THE CONCEPT OF THE SUPERMAN IN WALT WHITMAN'S
LEAVES OF GRASS
by
JAMBSS THOMAS FONTENOT TANNER, B. A*
A THESIS
IN
ENGLISH
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Technological College
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
June, 1963
o ^
'T
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Appreciation is gratefully acknowledged to
Professor Everett A- Gillis for his direction of this
thesis, and to the staff of the Texas Technological
College Library for their courteous assistance.
ii
TABLE OP CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I.
ii
WALT WHITMAN AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION . . . . 1
II.
WHIIMAN AND LAMARCKIAN EVOLUTION
III.
THE SUPERMAN IN LEAVES OF GRASSs
PICTURE
IV.
V.
19
OBNERAL
.
34
SPECIAL ROLES OF THE SUPERMAN
56
CONCLUSION
67
BIBLIOGRAPHY
69
APPENDIX I SPECIFIC REFERENCES TO THE THEORY OF THE
SUPERMAN IN LEAVES OF GRASS
72
iii
CHAPTER I
WALT WHITMAN AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
Scholarly study devoted to the evolution theory a?
it appears in the context of Walt whitman's Leaves of Grass
is relatively small. Moreover, one who consults the pertinent research is bewildered by arbitrary terminology and
the general absence of certainty regarding the poet's intellectual outlook concerning the scientific tradition which
must have influenced the composition of Leaves of Grass.
The historian of ideas, lacking concrete evidence of the
poet^E indebtedness to writers on evolution prior to and
including Darwin, is uncertain under which school of biological theory to consider himy the political theorist is
unable to perceive that Whitman's insistence upon absolute
social equality has a scientific basis; the psychologist,
clinically interesteKJ in the poet's attitudes towards
sexual behavior, is unable to explain theee views within
the context of Leaves of Grass because of his failure to
perceive the implicit relationship which can be found to
exist between whitman's esoteric concept of homosexuality
and certain theories concerning the biological progression
of the human species.
Further examples of scholarly disagreement on this
subject are readily found.
Joseph Warren Beach, for example,
has said that Whitman's concept of evolution is more
Hegelian than Darwinian;
whereas Newton Arvin and Louise
Pound cite the poet's use of evolutionary concept? a? mere
2
»
anersonianism.
Basil de Selincourt, inclined to credit
Whitman with more originality than roost scholars are, has
described his doctrine as "evolutionary vitalism.""^
Rene
Wellek and Austin Warren in their Theory of Literature
refer to him as a "pantheistic monist."
To Gay Wilson
Allen, writing in the Walt Whitman Handbook and agreeing
in certain respects with Jsutiee B. Miller, Jr., Walt Whitman
5
expre s se s " panpsychi sm. "
Of most importance to this discussion, however, are
those comments concerning Whitman's attitude towards the
future developnent of the human species.
It is the belief
of this writer that a well-developed theory of the Superman
is contained in Leaves of Grass; and that a study of
Whitman's Superman, based on a textual study of Leaves of
Grass, will be an important, if small contribution towards
Joseph Beaver, Walt Whitman: Poet of Science
(Morningside Heights, New Yorkt King's Crown Press, 1951),
p» 121.
^Ibid.
^Baril de Selincourt, Walt Whitmani
(Londont Martin Seeker, 1914), p. 243.
A Critical Study
4
'
Rene Wellok and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature
(N€w YorkJ Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1956), p. 185.
Gay Wilson Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook (Chicagot
Packard and Co., 1946), p. 256.
a better luideratanding of the evolution theory as it is
more generally illustrated by his masterpiece. Without
doubt, Walt Whitman believed in a grand future for the
human species.
Ihe magnificent creatures which he
envisioned as supplenters of man as he knew him may be
justly termed Supermen; for they conform, in many respects,
to Nietzche's Superman as well as to Carlyle's hero,
Bnierson's poet-scholar, and to Henri Bergson's super-human
species to be developed through the 4lan vital.
The concept of the Superman in Leaves of Grass,
surprisingly enough, has been noted only incidentally by
scholars.
Their observations have been concerned with
(1) the possibility of Whitman's indebtedness to preDarwinian writers on evolution such as Buffon, Lamarck,
Erasmus Darwin, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Geoffrey, Robert
Chambers, Hegel, and Goethe; (2) with the similarity of
his evolutionary concepts to those of his great contemporaries tfisierson,Spencer, Carlyle, Charles Darwin, and
Nietzsche; and (3) with Walt Whitman's apparent anticipation
of later writers on evolution such as Henri Bergson, William
James, and George Bernard Shaw.
With regard to Whitman's indebtedness to preDarwinian writers on evolution, as early as 1893 one finds
Richard Maurice Bucke speculating upon where the poet had
found what Bucke felt to be specifically evolutionary concepts noticeable in Leaves of Grassi
The so-called hebular hypothesis and the whole
modem theory of evolution seem to have been
present and familiar to his mind from the first.
Did he beget them from Laplace, Lamarck, and
the 'Vestiges," ^ . e . Vestiges of tljg Natural
History Qg Creation published anonymously by
Robert Chambers in 184j£7 or did he himself
see evolution occurring?^
Forty-five years after Bucke's observation, in 1938, Arvin
made a similar comments
It is quite true that even before The Origin
9M. Species whitman, like Emerson, had had
more than a glimpse of some of the things
that were implied by what was then called
the Development Theory. Inevitably all that
pre-Darwinian speculation—by cosmogonists,
by paleontologists, by comparative anatomists—
had seeped through to him along the public
channels; however indirectly, and no doubt
partly through the uproar over The Vestiges
of Greation# he made out more or less clearly
what Buf fon and Goethe, Lsunarck and Geoff roy,
Erasmus Darwin and Robert Chambers had been
getting at.*^
And in the following year. Gay Wilson Allen in an article
on the "long Journey motif" in Leaves of Grass commented
on the harbingers of Whitman's treatment of the evolution
theory in much the same manner as Bucke had done in 1893 s
Long before Bergson's Creative Evolution
^S'bich was not published until 1907 and
was not translated into English until 191j[7
and William James"' "stream of consciousness"
theories had been formtilated, Walt Whitman,
by mystic psychology and his pantheistic
philosophy, felt the mysterious current of
the living process coursing through the fibers
^Richard Maurice Bucke, "Leaves of Grass and Modern
Science, •• ^n Re Walt Whitman (Philadelphiai David McKay,
1893), p. 250.
'Newton Arvin, Whitman (New Yorki
1938), p. 210.
The Macmillan Co.,
of his sensitive organism, and he experienced
the illusion of identity with the process
itself, so that, at tha height of his "cosmic consciousness," time and space ceased to
exist for him. His thin thread of life connected him with all life, past and future,
until all time became one eternal present.®
But Allen goes somewhat further in the biography of the
poet which he published in 1955, hinting that Whitman
may even have anticipated, rather accurately, Bergson's
theory of creative evolutions
At times his ^^^itman'J/ thinking about the
soul seems^clearly . . . to anticipate
Bergson's elan vital* the life impulse that
propels each generation of plant or animal
through the cycles of existence, from the
first crude germs to the most complex
organism.^
Similarly, James E. Miller, Jr. has seen in Whitman's
poetry something akin to Bergson's elan vital# calling
him "a sexual pantheist, envisioning the world and man
as infused by an identical, creative sexual vitality."^^
Jose Marti likewise considers Whitman as part of the
Lamarckian tradition, finding in his poetry "the trace
left by the opposite and to a certain degree complementary ideologies initiated by Lamarcque and Darwin in the
®Oay Wilson Allen, "Walt Whitman's 'Long Journey'
Motif," JEGP. XXXVIIl (January, 1939), pp. 83-84.
^Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singers A Critical
Biography (New Yorkt The Macmillan Co., 1955), p. 162.
^^James E. Miller, Jr., "The Elements," in Start
with the Suns Studies in Cosmic Poetry (Lincolnt
University of Nebraska Press, 1960), p. 25.
\^
field of physical sciences and transplantec? by Comte
and Spencer to the realm of ethics."^^
From the above observations, it is clear that a
few critics have recognized that Whitman must have, in
some manner, been influenced by the pre-Darwinian writers
12
on evolution.•*•*
Furthermore, all those critics seem to
agree that Walt Whitman, in his treatment of the evolution
theory in Leaves of Grass* stresses life's continuity, its
similarity in all creatures, and its disregard for the
limitations of time.
Before turning to a second group of critics, those
who have seen in Leaves of Grass a figure somewhat
similar to Carlyle's hero and to Emerson's "Over-Soul, "
and even to Nietzsche' s "XJbermensch* " it would be well to
glance at Whitman's own thinking about the evolution
theory.
In this respect. Whitman's prose writings and letters are disappointing in the amount of assistance they
afford, there being very few comments on the evolution
^^Jose Marti, "The Poet Walt Whitman, " in Walt
Whitman Abroad trans. Arnold Chapman (Syracuse University
Press, 1955), p. 215«
T4rs. Alice Lovelace Cooke in "Whitman's Indebtedness to the Scientific Thought of His Day," Studies in
English (The University of Texas Bulletin)# XIV (July 8,
1934), 89-115, maintains that Whitman, through discussions
in newspapers and magazines of the times, had a thorough
knowledge of pre-Darwinian theories of evolution.
theory itself. Moreover, the few examples which have
come down to us in isolated comments, conversations,
letters, and journals offer little help in identifying
Whitman's concepts of evolution with those of the preDarwinian writers, and offer indeed little indication of
the poet's own attitude towards the subject.
For example,
the brief quotation below, taken frc^n a short essay, tends
to be confusings
Of this old theory, evolution, as broach'd
anew, trebled, with indeed all-devouring
claims, by Darwin, it has so much in it,
and is so needed as a counterpoise to yet
widely prevailing and unspeakably tenacious,
enfeebling, superstitions—is fused, by the
new man, into such grand, modest, truly
scientific accompaniments—that the world
of erudition, both moral and physical, cannot but be broaden'd in its speculations,
from the advent of Darwinism. Nevertheless,
the problem of origins, human and other^ is
not the least whit nearer its solution*/^
The general tone of the above comment is one of reluctance
to accord great importance to Darwinism; for, as Whitman
makes clear, Darwinism has done nothing to solve "the
problem of origins, human and other."
Furthermore, it is
clear that Whitman recognized that the evolution theory
had actually not been b o m with Darwin but had merely been
"broach'd anew" by him.
It would seem, then, that he had
either read or heard of pre-Darwinian writers on evolution
13
Walt Whitman, "Darwinism—(Then Furthermore),"
The Complete Writings of Walt Whitwian ed. Thomas B.
Hamed and Horace L. Traubel (New Yorkt G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1902), V, 278-279.
and had some respect for them; for he seems to ridicule
the tendency of the early Darwinians to assert their
theories with "all-devo\iring claims."
Yet, in the last
analysis. Whitman does not completely condemn Darwinisms
for the intellectual world will, at least, "be broaden'd
in its speculations, from the advent of Darwinism."
It
would appear, therefore, that Whitman was certainly not
a worshipper at the shrine of Darwin.
One wishes that
Whitman had expanded this comment and had given clearer
information on which writers on evolution that he may
have preferred to Darwin.
In another short essay, t^itman speaks disparagingly
not only of Darwin but of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and
Hegel as wells
While the contributions which German Kant
and Fichte and Schelling and Hegel have
bequeath'd to humanity—and which l^glish
Darwin has also in his field—are indispensable to the erudition of America's future,
I should say that in all of them, and the
best of them, when compared with the
lightning flashes and flights of the old
prophets and exhalt^s, the spiritual poets
and poetry of all lands (as in the Hebrew
Bible), there seems to be, nay certainly is,
something lacking—something cold, a failure
to satisfy the deepest emotions of the soul—
a want of living gloy, fondness, warmth,
which the old exhaltes and poets supply,
and which the keenest modern philosophers
so far do not.^*
Walt Whitman, "Carlyle from American Points of
View, " Specimen Days in The Complete Writings of Walt
Whitman, vol. 4, pp. 323-324. See note 13 above.
This passage reveals an anti-scientific attitude, which
is also seen in Iioaves of Grass in many of the poems
("When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," for example).
Indeed, his placing of the spiritual poets above Kant,
Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel would seem to label him a
confirmed mystic.
Still, there is no hint in this essay,
except for mention of the Hebrew Bible, as to exactly
which of the "spiritual poets" Whitman preferred to Kant,
Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Darwin.^^
h Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads, however,
offers an important opinion on both poetry and the evolution theory; here Whitman maintains that great poetry
must have a direct bearing upon the evolution of the human
beings
The new world needs the poems of realities
and science and of the democratic average
and basic equality, which shall be greater.
In the center of all, and object of all,
stands the Human Being, towards whose
heroic and spiritual evolution poems and
everything directly or indirectly tends.
Old World or New.lo
^^Compare, however. Whitman's statement in Democratic
Vista8s "The Indian Vedas, the Nackas of Zoroaster, the
Talmud of the Jews, the Old Testament, the Gospel of Christ
and His disciples, Plato's works, the Koran of Mohammed,
the Bdda of Snorro, and so on toward our own day, to
Swedenborg, and to the invaluable contributions of Leibnitz,
Kant, and Hegel—these . . . exhibit literature's real
heights and elevations, towering up like the great mountains of the earth." For this quotation see James E.
Miller, Jr., (Ed.), Walt Whitmans Complete Poetry and
^elected Prose (Bostons Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1959),
p. 495.
^^Ibid., p. 449.
10
The presence of the word science at the beginning of
the above quotation makes clear the fact that A^iitraan is
speaking not merely of evolution in its historical and
sociological sense, but of biological evolution as well.
But the memorable fact to be noted in this quotation is
Whitman's placement of the human being (a term which he
capitalizes) "in the center of all, and object of all."
Indeed, throughout all his poetry, whether it touches
upon the evolution theory or not. Whitman invariably
emphasizes the role played by the human being.
The 1855
Preface to Leaves of Gr^ss, as a matter of fact, contains
a powerful statement of such a philosophyt
"It is also
not consistent with the reality of the soul to admit that
there is anifthing in the known universe more divine than
men and wc^nien."
Thus, in view of these facts it would seem improbable
that Whitman's treatment of the evolution theory in Leaves
of Grass could escape an emphasis upon the progress of
the human being.
In consequence any study directed
towards a fuller understanding of the evolution theory as
it is presented in I^eaves of Grass should proceed from
this consideration.
Since Whitman has left very little in his own prose
writings to assist the inquirer into the poet's thinking
^"^Ibid., p. 419.
11
/
on evolution. Leaves of Grass must, as a result, be
analyzed all the more carefully if we are to gain a
knowledge of his theories.
The quotations just given
suggest that Whitman was aware of some of the implications of the evolution theory as it was discussed
among the members of his circle and as it was "broach'd
an€iw" by Darwin, and that he would most likely, in his
treatment of evolution in Leaves of Grass, proceed from
the assumption that everything tends directly or indirectly towards the evolution of man*
There is no doubt
that Whitman felt that evolution should appear as an important el^nent in his masterpiece. Horace Traubel, as a matter of fact, records a conversation which supports this
very conclusions
"I have felt from the first that my
own work must assvmie the essential truths of evolution,
or something like them."-*-^
Just what Whitman considered
the "essential truths of evolution" to be will emerge,
the writer hopes, from an analysis of Leaves of Grass
itself.
We may now return to the third group of commentators cited above, those who have broached, though only
in passing, the Superman theory in Leaves of Grass.
18
Horace Traubel, With Walt whitman in Camden,
III, (Philadelphias University of Pennsylvania PresE,
1953), p. 94.
12
As Isaac Hull Piatt has shrewdly observed in an
article entitled "Whitman's Superman," everyone seems to
be able to find in Leaves of Grass exactly what he seeks
19
there.
Piatt himself profetsee to find in Leaves of
Qrass a prophecy of a Superman, a creature somewhat like
Nietzsche's Ubermensch as he had been interpreted by
George Bernard Shaw.
Although Piatt's article covers only
two pages and is somewhat apologetic in nature, he is perhaps the first to recognize publicly the similarity between
20
Nietzsche's Superman
and Whitman's man of the future.
Piatt says of Whitman's "Superman"s
where we are going to find this Superman
I do not know; but I know that where the
city stands which has the noblest men and
women, there the great city stands, and
that I learned frc»n whitman. Did I learn
it from Whitman? Did he not show me that
I knew it all the time? I believe so.
I believe the greatest evidence of genius
is to show people what they knew and did
not know that they knew. I believe the
Superman will be ground out of the mills
19
Isaac Hull Piatt, "Whitman's Superman," Conservator,
XVI (February, 1906), p. 183. "As in the Bible and Shakespeare /sic7 everyone seems to be able to find his own
ideas in Whitman. The socialist proves his socialism by
hiii, the anarchist his anarchy, the single-taxer his single
tax, the woman-suffragist her wanan-suffrage, the
imperialist and the anti-imperialist each his own pet
notion."
^tfhile others had translated Nietzsche's Ubermensch
&£ bevondman and overman^ George Bernard Shaw choe^e to
call him Superman, and thus set the fashion in America
for the super words. See Simeon Potter, Our Language
(Baltimores Penguin Books, 1959), pp. 81-82.
13
of the gods in due time and will attend to
his own breeding, and I think that is what
Walt thought.21
What Piatt casually lights upon is, perhaps, the most
important clue in the search for a thorough \mderstanding
of Walt Whitman's use of the evolution theory in Leaves of
Grass.
Piatt wrote his article in 1906, and it was not until
1912, six years afterwards, that the subject of //hitman's
Superman again was presented to a large reading public.
In
that year, an anonymous writer in the London Times, while
reviewing a current book on Nietassche, sought to clarify
the relationship between the Superman of whitman and that
of Nietzsches
Walt Whitman had never heard of the Superman—if he had one can imagine what he
would have thought of that would-be aristocratic but essentially vulgar conception.
Man was good enough for him. But all that
is human and real in the doctrine of the
Superman was clearly anticipated by Whitman.22
Whitman's praise of the coironon man, man as he is, does, in
a sense, obscure his emphasis upon the future development
of the species.
Perhaps it seems unlikely to conventional
critics that a poet who so loved man as the "divine average"
would seriously consider remaking him into a super creature.
21Isaac Hull Piatt, 2E» cit., p. 183.
^^^Anonymou^ "Walt Whitmans the Superman, " Times
/London? Literary Supplement, nr. 541 (May 23, 1912),
pp. 209-210.
14
The anonymous writer in the London Times goes on to comment
upon the difference in viewpoint between Whitman and
Nietzsche in regard to the common mans
Yes Whitman proclaimed the true Superman,
and the Superwoman too—^woman, whom
Nietzsche (note again the deep vulgarity
of this hater of the masses) calls "a
beautiful and dangerous cat," never to
be visited without the whip. But he
loved the common people, whom he knew
as Nietzsche never did, and saw the
greatness, actual or potential, in all
humanity, however "weak and botched."23
In this anonymous writer's opinion, Nietzsche looked forward
to the Superman because he was disgusted with man as he knew
him; but Whitman prophesied the Superman because he believed
that such perfect creatures as the human beings with whom
he was familiar could not do else but advance towards superhumanity.
Whereas Nietzsche's Superman was born of despair.
Whitman's Superman was a product of unfaltering faith in,
and love for, the common man.
It is unlikely, however, that
Whitman's idea was influenced by Nietzsche.
They were
diametrically opposed to each other in attitudes and temperament, and, as far as is known, never met nor exchanged
correspondence.
But the necessity for the theory of the
Superman to be recognized in !«rhitman's work in order to
provide structural unity was recognized, in 1938, by Carl F.
Strauch who was the first to maintain that "Song of Myself"
23
Ibid.
15
had any logical structure at all, and who stated that
sections 39-41 of the poem dealt with the Superman, though
he did not discuss the matter at great length.2*
If Whitman had never read the works of Nietzsche, it
is at least certain that he read thoroughly at least two
major works of Thomas Carlyle.
For in the latter part of
1846, shortly before he began making notes for Leaves of
Grass, he reviewed both Sartor Resartus and Heroes and
Hero-worship.^^
Fred Manning Smith, indeed, makes great
use of this fact to draw parallels between Carlyle's "hero"
and Whitman's "poet-prophet."
Though there are undoubtedly
similarities between the two, there is nevertheless an
important and essential difference between what the two
men consider to be the origin and the function of the great
individual.
Smith has put the probl^n succinctly thuss
The difference between Carlyle and Whitjnan
with reference to heroes is thiss Carlyle
believes BOSOB are born to be heroes and
some to follow the heroes; Whitman believes
that in America everyroaiican be the hero?6
2*Carl F. Strauch, "The Structure of Walt whitman's
'Song of Myself,'" Knolish Journal (College Edition), XXVII
(Septeml>er, 1938), p. 599.
^^For a discussion of this fact, see Fred Manning
Smith, "Whitman's Poet-Prophet and Carlyle's Hero," PMLA,
LV (December, 1940), 1146-1164. Smith attempts to discount Sknerson's influence on Whitman and to emphasize that
of Carlyle.
^^Ibid., p. 1158.
16
It goes without saying, of course, that Whitman would never
have accepted any doctrine which preached that some men are
b o m to be followers. Yet Whitman probably owes Carlyle a
great deal.
Carlyle's belief, for example, that history is
simply the study of great men findr its way, either consciously or unconsciously:^, into Leaves of Gras s s
"Produce
great persons, the rest follows," says Whitman in "By Blue
27
Ontario's Shore."
Carlyle wotild have agreed.
Much of Whitman's concept of the great individual
seems to agree, also, with doctrines which Smerson had
already prcnnulgated by the time Whitman published the first
edition of Leaves of Grass, though the critic should keep
in mind the fact that Whitman himself declared—and his
earliest biographers stoutly maintain the same fact—that he
28
had not read Btoerson's essays before 1855.^
But whether or
not Whitman had read Ssierson (and most recent biographers
and critics feel that he had)2^ many of Walt's and Emerson's
27
Walt Whitman, Oomplete Poetry and Selected Prose,
ed. James E. Miller, Jr. (Bostons Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1959), p. 242. All references to the text of X<eaves of
Grass will be found in this edition, and hereinafter only
page and section numbers will be supplied.
28
See John Burroughs, Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet
and Person (New Yorks American News CO., 1867), pp. 16-17.
29
See especially Clarence Gohdes, "Whitman andfinerson,"
Sewanee Review, XXXVII (January, 1929), 79-93; and John B.
Moore, "Vcm Master of Whitman," Studies in Philology, XXIII
(January, 1926), 77-89« Both studies emphasize Whitman's
indebtedness to finerson.
17
concepts regarding the need for great men, better poets,
and for breaking away from the European tradition seem
almost identicalo
And Ihomas B. Harned's observation that
Whitman's "use of the term 'God' is to symbolize the
spiritual vitality which pervades the universe"^^ qiiickly
calls to mind Bmerson's "Over-Soul," as well as the elan
vital which Henri Bergson popularized much later.
Both Bergson and George Bernard Shaw, in fact, seem,
as some critics have observed, to have been foreshadowed
by Whitman*
Attention has already been called to Gay Wilson
Allen's recognition of something akin to Bergson's elan
vital in whitman's thinking about the soul, and to Isaac
Hull Piatt's perception, when speaking of Shaw's treatment of Nietzsche's Superman, that Whitman had said much
31
the same thing that Shaw was then saying*.
Yet neither
Bergson nor Shaw, insofar as is known, was directly
influenced by the work of Walt Whitman.
Whitman's concept of the Superman, to recapitulate,
seems to have been influenced by, or at least bears resemblances to, that of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Robert Chambers,
32
Charles Darwin, Hegel,
Emerson, and Nietzsche; and his
^^Thomas B. Hamed, "The Poet of immortality," In Re
Walt Whitman (Philadelphias David McKay, 1893), p. 358.
3^See p. 10, above.
^^But Olive w. Parsons in "Whitman the Non-Hegelian,"
PMLA, LVIII (December, 1943), 1073-1093, finds little
similarity in the ideas of Whitman and Hegel*
18
concepts of the spiritual vitality of the universe have a
remarkable similarity to later concepts formxilated by Henri
Bergson and George Bernard Shaw*
Although an extended study of whitman's evolutionary
thought in relation to the whole history of the theory is
needed, the present essay will be concerned only with the
concept of the Superman in Leaves of Grass.
The following
chapters will (1) show the similarities in Walt Whitman's
concept of the Superman in Leaves of Grass to theoriec held
by I,amarck and Nietzsche, and others; (2) present a thoroiigh
discussion of the poet's belief that man will ultimately be
replaced by a creature superior to himself, one who will
not be found wanting in the face of grave danger; and (3)
indicate how Whitman intended to bring about "the coming
race of men and women, healthy both in mind and in body,
33
in whose certain advent he himself never once lost faith."
^^M\ L. Woodward, "Walt Whitman, a Prophet of the
Coming Race," Theosophical Review, XXXII (August, 1903),
p. 508. Despite its intriguing title, this article does not
bear directly upon the Superman theory in Leaves of Grass.
CHAPTER II
WHITMAN AND L.^kMARCKIAN EVOLUTION
What is the scientific foundation of Walt Whitman's
faith in the eventual appearance of the Superman?
Perhaps
the poet owed more to the French naturalist Lamarck (17441829) and to later extension of his biological theories into
sociology and politics than to any other scientific tradition.
Lamarck, accepting the theory championed by Biiffon
(1707-1788) that complex orgamisms were developed from preexistent simpler forms, theorized that c^o considerations
could explain the production of plants and animalss (1) time
without limit, and (2) favorable conditions.
He arranged
his diverse theories into four "laws"s
1)
Life by its proper forces tends continually
to increase the volume of every body possessing it, and to enlarge its parts up to
a limit which it brings about.
2)
The production of a new organ in an animal
body results from a supervention of a new
want continuing to make itself felt, and a
new movement which this want gives birth
to and encourages.
3)
The development of organs and their force
of action are constantly in ratio to the
employment of these organs.
4)
All which has been acquired, laid down, or
changed in the organization of individuals
in the course of their life is conserved
by generation and transmitted to the new
19
20
individuals which proceed from those
who have undergone these changes.^*
As is seen by the "laws," Lamarck has attempted to put
purpose behind the universe; organisms become higher forms
because they want to become better*
Because they feel a
new ns3d 0*: want (besoin), their behavior is necessarily
changed, and new organs or characteristics resulting from
the over-use or under-use of already-existing parts are
transmitted by inheritance to the proceeding generations.
Lamarck vaguely recognized the struggle for survival among
the species, but did not emphasize it as strongly as did
Darwin later.
The essential difference, consequently,
between "Lamarckisra" and "Darwinism" is simply Darwin's
emphasis upon natural selection and Lamarck's emphasis upon
a mystic wish or need felt by the living organism to rise
ever higher and higher.
It was, of course, only natural,
that both Nietzsche and, later, Bergson would seize upon
Lamarck's views to further their owns
Nietzsche believing
that "what man and every living being wants more than anything else is . • • a higher, more powerful state of being
in which the thousandfold impotence of his present state is
overccHoie, "^^ and Bergson formulating the theory of the elan
34
See the introduction to Lamarck's Histoire naturalle
des animaux sans vertebres, 1815. For a good English translation, see Alpheus S. Packard, Lamarcks The Founder of
Bvolution with translations of l^is writings on Organic Eyolution (Londons Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901), p. 346.
^^Anonymous, "Nietzsche," Bncvclopedia Britannica, XVI
(Chicagos William Benton, 1962), p. 434*
21
vi^ftil. (life force) which forces the organism constantly into
greater striving for ultimate perfection*
And the theory
of acquired characteristics, which Lamarck inferred from
Buffon, was accepted—though without proof—by Charles
Darwin in his Origin of Species and by Herbert Spencer,
Samuel Butler, Henri Bergson, and George Bernard Shaw.
It is perhaps the second of Lamarck's laws which has
the most importance in a discussion of Walt Whitman's concept of the Superman in Ijeaves of Grass.
Bvolution to a
higher state is not only possible under this second law,
it is almost inevitable; for every being must of necessity
prefer higher life to lower.
No man, for example, would
exchange places with an ape, no matter how dissatisfied
with life in the world of men he beceunei^ And since human
life is filled with new wants, some of which must undoubtedly
result in new and improved actions, progress must result.
It is worthwhile to note, in this connection, an explanation
of Lamarck's second law written by Bdward Carpenter, a
friend and ardent disciple of Whitman, and one who certainly
must have influenced the poet's biological thinkings
On the theory of Exfoliation, which was
practically Lamarck's theory, there is a
force at work throughout creation, ever
urging each type onward into new and newer
forms. This force appears first in consciousness in the form of desire. Within each
shape of life sleep wants without number,
from the lowest and simplest to the most
complex and ideal. As each new desire or
ideal is evolved, it brings the creature
into conflict with its surroundings, then
22
gaining its satisfaction externalizer itself
in the structure of the creature, and leaves
the way open for the birth of a new ideal.^6
Whitman's insistence on seeing in all forms of life "the
same old law" ("Song of Myself," sec. 14, p. 33) reminds
one that he, like Lamarck, believed in a single force
underlying and influencing all animal life.
Indeed the poet
spoke of past needs which had been biologically supplied,
"of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has
become supplied—and of what will yet be supplied"
("TiMJughtB," p. 196).
It has already been noted that no evidence exists
to show that Whitman had read Lamarck.
Hargis Westerfield
notes, just as strongly, that concrete evidence is lacking
in prove that Whitman had ever read a line of Darwin.^^
Carpenter's friendship with Whitman and his obvious leaning
towards Leuaarckism instead of towards Darwinism suggests
further support of the Lamarckian theory of progress in
Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
Similarities in Whitman's poetry
CO views held by Bergson also seem to indicate his orientation of the Lamarckian theory of progress (remembering
Bdward Carpenter, "Exfoliations Lamarck versus
Darwin, " Civilizations Its Cause and Cure and other Bssavs
(New Yorks Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), p. 140. This
book is of added importance because Carpenter uses quotations from Leaves of Grass as headnotes, apparently to
bolster his evolutionary views.
37
Hargis Westerfield, Walt Whitman * L Reading (An
unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana, April, 1949),
p. 162.
23
that Bergson himself was greatly influenced by Lamarck).
As a matter of fact. Gay Wilson Allen professes to see
in the "Santa Spirita" of Whitman's "Chanting the Square
Deific" a something quite unlike the "Holy Ghost," and a
something more akin to Bergson's elan vital*
Whitman
describes the Santa Spirita ass
Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me what
were all? what were God?)
Essence of forms, life of the real identities,
permanent, positive, (namely the unseen)
(sec* 4, p* 311)*
Like Bergson's life-force. Whitman's Santa Spirita is a
universal force pervading all living things, providing the
only permanent structure which can give meaning and focus
to life.
In this scheme man, as an integral part of this lifeforce, is to make his contribution to it as best he can.
In "O Mei O Lifel" the poet answers the question, "What
good is there in the universe?" with the idea—
that life exists and identity.
That the powerful play goes on, and you may
contribute a verse (p. 197).
That the life-force makes mistakes, that the road to perfection is not all downhill cruising, is admitted by
Whitman in "Song of Myself" when he speaks of himself as
the "caresser of life vherever moving, backward as well as
forward sluing" (sec. 13, p. 32). And that all living
38
Gay Wilson Allen, ,2it Solitary Sinoer. p. 359*
24
things share within them the same force and motivation is
attested by the fact that whitman sees in them and in himself "the same old law" in speaking of natural life such
as mice, pigs, and turkies*
Such extracts as the above have been q[uoted by some
critics to prove »^itman a pamtheist (as in a restricted
sense he is), or a "panpsychist" (which is somewhat doxibtful).
Modem Lamj*rchians see evidence of the life-force
in every li/lng thing, and if this makes them pantheists,
it does not yet make them any the less Lamarckians. To
classify Walt Whitman as a "panpsychist" one would necessarily have to demonstrate that the poet believed in
ultimate perfection; whereas it is much easier, and more
profitable, to show that Whitman holds views close to
those of Henri Bergson—that all life is continually in
the process of becc»&ing perfect, yet never achieving absolute perfection.
In "Song of the Open Road" the solitary singer seems
emphatically to divorce himself from concepts of ultimate,
dogmatic perfections
It is provided in the essence of things that
from any fruition of success, no matter what,
shall ccMne forth something to make a greater
struggle necessary (sec. 14, p. 115).
HSre the poet implies that the evolutionary struggle will
never be conpleted, that each successful goal attained poses
additional burdens upon the competers in the struggle. A
similar utterance occ\irs in section forty-five of "Song of
25
Myself"s
"Ivery condition proraulges not only itself, it
promulges what grows after and out of itself" (p. 63). Ihe
struggle is indeed "a perpetual Journey*"
This is not to
say that the ideal of perfection is absent from Whitman's
poemss
In this broad earth of ours.
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Bnclosed and safe within its central heart.
Nestles the seed perfection ("Song of the Universal,"
' sec. 1, p. 166).
Perfection is present, but perfection is, after all, a
seed—a growing thing, an organism never really achieving
ctilmination; for when a seed has performed its function as
well as it can, another seed replaces it, and another, perhaps even greater struggle, consequently becomes necessary.
Ihe seed metaphor expresses well Whitman's concept of perfection. Just as the "long-Journey" motif symbolizes so
well his image of life as a struggle along a road of progress to perfection.^^
One might note, incidentally,
another instance of the seed metaphor used for the same purpose in "Song for All Seas, All Ships"s
£ver the heroes on water or on land, by ones or
twos appearing,
Ever the stock preserv'd and never lost, though rare,
enough for seed preserved (p., 190).
Ihus the continuity of the race does not insure perfection,
but only the means of attaining perfection*.
^^Oay Wilson Allen, "Walt Whitman's 'long-Journey'
Motif," Journal fi£ Knalish agd Germanic Philology^ XXXVIII
(1939), 77-78.
26
In "Song of the Open Road," Whitman says "Aliens to
that which is endless as it was beginningless" (sec. 13,
p. 113). Life on the progressive road is endless and
beginningless, and therefore it is the present which really
matters.
Whitman sees "the universe itself as a road, as
many roads, as roads for human souls" (sec. 13^ p. 113).
Speaking of mankind, the pilgrims who tread the open road,
the poet sayss
Ihey go I they gol I know that they go, but I
know not where they go.
But I know that they go toward the best—toward
something great (sec. 13, p. 114).
Ihe progression is constant and never-ending*
Note the same
idea as presented in "Song of Myself"s
My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs.
On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches
between the steps.
All below duly travel'd, and still I mount and
mount (sec* 44, p. 62).
Ihe stair metaphor and the road metaphor indicate progression
towards perfection; the seed metaphor represents perfection
itself, but a special type of perfection, a perfection
never attained, yet constantly struggled for and desired.
Ihe poet seems to believe in ultimate progress—though not
completion in perfection—of mankind*
In the light of these facts it seems apparent that
change seemingly means progress to '/Hiitman, and he in effect
precludes in his thinking the possibility that change can be
for the worse« seeming to hold with Robert Louis Stevenson's
contention in "Pulvis et Uknbra" that man is forever condemned
27
to a certain noble ascent*
A single line from "Song of
Myself" indicates this attitudes
"The goal that was
naraad cannot be countermanded" (sec. 14, p. 114). A great
paart of Whitman's message in this respect is, of course,
that one must have courage in his quest for future greatness.
In "Item 0 Libertad" this note is soundeds
Then turn, and be not alarm'd O Libertad—
turn your tindying face.
To where the future, greater than all the past.
Is swiftly, surely preparing for you (p. 232).
Although this great quotation is taken slightly out of context (the subject of the poem is the end of the Civil War
and the necessity for facing the future with courage while
forgetting the past), it nevertheless is typical of Whitman's
attitudes towards past and future whether he is discussing
politics or biological evolution.
In the path of the forward marching life-force, in
Whitman's thinking all obstacles are brushed ruthlessly
asides
All religion* all solid things, arts, governments—
all that was or is apparent upon this globe
or any globe, falls into niches and comers
before the procession of souls along the
grand roads of the universe ("Song of the
Open Road," sec. 13, p. 114).
It is to be noted that Whitman here uses the plural roads
rather than the singular road, a fact which may perhaps be
of little significance; but, on the other hand it may
indicate his desire to express a belief in a multiplicity
of paths to perfection«
Both Lamarck and Bergson, of coiirse,
pointed out that the biological paths to perfection are
28
diverse in manifestation, though they doubtless would have
agreed with Whitman that all life responds to "the same old
law."
For Whitman, at any rate, nothing may stand in the
way of the progression of great souls. Many critics have
seen the idea of progress in Leaves of Grass# but few have
discovered his proposed means of bringing about progress.*^
But what of purpose in the universe?
Does Whitman
believe that life progresses towards higher fozms because
it "Grants to"?
Can man achieve something called perfection
by willing, then acting, then becoming?
Whitman sees a piirposeful universes
Certainly, Walt
"the world, the race,
the soul—in space and time the universes,/ All bound as
is befitting each—all surely going somewhere" ("Going
Somewhere," p. 362). And he believes that the future life
of man shall be worthy of envys
I annoxmce a life that shall be copious, vehement,
spiritual, bold,
I announce an end that shall lightly and Joyfully
meet its translation ("So Long," p. 349).
^(^adie M. Clark, for example, has seen in Whitman's
poetry a prophecy of the Superman, but has not grasped his
evolutionary doctrine which supports such a theorys "Rather
than re-educate the existing man and attempt to resolve
existing differences of opinion arising out of different
racial, social, religious, or economic backgrounds. Whitman
chose to proclaim the new man to come. Whitman did not
designate how the best of the existing stock was to be
chosen or how the misfits, which existed in the West as well
as in the other sections of the country were to be weeded
out. The stocks that would produce the divine average
would Just happen." See her book, Walt Whitman * s Concept
of the American Common Man (New Yorks Philosophical
Library, 1955), p* 129. It should be noted that, under the
provisions of the Lamarckian theory of progress which has
been earlier discussed, the Superman would "Just happen"
with the passage of time.
29
nothing, as a matter of fact, can defeat the life-force;
for even time is biologically overcomes
Lies the seed unreck'd for centuries in the
ground? lo, to God's due occasion.
Uprising in the night, it sprouts, blooms.
And fills the earth %rith use and beauty
("Passage to India," sec* 6, p. 292).
Again, the seed means perfection, expressing the concept
that perfection is always present, but must be nurtured.*^
Whitman does not fear the consequences of biological
change t
I do not know
But I know it
ficient,
Myself,"
what is untried and afterward.
will in its turn prove sufand cannot fail ("Song of
sec. 43, p* 61).
This is exuberant optimism*
But there is still mores
Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw
the little that is Good steadily hastening
to*r^T *B immortality.
And the vast all that is call'd Bvil I saw
hastening to merge itself and beccxne
lost and dead ("Roaming in Thought,"
p. 198).
In the eventual progress of the universe, indeed. Whitman
42
sees the actual impossibility of evil*
Still Whitman recognizes the necessity for prodding
man forward on his Journey, knowing that the temptation to
*^See pp. 25-26 for a discussion of the seed metaphor.
^^Rudolph Schmidt, "Walt Whitman, the Poet of American
Democracy," jQa M Wialt Whitman (Philadelphias David McKay,
1893), p» 244, has stressed Whitman's afirmation of the
impossibility of evils "He /pitman/ also Joyfully takes
up the grand thought of the impossibility of evil, and likes
to look upon that which usually scandalizes men as an
expression, lawful in its way, of life's energies.'
30
maintain the status quo is almost irreststible.Note the
Joyous cosmand in "Song of the Open Road"j
Allonsl we must not stop here.
However sweet these laid-up stores, however
convenient this dwelling we cannot
remain here.
However shelter'd this port and however calm
these waters ve must not an'-hor here.
However welcome th6 hispitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive
it but a little while (sec. 9, p. 112).
Such a statement affords no comfort for mortals content to
gaze upon completed works. One must be mindful of the
work ahead.
The Journey is perpetual.
In "Song of Myself"
this attitiide is made crystal clears
And I said toroyspirit When we become the
enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure
and knowledge of every thing in them>
MMH »& M fUl'<Ji m M satisfied j^bea?
And my spirit said JSQ, we but level that lift
to pass and continue bevond (sec. 46, p. 64).
And again a little later, he emphasizes the need to forget
the past and to embrace the futures
"the past and present
wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied th«n, / \nd proceed to
fill my next fold of the future ("Song of Myself," sec. 51,
p. 68).
Bven death itself is no excuse for cessation of work.
For to Walt Whitman death, in the sense generally understood,
does not exists
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.
And if ever there was it led forward life, and
does not %rait at the end to arrest it.
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd ("Song of
Myself," soc. 6, p. 28).
31
To the biologist, of course, death is necessary for tome
animals and plants to make room (or provide food) for
others; yet death in this sense does not stop life, but as
Whitman says, leads it forward.
Death is unable to remove from man his essential
characteristics.
The following statement from "Starting
from Paumanok" embraces the theory of acquired characteristicss
Of your real body and any man's
real body.
Item for it€wa it will elude the
corpse-cleaners and x:>ass to
Carrying what has accrued to it
or woman's
hands of the
fitting spheres.
from the moment
of birth to the moment of death (sec. 13, p. 21).
It should be noted here that it is not only the soul of
man which will escape the corpse-cleaners, but the body
also.
Even in a discussion of immortality. Whitman accords
equal rank to the soul and to the body.
Any reader of
Leaves of Grass will not have to be told of whitman's
distaste for theologans who had sought to subjugate the body
in the interests of the spirit.
it.
Whitman would have none of
Indeed, Haniel Long considers this insistence upon
maintaining body and soul as a unit "the great central
strength of Whitman*"*^
Leaves of Grass, then, is best understood when the
reader takes the grass as a symbol of imnortality, realizing
that the smallest sprout of grass proves the impossibility
^^Haniel Long, Walt Whitman and the Springs of Courage
(Santa Fe: Writers' Editions, Inc., 1938), p. 65.
32
of death, and that the individual poems in the great poem
are praises to the life-force*
When this is done, another
problem is solvod—the reason for Whitman's great emphasis
upon sex*
Whatever one may say of sex, it must remain the
highest of nature's achievements; for it is the sole means
whereby man may hope to achieve insaortality*
To Whitman,
it is absurd that anyone could possibly think of sex as
immoral; for it sex is immoral, then isBBortality itself is
immoral*
As whitman said in "Song of Myself" in a somewhat
comical vein, "Copulation is no more rank to me than death
is" (sec* 24, p* 42). Copulation is nature's means of
nullifying death.
Nevertheless, what man ultimately desires to do, he
will find means of accomplishing.
The human will, ''hitman
believes, is the great motivational force of history.
In
"Passage to India," he stresses the acquired characteristic s
of society, the hope that what one generation accomplishes
may be passed on to succeeding generationss
Down to the footlights walks in some great scena.
Dominating the rest I see the Admiral himself,
(History's type of courage, action, faith,)
(sec. 6, p. 292).
Sven as the dreams of Coluinbus are realized centuries after
his death, so the dreams of present mankind will some day
be verified, and the struggle will continue to be necessary
to progress even further.
The future, not the past, is one of the most important
concepts in whitman's work*
All of history, all of the
33
splendour of the present, is important only as it contributes its verse to the awe-inspiring future which he
envisions s
Of vista—suppose some sight in arriere
through the formative chaos, presuming
the growth, fulness, life, now attain'd
on the Journey,
(But I see the road continued, and the Journey
ever continued;)
Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time
has become supplied—and of what will yet
be supplied.
Because all I see and know I believe to have
its main purport in what will yet be
supplied ("Thoughts," p* 196),»4
One may thus see that the Lamarckian theory of progress affords the scientific basis for Whitman's optimism
concerning the future of mankind; inherent in his acceptance of it lie most of his fundamental conceptss
his
belief in the eventual production of the Superman; the
necessity for change and the essential goodness of change;
for his insistence upon immortality; for his belief in the
impossibility of evil; his stern realization of the necessity to continue the forward and upward struggle beyond the
status quo; his recognition of sex in its original purity
and significance to religious and evolutionary thought;
his
concern that the present Justify the efforts of the past so
that they will not have been in vain; his insistence upon the
unity and equality of body and soul; and his faith that the
future leads sooMwhere, towards something great.
**Three poems in Leaves of Gyass bear the title "Thoughtsi
as well as six poems which are called "Thought." The text of
Leaves of Qrass must be at hand to avoid confusion.
CHAPTER III
THE SUPSRMAN IN LBAVES OF GRASS s GENERAL PICTURE
Walt Whitman's Superman, speaking generally, is presented in Leaves of Grass as an embodiment of those characteristics which the poet most admired in living men, and of
those attributes of which he himself boasted and therefore
wished for future generations of mankind to possess. In
the second place, the Superman, as Whitman envisaged him,
would in his social relationships achieve greater heights
than was possible for man in his current limited state to
sacle. Our examination of the general picture of the Superman in Leaves of Grass is, then, concerned with two problems s
(1) the characteristics of the individual Superman,
and (2) the characteristics of the society which, according
to the poet, will eventually be made up of Supermen.
Perhaps the most effective point to begin a discussion
of the general picture of the Superman in Leaves of Grass is
"Song of Myself, " which, because of its special position in
X«eaves of Grass as the first major statement of whitman's
basic concepts, will best introduce a reader to the philosophy of the Superman as i^ appears throughout the book.
Gay Wilson Allen has noticed this function of "Song of Myself"
as followss
"the reader will discover that the central
theme of 'Song of Myself,' and the basic motif of Jfeayes of
34
35
Grass as a whole, is cosmic and human development."
Such
an interpretation of the relationship between "Song of
Myself" ana Leaves of Grass proper is valid, in addition,
because this po^m, included in all nin* editions of Whitman's
book, \inderwent through whitman's years of constant revising
no real changes of philosophical content.*^
Thus, a critic
may conveniently begin with "Song of Myself" in any serious
search for structure or meaning in Whitman's maon^m opus.
In terms of the concept of the Superman, "Song of
Myself" falls into five major sectionss*^
I.
Sections 1-19s
the poet identifies his personal
characteristics with those of all life
II.
S€K;tions 20-25s
The poet reveals his personal,
unique nature
III.
Sections 26-38s
Whitman's personal, unique nature
comes into contact with all of life.
IV.
Sections 39-41s
Whitman's personal, unique nature
and the characteristics of all life measured against
traditional gods with the result that mankind is the
*^0«y >Jilson Allen, Walt whitman Handbook, pp. 444-445.
^^Ibid., p. 115. "The variorum readings /of "Song of
MyselfJ^ are over half as long as the finished poem; only
two sections (9 and 27) were unrevised. However, a close
examination reveals that the fundamental ideas were not
changed, though the revisions improved the rhythm, diction
and coherence."
^ Ibid*> pp* 444-445.
statement, above.
I base my outline on Allen's
36
equal of God, therefore Superman*®
V*
Sections 42-52t
Finally, having established his
personal, unique nature as in union with that of all
life, the poet turns to considerations affecting both
his personal, unique nature and all of life (religion,
faith, God, death, immortality, happiness)*
It will be seen from the above outline that "Song of Myself"
49
is chiefly concerned with the mystic experience
in which
whitman attempts to infuse his personal impressions, opinions,
and experiences into those impressions and experiences which
are common to all forms of life*
When the poet advances to
a higher state, therefore, all forms of life are elevated
with him; for they are of the same essence and conform to
"the same old law*"
Attention has already been called to
the marked similarity between Whitman's identification of
himself with all of life to Henri Bergson's concept of the
elan vital which underlies and promotes continual progression in all forms of life, both animal and vegetable.^"
*®The reader will note the similarity of my outline to
that of Carl P. Strauch, "The Structure of Walt Whitman's
Song of Myself," Ifnalish Journal (College Edition), XXVII
(Sept., 1938), p* 599* I am greatly indebted to this article.
Of especial interest is the fact that Strauch labels sections
30-41 of "Song of Myself"—"The Superman."
*^Ja»es B. Miller, Jr. in A Critical Guide tg Leaves
qt Grass (University of Chicago Press, 1957), p* 6, states
that ""Song of Myself is the dramatic representation of a
flqr*^^^*^ oxperience*" He analyses "Song of Myself" by
dividing it into seven sections describing the mystical experience from beginning to end* Miller's outline, though it fails
to recognize the principle of the Superman, is valuable for
the light it throws on textual problems of the poem*
^^See Chapter I*
37
To clarify the above outline of "Song of Myself, " I have
attempted to present below a sentence outline of each of
the fifty-two sections of the poem based upon the foregoing
assumptions*
While it is obviously impossible to reduce
every section of ''Song of Myself" to a single statement of
intent (since almost every one of the sections embraces
diverse concepts), it is nevertheless hoped that the following chart will serve as a working model for analysis of
th* po«..51
PART ONES
SECTIONS 1-19
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OP THE POET IDENTIPIBD WITH THOSE
OF ALL LIFE
(1)
I announce myself and my earth companion—my
52
soul — and ray affinity for all men.
(2)
I will not permit myself to be intoxicated with
the perfumes of creeds, but will seek out the
odors of the open air which are the essence of
life at first hand.
'^^The analysis which will follow is strongly influenced
by that of William L* Moore in Walt whitman's Poems, Sono of
Mvself* ly Blue Ontario * s ghore (Tokyos Kenkyusha, n*d*),
pp, 2-4* Although Moore's analysis of these poems is
intended for Japaneese students, its remarkable simplification of themes, vocabulary, and technique is valuable for
students of any level*
*^Moore (ibi^*. p* 32) points out that Whitman considered himself a pair of comrades—he and his separate
soul*
38
(3)
I celebrate body as well as soul, the outer
life as well as the inner.^^
(4)
I will not be waylaid by arguments and raockings,
but simply v^itness and wait; for though these
things occur to me, they are not the Me myself*
(5)
The spirit of God is the brother of my ovm
spirit, as was proved to me by the passionate
embrace of my soul, a fact which passes all
the arguments of the earth*
(6)
All life is ismortal; nothing collapses, myself
or anything*
(7)
I am the mate and companion of people, all Just
as immortal and fathomless as myself.
(8)
I witness all births, lives, and deaths.
(9)
I am present at the hay harvest.
(10)
I am in close companionship with outdoors fellows.
(11)
I watch a lonely woman who in turn watches twentyeight young men bathing naked in the sea.
(12-13)
I watch lusty laborers, and stand by their side.
^^This statement points up another area of ^Hiitman's
use of the evolution theory which should be researched further, i.e., the Neoplatonic dc rine of the correspondence
between external or physical beauty and internal or spiritual
beauty. If this concept were fully understood by the scholars, perhaps Whitman's emphasis upon the body's being equal
with the soul would acquire more significance. The problem
is mentioned by Allen in the Handbook, pp. 264-266. Allen
cites the poems "The Sleepers" and "Faces" in this connection*
39
(13-14)
I am the carresser of all life*
(15-16)
A learner with the simplest and a teacher
of the thoughtfullest, I find myself in
kinship with all forces everywhere, and out
of them I create this song of myself.
(17)
The thou^ts I here set down are not only ray
thoughts, but the thoughts of all men and of
all ages*
(18-19)
I play ray music for the loser as well as for
the victor, and will companion with the ugly
as well as the beautiful; I will not have a
single person slighted or left away.
PART TWOS
SECTIONS 20-25
THE POET REVEALS HIS PERSONAL, UNIQUE NATURE
(20)
I am deathless, and I laugh at what you call
dissolution.
(21)
I am the poet of the sensuous love between man
and woman.
(22)
I am the poet of goodness and badness; in fact,
all creeds are contained within me, so that I
do not bother to argue with any of them.
(23)
I give first honors always to material reality,
yet that is not my dwelling—only a means of
arriving at my dwelling*
(24)
I am no sentimentalist, and do not stand apart
or above others, but with them; yet I dote on
rayself*
40
(25)
I possess divine powers of vision and speech,
but writing and talk do not prove me; with the
hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic*
PART THREES
SECTIONS 26-38
WHITMAN'S PERSONAL, UNIQUE NATURE COMES INTO CONTACT WITH
ALL LIFE
(26)
I will listen for the life about me.
(27)
I touch life about roe, and it is about as much
as I can stand*
(28-29)
I touch myself.
(30-31)
All truths wait in all things, even in the most
insignificant phenomena of nature.
(32)
I love the touch of animals.
(33)
I move among all lands, seas, and times.
(34)
I tell of the loss of life of the men of Texas,
the glory of the race of ramgers.
(35-36)
(37)
I watched life and death in naval battles.
I suffer with all sufferers and am outlawed
with all outlaws.
(38)
I am scorned and mocked, but I troop forth
replenished with supreme powers.
PART FOURS
SECTIONS 39-41
MAN AS SUPERMAN WHEN COMPARED WITH TRADITIONAL GODS
(39)
The friendly and flowing savage is accepted
wherever he goes.
41
(40) My will is resistless and lovers of me are
bafflers of graves.
(41)
The supernatural is nothing to me since I myself
am waiting my time to be one of the supremes.
PART FIVES
SECTIONS 42-52
CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING ALL LIFE
(42)
Since I have proved my identity with all, it is
time to discuss the eternal and fundamental
questions.
(43) My faith encompasses all faiths of all times,
and my faith is thiss
"I do not know what is
untried and afterward, but I know it will in
its turn prove sufficient."
(44)
On this spot I stand with my robust soul, knowing
that I am the acme of civilization.
(45)
I and everything else are only a part of the whole;
ray sun has his sun and round him obediently
wheels*
(46-47)
I was never measured and will never be measured,
and I cannot measure for you; you must do your
own measuring.
(48)
God is omnipresent; I hear and behold God in
every object*
(49-50)
I am not afraid of death since it is only a part
of the eternal whole of eternal life.
42
(51)
Yss, I have been inconsistent, but what does
that matter?
(52)
I am leaving you, but you can always find me in
nature.
In the preceding outline of "Song of Myself, " one may see
the important relationship of the concept of the Superman
to all of Whitman's philosophy.
Whitman first identifies
his own life processes with the life processes of all forms
of life (sections 1-19); then, in succession, he reveals
his owti nature (sections 20-25) for the sake of comparison
and contrast with other life forms, causes his own soul to
intermingle itself with all other forms of life (sections
26-38), and considers himself a Superman (sections 39-41).
Finally he turns to a discussion of the fundamental philosophical questions upon which any order of life must proceed*
The Superman is, then, one who has infused himself
into, and been absorbed by, all of life's processes.^^
Under Whitman's definition of such a personage, all men can
be Supermen*
Perhaps the most important aspect of this
^^Thls is, incidentally, one of the principles which
underlie Whitman's poetic technique, the process of
illustrating the whole by its parts, and has consequently
been illustrated by the above analysis of "Song of Myself."
Wellek and Warren corroborate this same truths "In his
parallestic chants like "Song of Myself" he is dominated by
the desire to present details, individuals as parts of a
whole. • * * First he lays out his categories, and then he
copiously illustrates th^a*" Op* Cit*, p. 185*
43
discussion is that given in sections 39-41, which proclaims
the future Superman as one who shall take himself "the
exact dimensions of Jehovah" (sec. 41, p. 58).
Thus throughout "Song of Myself" the concept of a
future Superman is implicit.
Bven the highest that is
known by man will one day be superseded by even the minutest
personages
Have you outstript the rest? are you the
President?
It is a trifle, they will more than arrive
there every one, and still pass on
(sec* 21, p. 39).
Even God is of little account in Ivhitman's scheme, since
man himself will one day equal the deitys
"The super-
natural of no acco\int, myself waiting ray time to be one
of the supremes" (sec. 41, p* 58). And the duty of the
poet is to hasten the coming of the Supermans
"On women
fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes, / This
day I am Jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics"
(sec. 40, p. 57).
Once the presence of a belief in the Superman in "Song
of Myself" is established, one may readily conclude that
the idea permeates the whole of his poetry; and this is
true.
As seen in Leaves of Grass generally the Superman
reveals five general attributess
(1) he is athletic, (2) he
is arrogant, (3) he is affectionate, (4) he is invincible,
and (5) he is scholarly.
examined.
Each of these facts will now be
44
Bven the popular reader of Leaves of Grass and of the
Whitman biography will be aware of the poet's emphasis upon
an athletic life, a life of the outdoors.
In fact, ic was
Whitman's belief that the best persons were produced through
contact with natures
"Now I see the secret of the making
of the best persons, / It is to grow in the open air and
to eat and sleep with the earth" (sec. 6, p. 110). Throughout the book. Whitman praises masculinity, good health,
and athletic living.
Especially evident is his praise of
the American frontiersman, presumably a forerunner of the
Superman.
In the poem "The Prairie-Orass Dividing, » his
heroes are described as "coarse, sunlit, fresh, nutritious"
(p* 94) and in the ecstatic poem "So Long" the poet says
"I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweetblooded, / I announce a race of splendid and savage old men"
(p. 349). Bven the future Supermen poets will be essentially
"a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than
before known" ("Poets to come," p. 13); and women must also
satisfy th« requirement of athl<»tic good health and vigors
"When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America, /
Then to me and mine our due fruition" ("So Long," p. 348).
After all, of course, it is the women who must produce the
new and greater races
"on women fit for conception I start
55
Gay Wilson Allen records, most interestingly, D. H.
Lawrence's opinion of Whitman's women as they are represented in Leaves Qg Grasf—"Muscles and wombs. They needn't
have faces at all." See Jlje Solitary Sincrer, p. 188.
45
bigger and nimbler babes, / (This day I am Jetting the
stuff of far more arrogant republics)" (sec. 40, "Song of
Myself," p* 57).
Arrogance, or audacity, is an equally noticeable
attribute of Whitman's Superman.
In "The Prarie-Grass
Dividing" the poet seems to praise extreme audacity and
arrogance s
Those with a never-quell'd audacity, those
with sweet and lusty flesh clear of taint.
Those that look carelessly in the faces of
Presidents and governors, as to say Who
are you? (p. 94).
The inevitable result of such audacity is, of course, an
utter contempt for authority; presidents and governors are,
in fact, to be supplanted by the Supezman who will leave
thma far behind*
made clears
In "Song of Myself," this concept is
"Have you outstript the rest?
are you the
President? / It is a trifle, they will more than arrive
there every one, and still pass on" (sec* 21, p* 39). The
imnge of ordinary men surpassing all that presidents and
governors can do is perhaps the most effective one possible
to convey a sense of pride in man for himself.
A3 a matter of fact, in Whitman's work pride ceases
to be a vice and becomes a virtue.
In "To a Historian" for
example, the poet compares his work with that of the
historian, dismissing lightly historical study in favor of
studies of man for what he is in himselfs
X, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of
him as he is in himself in his own rights.
Pressing the pulse of life that has seldom
exhibited itself.
46
(the great pride of man in himself,)
Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet
to be,
X project the history of the future (p. 7).
Again in "So Long" Whitman makes his love of pride, audacity and arrogance strikingly clears
"I announce uncom-
prcanising liberty and equality, / I announce the Justification of candor and the Justification of pride (p. 348)."
In addition to the trait of arrogance, the Superman
will be characterized by an affectionate and compassionate
personalitys
"I announce the great individual, fluid as
Nature, chaste, affectionate, cora{>assionate," . . .
("So
Long," p. 348). In fact, the "love of comrades" is one of
the most important thaanes throughout Leaves of Grass*
A
quotation from "To the East and to the West" will show
how highly Whitman valued the love of ccmrades, making it
indeed "the main purport" of the American experiments
I believe the main purport of these States
is to found a superb friendship,
exalte, previously unknown.
Because I perceive it waits, and has been
always waiting, latent in all men (p. 97).
The fact that this poem is a part of the "Calamus"
section might cause some to reason that what is "latent in
all men" is meant to be latent homosexuality.
In fact
many critics upon discovering the undeniable homosexual
tendencies of Whitman's poetry, are prone to agree readily
with Mark van Doren's Judgments
His ^^IThitman'^ democratic dogmas—of what
validity are they when we consider that they
base themselves upon tha sentiment of "manly
47
love," and that manly love is neither more
nor less than an abnormal and deficient
love?56
Such a condemnation is unfair; for Whitman's concept of the
spiritual democracy is not without nobility, spirituality,
brotherhood, understanding, and vision.
His prophecy of
the Supermen maintaining themselves through manly love is
not the vulgar relationship which the Spartan troops
encouraged among themselves, or of the Third Reich's S.S.
brand of homosexual sadism, or the faddish amusement of
courtiers during the Egyptian empire, or the modern brand
of young men turned homosexual through sheer boredom.
Whitman's true love of ccxnrades is Just as spiritual as it
is physical and precludes dishonor, vulgarity, licentiousness, and sadism; it is simply the hearty, friendly attachment of one man for another.
Its importance in this dis-
cussion arises because of Whitman's statement that such
attachments were "the main purport" of America's political
system.
It is best to accept the "Calamus" section of Leaves
of Grass for what it is rather than attempt to rationalize
it away as James E. Miller, Jr. does when he states that
"the tokens of amative love in 'Calamus' are but metaphors,
a poetic attempt to associate with spiritual love the
intensity and personal passion of traditional rc^antic
Mark van Doren, RiMniniscences of Walt Whitman
(Londons Alexander Gardner, 1896), pp. 133-134*
48
attachment. 57
such a statement is typical of critics who
seek to dany Whitman's homoeroticism in order, supposedly,
to maintain his great poetic reputation*
Newton Arvin,
much more honestly, does not seek to avoid the problems
For one thing the fact of Whitman's homosexuality is one that cannot be denied by
any informed and candid reader of the
"Calamus" poems, or his published letters,
and of accounts by \mbiased acquaintancess
after a certain point the fact stares one
unanswerably in the face.58
Men are prone, of course, to see God in their own image.
Thus it is only natural that Walt Whitman should equip his
future Supermen with one of his own personal traits.
Whitman's "homosexisality" was almost certainly a way of
life with him; and, certainly, he saw "the true love of
comrades" as the thread which would hold together future
society, the society of supermen.
It was supposedly in the West that the American
Superman would be produced.
The following passage from
"The Prairie-Grass Dividing" describes the characteristics
of the future Supermen.
Note the emphasis upon masculinity
and male friendship in the depiction of the future society
of Superment
The prairie-grass dividing, its special odor
breathing,
I demand of it the spiritual corresponding.
57
'James E. Miller, Jr., "Whitman's 'Calamus's
Leaf and the Root," PMLA, LXXII (1957), p. 271.
58!iewton Arvin, Whitman (New Yorks
1938), p. 274.
The
The Macmillan Co.,
49
Demand the most copious and close companionship of men.
Demand the blades to rise of words, acts,
beings.
Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit,
fresh, nutritious.
Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping
with freedom and command, leading not
following.
Those that look carelessly in the faces of
Presidents and governors, as to say
Hl3l2 are you? (p. 94).
These super-human characteristics bear a suspicious resemblance to the character of Walt Whitman himself.
"The most
copious and close companionship of men" certainly must
mean something more than the traditional Christian concept of brotherly love. This poem# too, is among the
"Calamus" group, and sexuality as well as politics is among
its themes.
The theme of the attachment of soldiers gives birth
to one of the most beautiful poems in the language, "As
Toilsome I Wandered Virginia's Woods," in which the narrator wearily chances upon a rude grave in Virginia woods
and sees the hastily scrawled epitaph composed by the living
comrade for his deceased and beloved camerados
"Bold,
cautious# true, and my loving comrade" (p. 220). Perfect
in form and stately in sentiment, this poem is one of the
finest ever achieved in such short space in the tradition
of the elegy and epitaph.
Equally effective is the imagery
of "Salut au Monde" in which, as Harry R. Warf el has pointed
out.
The shift in imagery from the clasped hand
of the opening line to the uplifted hand in
TEXAS TECHNOLOGICAL COUEGE
tUBBOCK. TEXAS
UBRARY
50
the concluding paragraph subtly suggests
the dual function of friendships true
friendship offers a warm personal relationship and also a responsibility for
leadership in the spirit of "I am my
brother's keeper," a spirit implicit in
the images of the avators of deity in
section 6.59
Thus the male friendship which Whitman has in mind does
include both personal feeling and responsibility.
Will Hayes, author of Walt Whitmans
The Prophet of
the New Era, though he has failed to perceive the theory
of the Superman in Leaves of Grass, has said that "true
comradeship will be the basis of the New Democracy, " and
has gone on to discuss the means whereby Whitman sought to
bring about the new eras
Underlying all their words and deeds is
this one idea, that only love and brotherhood can bring the New World into being.
Men and women must be saturated with a
spirit of intense and loving comradeship.
There must be a personal and passionate
attachment of man to man, of woman to
woman, and of man to woman. For here is
something which transcends sex and bridges
all gulfs which separate one from another.^^
Not only must brotherly love bring about the new world, but,
as has been seen, it must hold the new world together when
it does eventually evolve.
^^Harry R. Warfel, Whitman's 'Salut au Mondet 'The
Ideal Human Brotherhood. Reprinted from Phylon, Second
Quarter, 1958, p. 156.
^^Will Hayes, Walt Whitmans The Prophet of the New
Era (Londons C. W. Daniel, Limited, 1921), p. 16.
51
The love of comrades is important, in addition,
because the fact that Supermen will love one another will
make them invincible.
The identification of hc»nosexual
love with the super-state is, of course, nothing new.
Plato long ago had one of his debaters in the Symposixam
advocate such a system for the Greek armies s
And if there were only some way of contriving
that a state or any army should be made up
of lovers and their loves, they would be the
very best governors of their own city,
abstaining from all dishonor, and emulating
one another in honor; and when fighting at
each other's side, although a mere handful,
they would overcome the world.^1
Supposedly, lovers fighting side by side would be ashamed
to dishonor themselves in sight of their loves, and would
therefore be inspired to deeds of bravery and sacrifice.
Such a state or such an army would be invincible*
Much
the same logic, surprisingly, is used by Whitman in his
discussions of the Superman and the Superstate*
In "I
Dream'd in a Dream" he describes an invincible city thuss
I dream'd in a dream I saw a city invincible
to the attacks of the whole of the
rest of the earth,
I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
Nothing was greatar there than the quality
of robust love, it led the rest» • . . (p. 96-97).
Clearly this "dream" is a look into the future which is to
be dominated by Supermen and held together by robust love.
A definition of a great city appears in "Song of the BroadAxe "s
^^Plato, Symposium, trans. B. Jowett in Platos Five
Great Dialogues, ed. Louise Ropes Loomis (New Yorks Walter
J. Black, 1942), p. 167.
52
A great city is that which has the greatest
men and wc»nen.
If it be a few ragged huts it is still the
greatest city in the whole world
(sec. 4, p. 138).
Thus the future Supermen will be invincible, and the
reason seems to be that they will love one another faithfully.
In fact, all through I<eaves of Grass one is struck
with the future community as Whitman sees it; for it is
one of masculine affection and devotion.
Basil de
Selincourt has observed Whitman's emphasis upon love as
the foundation of the community structures
If we ask Whitman how the perfect individuals are to consolidate themselves
so as to work out and express their
perfection in its communal form, his
answer is, by fraternity,—they are to
love one another.^2
To clinch the matter. Whitman even calls his Superman a
"lover"s
X<over divine and perfect Comrade,
Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain.
Be thou my God ("Gods," p. 195).
In the poem "For You O Democracy," the poet actually states
that it will be the love of comrades which will make the
future Supermen "divine"s
Come, I will make the continent indissoulouble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun
ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands.
With the love of comrades.
With the life-long love of
comrades (p. 87).
62Basil de Selincourt, op. cit., p. 231.
53
And in "So Long" the future individual is "announced" by
Whitman as embodying an affectionate and powerful natures
"I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste,
affectionate, compassionate, fully arm'd*' (p. 348). And
indeed man is compared to a great god in "Song of Myself"
because of his capacity to loves
"What gods can exceed
these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love call
me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as I approach?"
(sec. 8, p. 119). There is simply no avoiding the theme
of homoerotic love in Leaves of Grass as a means of
bringing about affectionate and invincible Supermen.
But not only is the Superman to come in the roles
of athlete, perfect comrade, and arrogant and invincible
individual, but also, somewhat surprisingly, he will come
in that of a scholar.
In "Thou Mother with Thy Equal
Brood," (in which the "mother" is, of course, democracy).
Whitman gives a picture of future society, seeing in the
"mother" of lifes
Thee in an education grown of thee, in teachers,
studies, students, born of thee.
Thee in thy democratic fetes en-masse, thy
high original festivals, operas, lecturers,
preachers.
Thee in thy ultimata, (the preparations only
now completed, thy edifice on sure
foundations tied,)
Thee in thy pinacles, intellect, thought, thy
topmost rational Joys, thy love and
godlike aspiration.
In thy resplendent coming literati, thy fulllung 'd orators, thy sacerdotal bards,
kosmic savans,
Thesel these in thee, (certain to come,) to-day
I prophesy (sec. 5, pp. 319-320).
54
The future society will have, in fact, a whole new system
of learnings
A new race dominating previous ones and far,
with new contests.
New politics, new literatures and religions,
new inventions and arts ("Starting from
Paumanok," sec. 17, p. 23).
"The Prairie states" presents society under the future
Supermen s
A newer garden of creation, no primal solitude.
Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions,
cities and farms.
With iron interlaced, composite, tied,
many in one.
By all the world contributed—freedom's
and the law's and thrift's society.
The crown and teeming paradise, so far,
of time's accumulations.
To justify the past (p. 282).
The future society will not be one of Rousseauesque
simplicity, but will take advantage of all civilization's
glory, "a beautiful world of new superber birth"
("Thou
Mother with Thy Equal Brood," sec. 5, p. 318).
Man, in the future society, will at last find his
true place and functions
Marches of victory—man disenthral'd—the
conqueror at last.
Hymns to the universal God from universal man—
all joyi
A reborn race appears*—a perfect world, all joyi
("The Mystic Trumpeter," sec. 8, p. 327).
The new world will be one without crime and without the
necessity for punishing criminalss
I see the headsman withdraw and become useless,
I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy, I see
no longer any axe upon it.
55
I see the mighty and friendly emblem of tha
power of my own race, the newest,
largest race ("Song of the Broad-Axe,"
sec. 8, p. 140).
For if brotherly love is sincerely practiced, what would
be the use of the gallows and the ax?
The new society
will be one of joy and loving kindness, composed of proud
and haughty individuals without respect for outmoded
authority or tradition, men who are robust and hardy and
who live in the outdoors.
And the poets of such Supermen
will, as ve have seen, wield proportionately greater power
than our present poets, for in translating Supermen they
must necessarily express more than poets of the present
who merely tally and translate inferior roan (inferior in
comparison to men of the future).
CHAPTER IV
SPECIAL ROLES OF THE SUPERMAN
^^ If^aves of. Grass the Superman plays two special
roless
God."
he is man as God and man as poet or "true son of
Both of these concepts appear frequently in Whitman's
poems in a unique way.
MAN AS GOD
It is no exaggeration to state that Walt Whitman recognized no God higher than man.
abounds in Leaves of Grass.
Syidence of this attitude
"Crossing Brooklyn Perry,"
to take a well-known example, equates man with divinitys
What gods can exceed these that clasp me by
the hand, and with voices I love call
me promptly and loudly by my nighest
name as I approach? (sec. 8, p. 119).
It is clear that, to Whitman, man is sufficient unto himself.
The 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass, in fact, predicts the
fall of the priests of organized religion and the eventual
supremacy of man as his own priests
There shall be no more priests. Their work is
done. They may wait awhile, perhaps a generation
or two, dropping off by degrees. A superior
breed shall take their place, the gangs of
kosmos and prophets en mass shall take their
place. A new order shall arise and they
shall be the priests of man, and every man
shall be his own priest.^^
63
Walt Whitman, Complete Poetry and Selected Prose,
p. 425.
56
57
Thomas B. Hamed has suggested that Whitman's use of
the term God sysabolizes "the spiritual vitality which
pervades the universe;"^* it is perhaps more accurate to
say that for Whitman man is the chief embodiment of that
spiritual vitality—and hence the most God-like of all
creatures. A single line from "Song of Myself" goes far to
reveal the poet's attitude towards dogmatic religions
"The
supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be
one of the supremes," (sec. 41, p. 58). And W. w. Clark
has gone so far as to avow that Whitman "saw man as his
own God, the master of nature and of his own destiny. "^^
Strong evidence to support Whitman's worship of man as his
own God appears, appropriately, in a poem entitled "Gods":
Lover divine and perfect Comrade,
Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain.
Be thou roy God (p. 195).
The above extract indicates that Walt Whitman is holding
up for worship some future specimen of "perfect Comrade, "
one who is "invisible yet, but certain"—excellent evidence
for Whitman's belief in the coming of the Superman.
But man as he is at present is also worthy of worship,
and Whitman maintains stoutly that those who create must
cater to the great idea of man as God in order to achieve
distinctions
^*Thomas B. Harned, o p . c i t . , p . 358.
^ ^ a d i e Mae Clark, Walt Vfhitman's Concept of the
American CoBsnon M^n (New Yorks P h i l o s o p h i c a l Library, 1 9 5 5 ) ,
«. 143.
p
58
What do you suppose I would intimate to you
in a hundred different ways, but that
man or woman is as good as God?
And that there is no God any more divine than
Yourself?
And that that is what the oldest and newest
myths finally mean?
And that you or any one must approach creations
through such laws? ("Laws for Creations, "
p. 273).
Furthermore, man is regarded by Whitman as the sole reason
for the existence of the universe.
In "I Sing the Body
Electric," he describes a slave auction and sharply lashes
the auctioneer and the bidders for their cynical and mercenary attitude towards human beings:
Gentlemen look on this wonder.
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot
be high enough for it.
For it the globe lay preparing quintillions
of years without one animal or plant.
For it the revolving cycles truly and
steadily roll'd (sec. 7, p. 74).
For man. Whitman says, and only for man, has the universe
prepared itself for quintillions of years.
It should be
noted that the phrase "the great idea" as used in Leaves of
Grass is intended to mean the theory of the progression and
perfection of man.
"To a Certain Cantatrice" is a gift
from Whitman to a creator of beauty who serves "the great
idea" as much as any other; she serves "the great idea, the
progress and freedom of the race" (p, 11).
Never one to overlook the equality of the sexes.
Whitman reminds the reader that woman is no less divine than
mans
59
A man is a great thing upon the earth and
through eternity, but every jot of the
greatness of man is enfolded out of a
woman;
First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then
be shaped in himself, ("Unfolded Out of
the Folds," p. 276).
And to neither man nor woman is to be denied immortality,
the final proof of divinitys
I do not think seventy years is the time of
a man or woman.
Nor that seventy millions of years is the time
of a man or woman.
Nor that years will ever stop the existence
of me, or any one else. ("Who Learns my
Lesson Complete?" p. 278).
So strong is Whitman's faith in the divinity of man, that
no restraints are called upon when he describes him and his
future.
Time and death are brushed aside easily before
divine man, for man is not measured in years, but is instead
his own measure, the maker of his own law, the owner of the
universe before whom all else must yield place.
"I know
before the fitting man all Nature yields, " he says in "Thou
Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling" (p. 322). Not only is man the
equal and measure of nature, but he will eventually surpass
the natural forces which now restrain hims
I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems
of orbs play their swift sports through
the air on purpose, and that I shall
one day be eligible to do as much as
they, and more than they, . . . ("Assurances, " p. 312).
Such "assurances" abound in Leaves of Grass; they are so
natural to Whitman that he could scarcely have lived without
their consolation, the belief that out of himself man could
achieve sublimitys
60
How should I think, how breathe a single
breath, how speak, if out of myself,
I could not launch, to those, superior
universes? ("Passage to India," sec.
8, p. 293).
But it must have saddened Whitman to realize that man had as
yet scarcely realized his function or his divinity.
"None
has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is, " he says in "Starting from Paumanok"
(sec. 7, p. 18). So strong was his belief in the progress
of man and of the ability of man to endure and prevail that
for him the future was "certain."
The exhuberance of "Salut
au Monde" is tinequalled in any other poem dealing with the
praises of mans
Each of us inevitable.
Each of us limitless—each of us with his
or her right upon the earth.
Each of us here as divinely as any is here
(sec. 11, p. 106).
And there can be little doubt that by "the eternal purports
of the earth" the poet meant the grand achievements of
humanity whose greater future was a certainty to him.
NO one can read far into Leaves of Grass without
observing Whitman's identification of man and God as one.
Man as he is and man as he will be, are equally divine. God
in the person of man was the highest that was observable in
a scientific world dominated by the new biology.
Whitman's
own function, and the function of all poets, he believed,
was not ornamentation, but the furtherance of man and his
futures
61
Not to chisel ornaments.
But to chisel with free stroke the heads and
limbs of plenteous supreme Gods, that
the States may realize them walking and
talking ("Myself and Mine," p. 173).
In "Starting from Paumanok" the poet considers it his duty
to announce,
A new race dominating previous ones and
grander far, %irith new contests.
New politics, new literatures and religions,
new inventions and arts (sec. 17, p. 23).
The realization of the actuality of the Superman is, then,
the goal towards which the poet and artist must aspire.
What, in effect. Whitman does is to reinstate man as
the center of the universe frcxn whence the scientific world
had displaced him.
His belief in the Superman is a personal
humanism, not directly either opposed or unopposed to any
religious teaching or poetic and philosophic school or any
artistic tradition. Man in the future will be able to surpass God himself s
To see no being, not God's or any, but you
also go thither.
To see no possession but you may possess it,
enjoying all without labor or purchase,
abstracting the feast yet not abstracting
one particle of it (sec. 13, p. 113,
"Song of the Open Road").
In "Song of Myself, " Whitman recognizes no boundary lines
for his Supermens
I troop forth replenish'd with supreme power,
one of an average unending procession.
Inland and sea-coast we go, and pass all
boundary lines (sec. 38, p. 56).
He says in "Thou Orb Aloft Pull-Dazzling" "I know before the
fitting man all Nature yields" (p. 322). Bven the definition
62
of the great city has nothing whatsoever to do with wealth,
commerce, communications, but is described in terms of the
human beings who inhabit its
A great city is that which has the greatest
men and women.
If it be a few ragged huts it is still the
greatest city in the whole world
(sec. 4, p. 138).
Walt Whitman's attitude towards human beings may be summarized by a single rhetorical question which he places in
"By Blue Ontario's Shore"s
"How dare you place anything
before a man?"(sec. 13, p« 248)*
THE POET AS SON OF GOD
If man in general is God, then the servant of man,
the great poet, is the son of God.
Walt Whitman continually
refers in terms of this paradox to the poet as the "true
son of God, " though the logic of such terminology may have
been foreign to him.
At any rate, such an epithet indicates
Whitman's belief in the dignity and importance of the poet's
work.
If "the great idea" is the furtherance of the human
race, the function of the poet must be, logically# to contribute a verse towards that development.
The great poet
must do his part to help bring about the Supermans
Not to chisel ornaments.
But to chisel with free stroke the heads and
limbs of plenteous supreme Gods, that
the states may realize them walking and
talking ("Myself and Mine," p. 173).
The praise of man, the defining of man's function, the
furtherance of freedom and the hindrance of despotism, the
63
description of man's soul, and the final creation of a
superior man through, or at least partly through, the
creation of great poetry are, as will be shown, among the
functions of the great poet which Whitman aspired to be.
The poet leads the battle for great personss
For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and
free individuals.
For that, the bard walks in advance, leader
of leaders.
The attitude of him cheers up slaves and horrifies foreign despots ("By Blue
Ontario's Shore," sec. 10, p. 246).
In "As I Ponder'd in Silence" Walt discusses the purpose of his writing Leg^ves of Grass. Having observed that
the general opinion was that only war is a fit subject for
great apics. Whitman defends his own subject matter, which
is man and his eternal developsient, as indeed a great wars
I too haughty Shade also sing war, and a
longer and greater one than any.
Waged in my book with varying fortune,
with flight, advance and retreat,
victory deferr'd and wavering,
(Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the field the world.
For life and death, for the Body and for the
eternal Soul, . . . (pp. 5-6).
Thus Whitman, alone among poets, assumes the task of celebrating man not only for what he is, but also for what he
will certainly be in the future.
The great poet is a leader
^ in a gigantic and eternal struggle whose obstacles are formidable but whose result, tha final triumph of man, is not
the least in doubt.
The poem "To a Historian" finds Walt
comparing his poetic work with that of the historian.
Here
he calls himself a "chanter of Personality, outlining what
64
is yet to be" (p. 7). Hence it is obvious that in this poem
he considers himself a prophet of the human race, a predicter of the Superman.
Again in "From Pent-Up Aching
Rivers" he states his poetic missions
From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men.
From my own voice resonant, singing the
phallus.
Singing the song of procreation.
Singing the need of superb children and
therein superb grown people (p. 69).
Superb children and superb grown people will. Whitman
believes, answer all of the probl®Qs of humanitys
"Pro-
duce great persons, the rest follows," ("By Blue Ontario's
Shore," sec. 3, p. 242). Thus, in a very real sense, the
poet is the true son of God, the savior of mankind; for in
helping to produce great persons, he aids in solving mankind's problems.
Anyone familiar with the works of Walt Whitman knows
that his aesthetic thought was dominated by the necessity
of breaking with tradition, particularly with usages, themes,
and techniques of English writers. The poet of Supermen
must himself be a Superman and must outdo anything that has
been done by former masterss
The immortal poets of Asia and Europe have
done their work and pass'd to other
spheres,
A work remains, the work of sxirpassing all
they have done ("By Blue Ontario's
Shore," sec. 5, p. 242).
The equality, in fact the sameness, of body and soul which
Whitman projected so stoutly is to be continued by the
Supermen poets who are to follow hims
65
Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no mora.
The true son of God shall absolutely fuse
them ("Passage to India," sec. 5, p. 291).
This duty is in keeping with the grand mission of the poet
of the great idea, with respect to the progress and freedom of the race.
It is to be noted that progress and free-
dom are joint aims of the poet and of the race itself.
The po®» "Poets to Come" describes the great poets of
the future who will continue Whitman's %fork. He describes
them as "a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater
than before known" (p. 13). It is they who are to justify
Whitman's work.
Thus, it is seen that Whitman had great
faith not only in the man of the future, but also in the
justifiers of man, the great "poets to come."
The great
poets to come will, of course, bow to the "great idea" and
make it their passion for ccxnpositions
For the great Idea,
That, 0 my brethren, that is the mission of
poets ("By Blue Ontario's Shore,"
sec. 11, p. 246).
Taken in sum, the future for poetry and for poets,
according to Walt Whitman, is a great one.
The future poets
are to surpass anything that the immortal poets of Asia and
Europe have accomplished, and are to justify the existence,
progress and freedom of man, and so justify the very past
upon which they are to improve.
The short poem "Eidolons"
contains a brief tribute to future poetss
The prophet and the bard
Shall yet maintain themselves, in higher
stages yet.
66
Shall mediate to the Modern, to Democracy,
interpret yet to them, God and
eidolons (p. 9 ) .
Of course, such descriptions of future poets cannot but imply
an inherent dissatisfaction with poetry being written in
Whitman's own time.
Freedom under a system of democracy.
Whitman evidently felt, was being neglected by his contemporaries who wrote of the past instead of the "Modern."
Future poets will, in fact, assxime the role of warriors:, if
necessary to spread the idea of perfect and free individuals;
the "flag of peace" baing "quick folded," the great poets
of the future will carry "instead the flag we know, / Warlike flag of the great Idea" ("By Blue Ontario's Shore,"
sec. 11, p. 246). And in section 40 of "Song of Myself,"
one of the sections dealing with the concept of the Superman in the poem. Whitman says of his own goals as a poets
"On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler
babes, / This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics" (p. 40).
To summarize. Whitman considered Supermen poets certain to come, just as he considered super-human beings certain to come in the course of time. Perhaps he conceived
of the time as far off when such Supermen poets would appear,
but the fact that he believed they would arrive cannot be
doubted s
Finally shall come tha poet worthy that name.
The true son of God shall come singing his
songs" ("Passage to India," sec. 5, p.
291).
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
As may be seen in the foregoing discussion, the most
important clua to a proper understanding of the evolution
theory implicit in Leaves of Grass is Whitman's concept of
the Superman.
Obviously, the idea pervades the book and
is one of its major themes.
In regard to the idea of pro-
gress, it is perhaps the Lamarckian concept of acquired
characteristics that most seems to fit the poet's evolutionary concepts. Whitman's chief concern in Leaves of
Grass is the "chanting of Personality," tha praising of the
himnan being—a subject which is specifically implicit in
the evolution theory.
Man's role in the universe, as seen by Whitman in
Leaves of Grass, is heightened by an understanding of the
Superman theory implicit throughout the book.
Whitman has
placed man in the vary center of the universe and has ridiculed any attempt to place him elsewhere.
The evolutionary
progression of the human species seems, to Whitman's mind,
the "main purport" of the existence of the world.
The role
of tha post, as a special aspect of the Superman theory, is
that of a servant to man.
The great poet is to contribute
a verse towards future human development which is the "great
idea" so fr€K;[uently mentioned throughout Leaves of Grass.
The future Superman and the society of Superman are to
be brought about, quite fittingly, by love. Here, essentially,
67
68
is the reason for Whitman's great emphasis upon sex, and
upon the esoteric homosexuality which he terms "the love of
comrades"—a subject which has been continually misunderstood in the criticism of Leaves Qf Grass. Only tha most
intense and close relationship of human beings will bring
about the future Superman and the Super state. Whitman's
nationalism and his belief in absolute freedom, subjects
already rc^ceiving great attention by scholars, is better
understood through study of his belief in a future Superman.
The concept of the Superman in I^eaves of Grass, as
has been seen, explains—at least in part—Whitman' s use of
tha evolution theory in his masterpiece, illustrated not
only by his emphasis upon future human development, but by
his belief in democracy and the necessity of absolute freedom, and, successively, by his aesthetic philosophy, his
biological theories, and his emphasis upon manly love as
the basis of tha spiritual democracy which the world will
someday achieve and which will be the dream for which the
poet is working in Leaves o£ Grass.
Walt Whitman was a poet full of faith in tha future of
man, wholly certain of tha immensity of good within every
human being as ha presently exists. His theory of the Superman, consequently, rather than tending to destroy democracy
as Niatsscha's theory does, actually enhances it.
Whitman
not only insists upon the dignity of the individual, he
makes of each man a god, than whom no greater god exists,
a god whose future is limitless and wonderful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allan, Gay Wilson. Sbfe Solitary sinaers A Critical fiiaqraphy. New Yorks MacMillan Co., 1955.
.• Wiilt Whitman Handbook.
Co., 1946.
Chicagos
Packard and
"Walt Whitman's 'Long Journey' Motif," JEGP,
XXXVIII, (January, 1939), pp. 76-95.
Arvin, Newton.
1938.
Whitman.
New Yorks
The MacMillan Co.,
Beaver, Joseph. Wfilt Whitman—Poet of Science. Morningside
Heightss King's Crown Press, 1951.
Bucke, Richard Maurice. "IfSaves of Grass and Modem
Science," Ja 9M Walt Whitaian. Philadelphia, 1893.
Burroughs, John. Notes on Wal,t Wl^itraan as Poet and Person.
New York, 1867.
Carpenter, Bdward. Civilizations Its Caui^e and Cure and
O^har Essays. New Yorks Charles Scribner's Sons,
1912.
Clark, Laadia Mae. Ws^Xt Whitman's Concept of the American
Common Man. New Yorks Philosophical Library, 1955.
de Selincourt, Basil. Wa^lt Whitmans
Londons M. Sacker, 1914.
A Critical Study.
Gohdes, Clarence. "Whitman and Emerson, " Sewanee Review,
XXXVII, (Jan., 1929), 79-93.
Harned, Thomas B. "The Poet of Immortality, " In Re Walt
Whitman. Philadelphia, 1893.
Hayas, Will. Walt Whitmans The Prophet of the New ^ j ^ .
Londons C. W. Daniel, Limited, 1921.
Long, Hanial. wait Whitman AQd ^ha Springs of Courage.
Santa Fas Writers' Editions, Inc., 1938.
Marti, Jose. "The Post Walt Whitman, " in Walt Whitman
Abroad, trans. Arnold Chapman. Syracuse University, 1958.
Millar, Jamas «., Jr. jj^ Critical Guide %q Leaves of Grass.
University of Chicago Press, 1957.
69
70
"The Elements," in Start with the Suns Studies
As Cosmic Poetry. Lincolns University of Nebraska
Press, 1960.
• "Whitman's 'Calamus's
PMLA, LXXII, (1957), 271.
The Leaf and the Root,"
Moore, John B. "The Master of Whitman, " Studies in Philo
logy, XXIII, (January, 1926), 77-89.
Moore, William L. Walt Whitman' s Ppams, Song of Myself,
J§Y Blue Ontario's Shore. Tokyos Kenkyusha, n.d.
Packard, Alpheus Spring. Lamarck, the Founder of Bvolutions
His Life a^nd Worl<;, with translations of his writings
9Kk Oraan;^c Bvolution. New Yorks Longman's, Green,
and Co., 1901.
Parsons, Olive W. "Whitman the Non-Hegelian, " PMLA, LVIII,
(Dec, 1943), 1073-1093.
Plato, Symposium, trans. B. Jowett in Platos Five Great
Dialocmes, ed. Louise Ropes LooraXs. New Yorks
Walter J. Black, 1942.
Piatt, Isaac Hull. "Whitman's Superman," Conservator,
XVI, (Feb., 1906), 182-183.
Potter, Simeon.
1959.
Quy, Lanoufae.
Baltimores
Penauin Books,
Schmidt, Rudolph. "Walt Whitman, the Poet of American
D^ftocracy, " trans. R. M. Bain, ^ Re Walt Whitman.
Philadelphia, 1893.
Smith, Fred Manning. "Whitman's Poet-Prophet and Carlyle's
Iforo. " BOiA, LV, (Dec, 1940), 1146-1164.
Stewart, Randall. American Literature and Christian
Doctrine. Baton Rouges Louisiana State University
Press, 1958.
Strauch, Carl F. "The Structure of Whitman's Song of Myself,"
English Jouri^al, (College Ed.), XXVII, (Sept., 1938),
597-607.
Traubel, Horace. With Walt Whitman in Camden. Bostons
Small, Maynard, 1906-1953 in four volumes.
van Doren, Mark. Raminiscer^ces qf Waljt Whitman.
Alexander Gardner, 1896.
Londons
71
Warfel, Harry R. Whitman's Salut au Mondes The Ideal
H^man Brotherhood. Reprinted from Phylon Second
Quarter, 1958.
Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature.
New Yorks Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1956.
Westerfield, Hargis. "Walt Whitman's Reading", (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of English,
University of Indiana). See Dissertation Abstracts,
XIV, (Indiana, 1954), 2353-54.
Whitman, Walt. ifiOt JZhiJUiiaais
Complete Poetry And
Selected 2JCQS&* ad. James B. Miller, Jr.
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959.
• sum Complete Writings sal mit
Bostons
Whitman/ ed.
R. M. Bucke, T. B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel,
with bibliographical and critical contributions by
O. L. Triggs in ten volumes. New Yorks G. P.
Putnam's Son's, The Knickerbocker Press, 1902.
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Race," TheoSQPhical BSSLJSOl* XXXII, (Aug., 1903),
pp. 508-515.
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Chicagos William Benton, 1962.
Anonymous. LsnsLstn £lffi9L£ IilterarY Supplement# number 541
(Thursday, May 23, 1912), 209-10.
APPENDIX
SPECIFIC REFERENCES TO THE THEORY OP THE SUPERMAN IN LEAVES
OP GRASS
The following citations from Leaves of Grass represent the chief passages in Whitman's poems on the Superman
and his role in the universe.
The order of the selections
follows the arrangement of the "deathbed edition" of )^aves
SL Grass as edited by James E. Miller, Jr.,^^ and is
arrangcid under five headings s
Is
lis
Ills
IVs
Vs
The Eventual Appearance of a Super Creature;
Attributes of the Future Supermani
The Future Society of Supermen;
Evolutionary Progress;
Man's Place in the Universe.
For convenience, titles of poems, section numbers (where
applicable), line nimibers, and page numbers are supplied.
THE EVENTUAL APPEARANCE OF A SUPER CREATURE
TO A HISTORIAN, lines 4-7, p. 7.
EIDOLONS, lines 72-79, p. 9.
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK, sec 7, line 15, p. 18; sec
17, lines 4-5, p. 23.
^^Jamas E. Millar, Jr., Walt Whitmans Complete Poatrv
ind Selected Prose (Bostons Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959),
Riverside Editions A-34 under the general editorship of
Gordon N. Ray.
72
73
SONG OF MYSELF, sec. 21, lines 10-11, p. 39; sec. 40,
lines 20-21, p. 57; sec. 41, lines 30-33,
pp, 58-59.
FROM PENT-UP ACHING RIVERS, lines 3-6, p^ 69.
A WOMAN WAITS FOR ME, line 23, p. 77.
FOR YOU O DE>«)CRACY, lines 1-5, p. 87.
I DREAM'D IN A DREAM, lines 1-3, pp. 96-97.
TO THE BAST AND TO THE WEST, lines 5-6, p. 97.
SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD, sec. 3, line 5, p. 108;
sec. 13, lines 5-6, p. 113; sec. 13, lines
16-17, p. 114; sec 13, lines 22-23, p. 114.
SONG OF THE ANSWERER, sec. 1, line 23, p. 121.
A SONG OF JOYS, lines 137-140, p. 133.
SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE, sec. 6, lines 3-4, p. 139;
sac. 8, line 18, p. 140.
SONG OF THE EXPOSITION, sec 5, lines 23-24, p. 145.
SONG OF THE REDWOOD-TREE, sec 1, lines 35-39, p. 152;
s e c 1, line 53, p. 152.
MYSELF AND MINE, lines 8-9
p* 173.
GODS, lines 1-3, p« 195.
BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE, sec. 3, line 7, p. 242;
sec 10, lines 18-20, p« 246; sec. 15, lines
3-5, p. 249;
PASSAGE TO INDIA, sec. 5, lines 24-25, p. 291; sec« 5,
lines 34-^35, p. 291; sec. 8, lines 30-31, p. 293.
TO THINK OF TIME, sec 7, lines 3-4, p. 306; sec. 8,
line 30, p. 308.
74
ASSURANCES, line 5, p. 312.
THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD, sec. 5, line 1,
p. 318.
THOU ORB ALOFT FULL DAZZLING, line 11, p. 322.
THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER, sec. 8, lines 8-10, p. 327.
SO LONG, lines 25-29, pp. 348-349.
II
ATTRIBUTES OF THE FUTURE SUPERMAN
POETS TO COME, line 3, p. 13.
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK, sec. 17, lines 4-5, p. 23.
FOR YOU O DEMOCRACY, lines 1-5, p. 87.
THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING, lines 1-10, p. 94.
I DREAM'D IN A DREAM, lines 1-5, pp. 96-97.
SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD, sec. 6, lines 3-4, p. 110;
sec 13, lines 8-9, p. 113.
A SONG OF JOYS, liner 137-141, p. 133.
SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE, sec. 8, lines 6-8, p. 140.
SO LONG, lines 4-8, p. 348; lines 15-18, p. 348;
Unas 25-29, pp. 348-349.
Ill
THE FUTURE SOCIETY OF SUPERMEN
SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE, sec 8, lines 10-18, p. 140,
THE PRAIRIE STATES, lines 1-6, p. 282.
PASSAGE TO INDIA, sec. 5, lines 34-35, p. 291.
75
THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD, sec 5, lines
25-40, pp. 319-320.
SO LONG, lines 25-29, pp. 348-349.
IV
EVOLUTIONARY PROGRESS
AS I PONDBR'D IN SILENCE, lines 13-16, pp. 5-6.
TO A CERTAIN CANTATRICE, line 3, p. 11.
STARTING PROM PAUMANOK, sec. 7, line 15, p. 18;
sec 13, lines 5-7, p. 21.
SONG OF MYSELF, sec. 6, lines 27-30, p. 29; sec. 21,
lines 10-11, p. 39; sec 43, lines 26-27,
p. 61; sec. 44, lines 7-8, p. 61; sec. 44,
lines 16-18, p. 62; sec 44, lines 29-30,
p. 62; sec. 45, line 12, p. 63; sec. 46, line
2, p. 63; sec. 46, lines 21-22, p. 64; sec. 51,
lines 1-2, p. 68.
SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD, sec. 9, lines 7-10, p. 112;
sec 13, line 22, p. 114; sec. 14, line 5,
p. 115.
SONG OF TB& EXPOSITION, sec. 5, lines 23-24, p. 145.
SONG OF THE REDWOOD-TREE, sec 1, lines 36-40, p. 152
SONG FOR ALL SEAS, ALL SHIPS, sec 1, lines 13-14,
p» 190.
THOUGHTS, lines 2-5, p. 196.
O MBt O LIFEI, lines 8-9, p. 197.
TURN O LIBERTAD, lines 10-12, p. 232.
76
BY BLUB ONTARIO'S SHORE, sec 5, lines 3-4, p. 242.
THE PRAIRIE STATES, lines 1-6, p. 282.
PASSAGE TO INDIA, sec. 6, lines 47-49, p. 292.
TO THINK OF TIME, sec. 8, lines 22-25, p. 307; sec.
8, line 30, p. 308.
ASSURANCES, line 5, p. 312.
"GOING SOMEI^THERE", lines 7-8, p. 362.
A PERSIAN LESSON, lines 13-16, p. 381.
LBAVES OF GRASS'S PURPORT, line- 3-5, p. 383.
MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE
SONG OF MYSELF, sec.
38, lines 12-13, p. 56.
SALUT ^\J MONDE, sec 11, lines 33-36, p. 106.
CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY, sec. 8, line 4, p. 119.
SONG OF THE BROAD-AXS, sec. 4, lines 15-16, p. 138.
BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE, sec 13, line 18, p. 248.
LAWS FOR CREATIONS, lines 8-11, pp. 272-273.
UNFOLDED OUT OF THE FOLDS, lines 11-12, p. 276.
WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE?, lines 16-18, pp. 277278.
TiKiV ORB ALOFT FULL DAZZLING, line 11, p. 322.