Essay about Transcendentalism in the Poems of Whitman

Transcendentalism in the Poems of Whitman From looking at the titles of Walt Whitmans 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.†¦show more content†¦Out of itself, it launch[es] filament, filament, filament (4). Similarly, in the second stanza, Whitmans soul stands surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space (7), musing how to build a bridge that would connect them to himself. Like the spider, the poets soul wan ts to send out a gossamer thread that would catch somewhere (10). Whitman uses nature as an appropriate metaphor to express the concept of a mans lonely and seeking soul. The image of a spider launching forth filament after filament to connect itself in some way with the vastness of its surroundings captures the nature of the human as well, who seeks to link himself, in the mind of the transcendentalist, with the Oversoul and to find the bridge that leads to a definition of life. The critic Wilton Eckley saw this relationship in his essay: Whitmans poetic soul, like the spider, stands isolated at the center of all things. If it is to take on meaning, it must... come to a realization of itself... The poet then, like the spider is complete in himself-a seer and a kosmos - constantly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking in an effort to create his own order by forming a union with the whole (Eckley 20). Even in the search and final completion, Whitman, following the transcendentalism doctrine, warns against a concrete and solid definition. The ductile anchor (Whitman 9)Show MoreRelatedEmily Dickinson And Walt Whitman1719 Words   |  7 Pagesway to insert themselves and their emotions into words that move the readers in some way. One of the most popular periods of writing would be the romanticism era. Some of the most well known authors in this time period were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. The reason they are so popular from the Romanticism period is because they also incorporated their transcendental ideas into their work. Romanticism has been described as a Protestantism in the arts and letters, an ideological shift on the grandRead MoreThe Time Period Of Transcendentalism1278 Words   |  6 PagesThe time period of transcendentalism changed the views of many people through setting different principles otherwise known as tenets. 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