I still do not totally understand a lot of what Whitman is trying to say. He always listed endless examples to make his point, such as rivers, birds, and plants. I realize that he wanted to create a different kind of writing than that of the Europeans. He thought the American poets were responsible for giving the world something new. However, he knew that America contains too many things that it is impossible to write down by him only, but he will be the leading one.
This concept of Whitman is similar to that of Emerson's "minds of past." They both believed that the scholars/ poets are the leading figures who should show the new direction to the Americans.
Mr. Cook...can you clarify what Whitman thinks the poets (the elites) should do? thanks~
Howl vs. Leafs of Grass 5/18/11
-
The major shocking similarity I see almost immediately is that the
formatting is very much the same in both of these works. It gives an
initial idea, and t...
14 years ago
I think that we spoke about this earlier, but here goes. . .
ReplyDeleteWhitman was aware of Emerson's call for those who study letters and love writing to step up and find ways to tell the story of this new land, this new country. Remember that he had challenged the scholars he spoke to saying that the stories happening in this new land were going to tell themselves, but those stories needed thinkers to find the wisdom in the stories. Whitman feels the call to action, he says. He does what Emerson has called on thinkers to do; he begins to observe and write about what he sees. He is aware of the incredible variety of this new land, and he is aware of the people -- a people, a race, that has been born from the cast offs of other countries, who have come together, intermarried and formed a new race. As Crevecouer has pointed out, this is a race which owes nothing to the lands from which its members have originated; those places offered no opportunity for these people to grow and improve. But here, they can earn a better life. Whitman, thinking along the same lines, notices that the genius of this land does not lie in it leaders, legislators, or even the president; it lies with the common people. He sees these people living in this incredibly rich and wild land, and he points out that people and land interact. The story is huge; it compares with the 'broadcast doings of the day and night.' He knows he cannot tell all of it, but he is determined to tell a part. According to Whitman, he is no different from other people as a poet, but he is aware of what he sees, aware of the significance of what he sees. It is his job, his function as a part of the creature Man (from Emerson's meaning of that word) to interpret the stories he sees -- to assign to them their importance. Others will see, but they will not take this step of discovering the importance. Do you see the connection to Emerson's thoughts? The connection is not to 'minds of the past' so much as to Emerson's challenge to the 'thinking part' of Man. I hope that this explanation is of some help.