Transcript Chapter 6

Chapter 3
Romanticism (5)
Whitman
Dickinson
Contents
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Life experience (p88)
Thoughts and ideas influencing him:(last
paragraph on p89)
His ideas about poet and poetry
Features of his literary ideas and thoughts in his
poetry(p91)
His poetic features
Appreciation of “One’s-Self I Sing”
Contents
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Life experience (p96-97)
Thoughts and ideas reflected in her works
Her literary features
Understanding and appreciation of
Success is counted sweetest...
*Differences between Whitman and
Dickinson in their outlook and their
literary forms
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Pictures of Walt Whitman
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Life Experience (p88)
Thoughts and ideas influencing him:(last paragraph on p89)
His ideas about poet and poetry
About poet: He states that the greatest poet breathes into the
world the grandeur and life of universe. “He is a seer,” he says, “he
is individual… he is complete in himself.” He sees the poet as
taking over what had used to be the job of a minister, a clergyman,
the Church.
About the poetry: Along with Emerson, he agrees that art should
be based organically on nature; poetry grows out of nature. “The
rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems shoe the free growth of
metrical laws, and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs
or roses on a bush, and take shapes as compact as the shapes of
chestnuts and oranges, and melons and pears, and shed the
perfume impalpable to form.”
Features of his literary ideas and
thoughts in his poetry(p91)
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The Transcendental ideas pervade all Whitman’s poems.
general mysticism and anti-rationalism, pantheism, and the
theory of “the Great Chain of Being” are among the most
important.
Whitman embraces idealism. He relies on insight and
intuition.
Unity, unreality of time and space, evil as only an
appearance emerging into good.
He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and
celebrates the dignity, the self-reliance spirit, and the joy of
the common man.
He praises the expansion of America. However, in later years,
he sees the failure of democracy and the social and moral
corruption in America. He still think these curable by self-reform
of the individual.
His poetic features
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His Leaves of Grass contains over four hundred poems, in which
lines gave free rein to his imagination in his life-long attempt to
celebrate life in the new world. He broke the poetic conventions:
One of the principles of his technique is parallelism or a
rhythm of thought in which the line is the rhythmical unit.
Another principle of his versification is phonetic recurrence,
that is, the systematic repetition of words and phrases at the
beginning of the line, in the middle or at the end.
The
above two principles coordinate with and reinforce each other.
He broke free the traditional iambic pentameter and wrote “free
verse”.
His poetry is also sexual. The language is exotic and vulgar.
Appreciation of “One’s-Self I Sing”
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Understanding the poem
Although the poet sings of the self as “a simple
separate person,” he also sees it as part of “the
word Democratic,” which represents the mass
of people. He sings of “the Form complete,” the
female as well as the male, of “Life immense in
passion, pulse, and power,” and the “Modern
Man.”
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This small (nine-line) poem is really a preface to all the
others in Leaves of Grass. Whitman says he will sing of all
physiology (the branch of biology dealing with the
functions and processes of living organisms), for neither
the physiognomy (outward appearance) nor the brain is
worthy of being celebrated independently. He lists the
subjects and themes he will deal with: “One’s-self” (the
unit of self or individuality), “physiology ... the Form
complete” (the kinship of the body and the spirit which
he will emphasize throughout Leaves), and “Life”—in
short, the “Modern Man,” who, according to Whitman, is
conscious of “self” but at the same time is aware of being
part of the large mass of democracy.
Critical Analysis of Themes
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( Whitman’s major concerns in this poem)
First, Whitman’s major concern was to explore, discuss,
and celebrate his own self, his individuality and his
personality.
Second, he wanted to eulogize democracy and the
American nation with its achievements and
potential.
Third, he wanted to give poetical expression to his
thoughts on life’s great, enduring mysteries—birth,
death, rebirth or resurrection, and reincarnation.
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The Self
To Whitman, the complete self is both physical and spiritual.
The self is man’s individual identity, his distinct quality and
being, which is different from the selves of other men,
although it can identify with them. The self is a portion of the
one Divine Soul. Whitman’s critics have sometimes confused the
concept of self with egotism, but this is not valid. Whitman is
constantly talking about “I,” but the “I” is universal, a part of the
Divine, and therefore not egotistic.
The Body and the Soul
Whitman is a poet of these elements, the body and the soul in man.
He thought that we could comprehend the soul only through the
medium of the body. To Whitman, all matter is as divine as the soul;
since the body is as sacred and as spiritual as the soul, when he
sings of the body or its performances, he is singing a spiritual chant.
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Personalism
Whitman used the term “personalism” to indicate the fusion of the
individual with the community in an ideal democracy. He believed
that every man at the time of his birth receives an identity, and this
identity is his “soul.” The soul, finding its abode in man, is
individualized, and man begins to develop his personality. The
main idea of personalism is that the person is the be-all of all
things; it is the source of consciousness and the senses. One is
because God is; therefore, man and God are one—one personality.
Man’s personality craves immortality because it desires to follow
the personality of God. This idea is in accord with Whitman’s
notion of the self. Man should first become himself, which is
also the way of coming closer to God. Man should comprehend
the divine soul within him and realize his identity and the true
relationship between himself and God. This is the doctrine of
personalism.
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Democracy
Whitman had a deep faith in democracy because this
political form of government respects the individual. He
thought that the genius of the United States is best
expressed in the common people, not in its executive
branch or legislature, or in its churches or law courts. He
believed that it is the common folk who have a deathless
attachment to freedom. His attitudes can be traced to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century because he
thought that the source of evil lay in oppressive social
institutions rather than in human nature. The function of
literature is to break away from the feudal past of man and
artistically to urge the democratic present.
Princes and nobles hold no charm for Whitman; he sings
of the average, common man. He follows Emerson in
applauding the doctrine of the “divine average” and of the
greatness of the commonplace. A leaf of grass, to
Whitman, is as important as the heavenly motion of the
stars. Whitman loves America, its panoramic scenery and
its processional view of diverse, democratically inclined
people. He loved, and reveled in, the United States as a
physical entity, but he also visualized it as a New World of
the spirit. Whitman is a singer of the self as well as a
trumpeter of democracy because he believes that only in a
free society can individuals attain self-hood.
Whitman emphasized individual virtue, which he believed
would give rise to civic virtue. He aimed at improving the
masses by first improving the individual, thus becoming a
true spiritual democrat. His idea of social and political
democracy—that all men are equal before the law and
have equal rights—is harmonized with his concept of
spiritual democracy—that people have immense
possibilities and a measureless wealth of latent power for
spiritual attainment. In fact, he bore with the failings of
political democracy primarily because he had faith in
spiritual democracy, in creating and cultivating individuals
who, through comradeship, would contribute to the ideal
society. This view of man and society is part of
Whitman’s poetic program.
More information about Whitman
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Whitman shares the Romantic poet’s relationship with nature. To
him, as to Emerson, nature is divine and an emblem of God.
The universe is not dead matter, but full of life and meaning. He
loves the earth, the flora and fauna of the earth, the moon and
stars, the sea, and all other elements of nature. He believes that
man is nature’s child and that man and nature must never be
disjoined.)
Whitman’s concept of the ideal poet is, in a way, related to his
ideas on time. He conceives of the poet as a time-binder, one
who realizes that the past, present, and future are “not disjoined,
but joined,” that they are all stages in a continuous flow and
cannot be considered as separate and distinct. These modem
ideas of time have given rise to new techniques of literary
expression—for example, the stream-of-consciousness
viewpoint.)
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Whitman believed that the cosmos, or the universe, does
not consist merely of lifeless matter; it has awareness. It is
full of life and filled with the spirit of God. The cosmos
is God and God is the cosmos; death and decay are
unreal. This cosmic consciousness is, indeed, one aspect
of Whitman’s mysticism.
Mysticism is an experience that has a spiritual meaning
which is not apparent to the senses nor to the intellect.
Thus mysticism, an insight into the real nature of man,
God, and the universe, is attained through one’s intuition.
The mystic believes in the unity of God and man, man
and nature, God and the universe. To a mystic, time and
space are unreal, since both can be overcome by man by
spiritual conquest. Evil, too, is unreal, since God is
present everywhere.
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Man communicates with his soul in a mystical experience,
and Whitman amply expresses his responses to the soul
in Leaves of Grass, especially in “Song of Myself.” He
also expresses his mystical experience of his body or
personality being permeated by the supernatural.
Whitman’s poetry is his artistic expression of various
aspects of his mystical experience.
Whitman deals with death as a fact of life. Death in life
is a fact, but life in death is a truth for Whitman; he is
thus a poet of matter and of spirit.) It implied that the
true reality is the spirit and that it lies beyond the reach
or realm of the senses. The area of sensory perceptions
must be transcended to reach the spiritual reality.This is
transcendentalism.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
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Pictures
Life experience: (p96-97)
 Thoughts and ideas reflected in her works
1. Dickinson’s poetry is a clear illustration of her religiousethical and political-social ideas.
1.1 Calvinism with its doctrine of predestination and its pessimism
pressed her during her childhood and adolescence and colored
her work.
1.2 On the ethical level, Dickinson emphasizes free will and human
responsibility.
1.3 Realizing that poetic interpretation of life conflicted with
religious dogma, she affirms personality.
2. Nature is portrayed as both gaily benevolent and cruel in her
poetry. The power and majesty of nature and the cold
indifference of nature are both revealed.
3. She holds that beauty, truth, and goodness are ultimately one
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Her literary features
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Her choice of words, her verbal constructions and even
her spellings break the conventions.
Her poetry abounds in telling images that are erotic and
self-evident.
Her poetic idioms are noted for her laconic brevity,
directness, and plainest words.
Her expressions are severely economic.
The tone is sometimes tragic.
Her poetry concerns mainly the themes of death and
immortality.
Understanding and appreciation of
Success is counted sweetest
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Synopsis
The speaker says that "those who ne'er succeed" place
the highest value on success. (They "count" it
"sweetest".) To understand the value of a nectar, the
speaker says, one must feel "sorest need." She says that
the members of the victorious army ("the purple Host
/ Who took the flag today") are not able to define
victory as well as the defeated, dying man who hears
from a distance the music of the victors.
Metrical pattern
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The three stanzas of this poem take the form of
iambic trimeter--with the exception of the first two
lines of the second stanza, which add a fourth stress
at the end of the line. (Virtually all of Dickinson's
poems are written in an iambic meter that fluctuates
fluidly between three and four stresses.) As in most of
Dickinson's poems, the stanzas here rhyme according
to an ABCB scheme, so that the second and fourth
lines in each stanza constitute the stanza's only rhyme.
Appreciation ( analysis of the form
of homilies employed in it)
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Many of Emily Dickinson's most famous lyrics *take
the form of homilies, or short moral sayings, which
appear quite simple but that actually describe
complicated moral and psychological truths.
"Success is counted sweetest" is such a poem; its first two
lines express its homiletic point, that "Success is
counted sweetest / By those who ne'er succeed" (or,
more generally, that people tend to desire things more
acutely when they do not have them).
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The subsequent lines then develop that axiomatic
truth by offering a pair of images that exemplify it:
the nectar--a symbol of triumph, luxury, "success"--can
best be comprehended by someone who "needs" it; the
defeated, dying man understands victory more clearly
than the victorious army does.
The poem* exhibits Dickinson's keen awareness of
the complicated truths of human desire (in a later
poem on a similar theme, she wrote that "Hunger--was a
way / Of Persons outside Windows-- / The Entering-takes away--"), and it shows the beginnings of her terse,
compacted style, whereby complicated meanings are
compressed into extremely short phrases (e.g., "On
whose forbidden ear").
Simple Analysis
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Victory/Success& Defeat
In a sense, Dickinson's poem must be about the realization of true
victory in the midst of defeat.
For how can one truly understand happiness without the
accompaniment of sadness? Or love without hate?
In the beginning of her poem, she talks about how success cannot
be realized without at first knowing the desperation that comes
along with losing. This supports the rest of the argument in her
poem.
And as most people should know, the color purple has always
been affiliated with royalty. Isn't it possible that this poem is
about a soldier fighting for his kingdom/country? In this case,
it is a soldier realizing success (think: line one) by the agonizing
price of losing his life. Perhaps this poem does have a bitter tone to
it, but it has more of a sadness and a truth being brought into the
picture, as well. And that is the beauty of this poem.
Differences between Whitman and Dickinson
in their outlook and their literary forms
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In outlook: Whitman seems to keep his eyes on
society at large; Dickinson explores inner life of
the individual. Whereas Whitman is “national” in
his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.
In Literary terms: Whitman’s poems are full of
endless, all-inclusive catalogs, while Dickinson’s
full of concise, direct, and simple diction and
syntax.
Assignments
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Tell the differences between Whitman and Dickinson in their
outlook and their literary forms.
Tell the poetic features of Walt Whitman and those of Emily
Dickinson.
In Walt Whitman’s One’s Self I Sing, What is “Self” meant? What
is the difference between “physiology” and “physiognomy”? What
does “Form Complete” mean, and what “the Modern Man” do?
List the themes in Walt Whitman’s One’s Self I Sing.
What is mainly concernd by Whitman in One’s Self I Sing?
To analyze briefly the form of homily used in Success is counted
sweetest by Emily Dickinson.
In Success is counted sweetest by Emily Dickinson, what is the color
“purple” associated with? Then what does “purple host” indicate?
Who is “he” in the last stanza of Success is counted sweetest.