While I do not really understand a lot of what Whitman is saying, and though I really don't like the way he writes, with his endless lists that give you automatic snow blindness, I can understand why he writes the way he does. Whitman believes wholeheartedly that the American poet needs to be to the world something new and different. He doesn't want Americans to be like Americans 50 years ago. He doesn't want Americans to be like Europeans. He wants Americans to be something new, something "appropriate to the time." This strange writing style of his is just a way of practicing what he preaches. He wants Americans to forge their own way, and who is behind this push for change but the poet.
Whitman's poet is basically equivalent to Emerson's American scholar. It is the scholar/poets job to lead the nation, and to lead them in a new direction then their predecessors, the "minds of the past." It is also to teach the nation, as the poet is the enlightened one, the one who can focus just upon the scholarly and upon sharing their beliefs and discoveries with the world. In reality, the poet is to function as the conduit of new ideas to flow in and out of America.
Very good. You have managed to sum up a lot of information in a few words. These are exactly the things that Emerson and Whitman push for -- at least so far as the material we have studied would lead you to believe. Good post.
ReplyDelete