Part 14 (1/2)
The great philosophical poets, like Lucretius, try to solve the riddles
Whitive you a new sense of thea the universe is, and that the most any poet can do is to break the old firmament up into new forms To put his arms around it?
No Put your arms around your fellow-man, and then you have encompassed it as nearly as mortal can do
VI
Whitman's attraction toward the co that , unlettered ination with broad syive a sense of reality; they refresh, as nature always refreshes There is a tang and a sting to the native, the spontaneous, that the cultivated rarely has The farmer, the mechanic, the sailor, the soldier, savor of the pri his own portrait, Whitman makes prominent the coarser, unrefined traits, because here the colors are fast,--here is the basis of all The careful student of Whitman will surely come to see how all the elements of his picture--his pride, his candor, his deether, and correct and offset each other and make a perfect unity
No poet is so easily caricatured and turned into ridicule as Whitman He is deficient in humor, and hence, like the Biblical writers, is so it The sense of the ridiculous has been enormously stimulated and developed in the retted--it has been mostly at the expense of the sense of awe and reverence We ”poke fun” at everything in this country; to whatever approaches the verge of the ridiculous we give a push and topple it over The fear which all Aer than the fear of purgatory, is the fear of appearing ridiculous We curb and check any eccentricity or marked individuality of manners or dress, lest we expose ourselves to the shafts of ridicule E submission the re perfectly well dressed gave a feeling of inward tranquillity which religion was powerless to bestow; and what ranks before religion with us as a people is being in theour coats in the approved style Pride of the eye, a keen sense of the proprieties and the conventionalities, and afor the ridiculous, would have been death to Whit He would have faltered, or betrayed self-consciousness He certainly never could have spoken with that elemental aplomb and indifference which is so , would have been his ruin We should have seen he was not entirely serious, and should have laughed at hih now only for a moment; the spell of his earnestness and power is soon upon us
VII
Thoreau considered Whitman's ”Leaves” worth all the ser; and yet few poets have assureat cure-all is love; he gives himself instead of a sermon His faith in the remedial power of affection, comradeshi+p, is truly Christ-like Lover of sinners is also his designation The reproof is always indirect or is to bear character rather than precept He helps you as health, as nature, as fresh air, pure water help
He says to you:--
”The mockeries are not you; Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk; I pursue you where none else has pursued you: Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustomed routine,--if these conceal you from others, or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me
The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure complexion,--if these balk others, they do not balk me
The pert apparel, the deforreed, preh your windings and turnings,--I coht eye should never come upon you”
Whitreatest poet does not moralize, or make applications ofor reproof in the ”Leaves”
”I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shauish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the aunt, desperate; I see the wife misused by her husband; I see the treacherous seducer of the young wos of jealousy and unrequited love, attehts on the earth, I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny; I see martyrs and prisoners, I observe a fa lots who shall be killed, to preserve the lives of the rest, I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like; All these--all thelook out upon, See, hear, and am silent”
Only once does he shame and rebuke the offender; then he holds up to him ”a hand-mirror”
”Hold it up sternly! See this it sends back! (who is it? is it you?) Outside fair costu eye,--no y step, Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step, A drunkard's breath, unwholeso away piecemeal, stoed with abo dark and poisonous strea and touch callous, No brain, no heart left, no lass ere you go hence, Such a result so soon--and fro!”
The poet's way is so different from the moralist's way! The poet confesses all, loves all,--has no preferences He is moral only in his results We ask ourselves, Does he breathe the air of health? Can he stand the test of nature? Is he tonic and inspiring? That he shocks us is nothing The first touch of the sea is a shock Does he toughen us, does he help uilty of attracts him Their vices and excesses,--he would ht better than other men,--lest he seem to stand apart from even criminals and offenders When the passion for huoes down into the social mire to find his lovers and equals In the pride of our , this phase of his work shocks us; but there are ood, and we rejoice in the strong uards put upon us by the social order, and the dictates of worldly prudence, fall only before a still more fervid humanism, or a still more vehement love
The vital question is, Where does he leave us? On firround, or in the looht of its opposite?---
”_So long!_ I announce a reat individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, co!_ I announce a life that shall be copious, vehee that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation
”I announce antic, sweet-blooded; I announce a race of splendid and savage old men”