Transcendentalism Leaves Of Grass Essay, Research Paper
Walt Whitman:
Transcendentalism
By the late nineteenth century, Walt Whitman had become positioned at the head of the American cultural vocabulary. His poesy was at one time cheeky, unresolved and resoundingly titillating. His natural, unembarrassed poesy flew in the face of the prevalent ideals of his clip. Whitman s greatest literary achievement, Leaves of Grass, had set the thoughts of deity, the hierarchy of the holy three, and the aeriform flawlessness afforded these things into convulsion. What he did was take the theologian thoughts of flawlessness and deity and juxtaposed them onto world and the universe around him. This divinity of transcendental philosophy was the basis subject throughout all of Whitman s authorship.
Throughout Whitman s poesy, there exists several major subjects. First, the thought of the Holy Trinity of father-son-holy spirit is taken from a heavenly, theological kingdom and brought into the present. Second, there is the thought of the Adamic myth of America, whereupon world has found a temporal Garden of Eden in which to animate himself and the universe around him. The concluding subject is that of the perfect order of the universe as the phase for which these things can go on. Whitman makes the instance that each person, each & # 8220 ; foliage of grass & # 8221 ; has its ain topographic point within nature.
Up until the clip of Whitman, the predominating spiritual tenet of America had been one of rigorous attachment to traditional values and beliefs. Approaching the bend of the century, nevertheless, sentiment for an alternate way had begun to turn. Therefore came the age of the Great Awakening. The thought of a religious equality amongst all people had begun to distribute across the state and Whitman was one of the biggest advocates. What made Whitman controversial was non so much his embracing of an alternate faith, but how he took the Christian ideals of nonnatural fear and planted himself steadfastly on the center.
The thought of the Holy Trinity in divinity is that of the father-son-holy spirit. This thought of each portion of the trigon being one and the same is a major ideal throughout Christianity. Whitman took the old thoughts of deity and flawlessness and placed them upon his ain thoughts of the existence. Indeed, Whitman frequently puts himself forthrightly in the center of the three, & # 8220 ; Divine am I indoors and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from & # 8221 ; . While he himself is portion of the New Trinity, as I shall mention to it, his is merely that, a portion. Whitman recognized that adult male is god in and of himself. Man exists in the natural Earth and the Earth as portion of the universe which exists in and of itself. Through his poesy Whitman efficaciously creates this new three of God, world and nature. He uses them interchangeably with each other. By taking aeriform thoughts of celestial organic structures and forcing it onto world, Whitman was rebelliously making a universe where adult male didn t need to look to the celestial spheres for replies. Whitman felt that that everything around him was for him. The trees, the air current, the Sun. Everything that encompassed the thought of being was a portion of that being. No portion could be greater than the amount because the parts were invariably working on behalf of the whole. Each emmet, each flower, each individual had a ground for their being, & # 8220 ; They are but parts, any thing is but a part. & # 8221 ;
Whitman farther extended this thought of the new three to that of nature. What had normally been viewed in a useful mode was now being put on the same degree as God. Alternatively of His creative activity, nature was an unerasable and inseparable portion of the world of being. Nature existed alongside adult male and the celestial spheres, non subservient to it. In fact, Whitman believes that the worthwhile adult male is the sort who spends his clip with nature, researching nature. Nature is seen in merely as a Godhead a sense as the celestial spheres.
& # 8220 ; The Earth ne’er tires, The Earth is ill-mannered, soundless, inexplicable at first, Nature is ill-mannered and inexplicable at first, Be non discouraged, maintain on, there are godly things good envelop vitamin D, I swear to you there are godly things more beautiful than words can tell. & # 8221 ;
The thought of the deity of nature avails itself throughout Whitman s poesy. He frequently defines the goodness of nature in the same breath as the admiration of the celestial spheres above. He brings heaven down to Earth. To him, there is nil more beautiful than the ocean waves crashing or the hummingbird vocalizing. These things are portion of nature, a portion of the universe.
The concluding arm of the new three trades straight with the thought of flawlessness. Theologically, the thought of flawlessness is the footing for the belief in God. God is the perfect being and we ( mankind ) were created in his image. God created adult male and adult male so erred in the Garden of Eden so as to be expelled. This ejection led rise to the thought of original wickedness. With this wickedness, adult male was no longer hone. And because adult male had eaten from the tree of the cognition of good and evil, he was no longer ignorant of the feelings which they were now exposed to. With Whitman s doctrine, the thought of flawlessness was juxtaposed onto adult male and nature. God was now non the lone & # 8220 ; perfect & # 8221 ; being. As portion of the new three, world had besides become perfect. & # 8220 ; If any thing is sacred the human organic structure is sacred & # 8221 ; Whitman s belief in the deity of world was itself a radical thought. Original wickedness had dominated the popular spiritual beliefs of his clip. Suddenly, God was pulled down from the celestial spheres and made to walk aboard world. It was this defense of the thought of original wickedness which was besides instrumental in another subject throughout the work of Whitman.
In this courageous new universe of America, the Adamic myth was perpetuated. Whitman felt that as a society sprouted by the find of the & # 8220 ; new universe & # 8221 ; , world should look at this as his
metempsychosis. In so much as the colonisation and colony was a birth of a state, it could besides be referred to as the metempsychosis of world. Here on Earth was this antic new land of eternal possibility and chance. Whitman saw this state as the perfect resort area for the improvement of adult male. The Garden of Eden was non in some far off mystical topographic point, it was here on Earth. For that to be true, so, mankind Saturday at the beginning of a new history. Without the furnishings of original wickedness which had doomed world in the yesteryear, here was adult male get downing afresh. There was no sensitivity for wickedness. From a philosophical point of view, the lone thing which had separated adult male from God was the wickedness committed in the Garden of Eden. Since adult male had been created in His image, it was merely logical that they should be peers. “That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.” Man had achieved the thought of flawlessness once reserved for the likes of the Holy Trinity. What Whitman was stating was that adult male now had a new beginning in which to walk like a God along the Earth. No longer was adult male subservient to a higher power, but he was portion of that power. The power to command his ain fate with no looking back to the errors or evildoings. For the new Adam there was no past, merely a bright and glorious hereafter. As such, the Adamic myth of America was created. The thought that any individual individual can refashion themselves over and get down anew with no mention to a yesteryear is one unique to the American experience. It was a vision espoused by Whitman and believed by a great bulk. What the new America had brought was the thought of openness. It was an thought that there was this great enormousness in which world was sent into to specify and finish. Since adult male was now god-like, it was his duty to take clasp of this new infinite and do it his ain. The thought of the “wide level space” was one which Whitman used to demo one concluding last subject in his authorship.
Though I have defined the & # 8220 ; new three & # 8221 ; , it must be noted that even the statements for God and adult male and nature as flawlessness, these things do non be entirely. There is a cardinal, overruling subject to which all of these things belong. This subject is that of infinite and clip. All things, whether it is nature, whether it is mankind or whether it is God all exist in this space/time continuum. Whitman argues that all things must travel through infinite over the class of clip. This continuum defines the existence and it s ever-changing nature. Above and beyond this new three is the thought that there are certain, undeniable rules which rule the existence, & # 8220 ; I see that the simple Torahs ne’er apologize & # 8221 ; . Everything is run by an unknown force of the universe. Whitman can t specify it, nor does he seek. It about seems that the thought of infinite and clip is non something that even he, as spokesman for world, should even seek and quantify. Whitman simply recognizes the force behind the thoughts of infinite and clip. In one transition, he refers to the construct of clip as an absolute truth, & # 8220 ; I accept Time perfectly. It entirely is without defect, it entirely rounds and completes all, That mysterious perplexing admiration entirely completes all. & # 8221 ; .
In this thought of an across-the-board universe, Whitman firmly workss world, nature and God. It is within this universe that the new three operate. Whitman sees all of these things as working together in a immense sense of the whole. Man, God and nature all travel within this universe on a fantastic and huge journey. Through much of his Hagiographas, Whitman shows us his thoughts of a cosmopolitan emanation. Much like the perfect harmoniousness of the Earth, the Earth exists within the perfect harmoniousness of the existence. Everything within the universe is working towards something. Everything moves together in harmonious balance along the class of clip. Whether it s the psyche of world going the route of religious fulfilment or the adult male going the route to his occupation as stevedore, everything happens in a certain signifier and balance which can non be seen, merely felt. He speaks of going through the universe as if it were like walking down a route, & # 8220 ; Walking the old hills of Judea with the beautiful soft God by my side, Speeding through infinite, rushing through Eden and the stars I tread twenty-four hours and dark such roads. & # 8221 ; Whitman wanted to demo the built-in inclusiveness of the existence. Though there is an overpowering sense of outrageousness to the existence, Whitman shows us that even the smallest small thing has its topographic point in this cosmic emanation.
Walt Whitman was a author who defined a coevals of American literature. The apposition of the deity of the Holy Trinity onto the New Trinity was a major subject in the Transcendentalist motion. Whitman took these and brought them to the degree of the common adult male. Man being one with nature every bit good as one with God was a major reversal in popular political orientation within America. No thirster was mankind to draw a bead on to the flawlessness of God, he must simply take to be such. Whitman had abolished the thought of original wickedness as projecting a chill on the spirit of every adult male, adult female, and child born into the Christian faith. They should non atone and seek salvation, he argued, they should look into this new beginning as a manner to make a new ego. Whitman thought that adult male could take to do his ain determinations without an built-in guilt bestowed upon adult male at the behest of Adam in the Garden of Eden. America was the New Eden. It was up to adult male to make his ain fate. Above all, these things existed within the expansive cosmic construction of the existence and all moved in harmonious concurrence. Nature, adult male and God all traveled through the great universe of infinite and clip as one. Whitman attempted to demo that the things which he wrote were non sole of one and other, but were intertwined to the really nucleus of each one s being. It was that thought which stated the true ideals of transcendental philosophy.
