LITR
4232: American Renaissance
University
of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002
Index to Student Research Projects
Diane Tincher
Dr. Craig White
Literature 4232
18 April 2002
Ralph
Waldo Emerson’s Influence on Walt Whitman
That
Ralph Waldo Emerson had an influence on Walt Whitman is undeniable, as Whitman
is famous for saying: “I was
simmering, simmering, simmering, and Emerson brought me to a boil”
(Carr 1513). However, Jean F. Carr makes as very astute comment about
Whitman’s statement: “Acknowledgments
[such] as Whitman’s remark . . . position Emerson primarily as a precursor,
important for his influence on others, rather than for his own work”
(1513). It can be argued
that, in some regards, it is because of the fact that Emerson’s works had such
a positive influence on many of America’s greatest writers that makes his work
so important. Carr acknowledges
that Emerson “Is often positioned as the ‘father’ of American
literature” (1512).
This more than anything shows that Emerson is most famous for the
influence that his work had on other writers than as a writer in his own right.
One of the problems with Emerson’s work is that he is so idealistic at
times that it is hard to take him seriously.
However, it seems that his championing of America’s ideals was just
what the country needed to inspire other writers to produce works of genius and
creativity. Therefore, Whitman is
only one of many great writers who were influenced and inspired by Emerson.
In his essay “The Poet,” Emerson calls for
an American poet, and Whitman enthusiastically answers his call.
In some ways, Whitman almost seems to embody what Emerson was looking for
in a poet. However, it is obvious
that Whitman went beyond trying to be the kind of poet that Emerson was looking
for because he dealt with subject matter that no one had ever dealt with before
in poetry. Also, it is interesting
to point out that in some regards Emerson almost seems to stylistically
prophesize the coming of a poet like Whitman because Emerson says, “It is not
metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem”
(245). Since Whitman’s
poetry is mostly done in free verse, he seems to have fulfilled Emerson’s
prophecy and shown that it is possible to write good poetry without meter.
Near the end of his essay on poetry, Emerson makes a call for an American poet who will sing about America:
Our log-rolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boasts and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres. (262)
There can be very little doubt that Whitman sung songs or wrote poetry about American events and ideals. In Song of Myself he has imagery and descriptions that could only be American: “Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river or through those drain’d by the Tennessee, or through those of the Arkansas, / Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the Chattahooche or Altamahaw” (320-21). Whitman does a couple of the things that Emerson wanted out of the American poet. He describes America’s geography and events, such as people looking for raccoons, which are mainly done here. He also is showing the impact of the Indians/Native Amercians on the names that are used for rivers such as the Chattahooche and Altamahaw. Whitman also does something that Emerson wanted, which was to sing poetry about Texas:
Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
(I tell not the fall of Alamo,
Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,). (871-74)
The fall of the Alamo is one of the most famous events in Texas’s history, so it is obvious that Whitman was singing about events places that were American. Yet it is important to note that Texas was part of Mexico at the time of the fall of the Alamo, even though there were Americans living in Texas at that time.
In Song of Myself there are several lines that seem to express the American ideal of equality: “I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy, / By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms” (506-7). One interpretation of these lines could be that he is upset over the issue of slavery. The constitution is supposed to give everyone freedom, but during Whitman’s time this had been denied to the slaves. Whitman seems to want everyone to have the American ideal of equal opportunity under the law. Another passage that deals with the American ideal of equality is as follows:
This is the meal equally set, this the meat for natural hunger,
It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I make appointments with all,
I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited,
The heavy-lipp’d slave is invited, the venerealee is invited;
There shall be no difference between them and the rest. (372-7)
In some ways this passage deals with the contradiction between the American ideals of equality and individualism. Whitman lists all the people invited to his meal as individuals, but in the last line he says that they must all be equal because there is “no difference between them.” One way to explain away that apparent contradiction is to say that, while each person is his or her own individual, everyone should be treated equally under the constitution. Everyone is equal because they are all equally entitled to the same rights and freedoms. John Q. Anderson makes the following remark concerning Whitman in regards to Emerson’s call for an American poet: “The fact remains that Whitman’s poetry comes nearer to fulfilling Emerson’s demands for an American poet than does that of any other writer . . .” (90-1). A letter that Emerson wrote to Whitman upon his reading the first edition of Leaves of Grass that Whitman sent him shows that Emerson was very happy with Whitman’s poetry:
Dear Sir—I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of “Leaves of Grass.” I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy nature, as if too much handiwork, or too much lymph in the temperament, were making our western wits fat and mean. (Whitman 731)
This quote also shows that Emerson may have felt that Whitman not only was a good American poet, but that Whitman also fulfilled some of the other aspects of the poet that he was looking for when he wrote “The Poet.”
In his essay, Emerson envisioned the poet as being a representative for the people: “The poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common wealth” (242). Anderson explains what he thinks Emerson meant in his essay when he talked about the complete man and also points out the prevailing problem with his work:
What Emerson means by “the complete man” is made clear by reference to the Neo-Platonic concept that the soul contains all knowledge. The degree of completeness of the individual depends upon his recognition of the omniscience of the soul and his ability to utilize this knowledge. . . . The complete man, of whom Emerson speaks, is, after all, an ideal. . . . Fearful of the extremes of idealism, Emerson states that the poet stands for the complete man, not that he is ideal . . . . (17)
Therefore,
ideally the poet is representative of the “complete man” and for the people
in general. Emerson explains why
the poet must take on the role of being the representative for others: “I know not how it is that we need an interpreter, but the
great majority of men seem to be minors, who have not yet come into possession
of their own, or mutes, who cannot report the conversation they have had with
nature” (243).
Therefore, in some regards, the poet must speak for those who for one
reason or another do not have a voice of their own.
In “Song of Myself,” Whitman accepts his role as representative, not
only for man, but also for the downtrodden:
The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing, cover’d with sweat,
The
twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck, the murderous buckshot and
the bullets
All
these I feel or am.
I
am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
Hell
and despair are upon me . . . . (835-9)
While there
were a few slave narratives that told of the horrors of slavery, the majority of
slaves did not have a voice. Therefore,
in these lines of poetry, Whitman is acting as a representative for the slaves.
Whitman also says that, “Whoever degrades another degrades me”
(503). In this line it seems
that Whitman is saying that he does stand for or represent everyone because
whatever wrong is done to someone else is also done to him.
Edward Dowden says of Whitman: “The
representative man is not always the nations favourite. . . .
It would remain true that he is the first representative democrat in the
art of the American continent” (59).
Since Whitman was the first American poet to sing about America’s
democratic ideals, he became America’s representative whether or not the
people liked his poetry or agreed with what he wrote.
Another function that Emerson thought the poet
should fulfill is that of liberating people:
“We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open
air. This is the effect on us of
tropes, fables, oracles and all poetic forms.
Poets are thus liberating gods” (257). Anderson explains what he thought Emerson meant in regards to
poets being liberating gods: “In
this humanitarian role that the poet performs for his fellowmen, the poet frees
men from the prison house of their everyday thoughts. . . . The poet enriches
men’s lives by revealing glimpses of the eternal world beyond sensory
experience” (39-40).
Whitman is very concerned with man’s soul and with God in his poetry,
and therefore, seems to accept the humanitarian role that Emerson envisioned for
the poet:
And
I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a
million universes.
And
I say to mankind be not curious about God,
For
I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
(No
array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)
I
hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least. . . .
In
the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass. . . .
(1277-81, 1285)
Whitman seems
to be saying to people do not let God and the fact that the universe is so
immense be frightening. Whitman
knows that he will never understand or know God, but he knows that God exists
because he can see all the miracles of God’s creation everywhere.
Whitman is playing the role of the liberating god in that he is trying to
liberate people from their fears and concerns about things that they have no
control over, such as death. He is
also trying to get people to be more aware of spiritual concerns such as God and
their soul.
It is obvious that Whitman goes way beyond just
trying to be the American poet that Emerson wanted.
This is because of the fact that he brought up some subjects in his
poetry that had never been dealt with by anyone before.
In his biographical data, Betsy Erkkila alludes to one of the more
scandalizing subjects in his poetry: “Whitman
had an unhappy love affair with a man. This
tale of love and loss is the subject of a small sheaf of twelve poems, initially
titled ‘Live Oak with Moss,’ which was later incorporated into the
‘Calamus’ cluster in the 1860 Leaves
of Grass” (2847).
While it is cryptically stated, there does seem to be some homoeroticism
lurking in Whitman’s poem “In Paths Untrodden:”
That the soul of the man I speak for
rejoices in comrades,
Here by myself away from the clank of
the world,
Tallying
and talk’d to here by tongues aromatic,
No
longer abash’d, (for in this secluded spot I can respond as I would not dare
elsewhere,)
Strong
upon me the life that does not exhibit itself, yet contains all the rest,
Resolv’d
to sing no songs today but those of manly attachment . . . .
(7-12)
One could make
a good argument that Whitman was only talking about male friendship in this
poem, however, given the biographical data from Whitman’s life it is hard not
to see some hint of homoeroticism in such a passage as is quoted above. Probably, the reason why Whitman had to be so cryptic was to
avoid harsh criticisms from those people who abhor homosexuality.
He even mentions in the poem that he can only act as he wants towards
another man when he is in a secret/private place.
He knows that most people would not accept him if they knew his hidden
desires. Accordingly, Jerome Loving
states, about Whitman, that, “The term homoerotic
(suppressed homosexuality) may still be more accurate than homosexual,
although this is not to discount the impact that the discovery of such a sexual
preference would have had on the poet’s development” (68). What
Loving appears to be saying here is that for the most part Whitman suppressed
his homosexuality, but that nevertheless his sexuality had a substantial impact
on him as a poet.
There is also much sexual imagery in Whitman’s poetry, which was
shocking for many people. Emerson
writes to his friend Carlyle about Whitman and his poetry:
“One book last summer, came out in New York, a nondescript monster
which yet had terrible eyes and buffalo strength, and was indisputably
American,-which I thought to send you; but the book throve so badly with the few
to whom I showed it, and wanted good morals so much, that I never did”
(Anderson 88). This shows that many people were offended by Whitman’s
poetry, but that Emerson still liked it because it was American.
There is some sexual imagery in Whitman’s poem “Whoever You Are
Holding Me Now in Hand:”
Here
to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
With
the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss or the new husband’s kiss,
For
I am the new husband and I am the comrade.
Or
if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon your hip. . . . (19-23)
In some ways it is hard to tell whether this sexual imagery is taking place between two men or a man and a woman, regardless, passages such as this shocked people who were not used to finding descriptions like that in poetry. Anderson has an interesting theory as to why Emerson was not so appalled at this imagery that he felt comfortable showing it to other people (as he told Carlyle that he had):
Emerson definitely was not expecting the obscene when he read Leaves of Grass for the first time; therefore, he probably was not shocked. He had said that everything was suitable subject matter for poetry when subjected to the poet’s thought. He probably read the poem without paying much attention to the implications of its imagery. so dazzled was he by the fact that at last an American poet had sung America in his poems. (88)
Whether this passage is true or not is debatable, but it is interesting to know that Emerson was open to the idea of poets singing about a broader array of subjects. However, since Emerson’s writing is so idealistic, it is hard to believe that he was completely comfortable with all of the “shocking” subject matters that Whitman brought up in his poetry. Although, since, Emerson wrote such an enthusiastic letter of praise to Whitman, the sexual imagery must not have bothered him too much.
Whitman was definitely influenced by Emerson, and Emerson was very happy with Whitman’s poetry because it answered the call for someone to sing poems about America. Whitman in some ways is like the idealistic poet that Emerson describes in his essay “The Poet.” Whitman tries to be America’s representative and he takes on the humanitarian role of being a “liberating god.” However, with his homoeroticism and sexual imagery, it obvious that Whitman went beyond just trying to be the idealistic poet that Emerson described.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Poet.” The Portable Emerson. Ed. Carl Bode. New York: Penguin Books, 1946. 241-65.
- - -. “Emerson to Whitman, 1855.” Leaves of Grass. Eds. Sculley Bradley and Harold W. Blodgett. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973. 731-32.
Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” In Bradley and Blodgett. 28-89.
- - -. “In Paths Untrodden.” In Bradley and Blodgett. 112-13.
- - -. “Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand.” In Bradley and Blodgett. 115-117.
Secondary Sources
Anderson, John Q. The Liberating Gods: Emerson on Poets and Poetry. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, 1971.
Carr, Jean Ferguson. “Ralph Waldo Emerson.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Gen. Ed. Paul Lauter, vol. 1, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1512-15.
Dowden, Edward. “The Poetry of Democracy.” The Americanness of Walt Whitman. Ed. Leo Marx. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1960. 58-67.
Erkkila, Betsy. “Walt Whitman.” In Lauter. 2846-49.
Loving, Jerome. Emerson, Whitman, and the American Muse. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982.