Hutchinson Dickinson and Whitman

On the surface, and perhaps a bit deeper, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two poets who stand at odds against one another. Dickinson's poems are dark, exclusive, lonely, and elitist. Whitman, on the other hand, is jovial, inclusive, public, democratic, and show an overall appreciation for life. They seem to be complete opposites, with absolutely nothing in common, and it's almost certain one would not see these two mingling at a cocktail party, if Dickinson were even to venture to a party in the first place. However, the two do have some things in commons, sharing similarities in form, as well as some thematic tendencies.

Both poets write from the first person, and seem to be speaking to or addressing someone. Dickinson's poem, "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" clearly represents this, as she actually asks a question to whoever it is she is addressing. Whitman also directly addresses an outside person or party. In stanza 5, he addresses and speaks to his soul, "I believe in you my soul," and spends the stanza speaking to his soul as he it was a lover. "Only the lull i like, the hum of your valved voice. / I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, / How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me..." For both poets, there is a since of comradery with the person or thing they are addressing. For Dickinson, in all of her humdrum loneliness, excites in the fact that her addressee is a nobody just like her: "I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you -- Nobody -- Too? / Then there's a pair of us!" Both poets make that connection personal.

Both Whitman and Dickinson have a reverence for nature, where certain aspects of it get personified in their poems.  Dickinson tackles nature in her poem "I started Early -- Took my Dog." She speaks of the sea as a person, "But no Man moved Me -- til the Tide / Went past my simple shoe... and made as He would eat me up -- / As wholly as a Dew." The sea is the only man that can move her. Whitman does the same in his poem "Song of Myself." He devotes much of his poem to the glories of nature, and even a stanza to the wonders of the sea. In stanza 22 he writes, "You sea! I resign myself to you also - I guess what you mean, / I behold from the beach your crooked fingers, / I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me... / Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse." Whitman also has a love and devotion to the sea, which he uses and portrays in his poem.  The majesty of nature connects the lonely, private Dickinson and the ecstatic, life loving Whitman. 

Emig Dickinson and Whitman Blog

Though Whitman’s poetry and Dickinson’s poetry operate in very different ways, both writers come from the same timeframe in American history and literature. One literary quality they share includes a fascination with the circularity of both life and death. In the 3^rd part of Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” he states, “I have heard what the talkers were talking/ the talk of the beginning and the end/ But I do not talk of the beginning or the end./ There was never any more inception than there is now,/ Nor any more youth or age than there is now,/ And will never be any more perfection than there is now,/ Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.” In these verses, Whitman does not appear to be troubled by death or by the actions in his life. Death is a mere part of life; it is a beautiful thing. Whitman admires the beauty of the whole world around him—that includes death. He understands the inevitability of death and accepts it for what it is. In fact, he embraces death later on in his poetry: “Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.” He also states how he will return to the grass, and people will walk over him. This is the circularity of death we see from him. Dickinson also embraces this mindset. In the opening stanza of “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson states, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ The Carriage held but just Ourselves/ And Immortality.” In these lines, Dickinson recognizes the inevitability of death by stating that he kindly stopped for her. This language shows her acceptance, as well. Death is death; it is unavoidable and imminent. However, Dickinson goes on to acknowledge immortality, which illustrates the circularity of death. As a fervent, religious woman, Dickinson strongly believes that after death comes eternal life. Again, this language of death and immortality show the circularity of death she and Whitman share.

         Both writers share an appreciation for the natural world around them. Countless lines of both writers’ poetry could be cited to illustrate this central quality. Both writers use eloquent language and imagery to explain the world around them. It becomes evident that they hold the beauty of nature in the highest of regards. Though imagery is widespread, I will point to one particular poem of Dickinson’s that summarizes her appreciation of nature without using excessive imagery or eloquent language. In Dickinson’s “This is my letter to the World,” Dickinson essentially writes a letter to the world (both the natural world and her fellow people), asking others to recognize and foster the beauty seen in nature, which has been given to us by God. The first stanza, “This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me --/ The simple News that Nature told --/ With tender Majesty,” expresses her concern for the world due to the mere fact that she is driven to write such a letter. I believe the “News” in this poem resembles the good news of the gospels. This line connects nature with the power of divinity (God). With religion such a powerful force at this time, regarding God in relation to nature reaffirms Dickinson’s love of nature, her opinion of people’s disregard for nature, and the very real connection that exists between nature and God people too often forget. Love of God and love of nature go hand in hand for Dickinson. Switching gears, it is clear Whitman has a love of nature. We see this from the very beginning of “Song of Myself.”  However, the 16^th section of the poem takes us on a trip around the United States. From California to Louisiana to Kentucky to Vermont, we see glimpses of the natural world in each of these places: woods, hills, lakes, bays, coal mines, and snow all perpetuate throughout the country, creating countless images of nature in the readers’ minds. In the 17^th section, Whitman states, “These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me/ If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing, / If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, / If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing. / This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, / This the common air that bathes the globe.” For me, these two stanzas show Whitman’s appreciation, love, and awareness of nature and of his country’s unending beauty, in general. Though there is no real connection to the divinity of nature like we see from Dickinson, we still know both hold nature in high regard.

         Lastly, both writers have a seeming God-complex in their works. “This is my letter to the World” and “My life closed twice before its close—“ both illustrate this notion. In “This is my letter to the World,” one could assume (after a few reads) that she is attempting to channel God’s message through her poetry. Though Dickinson is known for her random punctuation and capitalization, in the line, “That never wrote to Me,” I believe the Me is capitalized to assert the presence of God in this poem. Furthermore, in “My life closed twice before its close,” I believe God could be the speaker of that poem as well. God is an infinite being, and is immortal. The lines, “My life closed twice before its close --/ It yet remains to see/
If Immortality unveil/ A third event to me,” possibly could parallel the trinity, “a third event” being Jesus’ rising from the dead, displaying his immortality. Heaven and hell also exist in this poem, so I believe the presence of those words lends to this theory. In Whitman, the lines of the 50^th section, “Do you see O my brothers and sisters? / It is not chaos or death - it is form, union, plan - it is eternal life - it is Happiness,” sound as if Whitman were God speaking to his followers. He speaks of his no fear mentality of death as if he were Jesus walking out of the tomb on the 3^rd day. Though this is only one example, this God-complex perpetuates throughout the poem. The next section starts, “The past and present wilt - I have fill'd them, emptied them./ And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.” God is past, present, and future. He is all-knowing and infinite. The “I” in this line clearly resonates with the voice of God and him ruling his iron fist. I mean, he looks like our image of God in a weird way. Am I right?

O'Donnell Dickinson Whitman

The work of  Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are similar in their views on death. Both authors believe that many do not live their lives to the fullest, and perhaps, meet their dying day wishing they had done more. One example of  this is Dickinson's poem "Because I could not stop for Death." In this poem, the narrator is meets death on her way down the road, and she realizes that her time is up and she has not given herself much time to really appreciate her life leading up to this moment. Dickinson writes, "We slowly drove, he knew no haste/ And I had put away/ My labor and my leisure too,/ For his civility." Whitman also discusses this subject in his poem, "Song of Myself." He writes, "Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know,/ Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land./ Shoulder you duds dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten/ forth." Here, he discusses his road to death, suggesting that he, like Dickinson, was also too busy for death. 

It is clear that both authors believe that death is, obviously, inevitable, but also not something to be feared. Walt Whitman in "Song of Myself" alludes to the fact that death is a beautiful, spiritual journey. He writes, "And mark the outlet, and mark the relief and escape./ And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not / offend me,/ I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,/ I reach to the leafy lips,/ I reach to the polish'd breasts of/ melons." Here he mentions his physical body becomeing manure and his spiritual body ascending into a better place. Then he says, "Do you see O my brothers and sisters?/ It is not chaos or death - it is form, union, plan - it is eternal/ life - it is Happiness." Emily Dickinson too clearly believes that her spirit will live on in the next life. She writes in "Because I could not stop for Death," "We paused before a house that seemed/ A swelling of the GROUND/ The roof was scarcely visible/The cornice in the ground." This line lets the reader know that this character only pauses by her final resting place, because the real her will live on somewhere else.

One last thing that both authors do is compare misery with death. It is clear that both authors believe that death is not the only "death," but that many terrible things in one's life could be compared to one's end. Dickinson writes in "My life closed twice before its close," " My life closed twice before its close--/ It yet remains to see/ If immortality unveil/ A third event to me." Here, it could be that this author is speaking of a death of a person close to her, an emotional death. Whitman also touches on that by writing, "(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before)." Here, the author compares misery to death. Because he has experienced misery in his life, death is not as frightening. 

McGowan Dickinson Whitman

Perhaps the most obviously shared quality between the two poets is their shared interest in the existence of immortality. Whitman believes that the human soul is one and the same with the body. He sees the body as an essentially eternal enigma, which lives on through the nutrients nature extracts from it. "I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself", suggests that, like Emerson, Whitman has a pantheistic world view. Whitman sees all things and all people as interconnected parts of a universal whole. Dickinson has a somewhat different, more cynical take on eternity as seen in "Because I could not stop for Death". Like Whitman, Dickinson sees death as a sort of entrance into immortality. 
Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality.
From this stanza, we see that Dickinson equates her own death with falling into some kind of eternal abyss. Throughout the poem, Dickinson characterizes her newfound eternal existence as somewhat passive and disillusioned. "Since then 'tis centuries and yet Feels shorter than the day", shows us that the speaker's experience of eternity has caused her to lose concept of time and space, leading neither a negative nor positive existence. She simply is. 
Another similarity between the two authors, also regarding death, is that they both focus on death in conjunction with nature. Part 49 of "Song of Myself" exemplifies Whitman's take on this matter.
"And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not 
offend me, 
I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing" 

This shows that Whitman sees our existence as circular. That is, we are born, we live, and once we die our nutrients ultimately contribute to nature, which in itself is universal. In "I died for Beauty--but was Scarce, Dickinson also explores the concept of death in nature. "Until the Moss had reached our lips --/And covered up -- our names –". Here, Dickinson sees nature's interaction with death as a mechanism for anonymity and, in short, the idea that we will all be completely forgotten one day. Dickinson seems to hold that this is a direct product of nature, which makes sense, as this idea of moss covering up our names is probably a reference to time and decay.  

Finally, the two authors clearly share a very transcendentalist interest in the self. Both of them have a very strong tendency to write in the first person about their own experience of life. For Whitman, this is a celebration of himself and his universality. This is made very apparent through the first few lines of "Song of Myself": I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, 

And what I assume you shall assume, 
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

What Whitman is essentially saying here is that every single human being, organism, and anything that exists is a part of a universal whole, which is why it should be upheld simply because it is. Dickinson, on the other hand, uses her self-interest in an opposite sense: introspection. While Whitman is interested in how he factors into the universe, Dickinson is interested in how she factors into herself. Dickinson often does this by narrating her own proverbial death, such as in "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died". This poem is specifically mournful as it deals with the ultimate loss--the loss of oneself. 

With Blue -- uncertain stumbling Buzz --
Between the light -- and me --
And then the Windows failed -- and then
I could not see to see --

This final stanza refers to death as a very personal experience. The presence of the fly is imposing and seems to interrupt Dickinson's final experience of herself. This injustice might cause a reader to view the external as a distraction to what is ultimately important--the self. 

Koehler Dickenson/Whitman Blog

The two poets are immensely different. Whether the focus is on style, tone, form, or content, both poets would be characterized in different categories. However, sometimes, though not often, the poets share a common theme creating a slight similarity in their work.

One connection they share which is relevant throughout a lot Whitman’s Song of Myself and some of the Dickinson poems, is the acknowledgement of the inevitably of death. Although Whitman is celebrating life in his poem he also at times celebrates death “I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know/it.” He claims that we should consider ourselves lucky to be born because we could just as easily not have been, and since we lucky to be born, we are lucky to die. Dickenson approaches the same topic in her poems “My life closed twice before it’s close –“ and “I died for Beauty – but was scarce.” Both poets are well aware of their own mortality and focus on that aspect sometimes heavily in their poetry.

The second most noticeable similarity between the two poets is their emphasis of nature. Dickenson uses this topic often, like in her poem, “I started Early – Took my Dog—“ where she goes to the sea.  Or in “A Wounded Deer – leaps highest”, which although it isn’t discussing nature, it’s imagery is rooted in it. Whitman, like Dickenson, has many chants that connect to nature, “Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt” or “The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night.” Both use nature references in similar ways. They can either stand alone as a presentation of beauty or they can be used a metaphor or a contrast which is related to some aspect of human culture.

The finally connection I will touch on is the presentation of human relationships. In dickenson’s poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” The first line presents her as being apart from other humans, but then there is another person that is nobody. They don’t want to tell anybody, so there could countless nobodies in the world. This presents a connection between human, similar to what Whitman presents heavily through the entirety of “Song of Myself.” Even though the person in the poem is nobody, they can’’t avoid connecting with another nobody. It shows how human connections are unavoidable, an idea also present by Whitman.

Poelker Dickinson/Whitman Blog

The most glaring similarity between the work of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson is their commitment to the immortality to their human soul, as seen in “My life closed twice before its close.” The conceit of this poem by Emily Dickinson is wrapped up in the phrase, “If Immortality unveil / A third event to me.” She doesn’t say anything very specifically (part of her commitment to telling the “slant” truth) but her comment on the mystery of eternity echoes some of what Whitman writes in “Song of Myself.” Just as Emily Dickinson says “Parting is all we know of heaven / And all we need of hell,” Whitman addresses the nature of life and death in the context of human individuality. In part three of “Song of Myself” he writes, “I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end / But I do not talk of the beginning of the end.” It would seem at first that he saying that he does not address heaven and hell as Dickinson does but think again and you’ll notice that he actually is talking of “the beginning and the end,” even if he does so by talking about not talking about it. Like Dickinson, he expresses the immortality of human individuality, shirking the notion of finite narratives of heaven and hell and other such easy extremes with which to conclude one’s thoughts.

Both poets also address love a beauty, and are fully committed to the concepts as crucial to their respective poetic projects. When Emily Dickinson writes, “I died for beauty… / When one who dies for Truth, was lain / In an adjoining room” she might as well be talking about Walt Whitman. For just as much she loves beauty, Whitman seeks a poetical truth. For example, part 30 of “Song of Myself” opens with this line: “All truths wait in all things, / They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it.” The metaphorical conversation that Dickinson imagines goes very far to express her belief in the marriage of beauty and truth and throughout “Song of Myself” Whitman finds beauty in all things and, along with that beauty, truth.

A third similarity between these poets is their tendency to comment on the nature of poetry, their individual tasks as poets. We see this very clearly in “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” Dickinson’s conceit here is that “The Truth must dazzle gradually.” She believes in some amazement caused by the slow uncovering of truth, and not in a straightforward sermon of the beauty of the world. For her, uncovering the truth when it is told slant is the only way to tell the Truth that has any importance. Similarly, Whitman spends much time explaining his poetic goal in “Song of Myself.” Take the very first lines of the poem:

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself

And what I assume you shall assume

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

From the very beginning, this most American of poets expresses his project as both a human being and a poet (if the two can ever be really distinct). This particular example is not as direct a manifesto regarding actual writing as Dickinson’s in “Tell the Truth but tell it slant,” but it does the same work. In reading this stanza, we know that Whitman is taking a turn from the pretentiousness of his predecessors, and extolling the everyman, embracing the inner truth and beauty of the individual.

Ory Dickinson/Whitman

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson could not appear more oppositely on the surface. Both their poetic styles and their personal lives differ enormously, yet close inspection reveals similar themes at work within their poetry. Whitman’s style is at times explosive and all-inclusive, long, free-form, and nomadic. The poem fluctuates through different imagery, tone, and subject matter, though an unbridled celebratory spirit permeates the entire epic poem, reflected in the free verse form. In stark contrast to Whitman, Emily Dickinson’s poetry is concise and offers a lot of depth in each succinct poem. The rhyme, meter, and form enhance the brief yet powerful imagery within her poetry. Despite their apparent differences, the transcendentalist character resonates within the two poet’s works.

            Walt Whitman’s “Song for Myself” offers a more clearly transcendental perspective from Dickinson. The poem’s triumphant and exuberant tone evoke Emerson’s uplifted outlook from his essay “Nature,” in that they both rejoice in the divine nature of man. Whitman writes, “And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, / And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, / And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women / my sisters and lovers, / And that a kelson of the creation is love.” Whitman also questions the need to search for a God, when he believes that his own body reflects a divine spirit. He also sees this in every other man, a concept reminiscent of Emerson’s faith in the human. “Why should I pray? why should I venerate and be ceremonious? / Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair, counsel'd with / doctors and calculated close, / I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones. / In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less, / And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.”

            This transcendentalist spirit in Dickinson’s work is more elusive, as her style is far more reserved and introspective than Whitman’s flamboyant approach. The concept evident in both Whitman and Emerson’s work—the camaraderie and shared spirit of man—can be seen in Dickinson’s poetry as well. “‘For Beauty’, I replied / ‘And I -- for Truth -- Themself are One / We Brethren, are’, He said.” Both Dickinson and Whitman meditate on the notion of death frequently throughout their works. Whitman believes so fully in life after death, that his poetry reflects a sense of ‘deathlessness,’ while, surprisingly, the Calvinist Dickinson questions the concept of immortality in her poetry. Whitman sees death as the opportunity for regeneration: “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, / And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, / And ceas'd the moment life appear'd. / All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, / And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” Although Dickinson may share the same view, her approach is more hestitant and pensive. “My life closed twice before its close -- / It yet remains to see / If Immortality unveil / A third event to me.” Though their approaches differ greatly, both poets meaningfully reflect on these notions of life in death and the shared divine spirit of man within their unique poetic styles.

Ray Dickinson/Whitman Blog

While on the surface Dickinson and Whitman’s writing seems to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, there are many places where the authors overlap. Areas of synchronicity include subject matter (such as the discussion of death and evaluation of the self), their unique writing styles that break with tradition, and their religious/transcendental roots that ended up leading them in very different directions. While Dickinson is more introspective and isolated, Whitman’s transcendentalist nature led him to celebrate a sense of camaraderie or brotherhood with all those around him. Mysticism or the fantastical experiences influenced both authors; “Song of Myself” is based on a series of fantastical experiences had by Whitman, and the cause of Dickinson’s withdrawal from the social world was her desire to further involve herself with mysticism.

Though Whitman has a more optimistic view than Dickinson on most subject matters, their tendency to choose many of the same certain events in life to focus on is obvious. The first line of Whitman’s epic poem reads:

                “I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,” (Whitman, 1)

This reads quite differently from Dickinson’s comparatively quiet approach to the self:

                                “I’m Nobody!...How dreary – to be – Somebody!”  (Dickinson, “Because I”)

Similarly, both poets address the idea of death. Dickinson’s poetry has a more anticipatory, mysterious, and sorrowful tone than Whitman’s. Whitman’s work has a more light-hearted approach. Dickinson’s bizarre tone in “I Heard a Fly buzz—when I died” ends rather abruptly, and doesn’t give any optimistic or pessimistic lines to accompany the speaker into the afterlife:

                                “With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –

                                Between the light – and me—

                                And then the Windows failed – and then

                                I could not see to see –“ (Dickinson, "I heard a Fly buzz")

A similar sudden, suspicious tone can be noted in “My life closed twice before its close—“:

                                “Parting is all we know of heaven,

                                And all we need of hell.

However, Whitman’s view of death more closely resembled the “circle of life” mentality rather than Dickinson’s severe transcendental individualistic view:

“The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the
end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.” (Whitman, 5)

                Their transcendental nature caused them both to value the individual evaluation of the world, and it also caused them to break with the typical writing tradition. Rather than a straightforward essay-as we saw with Emerson and Thoreau-we are given poetry, both short and epic. Dickinson’s short poetry is minimalistic and exclusive; Whitman’s long, essentially run-on epic poem is very inclusive, in every sense of the word. He is able to identify with those very different from him, those from other cultures, et cetera. Dickinson’s individualist nature made her isolated. While Whitman "Stops somewhere waiting for us," we are left wondering with Dickinson's work. 

Engineer Dickinson and Whitman Blog

The three main qualities that Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson share is their transcendentalist beliefs about the individual self, the intensity with which they describe how the physical and the spiritual world are connected through life and death, and they both use their intuition to decipher mystical experiences. In Dickinson’s poems, she isolates herself by expressing, “I’m nobody! Who are you?” which sends the message that she prefers to live a solitary life, than be somebody in public. In “I heard a Fly buzz--when I died,” she shares her belief that our soul transcends from the physical world to the spiritual world, but does not know how this mystical experience happens. To her, “parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell,” implying that through death a person would come to terms with heaven or hell depending on their actions on earth. For Dickinson, death is but a realization that heaven and hell exists. While Dickinson prefers to live life in private and isolation, Whitman sees life and the outdoors as an opportunity to embrace nature wholeheartedly as he joyfully sings, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume,” implying that he believes in the natural existence of things and brotherhood. To Whitman, nature is beautiful and views living in the world as, “nature without check with original energy.” He sees the spirit of a person in nature and when a child curiously asks, “what is the grass?” he believes that the grass can represented any symbol of mankind found in civilization. The grass could symbolize God or humans, “the handkerchief of the Lord,” “Or I guess it is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.” Whitman views death as an extension of life and observes that the grass that keeps sprouting time after time is similar to our soul that continues to exist after death and eternally moves forward. This is described in his quote, “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,” and he continues, “all goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,” “and to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.” Whitman believes that birth and death is a continuous and never ending process and this beautiful cycle never really ends. This belief is expressed symbolically in his chant, “the past and present wilt- I have fill’d them, emptied them. And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.” Whitman sees beauty in death and is excited at the prospect of being reborn again as she sings, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love.” 

O'Brien Whitman Dickinson Blog

Whitman Dickinson Blog           

            Walt Whitman is a writer who is all about the interconnectedness of things. He sees a world where things are all good. Nature is good, animals are good, and even death is good. He comes from the tradition of transcendentalists and it shows.

            Dickinson is more in the strain as Poe. Anything that could end badly will. Where Whitman sees death as part of the grand cycle, Dickinson has a preoccupation with the idea of immortality. Death is “the stillness in the room,” as she writes in “I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died –“           

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson share a fascination of three major themes. The first is nature. Both writers have references to animals in their poetry. In fact, both mention the same animal: the horse. But while Dickinson uses the image horses pulling a carriage, Whitman uses the image of “A gigantic beauty of a stallion.” His vision of nature sees something full of life and freedom while Dickinson is more concerned with the march towards death.

Which leads to the second preoccupation that both writers share: death. The pair responds to the idea of dying in different ways, with Whitman not only accepting, but openly being ecstatic of the opportunity to become part of the earth. Life and death form a cycle. He takes a materialist view where nothing is created or destroyed. Death is just another change.

            The third is that both writers are concerned with the place humans have in the universe. Whitman loves that the universe is expansive, endless even. In “Song of Myself” Whitman writes: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” This famous line goes to the heart of how Whitman perceives the world around him. The world is part of him. He cannot be cut off from the world because he is the world, in microcosm. But for Dickinson, the idea of the universe is daunting: “So huge, so hopeless to conceive” the universe is overwhelming. Whitman and Dickinson see the same world, but she shrinks from it while Whitman wants to encompass the whole of everything in this person and in his writing.

Weaks - Whitman - Dickinson - Blog

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were two early American poets that I am having a little trouble understanding, especially Dickinson. Both chose free verse as their method of expression and Dickinson’s use of punctuation and capitalization is somewhat of a mystery to me. Like many great artist, Dickinson was not recognized in her time and not really appreciated until the early twentieth century. To the untrained, such as me, her writings seem dark and for the most part she appears to be a woman unfilled in many areas. Melancholy is a word that comes to my mind in describing her. Whitman on the other  hand had somewhat of a gregarious personality and was a patriot that wrote poems supporting the United States and the Union, though some people of the time felt some of his poems were a little to sexually expressive. One thing that they had in common was in their own way, they were individualist, albeit on different levels, but nonetheless individualist.

The first commonality I observed in Dickinson and Whitman is their views on the finality of death and a lack of belief in heaven and hell. Dickinson writes in her poem, “My life closed twice before its close” Dickinson appears to express no belief in heaven or hell when she writes,

My life closed twice before its close --
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell. (Dickinson)

Whitman appears to share similar sentiments in Section 21 of “Song of Myself” when he writes,

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with
me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate
into new tongue. (Whitman)

A little research revealed that in Dickinson’s time, hunting runaway slaves was sometimes compared to hunting deer. It is written that Dickinson abhorred slavery and in more that one of her poems used symbolism to express that. In her poem “A wounded Deer—leaps highest she writes,

A Wounded Deer -- leaps highest --
I've heard the Hunter tell --
'Tis but the Ecstasy of death --
And then the Brake is still!

The Smitten Rock that gushes!
The trampled Steel that springs!
A Cheek is always redder
Just where the Hectic stings!

Mirth is the Mail of Anguish
In which it Cautious Arm,
Lest anybody spy the blood
And "you're hurt" exclaim! (Dickinson)  

If one reads this poem several times, one might come to the conclusion that it is not a great stretch to interpret this poem as a condemnation of slavery and the hunting of runaway slaves.

Whitman also hated slavery but was more overt in his disgust of it. He writes in Section 10 of “Song of Myself” the following words.

The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and
weak, 

And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,
And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and bruis'd
feet, 

And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and gave him some
coarse clean clothes, 

And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
And remember putting piasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;
He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass'd north,
I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the corner. (Whitman)

Though Dickinson used symbolism to express her disgust of slavery and Whitman used language all could understand, they shared common ground on the evils of slavery and both, in their poetry, expressed that.  

Dickinson and Whitman also shared a yearning for sex. In Dickinson, she uses her poem, “Wild Nights – Wild Nights” to express her desire for a lover. Dickinson was writing during the Victorian era and for a woman to write such a sexually explicit poem in that era must have been uncommon. I quote,

Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile -- the Winds --
To a Heart in port --
Done with the Compass --
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden --
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor -- Tonight --
In Thee! (Dickinson)

In Section 11 of “Song of Myself” we find Whitman expressing his feelings on sex, though more erotic than Dickinson, they share commonality in both their interest and their writings. Below is an excerpt from “Song of Myself”

Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore,
Twenty-eight young men and all so friendly;
Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome.

She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
She hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of the window.

Which of the young men does she like the best?
Ah the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.

Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.

Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth
bather,
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them. (Whitman)

If we submerge ourselves in the poetry of Dickinson and Whitman, we find certain qualities in their work shared by both. It is sometimes difficult to identify their commonalities, in that Whitman was more inclusive and Dickinson was more exclusive, more elitist, but a close examination of their work will reveal some common traits in their poetry and a better understanding of each poet. As previously stated, one of the main things they had in common was that they were individualist and who knows, Whitman’s gregarious personality might have been a “pasteboard mask” (Melville). 

Dougherty-Dickinson and Whitman

The works of Dickinson and Whitman are in many respects quite different, both in their unique writing styles and in their ideas.  For instance, Whitman’s poems are long, complex and emotional while Dickinson’s are short and factual. However, commonalities do exist especially in the themes and messages their poems present and in the imagery they portray.   Although often in a different context, both poets ponder the meaning of death, immortality, nature, and religion.

Both poets express their idea of death.  In his poem, Song of Myself, Whitman approaches Death in a direct way:  “And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.”  Being a Transcendentalist, he believes that there is life after death.  In Song of Myself, he writes “And what do you think has become of the women and children?  They are alive and well somewhere.  The smallest sprouts shows there is really no death.”  To find death, only look “under your boot-soles.”  He also adds a physicality to the concept of immortality:  “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you … My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same.”  Clearly, he intimates that this ongoing transfer of atoms constitutes immortality.

                  Dickinson also personifies death.  In Because I could not stop for Death, death is like a friend.  He picks her up in a “Carriage held but just Ourselves and Immortality.”  Her poem “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” is about the moment of death.  She attempts to describe what happens at that moment with image and sound.  Dickinson had a Calvinist background and appears to be uncertain that immortality exists.  In her poem My Life closed twice before its close, she highlights her doubts about the hereafter:  “My life closed twice before its close – It yet remains to see if immortality unveil a third events to me.”

                  Neither Whitman nor Dickinson fear death, but discuss it in different contexts.

                  In Song of Myself, Whitman also speaks of a special rapport with nature:  “Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt, wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee, in the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night, kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-kill’d game, falling asleep on the gather’d leaves with my dog and gun by my side.”  Dickinson love for nature, although more in the sense of an observer than participant, is clearly stated in her poem, This is my letter to the World:  “This is my letter to the World that never wrote to Me—the simple News that Nature told—with tender Majesty. Her Message is committed to Hands I cannot see—for love of Her –Sweet – countrymen—judge tenderly –of me. “

                  Regarding religion, Whitman bases his philosophy on Transcendentalism and leaves the impression that religion is irrelevant.  Certainly the spiritual and the material are portrayed as the same.  In Songs of Myself he compares himself with Jesus and invites “the wicked just the same as the righteous.”  He asks, “Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?  … “I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.  In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less,…”I exist as I am, that is enough.” Dickinson remains uncertain of her religion.  In her poem My life closed twice before its close she seems to question the existence of a God:  “Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.                   

Another similarity found in the works of these poets is their use of imagery. Whitman’s use of vivid and descriptive imagery allows the reader to form a picture in her head.  Dickinson introduces a very personal sense to her poetry thereby making her thoughts come alive for the reader.