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A review by drkshadow03
The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
4.0
Whitman is the major American poet of the 19th century next to Emily Dickinson. His poetry draws on transcendentalist ideas that there are lessons to be learned about the world, the divine, and humanity by observing nature. There is a strong emphasis that the bustling cities and material commerce might have as much wisdom to teach us as solitude in nature distinguishes Whitman from other transcendentalists. The past is intertwined and always informing the present. Many of his poems address previous poets of the Western Tradition and argue that he is continuing and transforming these prior poetic traditions with his own work and unique style.
““The Past—the dark unfathom'd retrospect!
The teeming gulf—the sleepers and the shadows!
The past—the infinite greatness of the past!
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?”
Whitman surpasses these influences and adds a strong sense of the introspective self, our soul. He is the poet that tries to intertwine the soul or self and nature and to delineate their relationship. This intertwining can be seen in the beginning of “Song of Myself.”
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.”
He is the poet of the individual that tries to understand how ourselves are intertwined into the collective, nature, and the universe itself. In a way, to understand myself is to understand everyone. To understand Whitman is to understand myself. For Whitman everything in the universe is ultimately interconnected. Along with himself and nature, Whitman celebrates the diverse landscapes of America, democracy, and liberty. The celebration of one’s self and one’s soul is also the celebration of liberty, freedom, and democracy more generally.
“Underneath all, individuals,
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals,
The American compact is altogether with individuals,
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one
single individual—namely to You.” - By Blue Ontario’s Shore
His poetry often has a jubilant tone, full of the zest for living and experiences, sometimes hinting at sexual and homoerotic themes, while not neglecting to deal with darker themes like war and death, especially the Civil War and the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. For Whitman death too is a part of life and sometimes an affirmation of it.
There is an undeniable exuberance in many of these poems that will make you want to seize life, although there are a few ponderous tomes that linger longer then they should and would have been stronger with some cutting, which I know is a controversial statement for one of the most celebrated American poets in history. Likewise, even though many of Whitman’s poems lean towards the longer side, there are quite a few shorter poems that are quite good too.
““The Past—the dark unfathom'd retrospect!
The teeming gulf—the sleepers and the shadows!
The past—the infinite greatness of the past!
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?”
Whitman surpasses these influences and adds a strong sense of the introspective self, our soul. He is the poet that tries to intertwine the soul or self and nature and to delineate their relationship. This intertwining can be seen in the beginning of “Song of Myself.”
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.”
He is the poet of the individual that tries to understand how ourselves are intertwined into the collective, nature, and the universe itself. In a way, to understand myself is to understand everyone. To understand Whitman is to understand myself. For Whitman everything in the universe is ultimately interconnected. Along with himself and nature, Whitman celebrates the diverse landscapes of America, democracy, and liberty. The celebration of one’s self and one’s soul is also the celebration of liberty, freedom, and democracy more generally.
“Underneath all, individuals,
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals,
The American compact is altogether with individuals,
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one
single individual—namely to You.” - By Blue Ontario’s Shore
His poetry often has a jubilant tone, full of the zest for living and experiences, sometimes hinting at sexual and homoerotic themes, while not neglecting to deal with darker themes like war and death, especially the Civil War and the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. For Whitman death too is a part of life and sometimes an affirmation of it.
There is an undeniable exuberance in many of these poems that will make you want to seize life, although there are a few ponderous tomes that linger longer then they should and would have been stronger with some cutting, which I know is a controversial statement for one of the most celebrated American poets in history. Likewise, even though many of Whitman’s poems lean towards the longer side, there are quite a few shorter poems that are quite good too.