on myself

and

NOTE OF JOY there

all so

is

that lot of me,

luscious

;

Each moment, and whatever happens,

thrills

me with

joy."

KNOW

I

of no place where

we

get such

an interpretation of the joyousness of just living, as we do in the poems of Whitman.

Burroughs speaking of Whitman

s life

describes

"

as being,

unhampered, unworldly, un conventional, picturesque, simple, untouched by it

free,

the craze of "

life." "

was

a saunter

enjoying let us "

money Whitman

life to

hear

getting, a joyfully contented s

life,"

continues Burroughs,

through the years, too busy in But anything."

be disturbed by

Whitman

for himself, he says

am enamored of growing out-doors; Of men that live among cattle,

I

or taste of the ocean or woods; 46

NOTE OF JOY

HIS Of

the builders

and

4?

steerers of ships,

and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses; I

can eat and sleep with them,

week

Now

here

and week

in

we

certainly

out."

have the

picture, not

of the effete and pampered, such has become so

good an example of

aristocratic success,

and

in

emulation of which, half the world has worn itself

we have

pale and discontented, but

robust, healthy

man.

Such a

man

the

any of us worth living. as

may be, and being so, may find life Walt shows us that the truest joy does not come from the attainment of those things which we do

not care for, but which an abnormal society says

we must joy of

have.

life

Walt

comes

says to us that the true

in the living

out of our true

Developing those loves, longings and

selves.

As he

desires that are especially ours.

puts

it

for us in one of his verses "

When

I

been still it

heard at the close of day received

was not

with plaudits

how my name had

in

the

capitol,

a happy night that followed.

WALT WHITMAN

48

And

else

when

accomplished,

But

plans were

the bed of

I

still

when

the day

when my

was not happy; rose at dawn from

caroused, or

I

I

perfect health, refreshed, singing, inhaling the ripe

breath of autumn,

When

saw

I

the full

moon

in the

west grow pale and

disappear in the morning light,

When

wandered alone over the beach, undressed, bathed, laughed with the cool waters, saw the I

sunrise,

And thought of my Then I was happy."

Here we have

dear friends on their

it,

there

is

to be happy, but to just live

way coming,

nothing necessary :

live,

freed from

conventions and false pursuits, just live naturally and be possessed by the joys that are all about us.

Perhaps many of us have tried at some fool our life, to enter into the spirit of

ish period in

snobbish society (I have, may God forgive me) to stand about in a stiff collar and starched ,

shirt

and

daintily sip

black

from

coat

white

vest.

To

a cup of cocoa or punch, to

nibble

from some

in

doing this?

joy

and

little

bit

Do we

not

was there any see, that

being

HIS down

NOTE OF JOY

49

at the beach, lolling in the sand, bare

footed,

collarless

and

come

crested waves

in

coatless, watching the and recede, to be filled

with the music of their roar: to open the lunch

and ply ourselves vigorously to the pie and hunk of cheese, do we not see that as Walt shows

us,

To

here comes joy.

barn of any thrifty farmer,

go into the

our nostrils of

fill

the cattle, horses and hay, stroke their sleek sides,

look into their eyes, feel their fellow does not this spell for us sweet

ship, their life,

ness and joy? joy.

Live

in

Anything that our

is

natural contains

own way, shun

conventional

make-shifts, and joy awaits us, says

Let us look

at

Walt

Whitman.

as he presents himself in

the 1860 edition of his poems, "

His shape

arises

Arrogant, masculine, naive, rowdyish,

Laugher, weeper, worker,

idler,

Saunterer of woods, stander upon

summer swimmer

citizen,

countryman,

hills,

in rivers or seas

Countenance sunburnt, bearded, unrefined, Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentlemen on equal terms,

WALT WHITMAN

50

Passer of the right hand around the shoulder of his friends,

Enterer every where, welcomed every where, easily

"

understood by

Such was

this

all

man,

message that we can

The man in his

life

democrat, with a

this

all

hear and carry out.

freed from conventions, living his

own way, and

finding

it

as his bi

"

It is one long joyful his philosophy of life which is preeminently fitted to lead one to realize the joy in just liv

ographer says,

"

lot."

Leaves of

ing.

the joy of

life,

the text-book of

its

studies

its

"To

breathe the

message, will come to ac

air,

how

delicious:

speak, to walk, to seize something by the

the

it

gospel, to quote again

cept

O

is

and the one who

long enough to get

To

Grass,"

amazement

hand:

of things:

the spirituality of things 1 praise

For I

I

with

electric voice,

do not see one imperfection

in

the

universe,

do not see one cause or result lamentable

last."

Hubbard sums up with a stroke of Milton the whole story, when he says,

Elbert

"

genius,

at

NOTE OF JOY

HIS us

told

about

hell,

Binns "

but

is

all

remained for Walt Whitman

it

about the

earth."

another

who "

Walt, he

in

joy

about heaven, Dante told us

all

to tell us

51

says,

"

notes this

The pages

Note of

of

Leaves

Byron may portray the happy man. dominate the whole of Europe for a genera

of Grass

tion

by the dark, Satanic splendor of

may hold

Carlyle

us by his fierce, lean passion

for sincerity: but

outshining of his

And

so

most

all

of

Whitman draws

common Walt

us.

us by the

joy."

Walt does

the joys, the

his pride:

we may have now.

tell

us of the earth, of

joys of tells

life,

accessible to

of the good things

While other poets are

ever looking back and grieving for the return of childhood to see that blest,"

"

Walt

of the present

happy days, or looking ahead

s

man never life.

sighs, he bids us

he

the child

lifts

but always

sings of the beauties

He

s

is

and

to be

glories

rebukes our groans and

look out and see the wonders

of creatipn, he shows us

grow

is,

we ought never

delight at the

to out

wonders of

us up, he gives us courage,

manly

life,

pride,

WALT WHITMAN

52 self-reliance,

to us

and the strong

when we

feel real kinship with the

To sum

of the Universe.

u

into his disciple the

note in

He

Walt

faith that

Joy of

it

up Walt

He

thinks of

this

own

the

death, in

as a soothing,

it

he describes

moment when

ulting

And

Living."

even treated of death, his

a similar vein.

Heart infuses

never deserted him.

s life

beautiful voyage,

comes

it

vessel

as that ex

leaves

the

shore "

Joy, shipmate, joy! soul at death I cry:

Pleased to

my

Our The The

closed

life is

our

life

long, long anchorage is

ship

begins:

we

leave

;

clear, at last she leaps

She swiftly courses from the shore: "

Joy, shipmate

He

welcomes

;

Joy

!

"

it

Come,

by saying

lovely,

He figures it soothing and delicate Death." mother gliding with soft footsteps," as a dark "

to relieve.

Such

is

message.

the

The

"

Note of Joy

"

in

Whitman

s

snatches of quotation I have

NOTE OF JOY

HIS made have been

53

suggestive rather than exhaus

tive.

I "

have not touched

Poem "

us,

to

of

Joys,"

make

his

long

where he

poem

entitled,

starts out

the most jubilant

he

tells

and

poem," "

where he speaks of the joy of his and caged, darting like lightning,"

spirit

in

un

which he

exultant moments in goes on to treat of the His work is full of the common toils of men.

have simply purposed to draw attention to the fact, and to show that no treatment of Walt is complete that does "

this

Note of

Joy."

not take note of

it.

I

CHAPTER

SIX

THE POET PIONEER "

I

of art.

will lock horns for a

moment with

the question

With

hardly an exception the poets of the day devote themselves mainly, sometimes altogether, to fine

rhyme, spicy verbalism, the fabric and cut of the gar I have not bothered much style.

ment, jewelry and about

me

never allowed them to impede nor assume mastery over me." style,

form, art

"Good-By

My

Fancy."

was a pioneer among poetic two things, his form of expres

WHITMAN writers in

and his use of sex images. His position was so unique, and came upon us so abruptly, that we are not yet over discussing it, and any sion

treatment of the poet must consider

Carpenter

in his recent excellent

the question as one,

it.

True,

study dismisses

"

futile

because wholly rhe

torical," but this dismission will hardly suffice.

First let us take up Walt s form of expression.

54

THE POET PIONEER Is

55

poetry, or only prose in disguise, as his

it

The answer we

enemies declare.

will give will

probably depend upon our theory of what art

one

If

is.

really

who mixes

we regard

the true artist as the

colors or disposes words, then

will hardly put

Walt

we

the class with those

in

workers, like Tennyson for instance, a very slender line of thought

who

and work

it

take

over

and over for 40 years till it becomes well nigh But if we regard as the technically perfect.

man who

the

artist,

tions that he felt

reproduces

in

you the emo

when he saw with

eagle eye,

and sang or painted, then we must rate Walt as far above such as Tennyson as the moon is above

The popular objection to Walt s abandonment of the common meter and rhyme,

the

is

stars.

not so formidable as

tion a bit.

When we

appears, upon reflec

it

pause to think a

bit

we

begin to see with Shelley, that the rule estab lished in literature that writers of prose

seek not,

new forms while is

a

bad

rule.

poet-pioneer,

as

writers of poetry

We

should hail a pioneer.

must

begin to feel

And Whitman

Stedman

"

says,

may that we is

that

Leaves of

WALT WHITMAN

56 Grass

in

thought and method

is

avowedly a

protest against a hackneyed breed of singers,

singing the same old

songs."

And we

higher authority that Stedman,

own summing up

poet himself, in his self in a review,

bard

"

he says

have a

we have

the

of him

An American

one of the roughs, large, proud,

at last

eating, drinking and breeding costume manly and free, his face sun-burnt and bearded. For intellectual people who affectionate,

his

follow their reading, dress and eating by

who keep

don or Paris

in

out of doors, never

touch the earth bare-foot, he does not sing. tea-drinking poet child of the

is

Walt Whitman, but

or lack of

himself,

it

No

a rude

people."

However much some may taste,

Lon

it,

in

must stand

criticise

Walt

s

writing this view about as the authoritative

sum

ming-up of what he meant by his work, and how I know he most desired it should be regarded. of no statement that has ever been made, that I

believe

would have pleased Walt

when he says of Walt, our modern centuries a

that of Prof. Carpenter, "

For the

first

time

in

so much, as

THE POET PIONEER poet had been born of the people a

We

renegade."

writers,

notably

must also

Shelley

and

57

who was

not

recall that other

Emerson,

had

lamented the narrow confines of poetic form,

and even experimented along the

They

development.

Whitman

did.

found them adapted to threw them

did not succeed,

tried the classical

that

insufficient,

him nor he out,

line

of

new

Whitman

forms and

they were

not

to them, so he boldly

with a courage native to him

and originated the irregular lines better adapted to his self-expression. His own de self,

fense

the

was

manifesto preface to

and the words that sum up his simplicity and originality of expres

edition

first

idea, are sion."

set forth in his

"

Walt

s

lines are not,

however, utterly

abandoned, they are indeed carefully chosen; and he tells us he searched for proper words and forms as much as the most careful stylist. He once told Burroughs he had been searching for 25 years for a word to express what the twi The light song of the robins meant to him.

wonderful amount of expression contained in the titles of his pieces shows to us that his words

WALT WHITMAN

58

were not stumbled on, but carefully and power The same care is shown in the fully selected. length of his lines, and they

come

make

to

for

us neither prose nor poem, but a sort of free

and yet measured chant.

They do not

lend

themselves readily to popularity, they are hardly quotable like

declared

rhymed

rhyme because

for

memory, but

Tennyson once

things.

it

the

assisted

Ingersoll well points out, that with

the use of the printing press, the old idea of a poet being also a rhymester

no longer neces

is

Ingersoll even went further and declared

sary.

rhyme was

a hindrance, because

the poet to

wander from

it

his subject

compelled

and

inter

fered with his dramatic action, which, as poetry is

the sudden, short bursting into blossom of a

great thought, lines then can

Walt

must destroy poetry.

never go into the school-room and "

Psalm of

And

displace

Longfellow

there

a certain stateliness in the lines of

is

Memoriam But there

"

is

s

which we miss

in

Life."

Walt

"

In

chants.

s

a strength, a ruggedness, an out

door and elemental somewhat that

s

makes them

true poems,

in

Walt

s

chants

and one of the

THE POET PIONEER 59 grand forms of literary expression. We do not look

Whitman

for

ordinary forms, but

s

forms to

we look

for

displace

them

the

to rise, if

they have not already done so, to a recognized position as a needed and essential

form of

liter

ary expression; that has an equal worth with

any other, and that has a strength and freedom that can never be attained in rhyme and meter.

Whitman

then was a poet, even though, as he

he did not

says,

make poetry with

reference to

parts.

To

who want sweet songs of domestic of course others like Longfellow sentiments, will be preferred; but to those who are strong those

enough

to receive

a gospel,

a

and

it,

Walt

s

poetry will come as

a gospel of beauty, even

new and strange form.

The second great objection

poet

is

to

though

Whitman

because of the sexual character of

in

as a

many

Now we

of his images.

must begin by under standing the place of sex in Walt s scheme of things that

all is

he

is

going to speak of

good.

all,

and

to

show

Inklings of the Hegelian phi

losophy have come through to Walt, he

finds

WALT WHITMAN

60

everything has a place in the world purposes. it is manifest that Walt cannot carry out

Now

and omit so big a part of human life and experience as sex. This would cause a sad

this idea,

break true,

And

sex has no place.

legitimate place, then

Then again is

His philosophy

scheme.

his

in if

believe

I

healthy and sane.

it

is

clean

if

and honorable.

Walt

s

It

true his sex

is

not

is

sex has a

treatment of sex is,

as

Symonds points out, not that of the boudoir, the alcove, neither is

is

it

the sex of the brothel.

It

the clean healthy relation between the male

Walt

and female.

as

is

much

against vice as

against prudishness, he would have us recognize that, "

If anything

And

is

sacred, the

human body man is the

the glory and sweet of a

is

sacred,

token of

man

hood untainted;

And

in

man

body

Walt

is

s

or

woman,

a clean, strong, firm-fibered

beautiful as the most beautiful

face."

scheme then made treatment of sex

necessary, he

is

to voice a protest against that

dishonor which asceticism has placed upon the

human body.

And

his

demand

for freedom in

THE POET PIONEER makes

literature

speak of he says, "

I will

show

imperative that he be free to

it

He

sex.

of the

61

declares

it

purpose when

his

male and the female that either

is

but the equal of the other;

And

am

sexual organs and acts, I

you with courageous

voice,

determined to

and

to

tell

prove you

illustrious."

I

of

do not see how we can

Adam

blush,"

"

Children

criticise

"

if

";

these passages cause society to

as the English writer says,

worse for

prudishness.

so

much

need

to

remember,

never

are

all

felt that

even though his

Camden

it

he erred

in his

aroused so

talks,

all this

decency,

nasty

naked under our

he says,

clothes."

"

Mad Walt

treatment of sex,

much "

Heine

as

once remarked to the protesting matron,

am we

the

We need to get away from

society."

We

"

stir; in

one of

All this fear of in

noise about purity and sex

too nasty to

make compromise

His abhorrence of

vice

was

is

with."

strong, he tells

us "

Have you body?

seen the fool

who

corrupted his

own

live

WALT WHITMAN

62

Or

the fool

They

who

corrupted her

own

live

body?

can not conceal themselves.

In treating sex, for sex and

its

Whitman was

simply true

passions are one of the great

facts of the universe,

and we can not longer pay

If any attention to the Anthony Comstocks. these over-sensitive and over-conservative peo ple

had

their way,

the

Reformation,

we should never have had

the

Renaissance or the French

Revolution we should never have had Voltaire, :

the French Encyclopaedia, Shelley or Byron.

But there

is

another item to be called up, did

Walt sometimes go

He

he did.

ophy and

too far?

Frankly

I

think

could have carried out his philos

at the

same time payed

a

little

more

commonly accepted feelings of Granting that Walt was writing for

respect to the society.

the divine average and not the so-called refined,

yet

it

bold. cious."

"

The

sometimes pretty His images are as Symonds says auda Take this one for instance

must be confessed he

hairy wild bee that

and down

is

murmurs and hankers up

THE POET PIONEER That

63

grips the full-grown lady flower^ curves

with amorous holds

her

to

legs,

takes

himself

upon her will of her, and

his

tremulous

and

tight

till

satisfied."

or again, "

I

turn the bride-groom out of bed, and stay with the bride myself;

I

tighten her all night to

my

thighs and

Such passages, and there were first edition,

still

lips."

others in his

us feel that

Walt did not have

respect for the taste of society.

quite

And

of the great abuses of the sexual

little

enough view

in

life

humanity has made, most of us will think a

make

that were later removed, these

which it

were

better not to have been so bold.

But summing all up, Walt Whitman was a poet, and none the less a poet because a pioneer.

His work

is

poetry, though

rhyme and meter: and it

it is

it

throws

off

the

clean poetry, though

uses sex images.

He may have overdone both, as it is plain he did.

He is ofttimes too audacious with his sex,

he ofttimes drifts into the uncouth and cat-

WALT WHITMAN

64

aloguing (Emerson told him

and Emerson

this,

was wise) yet his chants are great poems.

Leaves of Grass indeed strike up the song "

"

for the

new

"

world."

His work

and to appreciate

duction,

says, to

come

it,

is

one needs, as

to see that

it

it

is

Burroughs than mere literary product, that pression of a

Walt

s

new

literary quality, but quality.

work

more

is

the ex

gospel.

work had

A

a great pro

from

a value quite apart

we

will not

minimize that

that could grip so fastidious

a person as Stevenson, could for him, as he says, "

Turn

the world upside down, blow

space a thousand cobwebs of

some

illusion,"

And Walt was

merit.

had the poet

s

soul.

He

him

into

must have

a poet because he

was the true mystic

with eyes to see farther than the slow-going

plodding mortals. As a lad we see him lying on the sand and looking into the sea, and feeling its

awe and mysticism.

In the

robust

traveling over the city or up and states,

he

sees

more than

cars

the

and teams,

houses and roads, he sees the spirit thing.

down

man

in

every

THE POET PIONEER

65

A convalescent we find him roaming the lanes, and

beneath the

sitting

sitting for

Creek;

willows

of Timber

hours and days caressed by

the air and sunshine, and feeling

all

the

em

bracing love of the Universe.

The

old

edge and set,

man

sitting

driving his horse into the sea-

an hour enraptured of the sun

getting the cold that brings his death, here

we have the mystic, who can see in "

Oxen

The

the poet.

observer

that rattle the chain,

or halt in the leafy shade:

What

do you express

seems to

It

me more

in

your

than

eyes,

all

the print of the

world."

The man who

He

can see these things is a poet. has the soul of a poet, and his productions

bear the stamp of true poetry, and other poets can not disown him, even if he uses different

forms from

theirs.

"

Surely whosoever speaks to

him or her

As

the water steps

me

in

the right voice,

I will follow,

follows

the moon,

anywhere round the

silently

globe."

with

fluid

WALT WHITMAN

66

If this be not a poet

expression of the re

s

sponse of one person to the appeal of another personality, then I

poetic expression

man had soul of

at loss to

As Emerson

know what a Whit said, "

the terrible eyes to see back into the

everything,"

also the poet

saw.

am

is.

s

and

genius to

I

am

tell

sure that he

had

the world what he

CHAPTER SEVEN PLACE AMONG THE PROPHETS

HIS

Walt Whitman.

I

here announce myself a follower of

I

have caught his vision of myself

I

have caught

I

have caught his vision of the Universe. see life as he saw it, sincere, sane and hearty,

I

To

his vision of

;

humanity

;

be lived simply, free from imaginary

Above

creeds,

conflicting

lines,

warring systems and petty

standards.

Walt

My

leads

me

down on

to the heights, I look

all sides,

soul becomes strong, strong enough for the

Open

Road, Henceforth I

I

know no

fellowship with

And

I

follow

all, I

down

Whitman my

classes, sinners

enjoy

the long

it

all,

nor

the

saints,

world

is

leader.

R. D. will be a long time before

ITcan be

good,

brown path with Walt

accepted by

all.

He

S.

Walt Whitman shares the fate

of the strong personalities, of the prophets, of 67

WALT WHITMAN

68

To

have the good-will of every one, we need to say nothing, do nothing, But as with Jesus, strong souls be nothing. creating a division.

become

a rising to some, a falling to some.

sane view of those

who

pressed by John Jay

Emerson.

Walt

reject

Chapman

Chapman shows

us

estimate

standpoint the "

says,

Walt Whitman

is

is

The

best ex

in his essay

how Walt

to the thoroughly conventional eye, a

is

just.

on

looks

from such

Chapman who

a type of those

after a sincere attempt to take a place in or

ganized

revolt

society,

"

Chapman continues, how life appears to worker, Walt

man who

tells

I

from

its

drudgery."

have often wondered

the tramp, the wandering

me.

He

is

the type of the

has tasted the joy of being in the open,

of being disreputable and unashamed, he has

reached an experience where

life

has for him

and upon him society has no hold." This estimate is just from the standpoint of no

terrors,

conventional society.

The

question remains to be decided however,

whether society right.

We

is

right or

whether Walt was

can only say for the present, that

AMONG THE PROPHETS

69

each year an increasing number of souls come to feel like

Walt, and hence come to regard him as

As

a prophet.

When man truer,

when

Clarence

Darrow

says for us,

has grown simpler and saner and the fever of civilization has been

subdued and the pestilence cured; when man no longer deny and revile the universal

shall

mother who gave him

birth, then

man

In the clear light of that

s

day

will

come.

Walt Whit

regenerated time, when the world looks back

on the doubt and mist and confusion of to-day,

Walt Whitman truest, noblest

will stand forth, the greatest,

prophet of the age, a

tainted by artificial life false

standards of his

man un

and unmoved by the time."

Whitman

has

sometimes by enthusiastic followers been likened to Plato, but this

is

far

from the

point, he

is

rather to be likened to Isaiah and the other

rugged Old Testament Prophets. Or he might be likened as Bucke says, to one of our primitive Aryan ancestors who suddenly comes back to life.

Walt was not

a philosopher, not a scholar,

of organized knowledge, of systematic learning

WALT WHITMAN

yo he knew

"

little.

Says Carpenter,

Of

that vast

structure of classified information that

Whitman had no

scholarship,

we

call

he

conception,

handled books clumsily and was not a book man."

This

Walt "

s

is

a true estimate, one

who

looks into

writings, his Journals, prose writings,

Camden

Talks,"

etc.,

expecting to find any

and dried philosophy will be sadly disap Walt had no carefully wrought out pointed. philosophy, he was a seer, a poet, a prophet, cut

And Walt was

pure and simple.

a prophet

He was the logical successor

First, as a poet

of Burns, Blake and Shelley in poetry, and his conception of life belongs with such men as Rousseau, Voltaire, Paine, Mazzini, Emerson, Tolstoy, Thoreau.

The new

self-consciousness, social enthusiasm

and perception of Nature, with the new interpre tation of religion, which were the great ideas that

actuated

these

men,

pushed along.

Walt was a prophet of of literature.

He

a

Walt

felt

new school of

and

poetry,

stands a John the Baptist

AMONG THE PROPHETS

71

crying for a literature that shall be wider, social,

democratic

in scope.

He

tells

the world

it

can

not longer be content with a poetry, however beautiful

its

modern

the

technique, unless intellectual

it

be

in

touch with

movements and the

pulsing heart of man.

Of

course

Walt had

to feel this

way

for he

was, secondly a pioneer democrat, a prophet of

new democracy.

Thoreau meeting him he is our greatest demogoes away saying, crat." And Carpenter sums him up so well the

"

Whitman was the genuine titanic with democrat; optimism he believed that the hope of humanity lay in these unedu when he

cated,

"

says,

illiterate

hordes.

Here dwelt

exhaustible energy, here he forces of

And

saw the great

in

vital

humanity."

thirdly,

Whitman was prophet

kind of knowledge.

him

the

of a

new

His knowledge came to

as a certain illumination, an intuition, rather

than from reasoning processes.

And

he

tells

us that the final test of truth shall be whether

we

feel

appeal

it

is

so.

By which he means

not to the

intellect,

that the final

but to the sense, the

WALT WHITMAN

72 emotions,

whole

the

of

Matters

us.

fun

damental are not to be settled by speculative argument in the realm of pure intellect, but we rather than reason

intuitively detect truth,

Reason

out.

at

we

analyze what

the

best

can

it

only seek to

already know, and ditto science.

So the great interpreters are not those who register facts of science, but those

Whitman

sense.

And was

"

cool, clear

touch our

stood for the validity of the

intuition part of us.

The

who

logic,"

wards can send us

all

capital punishment, but

dull thud of the victim

he not wise?

of a Calvin or an

to hell.

It

Ed

can justify

when Tolstoy hears the s head as it drops from

the guillotine to the basket, he does not stop for u or logic reasoning," he knows this thing "

is "

wrong.

"

As Penn had

they can believe in

out the aid of

said of the Indians,

God and

immortality with

metaphysics,"

so

Walt would

declare of us to-day.

But Walt was supreme

as a prophet, in being

the prophet of a man, the best kind of a man,

the

new man,

age, the

man

the

modern man,

the fruit of the

of the coming society.

"

Com-

AMONG THE PROPHETS rade,"

"

he

man.?

know

we

worshipers,

He

weaknesses.

no book, who touches We are no blind hero

this is

cries,

this touches a

73

had

Walt

that a

certain

had

his

egotism,

which he frankly admitted, glorified in, all of which will ever seem a little coarse. His use of

Emerson

s letter,

his writing press notices

about

himself, his arising at the close of Ingersoll s

eulogy to receive the applause, his preparation of his own tomb to become a sort of Mecca for the faithful,

all

of this has the element of the

"

poseur."

Again there was rowness

in

his

a certain arrogance

and nar

make-up, he often needlessly

quarreled with good friends like Doyle and

O

Connor, he did not always seem to appreciate their deeds in his behalf, he had a lack of frank ness in

many

economic radical a

matters.

He

did not grasp the

of

democracy though so champion of it, nor did he always features

appreciate the efforts of those working for

great sacrifice, as for instance

it

at

when he praised

His poetry is ofttimes the German Emperor. tiresome and needlessly burdened. But after all,

WALT WHITMAN

74 what man

many

is

whom we

there of

can not say as

things in criticism of him.

John Burroughs, perhaps the

who knew Walt, had

student of Walt, ship, speaks of

Walt "

and patient and

healthy

mold every way. pathetic

man."

England, stated after a impresses

me

built

in

a large

a fresh, strong,

of

sym Walt

that of a large, tolerant, tender, restful

sympathetic,

and

was a pre endowed with

The atmosphere

nature.

Whitman was

had

gentle

He

richly

qualities,

He

manner;

home Walt was

conciliatory.

manly man,

human

his friend

the man, in this

In his

says Burroughs,

eminently

sanest, ablest

Dr. Johnson of

visit to

Whitman,

with a sense of strength,

"

He

intel

power and winning sweetness/ Joel Chandler Harris said of Walt when he died,

lectual

He

was a man broad and deep, and men must have broad and deep sympathies to possess the "

password "

him,

No

disliked

so

Walt

Bucke says of man ever liked so many things and

to

few

Whitman."

as

sounds pleased him.

Whitman,

He

all

sights

and

never argued or dis He never

puted, he never spoke about money.

AMONG THE PROPHETS

75

complained or grumbled about the weather, He never swore, pain, illness or any thing else.

5

and apparently was never angry or afraid.

These qualities in Walt have led some of enthusiastic disciples to regard

him

his

as a great

restorer of a natural religion, and they have

placed him by the side of the Founder of Prof. James, looking at him from Christianity. "

the scientific standpoint says,

He

is

the su

preme example of the inability to feel any evil, and in many respects he is in the genuine lineage of the after

prophets."

all

We must conclude then, that

has been said,

Walt Whitman

was

all criticisms

a

made, that

large-souled,

great

man

of exceptional power, and possessing a large measure of what we speak of He loves all, he feels for all; he as genius.

hearted loving

refuses to send the boys

room on

away from

his sick

the noisy Fourth of July lest their sport

be spoiled, he puts his sheltering arm about the

weak, the unprotected, the outcasts.

Walt Whitman has

left us I believe, the ex

ample of a fine spirit, a spirit that for contain ing the graces of the Great Galilean has been

WALT WHITMAN

76

equaled by only three other historic characters, St.

Francis, Burns

He

and Tolstoy.

man, a man to follow, and the out Leaves of pourings of his soul as found in will furnish to those who come to them Grass,"

was

a

"

impulse and emotion,

for stimulus,

view of

life

who come

and a more robust

taste.

Walt Whitman

poems

to

s

a

To

larger

those

for pretty

technique or cut and dried philosophy, there is bound to be disappointment, but to those who

come

to

them for suggestion for thought and

emotion, for a touch with a large soul, with a prophet,

I

am

sure satisfaction awaits..

TT WQ3JfIA

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