The Transcendental And Cloudy: A Life Of Walt Whitman

Q1: What is Transcendentalism? A1: Transcendentalism describes a simple idea.

Famous writer, C.S. Lewis, one wrote, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts”. He wrote this in 1943 in The Abolition of Man, this work depicts Lewis’s objections and defence of the pedagogy of the time. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Pedagogy as “the art, science, or profession of teaching”(Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In his quote, Lewis makes the point that teachers aren’t meant to destroy the thoughts and processes a student already has, but are to help the student’s mind grow. Instead of Nowadays, it’s common for instructors to demolish original thoughts of students to install the uniform constructs instituted by the instructor. It’s astonishing this happens when extraordinary thinkers have fought against it for over a hundred years. Walt Whitman was one these great writers of the 19th century. Walt Whitman(1819-1892) presents his radical pedagogy in his poems in Leaves of Grass.

Walt Whitman and Elizabeth Bishop are two of the most highly acclaimed American poets of all time, exploring themes, scenes and emotions that deeply resonate with psyche of the American public. Whitman and Bishop explore the relationship between themselves and their audience by writing about the liminal space between individual and community. As renowned poetic voices for their country, the two are individuals speaking for the multitude. They are therefore fascinated with their apparent inability to determine what defines an individual within humanity, and it becomes clear through their writing that they are at times frightened

Walt Whitman writes “I celebrate myself” (Whitman, 25) in his poem “Songs of Myself”. This line summarizes both Thoreau’s and Whitman’s ideas on the connection between the government and the individual in American society as it is clear from this line that Whitman believes in the importance of ones own self and moral standing. Both writers take on a transcendentalist view of society and favor the individual human being over the mass, however each writer has their own ideas on how to reform society. Thoreau believes that for society to prevail one must adopt a philosophy of civil disobedience, whereas for Whitman, although he favors the individual in society, through his imagery and use of catalogs he also is seen pushing for a democratic society

    From looking at the titles of Walt Whitman's vast collection of poetry in Leaves of Grass one would be able to surmise that the great American poet wrote about many subjects -- expressing his ideas and thoughts about everything from religion to Abraham Lincoln. Quite the opposite is true, Walt Whitman wrote only about a single subject which was so powerful in the mind of the poet that it consumed him to the point that whatever he wrote echoed of that subject. The beliefs and tenets of transcendentalism were the subjects that caused Whitman to write and carried through not only in the wording and imagery of his poems, but also in the revolutionary way that he chose to write his poetry.

I believe Walt Whitman has done an amazing job influencing Transcendentalist ideas and changing them in a new light. Whitman does this by loving the individual, at the same time loving groups of people and lastly by loving everything about each and every person. Walt Whitman has continually shown us in his writings of his Transcendentalist ideas and, how he twists them into something even better. In this essay, I will explain why and how he does this.

Walter G. Whitman traveled to the East with his family between the years 1925 and 1926. His destination was China, though he spent some time visiting India. Among the places in India he saw were Jaipur and Bombay. He did not linger in India long and there is only a short section in Whitman’s memoir of his time in India. What he did bring back from India was a sizable collection of postcards.

Walt Whitman clearly writes the poem, Song of Myself, in the first person. The poem is about the speaker himself as evidenced by the use of the pronoun “I”. In the first stanza, it states he is celebrating himself. However, he adds another self as if there is someone else present. In actuality, he is referring to himself and other states of himself such as his physical self and his soul. This is clear from the following reference, “I loafe and invite my soul” (Whitman 1).

The central idea of Walt Whitman’s “A Song of the Rolling Earth” is a concern for words not classically found in books and for things that are said to be “words”. The poem also explains how this is linked with the idea of feminine and fertile earth. The entirety of “A Song of the Rolling Earth” Whitman lays groundwork for his theory of the earth, giving it a more than purely physical life by redefining what words are. The importance of the poem lies, within these two images, the unprintable word and the fertile earth.

In the first section, Whitman states that he is going to celebrate himself which makes him come across as a little arrogant. He lays out some rules saying that the reader is to assume whatever he assumes. He then invites another character to join him, his soul. In the poem, Whitman and his soul are two slightly different things. They then proceed to hang out in nature, looking at blades of grass and enjoying the fresh air, which Whitman describes as a perfume he could get drunk off of, but doesn’t allow himself to. He is in love with the air and says he wants to get naked by the bank in the woods to be in contact with it.

Walter Whitman, also known as Walt Whitman, was born on May 31, 1819, in Long Island, New York, to Walter Whitman and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. When he was twelve, Walt and his family settled in Brooklyn, up to then his family had lived in a dozen different places (Conarroe 4). Walt worked in many different positions; to some he was even viewed as a drifter. Walt was many different things; he worked as a carpenter and home builder, like his father, and apprentice printer, a school teacher, editor of several newspapers, including Brooklyn’s Daily Eagle, journalist, and writer. However, despite whatever job Walt Whitman was working as,

The school of thought that is transcendentalism is best explained as the idea that everything is connected. America, as a country, represents the philosophy of Transcendentalism. This is best exemplified in the writing of Walt Whitman. In his poem, “A Song of Myself”, Whitman truly heralded a new brand of American exceptionalism. He championed the individual and created a work that exemplified the common man as the pillar of the American dream. Yet he also explained that Americans are what make up the county and the culture. The country could not be as great as it is without the people it contains and the incredibly resilient spirit that is present throughout every American inhabitant.

Walt Whitman is generally regarded as the most important American poet of the nineteenth century (“Walt Whitman Bio” 1). His poetry career took off once he was fired from the Brooklyn Eagle due to political differences with the newspaper’s owner (“Walt Whitman Bio” 2). His evolution from journalist into revolutionary poet cannot easily be explained, however, as not much was know about his literary activities at the time

Walt Whitman was considered one of America’s most influential poets. He was born on May 31, 1819 in New York. He grew up in a family that had so much love for America; therefore his poems reflected his love for America and the nature of the American experience and its democracy. He published about 300 poems in the collection of Leaves of Grass; it became one of the most popular collections in the history of American Literature. Each poem represents Whitman’s honor of his attitude towards life and humanity. During the Civil War, Whitman, moved to Washington D.C. where his brother was fighting for the Union. He stayed there for several years helping wounded soldiers. Due to Whitman’s love for America, after the Civil War he continued visiting

It is known without a doubt, that Walt Whitman is a key contributor to the evolution of American literature. Whitman was born in 1819 to a classic working family and is also considered to be a part of the first generation of children since the United States was formed. It is only fitting that amount of pride felt across the nation filled Whitman since he was just a small child. It was because of his pride as an American, that Whitman set out to change American literature and move away from the British styles of writing. Despite writing during the Romantic era, Whitman's works are often considered to be futuristic of his own time. Whitman accomplished his goal to impact American literature through his innovative writing style, addressing political issues, and using themes about sexuality and religion that broke social barriers.