Essay Sample on Transcendentalism and Self-Identity: Dickinson and Whitman's Poetry

Introduction

Transcendentalism was established close to the Unitarian church that was mainly England based. They contest trinity, which is not present in the bible, however; it was based on the human nature of Jesus. Self-discipline among believers in their daily life and advocating against poverty, slavery, ignorance, and alcoholism was their core, the concept of humanistic and social, religion. Most of the transcendentalists have been categorized as nonfiction writers or essayists. Poetry to the was not a medium of expression but somewhat occasional. Their poems were too philosophical that was meant to convince rather than to please (Folsom). This essay examines how the works of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman reflected the issues of their period. Although the two poets are somehow associated with transcendentalism, no one is quite sure to what level their poets should be called transcendental since they do not accurately fall into that category entirely.

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Emily Dickinson

Part of Dickinson's traditional mystique comes from her isolation from the world; she lived in western Massachusetts town and rarely traveled away from her town. Her writing styles evolved from nowhere, and her verses were not similar to those of her own time or in American literature. Despite her cultural and physical isolation, her writing reflects the vast society that is entirely evidenced by her elliptical and mysterious poems. In her verses, questions of salvation and faith are predominant as well as current events that pop up often. She started writing in the 1850s, and her poems present a sense of hush at the beginning, but later her verse reflected the battle is joined. This reason being she saw dead bodies and causalities returning to her home or saw illustrations of the civil war. Dickinson showed the regrets and the aftermath of the war not only in regards to the loss of life but the effects; it had on those who were living. Her poems may have intended to tone down the emotional tone of Walt Whitman's frenetic.

Dickinson uses imagery of nature in a number of her works; she was very conservative and structured. She was raised in a well-off Calvinist family, meaning that she did not have to get a job. She went to a religious institution which she dropped out and spent her whole life with her parents and did not leave the house much, which most people think of her as being a loner. However, she did have a few friends and a possible love interest that probably inspired her love poetry. Contrasting Whitman she did not hunt for fame in her lifetime, very little of her work was printed till her death. Her poems revealed that she was fascinated with religion, love, and death, which she explored by incorporating figurative language such as personification in poem 479: "because I could not stop for Death- / He kindly stopped for me," (Dickinson). Unlike Whitman's approach to Emerson call, she did not throw away all dramatic structure but rather added her touch and construction in more creative ways, most notably by using dashes and capitalization. She wrote strictly in fourteener meter a structure that commonly appears in nursery rhymes or church hymns, throughout the works she talks about topics that astonish the audience by how she treats these severe topics and her conclusion. For instance in poem 236, she puts down church goes by saying she would instead talk to God directly in her own home. This idea is slightly scandalous for the fervently spiritual individuals even though the poem is written in a modest, singsong style. Her style is rigid but defies both content and style expectations (Marie).

Walt Whitman

Whitman anticipated for a cohesive America when it was separated by the civil war; he envisioned a country that was capable of synchronizing it differences via the use of language and poetry. In his early year, Whitman was more concerned by political journalism which he later shifted to extra-political means of realizing his dream and consensus (Setzer). He began to indulge in the language of poetry which was far more culturally interactive in which he believes it would be used as a tool to unit American/s differences. Walt's poems were inscribed in free verse, and very long, for instance, Song of Myself is over thirteen thousand lines in length. Themes displayed in his works, mainly Leaves of /grass, his most famous collection of poems, depicted affection and sexuality in a very straightforward and personal manner that caused the Americans in the 19th century to view them as obscene and pornographic.

Whitman seemed carefree and comfortable going through his both poetic works and real life. Whitman was raised in a working class and did several jobs throughout his life spans such as magazines and printers. His time as a nurse to wounded soldiers inspired and influenced his writing since the men dying around him stirred him to question the morals of the civil war. Throughout his life, he had a burning desire to be famous for his writing which was not immediately but eventually people warmed up to his work. His progressive liberal nature is reflected through his work both in style and in content. Emerson, his mentor, called on him to stick to creativity rather than sticking to a poetic structure that is why he wrote in free verse with no meter or specific rhyme. His poems are long and use extensive nature imagery such as in Song of Myself. "The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves," he did not hold back, he was very personal; he spoke of nature and the average man.

Their Poetic Themes about the Issues of the Period

Both the poet's work is hybrid since it problematizes boundaries between poetic forms and genres. Dickinson mixed forms, meters, and discourse while Whitman mixed literary modes, styles, and traditions as well as cultural and socioeconomic groups. Their poetic revolution was driven by the urge to create poetic forms that reflected democratic ideologies of the country inception. They were motivated by the need to rebel against Eurocentric culture and canon that was continually dominating American culture and social structures despite it being independent for several decades. The poetic revolution reflected the urge to forge a distinctly American, socially and culturally reflective poetic and the post-colonial American status. This necessity of the revolution is also reflected in Emerson's work with whom they both gained inspiration. The country at the time had established an industrial, fiscal and technical might. However, they still lagged behind culturally. This was the whole concept of self-identity and transcendentalism, as their poems provided a distinctively national and revolutionary philosophy for the "new age" of American culture.

While Whitman's revolution is over that of Dickinson is elliptical, she knew that her work would not be recognized until sometimes in the future which she expressed in poem 839, where she said that her "Revolution" was "Unfulfilled to Observation." Their poems were very different, for instance, Whitman's legendary Leaves of Grass, the opening inscription had the first-person speaker announces to the speaker:

One's-Self I sing, a simple separate person

Utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

The extract is indicative of his political aspirations, his fusion of himself and the nation and his poetic revolution mastery that he reveals in the poem. His revolution had an American revolution incorporated, like the rest of his peers, he engaged native America to produce a poetic persona that was uniquely American (Rich).

Conclusion

While the two poets were often seen as post-colonial poets, they both rebelled against the cultural inheritance of the time. They both sought for alternatives to the inherited Europeans poetic forms; consequently, their work was viewed as strange or even dreadful. This strangeness results to the reason why Dickinson had difficulties publishing her work during her lifetime. Both poets reacted Emerson's call for poetry that exceeds the routine poems from that time and period. Hence they both come out to be the most influential poets to this day. They are both remembered as the pioneers who transformed the landscape of poetry in America.

References

Dickinson, Emily. "479." The Norton Anthology of American (2012): 91.

Folsom, Ed. "Transcendental Poetics: Emerson, Higginson, and the Rise of Whitman and Dickinson." the Oxford handbook of transcendentalism (3-20): 2012.

Marie, Reverie. Comparison and Contrast of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. 1 November 2016. 23 March 2018 <https://owlcation.com/humanities/Comparison-and-Contrast-of-Emily-Dickinson-and-Walt-Whitman>.

Rich, Adrienne. "Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman: The "Beginners." State University of New York Press (2018): 32-52.

Setzer, Susan. "Whitman, Transcendentalism and the American Dream: Alliance with Nature's Government through Language." (1999): 5-10.

Dickinson, Emily. "479." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 91. Print.