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.