Walt Whitman Transcendentalism A philosophical and literature movement

Walt Whitman

Transcendentalism • A philosophical and literature movement • Started by Emerson • Critics of: – Contemporary society for its unthinking conformity – Logic and materialism • Goals/Values: – Want individuals to find an original relation to the universe – Discover real truth through intuition, spirituality, and our relationship with the rest of the universe

Of all places… Why would transcendentalism start here? Consider the American values we have talked about so far as related to the American dream.

Walt Whitman • Admired Emerson • Strove to answer a call Emerson put out in his essay “Poet” • Sent Emerson his first copy of Leaves of Grass – Emerson actually sent him a later, congratulating Whitman on his greatness, and expressing his interest in Whitman’s poetic career

Whitman was thrilled at this response. He back praising Emerson on, “that vast basis of the supremacy of Individuality—that new moral American continent” whose “shores you found”: • I say you have led The States there—have led Me there. I say that none has ever done, or ever can do, a greater deed for The States, than your deed. Others may line out the lines, build cities, work mines, break up farms; it is yours to have been the original true Captain who put to sea, intuitive, positive, rendering the first report, to be told less by any report, and more by the mariners of a thousand bays, in each tack of their arriving and departing, many years after you.

“I Hear America Singing” • Reread this poem, and annotate it carefully • Determine what Whitman is implying about the American people

“I Hear America Singing” • How is this poem transcendental in meaning?

Free Verse • Whitman is the father of free verse • Free verse poetry is a form that does not have any set format, rhyme scheme, or organization whatsoever • There was some free verse before Whitman’s time, but he was the poet who truly mastered the form and made it what it is today

Free Verse in American Culture • What about this form works for this poem?

How is Whitman a Transcendental Writer? • Consider: – His topics – His messages – His form