為何我們應當赤裸—從自然談華特．惠特曼之「民主的展望」 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文. 指導教授：施堂模先生 Advisor：Thomas J. Sellari. 為何我們應當赤裸—從自然談華特．惠特曼之「民主的展望」. 政治大. Why We Should Be Naked—Nature in Walt Whitman’s Democratic. 立. Vistas. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. 研究生：林欣眉撰 Name：Lin, Hsin-mei 中華民國 101 年 1 月 January 2013. v.

(2) Why We Should Be Naked—Nature in Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas. 立. A Master Thesis Presented to Department of English,. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學 National Chengchi University. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Lin, Hsin-mei. January 2013.

(3) Acknowledgment I would like to thank Prof. Thomas J. Sellari, who has trusted my ability of conducting this research with tremendous patience and democratic support every step of the way. I also want to thank Prof. Jed Deppman, who has been a great inspiration for me on the studies of Walt Whitman and has generously provided insightful guidance for my thesis and displayed enthusiasm that would stimulate the love for literature in any individual.. 立. 政治大. With the selfless assistance from these two distinguished professors,. ‧ 國. 學. Whitman’s song of democracy is sung here again.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i Un. v.

(4) Table of Contents. Acknowledgment……………………………………………………………………..iii Chinese Abstract............................................................................................................v English Abstract............................................................................................................vi Chapter 1 The Creation of America—From Nakedness to Democracy………...............1 Chapter 2 “Germs of all”—Whitman The Transcendentalist of Reconstruction……...23 Chapter 3. 立. 政治大. “A Leaf for Hand in Hand”—Whitman The Democratic Poet of Nature…..41. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter 4. “O Powerful Western Fallen Star”—Whitman The Patriot of Kosmos…….59. ‧. Chapter 5. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. The Future of America—Poetry of The Universal Nature………………….77. i Un. v. Works Cited..................................................................................................................86. Ch. engchi. iv.

(5) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：為何我們應當赤裸—從自然談華特．惠特曼之「民主的展望」. 指導教授：施堂模先生. 研究生：林欣眉論文提要內容:. 政治大. 在歷史上，民主被賦予多元的體現和闡述的概念。華特．惠特曼對於民. 立. 主在他所處的十九世紀美國之養成，別有一番見解。惠特曼式的民主源自於他. ‧ 國. 學. 在身體、自然和詩作方面的哲學，他認為民主並不須侷限於一種政府的形式。. ‧. 他的詩作往往展現了吸引人以及包羅萬象的特質，而這也是他民主觀念所承襲. sit. y. Nat. 的特點。因此，他所寫的關於身體和自然的詩和他民主觀念的形成有著密切的. n. al. er. io. 關係。當然，當這些有關身體和自然的詩被個別詮釋時，這些詮釋已對於惠特. i Un. v. 曼式的超驗主義產生了多元的洞見，並進一步將他超驗主義的觀念和浪漫時期. Ch. engchi. 詩人與拉爾夫．沃爾多．愛默生等人的超驗主義作所區別。為了要更進一步去探索惠特曼式超驗主義不同的特質，我分析了他所寫的有關身體和自然的詩作，探討這些詩作在他歌頌民主時，所共同表達的強而有力的聲音。我已證實，一旦我們對於「民主的展望」一文的了解越過了單一政治性思考之藩籬，我們便可以理解這篇散文對於惠特曼在詩學、自然的領略，和人類身體等觀念，有十分重要的貢獻。. v.

(6) Abstract Democracy, a concept that has been embodied and expounded greatly in history, is presented in an idiosyncratic manner in Walt Whitman’s nineteenth-century America. Instead of viewing democracy simply as a form of government, Whitman’s democracy resides in his philosophy of the body, Nature, and poetry. While his poetry demonstrates an absorbing and embracive quality that his concept of democracy inherits, his poems about the body and Nature should be understood as retaining a close relation to his democratic ideation. The independent interpretations of the poems of the body and Nature have certainly generated diverse insights into. 政治大. Whitmanian transcendentalism, distinguishing his transcendental notion from that of. 立. the Romantic poets and of Ralph Waldo Emerson. To further explore the distinct. ‧ 國. 學. attributes of Whitman’s transcendentalism, I have analyzed the poems of the body and Nature as a collective voice that produces a powerful sound in his song of democracy.. ‧. I have proved that once our understanding of Democratic Vistas is expanded beyond. y. Nat. io. sit. the field of politics, we can see how fundamental this essay is to Whitman’s poetics,. n. al. er. theories of Nature, and the human body.. Ch. engchi. vi. i Un. v.

(7) CHAPTER 1 The Creation of America—From Nakedness to Democracy “[Democracy] is, in some sort, younger brother of another great and oftenused word, Nature, whose history also waits unwritten” —Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas In the previous criticism, scholars have commented on the philosophical quest in Walt Whitman’s concept of nature, regarding him as the “protégé” of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Field 223). Emerson’s transcendentalism can be viewed as the foundation of Whitmanian philosophy. Their shared conception of nature serves as the common ground from which their expectations of America take off. The connection between the two. 政治大. epochal American voices is also manifested in their view of democracy. For both writers,. 立. democracy is not an idea independent from other subjects in the creation of the culture. ‧ 國. 學. and history of America; it is an element that is immersed in the life of America. In contrast to how modern people consider democracy as a system under human civilization. ‧. which departs from nature, Emerson and Whitman both believe that the word ought to. y. Nat. sit. carry certain implications of or associations with nature in terms of its origin and. n. al. er. io. realization. As the purpose of my thesis is to discuss the indispensable relation between. i Un. v. American democracy and nature from Whitman’s point of view, it is necessary to look. Ch. engchi. into the history of the nation before resuming a detailed explication of the two concepts established in his works. American history, according to Larzer Ziff, “must be the history of nature speaking through men, not of men shaping nature” (12), an outlook which distinguishes the history of America from that of Europe. In an antecedent view, the term “storied associations,” coined by Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, cannot produce a vision that is ample enough to portray the natural scenery of America. In the book, “Rip Van Winkle” demonstrates the characteristics of writing about natural landscapes in the form of a story. The story begins with naming the landscape with reference to its historical and cultural background: . 1.

(8) Whoever has made voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height and lording it over the surrounding country. (Irving 27) The history of the Hudson River is closely associated with the story of Rip Van Winkle. The Kaatskill mountains are in relation to the histories of the Appalachian family. Irving has utilized the approach established by writers when depicting the Old-World nature. However, other American writers of the nineteenth century soon found out that a new. 政治大. perspective needed to be constructed for the New World.. 立. Because of the varied historical backgrounds—the ancient and long-lasting past of. ‧ 國. 學. Europe and the new and fast-thriving “present” of America, writers in the nineteenth century felt trapped in the predicament where they strove to develop a way to present. ‧. their America in a unique manner. Among them, Emerson had transformed the European. y. Nat. sit. way which is “based on the domestication of nature” into the “discovery of a culture. n. al. er. io. rooted in nature” to witness his nation “discovering its intellectual identity” (Ziff 12). He. i Un. v. stresses the notion that nature, culture, and national identity are interrelated and cannot. Ch. engchi. continue their distinct American orientation when separated. Nature, for Emerson, is not compelled to trace its presentation back through the European cultural history in order to be meaningful. In contrast, it is the people that make nature cultured in America. It is the daily lives of Americans that carve out the landscape of the nation. Strongly influenced by Emersonian philosophy, Whitman adopted Emerson’s perception of nature in America and transformed Emerson’s theory of nature and men into his conception of democracy in nineteenth-century America. The nineteenth-century American political scene has inspired and accommodated the contributions of numerous domestic and even foreign writers. To research into the subject, one cannot neglect . 2.

(9) Whitman’s works as they not only showcase the lives of common people, the soldiers, and the great figures of American history, but also create the real America, independent from European history. In Whitman’s America, “the objects,” every component of the nation, are recognized self-sufficiently, and the anonymous individuals are identified from the “American crowd” for the first time (Ziff 24). The sole foundation of Whitman’s system of naming individuals is based on his position in American democracy. Our understanding of democracy is quite different from that in nineteenth-century America. According to Sean Wilentz’s book The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson. 政治大. to Lincoln, we have categories under the so-called democratic institutions today, but we. 立. cannot impose these categories on the past, blocking the understanding of how “our own,. ‧ 國. 學. more elevated standards originated” (Wilentz xviii). Wilentz defines democracy as “a historical fact, rooted in a vast array of events and experiences, that comes into being out. ‧. of changing human relations between governors and the governed” (xviii). Democracy is. y. Nat. sit. then interpreted as a dynamic phenomenon, a constantly revised thought. Wilentz also. n. al. er. io. argues that democracy should always be fought for, as it is an idea that greatly concerns. i Un. v. the welfare of the citizens of the nation. Democracy should be “rooted in the lives and. Ch. engchi. expectations” of the citizens in order to “succeed or survive” (xix). This individualcentered point of view has a lot in common with Whitman’s democratic philosophy. Unlike the sovereignty advocated by Thomas Hobbes where expectations of the citizens were to be suppressed and should not form enough power to influence the state, discrepancy was a significant factor regarding the realization of democracy in nineteenthcentury America. Whitman was among the advocates of American democracy in his age and also one significant figure that established his own promising future of democracy unprecedented by his contemporaries and emulated by later generations. Reviewing the quote from . 3.

(10) Democratic Vistas from the beginning of this chapter, we can perceive Whitman’s intention to display democracy and nature in a similar fashion in his work. Just as Wilentz points out that democratic ideas should be “refreshed, fought over, and redefined continually” (xxiii), Whitmanian philosophy regards democracy and nature as family because the two subjects share something in common—the features of renewal and reconstruction, which are particularly applicable when situating Whitman the transcendentalist in postbellum America. The essay Democratic Vistas incorporates everything Whitman intends to write about democracy through a nineteenth-century point of view. It serves as an artistic. 政治大. discipline to guide his contemporary or modern readers to commence a journey to the. 立. genesis, promulgation, and dissension of democracy. Although Whitman’s prose works. ‧ 國. 學. are oftentimes undervalued in comparison to his poetry, Democratic Vistas is considered crucial by Whitman scholars not only due to its contribution to the political insight into. ‧. the future of America but also because of the documentation of the democratic. y. Nat. sit. progression of American history. Revised and published three times, the final version of. n. al. er. io. the essay appeared in 1871, as a fully established democratic “yawp” in response to. i Un. v. Thomas Carlyle’s anti-democracy essay Shooting Niagara: And After? Here, Carlyle. Ch. engchi. harshly rebuts the Second Reform Act, which enfranchised the urban male working class in his contemporary England and Wales, and considers it a phenomenon of “Swarmery” (4), a massive group of people with single-minded and impetuous actions. Whitman, on the other hand, celebrates the “greatness and health” conceived in the “mass” (972) in Democratic Vistas. His epoch-making piece of politically and culturally appurtenant prose work has secured its place in both the fields of nineteenth-century literature and history. It is these democratic visions divulged and pursued in the essay that create the frame of America, giving the new birth of democracy to the postbellum nation. With respect to the foreground of the essay which presents Whitman’s dialetics with the diary . 4.

(11) like and epistolary form, the purpose of my thesis is to represent nineteenth-century democracy from Whitman’s eye through his significant prose work Democratic Vistas in which his philosophical meditation of the political, natural, literary and cultural aspects of nineteenth-century America is manifested, and finally, to argue that to interpret Whitmanian democracy, we must start with the comprehension of his ideas about nature. A distinguished scholar of Whitman, David Reynolds, once mentioned in an interview that the works of Whitman should not be categorized into schools of theories or defined within one ideological realm. He insisted on the importance of reading Whitman’s works as “the narrative of the poet’s life,” which he considered “a window on. 政治大. the nineteenth-century America” (Weinreich 1). Reynolds’ opposition to the approach of. 立. interpreting Whitman’s works as race, class, or gender-oriented allows more freedom. ‧ 國. 學. from theoretical restrictions for Whitman studies. Due to this freedom introduced by Reynolds, I feel encouraged to discuss the two major focuses demonstrated in Whitman’s. ‧. writing—democracy and nature—as two sides of a coin circulated in the poet’s vision of. y. Nat. sit. America. The prose work, Democratic Vistas conspicuously represents Whitman’s. n. al. er. io. democratic outlook while it further implies the indispensable role nature plays in the. i Un. v. realm of democracy. Just as Emerson claims that nature in America is to be explored and. Ch. engchi. appreciated in the culture of men, Whitman, in Democratic Vistas, introduces the progression of American civilization—democracy—with his insight into Nature1 as the root. “Democracy,” Whitman claims in Democratic Vistas, “is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unwaken’d, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted” 1 Nature. is capitalized in my thesis in specific reference to the Whitmanian concept and in distinction from the past definition of European nature. . . 5.

(12) (984). This statement appeared in the essay in 1871 and has been the foundation of his poetry writing. Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Cornel West call Democratic Vistas “the secular bible of democracy” (11). Alfred Kazin argues that the essay “is his poetry in a slightly lower voice” (52). A recent article by Robert L. Pincus addresses the importance of the distinct “critical voice” in the essay “as one distinguishable from that of his poetry” (23). With reference to Unger, West, and Kazin, it is apt to assume that the formation of American democracy and culture as demonstrated in the essay can be attributed largely to Whitman’s concept of democracy. I intend to discuss more on account of Pincus’ observation in terms of Whitman’s writing styles of poetry and prose.. 政治大. To switch from one style to another allows Whitman to illustrate democracy in varied. 立. tones of voice as well as points of view. While the essay is set out to explicate his idea of. ‧ 國. 學. democracy, to understand it requires more than just researching his political program and patriotic beliefs. Perceptions of personalism, poetry, and Nature embedded in the essay. ‧. have not received enough attention regarding their relations with the idea of democracy. y. Nat. sit. in our criticism. By analyzing the relations between democracy, individuals, poetry, and. n. al. er. io. Nature, I plan to do a close reading of the political essay in terms of its implications for Nature.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. When speaking of Whitman, we remember him as a prolific poet, an enthusiastic patriot, and an ardent transcendentalist. In the history of American literature, a lot of discussion has been conducted about his innovative style and technique in modern poetry writing. His free verse demonstrates both the construction and culture of his poetic language. While his poems have been recognized worldwide, his prose works from which his critical voice is heard have received relatively less attention from readers. The “jottings,” a word which Whitman uses to refer to his prose writing, contain an “abundance of thought” (Lewin 441) in spite of their convoluted style. Of all his prose works, according to Lewin, Democratic Vistas is “the best thing Whitman has produced . 6.

(13) in prose” (441) It “consists of jottings on the future of democracy, and, incidentally, on many topics not suggested in the title” (441). The approach of the essay in discussing the ideas of Nature is particularly interesting because Whitman’s concept of Nature can be regarded as the center of his philosophy from which his writings of transcendental perception and the democratic style of his poetry are projected. He urges his readers to appreciate that it is the liberation that men can achieve both physically and mentally from Nature that helps them comprehend the foundation of political implications of his poetry in a more complete manner. Relieved from the criticism conducted in gender studies concerning mostly the sensuality. 政治大. in his writing and in nationalism viewing his works in constricted political theories, the. 立. Whitmanian freedom actually endows the concept itself with a larger room for. ‧ 國. 學. interpretation by borrowing the force of Nature. For Whitman, liberation acquired by staying in contact with Nature is a tremendous source of inspiration, purification, and. ‧. revolution. Freedom is viewed as the basic of a democratic system. To achieve. y. Nat. sit. democratic success, one needs to return to Nature with an aspiration to comprehend the. n. al. er. io. true liberation and inspiration and to cleanse the old self for the coming of the next revolution on the path of democracy.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. In order to get closer to Nature, Whitman encourages his readers to become “naked.” Nakedness, according to the OED, can refer to “the state or condition of being unclothed,” “freedom from ostentation or unnecessary ornament,” and “openness to attack or injury.” Or, more specifically, “naked” can indicate “words or languages [that are] free from concealment or reserve.” While Whitman applies the terms “unclothed,” “natural” and “decent” to describe nakedness in the essay “A Sun-Bath—Nakedness,” a prose work written in 1877, he also attempts an alternative and playful exposition of the word based on its literal as well as metaphorical meanings. It does not take much for one to find the emphasis on and encouragement of being naked in both Whitman’s poetry and . 7.

(14) prose writings. The idea appears early in “Song of Myself.” Right in the beginning of the poem, Whitman proclaims, “I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked” (27). Having stated his resolution to “strip” himself in Leaves of Grass in 1855, Whitman continues to pursue this goal in his later productions by putting it into “practice.” In “A Sun-Bath—Nakedness,” he describes his experience of nakedness when he situates himself amid natural surroundings as “Two months have I absorb’d them (“creek-shore, wood and field”), and they begin to make a new man of me” (830). He is amazed at Nature’s power to purify human beings just as all the other creatures dwelling. 政治大. in Nature’s realm. Relieving himself of all the responsibilities that men are expected to. 立. undertake, he learns how to live a life in seclusion with Nature as he manages to spare. ‧ 國. 學. “every day at least two or three hours of freedom, bathing, no talk, no bonds, no dress, no books, no manners” (830). Here bathing, an act to cleanse oneself, is significant because. ‧. it is the moment where the bare skin of men makes direct contact with water, a vital. y. Nat. sit. resource in Nature as well as in Whitman’s poetry. While uttering words, reading books,. n. al. er. io. and abiding by manners make us sophisticated in mental and social aspects, Whitman. i Un. v. attempts to get rid of all the sophistication. Being completely open-minded and. Ch. engchi. physically naked to Nature, Whitman has access to the freedom Nature offers in return, a naked truth arousing sincerity in men, which is more valuable than the complex and sophisticated operations undertaken throughout the history of the human world. Also, through nakedness Whitman discovers an alternative manifestation of his identity. Man is not the only title he identifies with any more. He writes, “Nature was naked, and I was also” (831). Barriers between him and Nature and also between him and other lives are removed because of the nakedness they share, which harmonizes every element of the world, merging all the identities. He said, “I seem’d to get identity with each and every thing around me, in its condition” (831). To Whitman, being naked . 8.

(15) is a necessary and straightforward way to connect us to natural conditions, and, to our innate qualities. “Perhaps the inner never lost rapport we hold with earth, light, air, trees, &c., is not to be realized through eyes and mind only, but through the whole corporeal body” (831). Whitman considers being naked in body and free in mind essential for us to reach the natural world in all aspects. He believes in the power of Nature to purify human beings and to guide us to understand “what faith or art or healthy really is” (832). In order for a civilization to be successful in its own terms, Whitman cites the examples of “the old Hellenic race” (832) to stress the significance of Greeks’ basing the foundation of a civilization on “Nakedness” as the source of the “natural and religious idea” (832).. 政治大. Whitman’s understanding of nakedness contains a larger scope than that formed by the. 立. modern people after him. He sees nakedness of men as “decency” concerning human. ‧ 國. 學. existence in Nature. In contrast, the attempt to clothe ourselves and cover our bodies suggests indecency, insincerity, and hypocrisy. For Whitman, sophistication fails a. ‧. civilization because it causes human beings to diverge from the simplicity of Nature,. y. Nat. sit. impairing the genuineness of humanity.. n. al. er. io. In addition to obtaining the idea of nakedness prevalent in Greek civilization as the. i Un. v. prototype of a prosperous and highly influential culture, Whitman’s perception of Nature. Ch. engchi. is also inspired by the preceding transcendentalist Emerson. Absorbing the Emersonian interpretations of human beings and the world, Whitman evolves Emerson’s characteristics in acknowledging the power of men, writing with the cataloguing technique, and elaborating on the relation between men and nature. In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson encourages his readers “to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius” (175). To depend on the instinct of the self remains the focal point of how Emerson looks at the capacity of an individual. He stresses the importance of self-reliance by preaching to his readers “Trust thyself,” the voice which resonates throughout the essay. Correspondingly, Whitman . 9.

(16) wrote “Song of Myself” in celebration of the infinite possibility of an individual. What marks the difference of Whitman’s singing for individuality is the first-person narrative style he applies to the verse. Starting off by writing a long poem presenting his view and vision of the world ranging from an “atom” (27) to an individual, Whitman’s active narration encourages his readers to look into themselves just as he does. Along with the oratorical style of the poem itself, the “I” voice boosts a compelling and compassionate energy so inclusive of the readers that the work distinguishes itself from the sermonic humdrum of “Self-Reliance.” The self-centered focus in Whitman’s writing is representative not only of the poet but of the self in every person. The enunciating “I” is. 政治大. so absorptive that it encompasses every atom of the universe. The inclusiveness. 立. manifested in the poem can be attributed to another characteristic of Whitman’s style, the. ‧ 國. 學. cataloguing technique, a democratizing device which enunciates items in his poetry in a manner of enumeration. Similar to Emerson’s prose of cataloguing technique (Buell 3),. ‧. Whitman’s catalogue is arranged in a stylistic form through his poetico-oratorical. y. Nat. sit. expression, an approach which is more inviting to the readers as it attempts to embrace. n. al. er. io. both high and low cultures and people from different strata of societies. Whitman writes. i Un. v. every piece of his work without differentiating his readers while Emerson characterizes. Ch. engchi. his audience (since many of his essays were originally speeches) and addresses them differently. Being a transcendentalist, Whitman certainly shares some characteristics with Emerson as well as other transcendentalists in their perceptions of Nature. However, what differentiates Whitman from other transcendentalists is his emphasis on the importance of the body when confronting Nature. When Emerson discusses the significance of each individual, he focuses on the human soul and its relationship with God, as exemplified in “The Oversoul,” where he explores the potential of an individual by encouraging his readers to look into themselves in search of their own soul so that . 10.

(17) they can reach out and access a larger and more accommodating spiritual force that draws them closer to Nature. While Emerson introduces the notion of soul as a bridge connecting human beings to Nature, Whitman, acknowledging the power of mind, advances Emerson’s theory by viewing human bodies as a microcosm of Nature where both the mortal and spiritual parts of life are given and nurtured. To Whitman, both body and soul should be completely exposed for an individual to “feel” Nature. Only when we are physically and spiritually naked, which implies being open and defenseless, can we embrace and, further, represent, Nature. With the presupposition of the tightly knit relation between nakedness and Nature in Whitman’s writing, one can proceed to study. 政治大. the connection between Nature and literature, especially poetry, as illustrated in. 立. Democratic Vistas.. ‧ 國. 學. In order to expose our body and mind naturally, Whitman calls for literature, especially poetry, as a necessary cultivation. He reads poetry as a culture’s language that. ‧. “embodies both cosmic and local expressions of nature” (Setzer 10), developing the. y. Nat. sit. responsibilities of poetry writing beyond just a literary genre or style. Its “sound and. n. al. er. io. rhythm rendered” by Nature “can marshal individual places and spirits into grand march. i Un. v. of national, and even universal unity” (Setzer 10). Considering Nature as the greatest. Ch. engchi. source for poetry and literature per se, Whitman writes with the tremendous inspiration of sound he has found in Nature, creating his works spontaneously both in content and in style. It is the raw energy produced through his down-to-earth writing style that makes its impact on the representations of not only individuals but also the universe. The wide range that Whitman’s writing can take up is not just limited to his magic of making poems lyrical. His imagery is no less engaging than his sound. In “Song of Myself,” Whitman presents his imagery with the “visual and tactual,” while manifesting “his power to project his landscapes” (Matthiessen 601). He “was not thinking there of painting, but directly of the forces of nature” (601). Having applied the source of Nature . 11.

(18) to the oratorical creation in his poetry, Whitman also excels at presenting landscapes as not just how they seem but also how they “feel,” infusing the power of Nature into his readers’ minds. Images become vivid when being observed by Whitman, who presents them with an abundance of visually and sensually descriptive words. Only when truly immersed in Nature as the subject depicted can a writer infuse vigor to his description instead of just preserving the still image. Whitman remains the creator of spontaneous language by devoting himself to producing poetry, a genre which is considered by him the most inclusive, self-sustained, and natural. In similar fashion, his rival in both the literary and political fields, Thomas Carlyle,. 政治大. asserts the duty of a poet and the connection between poetry and Nature in Heroes And. 立. Hero Worships. In the chapter “The Hero as Poet,” Carlyle argues that the sound of. ‧ 國. 學. Nature is music in its perfection and poetry is “musical Thought” (99). A poet, for Carlyle, should be a person who acts as the observer and transcriber through which the. ‧. musicality of Nature is made known. A poet also possesses “the power of intellect,” and. y. Nat. sit. the “sincerity and depth of vision” of a man who sees deeply enough to find poetry. As. n. al. er. io. Carlyle suggests, in the heart of Nature lies music. To achieve music demands a poetic. i Un. v. nature in man. Whitman as a poet manifests Carlyle’s expectation and Whitman’s poetry. Ch. engchi. overflows with oratorical and musical performance. Furthermore, Whitman endeavors to justify poetry as the requisite to apprehend not only literature but also Nature and democracy. He illustrates the significance of poetry in both the literary field and the real world in Democratic Vistas. He views Nature as “the only complete, actual poem,” and “existing calmly in the divine scheme, containing all, content, careless of the criticisms of a day, or these endless and wordy chatterers” (1012). Because of the structure and attributes shared by Nature and poetry, Whitman believes that to get closer to Nature, the first step is to embark upon poetry, the divine language which has served to be the guidance and reliance for us in the universe. . 12.

(19) With the purpose to advance the discussion to the affinity between Nature and democracy in Democratic Vistas, I must remind the readers to bear in mind Whitman’s regard of poetry and Nature as two subjects that are identical. Reviewing the preceding criticism on Democratic Vistas, the representative prose work which projects Whitman’s disappointment and expectation for the contemporary development of democracy in America, I have noticed that former critics tend to regard this work as it is entitled—a nationalistic and politically oriented pamphlet, narrowing the approach of reading the work to its literal meaning and purpose. The work itself surely lives up to what it has intended: its applicability to the governance of America as well as its stimulation to the. 政治大. realization of the democratic system. It contributes a sharp observation of Whitman’s. 立. America.. ‧ 國. 學. In “What Whitman Knew,” David Brooks analyzed Democratic Vistas and suggested, “It is misleading to think one can arrive at a single, consistent judgment about. ‧. the United States” (32). In the essay, Brooks, a political and cultural commentator in our. y. Nat. sit. era, advocates that twenty-first century Americans should read Democratic Vistas to. n. al. er. io. know what the United States is all about. Closely tied in with its origin, which traces. i Un. v. back to immigrants from all over the world, America has fulfilled the concept of a salad. Ch. engchi. bowl, a notion which signifies the various and juxtaposed American cultures and is reflected by Whitman’s cataloguing in “Song of Myself” and the complexity of Democratic Vistas. The invigorative flow of American history and culture has been carried on with diversity, controversy, and constant dynamics throughout the country since its birth. In a country used to coping with fluctuation in all aspects, Brooks proposed that the argument, “[e]xtremes must be accepted without regard for consistency” (2), is embedded in Democratic Vistas. While Brooks has made a discovery of how to apply the visions in the essay to his contemporary America, this discovery appears familiar in almost every piece of Whitman’s writings. To encompass every atom . 13.

(20) in an individual, the aforementioned concept that is centered in Whitmanian philosophy, is the way to the realization of democracy. Whitman manifestly “knew” more and deeper than the connection made by Brooks between the vistas and the States. Brooks’ interpretation explains the perennial value of the essay in terms of its political outlook, yet he does not delve into why Whitman’s democracy has sustained the various political trends until now. As a defender of democracy in America, Whitman has actively participated in writing about literary, cultural, and political criticism and has produced prolifically in each field. The origin of his democratic concept is not just political. While Brooks. 政治大. establishes the essential understanding of the essay in terms of its political and cultural. 立. function, Edward F. Grier responds to more than just the political outlook of the essay.. ‧ 國. 學. Acknowledging the fact that Whitman was struggling with his publishing career during the time when the essay was written, Grier discusses his observation of the reality that. ‧. Whitman dealt with when he wrote the essay, and probes further into the intrinsic. y. Nat. sit. motivation that underlies the essay.. n. al. er. io. Grier points out that Democratic Vistas, “despite the external opportunism. i Un. v. connected with its genesis, was the result of long and deep thought by Whitman” (13).. Ch. engchi. The essay should be considered as a conceptual display of the accumulation of Whitman’s contemplation of the democracy of America and also as the poet’s insight into literature and, further, into Nature, which will be explained later in the paper. Upon drawing to the surface the fact that the profound Whitmanian democracy has been nurtured and presented in the essay, Grier associates literature with democracy because “Whitman explained that ‘Orbic Literature’ dealt with the nature of, and necessity for, an American literature which would express and sustain democratic idealism” (Grier 17). “Orbic Literature,” the circulation of ideas in literary works, serves as the backbone of Whitman’s democratic conception. It is the all-in-one philosophy, just as every atom . 14.

(21) belongs to an individual. Just as trivia can embody the majority, so can greatness be seen in minutiae. Grier perceives this focus implanted in the essay and asserts the significance of literature in his discussion of Whitmanian democracy. The concept of “Orbic Literature” indicates that democracy and literature rely on and benefit each other. In “Sermon on A Text from Whitman,” Lionel Trilling reemphasizes the notion of “Orbic Literature” by employing it to the administrative operation under a democratic system. He proposes, “Democracy can exist only if authority can organize diversity; but democracy dies if authority encroaches on personalism” (215). Trilling’s argument is based on the logic of Whitman’s “Orbic. 政治大. Literature” for it is a kind of literature that feeds on the continuity and circulation of. 立. ideas which do not interfere with and are able to accommodate each other. To really. ‧ 國. 學. accommodate various ideas, Whitman thinks that contradiction should be allowed as it is natural for all phenomena in the world. His idea of “Orbic” is to focus on the endless. ‧. circulation of everything, including discrepancy in his writing where he claims, “Very. y. Nat. sit. well then…I contradict myself” (Whitman 87). Therefore, democracy can truly be. n. al. er. io. sustained under the organic circumstances, echoing with Wilentz’s emphasis on the. i Un. v. dynamic feature of democracy mentioned in the beginning of the chapter.. Ch. engchi. By equating the importance of authority and personalism, Trilling points out another function of Democratic Vistas; that is, in addition to its literary exploration into democracy, the essay is also pertinent to the discussion of placing individuals as the essential part of the entire structure of a democratic system. Individuals are the ones that endow the literature of democracy with thought and substantial realization. In Trilling’s words, the individuals on whom Whitmanian democracy depends can be understood as the agents of “a certain condition of mind or state of being for which literature had a responsibility” (216). The relation between literature, individuals, and democracy is clarified as a significant conception reflected in Democratic Vistas for the first time. Yet, . 15.

(22) the criticism of the essay still remains underwritten as Trilling notes: “[i]t is not possible in short space to suggest the full richness and complication of Democratic Vistas or even to paraphrase all that Whitman says in it about literature” (215). It is precisely the reason why I discuss the essay and conduct a close reading of it in five chapters. The complexity and multiple directions of Whitman’s concept of democracy have not been rewarded with a more detailed criticism that is relatively complete and diverse in interpretation. In spite of Trilling’s attempt to examine literature, individuals, and democracy as a whole in Democratic Vistas, a step which is important in deciphering the essay, there is still more illumination needed in order to interpret the work appropriately.. 政治大. The connections between literature, individuals, and democracy mentioned by Trillings. 立. are not consolidated enough and vague in their exposition at the same time. While the. ‧ 國. 學. concept of individuals suggests a crucial approach to understanding the poet’s philosophy, it is even more significant to adopt Whitman’s understanding of Nature as. Nat. y. ‧. the agent that combines the three before beginning further discussion.. sit. To honestly present Whitmanian democracy in America, one needs to attain the. n. al. er. io. comprehension of Nature, which contains the essence of literature, of the individual body. i Un. v. and mind, and of American patriotism. In the “Preface” of Leaves of Grass (1855),. Ch. engchi. Whitman introduces Americans as people who “of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetic nature” (5). His poetic creation is in accordance with his anticipation of the New World literature concerning its political and social functions for America. According to Shira Wolosky, “Whitman’s poetic conduct is most obviously radical in its formal experimentation, its abandonment of meter and rhyme” (384). American literature, Whitman argues, should endeavor to break through the old European tradition and stand on its own. Different from the British Romantic poets, Whitman writes about his interaction with Nature while he does not completely reject industrialism, a product of civilization. . 16.

(23) He still approves of the artificial achievement of America and intends to embrace it within his philosophy. He considers America “the greatest poem” (5), written by “the common people”(6), and this poem “the new frame of democracy” (959). In this manner, the nature of the nation is understood as obtaining the inherent qualities of poetic disposition, which is an apt requirement to realize his views on democracy. Stressing the importance of literature to direct us in the democratic realm, Whitman regards poetry as the most proper guidance for his conception of American democracy. Regarding poetry as the literary genre that retains the closest relation to Nature, Whitman demonstrates the inclusiveness emphasized in his democracy by presenting his cataloguing style as a. 政治大. democratic manifestation in literature.. 立. The all-encompassing and spontaneous train of thoughts exemplified in his writing. ‧ 國. 學. goes hand in hand with the elements of natural surroundings. Resulting from Whitman’s Orbic Literature approach, the counterpart of the argument in which poetry resembles. ‧. Nature is attested by the previously mentioned example from Democratic Vistas where. y. Nat. sit. Nature is deemed as the only integral and genuine poem. The mutual dependence of. n. al. er. io. Nature and poetry in Whitman’s philosophy also sheds light on his political outlook, a. i Un. v. formulation embedded in Democratic Vistas and in need of more discussion. The thesis. Ch. engchi. is to be conducted by analyzing Whitman’s poetry in relation to Nature, poetry, and democracy, the central themes discussed in Democratic Vistas. I intend to prove how the prose work Democratic Vistas can be applied as the artistic discipline for introducing the wide scope of the Whitmanian ideation of Nature from the basic ideas to the political ideas of nakedness embedded in his poetry. The essay manifests the naked body of democracy that can be inspected through the poetic eye and the embracing touch of Nature established in Whitman’s writing. To demonstrate the importance of nakedness in the realization of American democracy, in addition to the first chapter as introduction and the last chapter conclusion, . 17.

(24) I am to present the body of the thesis from chapter two to chapter four where the progression from nakedness to democracy will be secured stage by stage. Each chapter of the thesis is to be divided into three parts. In the first I will present passages from Democratic Vistas that are in need of further explication. In the second, I will use poems in association with the passages to help interpret the concepts that remain obscure in the essay. Finally, by using criticism of the poems as well as historically relevant knowledge pertaining to the time when Whitman produced his works, I will argue how the essay can assist readers to appreciate his poems with regard to Nature from three different approaches—body politic, transcendentalism, and ecopoetics, a study on poetry with an ecological message and emphasis.. 立. 政治大. In order to demonstrate the approach, one passage from the essay is especially. ‧ 國. 學. adopted in the discussion of the concept of body and soul in Whitmanian transcendentalism. While Whitman celebrates the prominent progress of the technology. ‧. of his time in America, he is also concerned about the emptiness of the soul resulting. y. Nat. sit. from the overemphasis on materialistic realization. As he cheers for the joy of material. n. al. er. io. achievements, he also argues that “the soul of man will not with such only—nay, not. i Un. v. with such at all—be finally satisfied; but needs what, (standing on these and on all things,. Ch. engchi. as the feet stand on the ground,) is address’d to the loftiest, to itself alone” (960). It is evident that the soul cannot be nurtured by material fulfillment only. For Whitman, to satisfy the soul demands something more pertinent to the physical interaction between people. In the poem “I Sing the Body Electric,” he instructs his readers how to seek and further cultivate the soul. Composed in a detailed and descriptive style, the poem is split into sections in which Whitman illustrates carefully every part of the human body through his poetic observation. In Section Four, he talks about the sensuality of physical contact with men and women. He encourages the readers to stay “close to men and . 18.

(25) women” and look “on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that please the soul well” (253). He points out the place where we can find the soul. It is simply the contact of men and women and their natural physical state that reflect the soul in them or even the larger soul above them, among us. By addressing to his body, Whitman discovers the soul. “O my body!” he hailed, “I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)” (257). Here, body and soul become one. Opposing the other contemporary transcendentalists, both body and soul are considered divine by Whitman. The perplexity of the passage cited from Democratic Vistas is eased through the. 政治大. interpretation of this poem. The idea of the body politic is based on the sacredness of the. 立. body in Whitman’s works, a concept explored by Betsy Erkkila in Whitman the Political. ‧ 國. 學. Poet. This concept can be applied to every single body, including people from different strata of a society, especially fitting for America, where immigrants from all over the. ‧. world gather. Huck Gutman wrote an article commenting on how the “bodies” in the. y. Nat. sit. poem are important in their practice concerning politics. Because of the sacredness of the. n. al. er. io. bodies as well as the equality between them, Gutman argues, all bodies in the nation have. i Un. v. their places “in the democratic procession” (297). Endowed by the poet with a divine. Ch. engchi. mission, the corporeality of the body exercises its power in the realms of thought, politics, and to be more specific, democracy in America. This is the democracy Whitman anticipates, the nakedness of thought performing the highest force of the soul. The state of the human body in its most natural presentation reaches out to the true Nature of the Whitmanian American democracy. In the second chapter, I will analyze Whitman’s poems in terms of their political connotations revealed through the discussion of Nature in Democratic Vistas. His perception of Nature, as presented in the prose work, responds to individuality, poetry, and patriotism. Starting from the point of view as an individual as well as a . 19.

(26) transcendentalist in Nature, Whitman’s ideas of Nature in association with his advocacy of the body being placed as high as the soul will be examined. The chapter will first establish the significance of Democratic Vistas by referring to Thomas Carlyle’s Shooting Niagara: And After? as the motive of and the target for the finalized version of the essay and explain how Carlyle’s opinions of democracy are different from Whitman’s. Second, I will discuss examples of Whitman’s mentioning the notion of body in his prose work and allude to the poems relevant to the poet’s conception of corporeality and the necessity of equating tangibility with spirituality in his transcendentalism. The distinction between Whitman and other transcendentalists is to be. 政治大. exemplified in the course of the discussion through the interpretations of the selected. 立. poems. The sections drawn from the essay in relation to the theme will be mirrored and. ‧ 國. 學. explained by the poems with the purpose to demonstrate specifically the ideas of body and Nature implanted in the democratic pamphlet.. ‧. As demonstrated in the methodology, the discussion of the body will include Betsy. y. Nat. sit. Erkkila’s concept of the body politic, an approach to illustrate the relation between the. n. al. er. io. human body and democracy of America in Whitman’s writing. To introduce the body. i Un. v. politic approach to deciphering Whitman’s Democratic Vistas, I intend to start the. Ch. engchi. discussion with Erkkila’s interpretation of “Song of Myself” as Whitman’s poetic demonstration of the body politic concept. She compares the body, the content of the poem, with the land of America, and the politic, the body’s mechanism, with the democratic system of the nation. Next, I will build my argument upon her criticism concerning Whitman’s poetry and bring the concept of the body politic to the interpretation of Democratic Vistas by employing Harold Aspiz’s approach, in which the structure of the essay is regarded as a manifestation of the body politic theory. Agreeing yet unsatisfied with Aspiz’s interpretation, I will argue that the body politic notion is embedded not only in the structure but also in the content of the essay. At the end of the . 20.

(27) argument, an individual as the very basic element of a democratic system, ought to be understood as a corporeal body as everlasting as the soul that contains and represents Nature. In the third chapter, upon the recognition of Whitman’s transcendentalist view on the relation between body and Nature, I will discuss Nature from the point of view of Whitman the poet. The chapter will attempt to present Whitman’s apprehension of the strong kinship between poetry and Nature. The images of Nature, especially the usage of water in his poetry, are to be discussed. Whitman has acquired the name as the poet of the sea due to his expansive application of the sea or the ocean in his writing. In. 政治大. Democratic Vistas, he uses the sea as a metaphor to suggest the idea of how literature has. 立. carried wisdom and knowledge from different eras. The sea is to be viewed as an agent. ‧ 國. 學. that carries the old and accommodates the new. According to Whitman, poetry, compared with other literary genres, retains the closest relation with Nature. The sea. ‧. poetry especially manifests this concept. By researching Whitman’s sea philosophy, the. y. Nat. sit. chapter proposes that Whitman, as a poet and an embracer of Nature, considers poetry as. n. al. er. io. a bridge that joins the history of man and of Nature together.. i Un. v. In the fourth chapter, arriving at a conclusion from the last chapter that poetry. Ch. engchi. enables man to be completely open in Nature as Whitman describes, “Nature was naked, and I was also” (831), I will discuss specifically Whitman’s poetry as national literature, and the poet as a patriot of the cosmos. While announcing his patriotic sentiment and enthusiasm, Whitman inclines to apply objects of natural surroundings such as stars, birds, trees, and flowers to represent political figures and to depict the political situations of his time. For instance, in his famous poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman compares Lincoln to the “powerful western fallen star” (459) and himself to a warbling bird. He believes that the force of Nature can be as sturdy as required in a political model from a patriot’s point of view or as versatile as possible . 21.

(28) concerning the idea of spontaneity in transcendentalism—an analogy which brings his readers back to the starting point of the man-oriented Nature in America. Paralleling the two, Whitman begins the poem by juxtaposing Nature and democracy through the instrument, poetry, builds up the relative course and phenomenon in both realms, and eventually integrates the two and achieves unification. This method can be perceived in Democratic Vistas where Nature and democracy seem to be separately mentioned but closely tied with each other in an obscure manner. By explaining the metaphors pertinent to Nature (which contain political implications to American democracy) in this chapter, I propose to look at Whitman not as a patriot of America but a patriot of Nature in a universal manner.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. . Ch. engchi. 22. i Un. v.

(29) CHAPTER 2 “Germs of All”—Whitman The Transcendentalist of Reconstruction “I extend my arm and half enclose [a handful space] with my hand, That containing the start of each and all, the virtue, the germs of all.” —Walt Whitman, “Germs” When Ralph Waldo Emerson put forth his philosophy of American transcendentalism exclusively based on the people and culture that provided the nation with a new life independent from its British heritage, especially with his renowned essay Nature published in 1836, the soil of America was turned over for the first time after the Declaration of Independence. Emersonianism has continued to inspire the posterity to. 治政大 World. As slow as it was for continue the mission of fertilizing the land of the New 立. America to march into a new era where the nation struggled to be free of the cultural and. ‧ 國. 學. historical influences from the Old World, the journey had been worthwhile. Walt. ‧. Whitman as a recognized follower of Emerson, with the belief that “a leaf of grass is no. sit. y. Nat. less than the journeywork of the stars” (57), composed the poem “Song of Myself” in. io. er. 1855 as his initial attempt to sing as an individual of the nation and for every individual. al. in the universe. While stars can be seen by people from different corners of the world,. n. iv n C U individual in the universe. He does h e nto gtravel the leaves of his poetry are expected c htoi every not restrain his visionary ideas of America but revitalizes them with a magnifying glass which helps him look over the world. He sees all the particles in the universe as “germs” (409), encompassing all the “forms, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts, stars” (409), and more. These “germs” are delivered by and in us, through the infinite space between different parts of the body. The emphasis on the body in Whitman’s works has established its indispensable place in his democracy for America. The prevalence of corporeality expressed in his poetry surpasses its homoerotic manifestation, and further, complements his political validity due to the individuality demonstrated through the bodies of every individual as . 23.

(30) the essential elements of democracy. His poetic works should not be understood as voices interpreting various subjects but as a grand and lengthy song that has its beginning, transition, and end, constituting the structure of his philosophical evolution. It is important not to read Whitman’s poems separately but to comprehend them collectively. His poetry altogether suggests the change of his democratic thought. In order to understand this train of thought, we need to use Democratic Vistas as the guidance of Whitman’s poetic arts. With regard to the democratic outlook of America, the essay represents not only Whitman’s collected political thoughts but also serves as the artistic principle guiding the readers to comprehend his ideas of Nature, poetry and. 政治大. democracy in a unified but organic manner which resembles the mechanism of our body.. 立. Scholars have introduced the idea of the body politic as a major approach to. ‧ 國. 學. interpreting Whitman’s works. Betsy Erkkila, the author of Whitman The Political Poet, broke new ground in her exegesis of Leaves of Grass by paralleling democracy with the. ‧. body through the application of the body politic concept to the poems. In the essay. y. Nat. sit. “Leaves of Grass and the Body Politic,” Erkkila legitimizes her approach by pointing out. n. al. er. io. that Whitman himself has spoken of “the analogy between the individual and the body politic.” She quotes a passage from Leaves of Grass (1855):. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. What is any Nation, after all—and what is a human being—but a struggle between conflicting, paradoxical, opposing elements—and they themselves and their most violent contests, important parts of that One Identity, and of its development? (87) By quoting the passage above, Erkkila exemplifies the origin of her body politic approach to interpreting Whitman’s poetry. She also perceives “an organic self” created by Whitman to represent himself in his democratic prospect as he “seeks to manage and resolve poetically the conflicting and paradoxical energies of the nation” (Erkkila 93). . 24.

(31) Juxtaposing the performances of the body of both male and female with the political conflicts of the nation, “the danger of democracy with the danger of a sexually unruly body” (105), Erkkila clarifies Whitman’s attempts to push forward “the level of sex and the body” (105) presented in the poetry to reflect his democratic theory of America. She focuses on the exploration of the manifestation of the body in Whitman’s poems in the essay. The body encompasses people of different races and sexes, nations of every continent, and even the entire creation of Nature. According to Erkkila, the formation of the body in Whitman’s poetry serves as his plan to reconstruct democracy in nineteenthcentury America.. 政治大. While Erkkila makes the first connection between the body politic and the poetry. 立. of Whitman, the interpretation which creates a different point of view for the readers to. ‧ 國. 學. look at the poems in a politico-corporal fashion, Harold Aspiz, another recognized Whitman scholar, takes the body politic notion further to decipher the poet’s prose work.. ‧. Five years after Erkkila proposed the body politic as the demonstration of both. y. Nat. sit. Whitman’s poetry and democratic outlook, Aspiz further emphasizes that the body. n. al. er. io. politic is embedded not only in the performance of Whitman’s poetic language but also. i Un. v. in the structure of his significant prose work Democratic Vistas. In “The Body Politic in. Ch. engchi. Democratic Vistas,” Aspiz considers the concept revealed in Whitman’s writings more of an abstruse technique than a perceptible scheme, owing to the fact that the term “the body politic” never appears in his writings. He envisages the Vistas as a political, social, and physiological essay, which incorporates the body politic (a term with or without Whitman’s validation) as “a unifying structural metaphor” (Aspiz 105). Aspiz contributes a crucial interpretation by elucidating the nature of the essay. For more than a century, critics have commented on the inapplicability of the essay to its contemporary political reality. It is also a reason why Whitman is categorized by literati as an idealist. Aspiz intends to redefine the constitution of the essay as an attempt to . 25.

(32) fortify “an intuitional faith” rather than produce “a political program” (110). This intuition, according to Aspiz, operates in a spiritual manner in each “self-reliant” individual, “who is attuned to an influx of nature’s evolutionary law” (111). With men as the major participants in the law of Nature to carry on the “intuition” for the duration of time and across places, “the poetic-political theory” (Aspiz 111) underlying Democratic Vistas is realized through the human body. In addition to the connection made between the nation and the body, Aspiz further points out that the “physiological upgrading” and “poetic renaissance” (112) performed in Whitman’s writings construct an analogy between the body and literature. By. 政治大. employing the body politic as a metaphorical device to interpret Democratic Vistas,. 立. Aspiz views the body, poetry, and the nation as three parallel streams of thought in the. ‧ 國. 學. essay. His interpretation echoes the poem “I Sing The Body Electric.” The electric, organic body, as I tend to put it, symbolizes the reviving, revolutionary, and dynamic. ‧. idea of the body politic. Stressing the influence of physiology in Democratic Vistas,. y. Nat. sit. Aspiz directs the readers to understand Whitman’s democratic prospect from an. n. al. er. io. alternative standpoint to the monotonous study of the political system, reassuring the. i Un. v. significance of the body in Whitman’s prose writings. However, the projected body as an. Ch. engchi. analogy to Whitman’s poetry writings and “institutional faith” remains meager in comparison to the grand and all-encompassing style and content of Whitman’s works. The connections between the body, the poetry, and the nation have not been explained in detail. In my thesis, I intend to look at Aspiz’s inspiring essay as the cornerstone on which I will attempt to construct and elaborate on the discussions of the body, poetry, and the nation in this order in each chapter, with the initial exploration of the fundamentals of Whitman’s concept of the body by referring to Emerson’s Nature and Carlyle’s essays, Characteristics and Shooting Niagara: And After?. . 26.

(33) The brief quote in the beginning of the chapter intends to set up the foundation of Whitmanian philosophy of Nature and the world we share with it. Whitman regards the circulation of human bodies and Nature as the ultimate law. It is the law that dominates the course of every institution in the world. It is the law that ought to be studied and applied to the practice of democracy as the manifestations of democracy are “the warranting results like those of Nature’s laws, reliable, when once established, to carry on themselves” (Whitman 966). For Whitman, the body, Nature, and democracy share the same principles. The focus of the chapter is to take the readers upon an alternative passage to reread the essay Democratic Vistas and to argue that the core value of. 政治大. Whitmanian democracy should be traced back to the root of his philosophy—Nature. The. 立. conception of Nature in the essay can be understood as a revision and a revolution from. ‧ 國. 學. Emersonianism while the expectation of democratic ripeness is mirrored and motivated by Thomas Carlyle’s rebuttal of democracy in Shooting Niagara: And After?. ‧. In the first part of the chapter, reflecting on the incitement of the full version of. y. Nat. sit. Democratic Vistas, which has been revised and republished thrice, I intend to explore the. n. al. er. io. origin and the creation of the essay by referring to Carlyle’s essay, which approves. i Un. v. Aristocracy instead of democracy. Written against the Second Reform Act in 1867,. Ch. engchi. Shooting Niagara: And After? consists of Carlyle’s prediction of the disappointment and failure of democracy, which he terms “Swarmery,” a group of people with imprudent and undiscerning actions. It serves as his social commentary of nineteenth-century England in political and cultural aspects, which are contrasted with the Vistas finalized by Whitman in 1871. In this section, I will attempt to dwell on the arguments about democracy provided in the two essays and employ Carlyle’s reasons of disagreement as the ground to tackle the Vistas and to prove why the significance of the essay is unfailing with respect to democracy in America.. . 27.

(34) Through the discussion based on Carlyle’s commentary, in the second part of the chapter I will argue how the understanding of the Vistas should rely on Whitman’s ideas of Nature applied in the essay. To interpret Whitmanian Nature as an adaptation of Emersonian transcendentalism and a built-up discourse of the physiologico-political view in Carlyle’s Characteristics, I will discuss the fundamental ideas of Nature in Whitman’s transcendentalism by resorting to the efficacy of body utilized as the starting point for Whitman to illustrate the development of poetry and the nation of the postbellum era in the essay. Since Democratic Vistas was written after the Civil War, I intend to focus on Whitman’s transcendental thoughts that have participated in rebuilding and revitalizing. 政治大. the nation. In this chapter, the word Reconstruction is to be understood as the period of. 立. time after 1865, the end of the American Civil War. By representing the essay as a. ‧ 國. 學. democratizing body of reformation, signifying Whitman’s response of nineteenth-century Reconstruction America to Carlyle’s essays and Emerson’s transcendentalism, the. ‧. chapter aims to show that to interpret Democratic Vistas properly as to realize its. y. Nat. sit. democratic implications, one must initiate the argument through the concept of body as. n. al. er. io. the foundation of Whitman’s ideas of Nature embedded in the essay.. i Un. v. Democratic Vistas, a long prose work compiled from a trilogy of essays intended. Ch. engchi. for publication in the Galaxy magazine, represents Whitman’s accumulated thoughts on democracy after the American Civil War. The first two essays “Democracy” and “Personalism” were published respectively in the magazine in 1867 and 1868 while the third “Orbic Literature” failed to attain the goal in the first attempt (Wrobel 176). Although Democratic Vistas is the compilation of three individual complete essays, the current version of the prose work had undergone several revisions before it was finalized. The main reason for Whitman to complete the essay was the publication of Carlyle’s Shooting Niagara: And After? in 1867. Carlyle witnessed the trend of democracy arriving at his own country, shaking the ancient, noble, and long-lasting tradition of . 28.

(35) England, particularly resulting from the Second Reform Act. At first, the Reform Act was to enfranchise the urban male working class in England and Wales as an adoption of democratization in politics. It eventually led to the enfranchisement of all the male householders, an outcome which was intended to help the Conservative Party. The Act induced various oppositional voices in England. Among them, Carlyle expressed his indignity confronting the situation by producing the well-known Shooting Niagara to harshly attack and criticize the “Devil-appointed” (4) path of democracy. In the essay, he regards democracy as “Swarmery” (4), or the “Gathering of Men in Swarms” (4), and the practitioners merely a group of people “in the habit of doing,. 政治大. believing, when thrown into that miraculous condition” (4). In his point of view, the. 立. believers of democracy are ignorant, blindly following a trend that would eventually lead. ‧ 國. 學. the country backward.. As Carlyle points out the naivety to believe in “the equality of men” (4), he further. ‧. reassures the natural existence of “servantship” and “mastership” with reference to the. y. Nat. sit. “Nigger Question” as one of the “smallest” problems (5) of the American Civil War.. n. al. er. io. According to Carlyle, the order and rank of a society as well as the intellect of a man. i Un. v. hold the key to the improvement of a country. He argues that the Aristocracy of all. Ch. engchi. classes in England should be “looked up to” because of “their good qualities and good fortune” (17), in contrast to the emphasis on the commonality of every individual in the democratic notion. This elitist view is also extended to his argument of arts. Literature, especially poetry, is wasted in the region of democracy and falls “inane in our mad era” (Carlyle 27). Carlyle laments the loss of faith in his contemporary poetry writings. He argues against the oral quality of poetry, deeming that speech has been prevailing and superfluous. The “non-vocal” school department, the type of writing which is pious, is needed to direct the future generations to acquire and retain their “right conduct” and “wise, useful behavior” (Carlyle 45). For Carlyle, only art pertaining to Fact is worth . 29.

(36) producing or continuing its existence, a feature which he compares to the religious work, the Bible. With regard to the contemporary literary scene of his time, Carlyle conveys his distress of the failing culture and society as a result of the political revolution and his expectation for the Heroes to come in the future (31). In reaction to the democratizing movement of his age, Carlyle refutes, in a hardened manner, the fault of the enfranchisement in England, and the misconception of liberalization as a positive movement. Refusing to change the conventional approach of developing a country so as to refine its culture and social progress under a hierarchical system, Carlyle is rendered powerless and wretched by the impending force of. 政治大. democracy. He mocks the foolishness of his country as if it were to make a leap over. 立. Niagara, embracing the impossible. Democracy, the term toyed with by Carlyle, is purely. ‧ 國. 學. a beautified and believed-to-be concept that cannot maintain a substantial and sustainable institution to lead a country toward its stable progress and prosperity. For Carlyle, neither. ‧. culture nor art can endure the undiscerning acts of people resulting from the operation of. y. Nat. sit. democracy. Of all the genres of literature, poetry is discussed particularly for the. n. al. er. io. contemporary speech/song-like writing style. Carlyle disdains this movement because it. i Un. v. lowers the art itself and preserves nothing but transient mortality that will eventually be. Ch. engchi. washed away by the currents of time. Due to the aggressive commentary by Carlyle, Whitman, starting from the same year of 1867, completed and published his trilogy of essays on the merits of democracy in 1871, as the recollected postbellum thoughts of men, literature, and America. While it was inevitable for Whitman, as a volunteer in the camps and hospitals to take care of the soldiers during the American Civil War, to reveal the trauma and damage the country suffered during the War, the newly kindled hope can still be seen conspicuously in his essay. In Democratic Vistas, instead of revolving around the postbellum disillusion, Whitman aims to introduce to his countrymen and readers a . 30.

(37) different method derived from his transcendentalist philosophy to comprehend the working of democracy. In the beginning of the essay, he suggests that we learn “the greatest lessons of Nature,” in other words, “the lessons of variety and freedom” (953). The lessons should be viewed as the fundamental principles of democracy. The characteristic of variety implies the possibility of constant change, competition, and revolution. The instability is therefore one important factor to the success of a democratic government. This argument contrasts the old, traditional world Carlyle recalls in his essay as he regards “Swarmeries” as temporary mistakes made by the ignorant believers that shall cease to have influence before long. However, for Whitman, any movement or. 政治大. principles produced under a democratic system should always stay dynamic. Unlike. 立. Carlyle who supports the stability of ranks and power distribution in the aristocratic. ‧ 國. 學. structure, Whitman considers the incessantly evolving points of view or regulations the essential contribution to the realization of democracy. The perceptional discrepancy. ‧. resulting from the attachment to the Old World and the aspiration for the New World. y. Nat. sit. therefore sets the two patriotic literati apart.. n. al. er. io. For Whitman, democracy is “not the result of studying up in political economy, but. i Un. v. of the ordinary sense, observing, wandering among men” (954). It takes one to preserve a. Ch. engchi. compassionate state of mind to understand the “ordinary,” commonplace manner of men so as to realize the importance of the observance. As a man who had been accustomed to the existence of the Parliament and its sovereignty, Carlyle might find it baffling to have sympathy with the egalitarian mindset of democracy. The Prime Minister and government in England are elected through the members of the Parliament but not the common people. While election in England is considered a democratic institution, this democracy is performed by selected individuals instead of the general public. The monarchal system contradicts the ordinariness promulgated in Whitman’s democratic system. . 31.