Whitman devised a suitable form of free verse based on Hebrew poetry and rhythms of Biblical language. He blended Romantic elements with realistic and transcendental elements to give a broad-based and universal vision of his democracy, nationalism and humanism. Glorification of nature, elevation of common objects, deviation from traditional norms and use of supernatural element show his romantic approach.
Whitman was inspired by his travels through the American frontier to write his poem, “Leaves of Grass.” Though his parents were not Quakers in formal sense, they were admirers of the radical Quaker, Elias Hicks who laid emphasis on humanism and on the authority of inner light. Hicks was an acquaintance of Whitman’s father and grandfather. Hick’s strong sense of belief in diversity in all aspects of Nature bears an interesting resemblance to Whitman’s own belief in the sense of spirit at work in the natural world. The influence of Hick’s rhetorical and rhythmic Biblical style is seen in Whitman’s poems.
Whitman’s style also bears resemblance to the Protestant pulpit style of oratorical style of ministers such as Henry Ward Beecher and Edward Thompson Taylor of Seamen’s Bethel chapel. Rhetorical style rich with varied emotional range and imagery is noticeable in Whitman’s use of everyday life to express his spiritual vision. The most popular prose-poetry written before Whitman was Martin Farquhar Tupper whose style, just like Whitman, exalted the events and gave elaborate details of everyday life and Nature. Inspired by his original experimentation in free verse, many other poets like Carl Sandberg, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens wrote some variety of free verse. The versification of Williams Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore resembles the Verse Libre of the French poets.
Like his father Whitman admired Thomas Pain’s holistic and optimistic perspective of the world. He studied Thomas’s Paine’s “The Book of Reason” and also listened to the lectures of Frances Wright. Paine’s combination of patriotic fervour, opposition to religious superstition and firm belief in radical democracy shaped Whitman’s understanding of America.
He was influenced by Deism which believes in rationalistic interpretation of religion and does not believe in miracles and divine revelation. Deism believes in the sense of a benign creator and in a providential rational design underlying the universe. Deism’s cosmopolitan outlook with a wide acceptance of religious practices helped Whitman to have a broad and sympathetic embrace of diverse faiths and to cultivate a holistic and optimistic perspective of the world. As a sceptic he embraced all religions equally and respected all of them. “I adopt each theory, myth, god, demi-god/I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies are true without exception.” To him God was both immanent and transcendent and the human soul is immortal and is in a state of progressive development.
The influence of Emanuel Swedenborg, a seventeenth century scientist and mystic, is seen in Whitman’s presentation of assigning spiritual meanings to various phenomena and entities of the natural world. According Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences, the microcosm reflects the macrocosm and both are symbolic in their content. Swedenborg’s concept of mystic communion of common with divine as a type of sexual bond gave rise to Whitman’s conception of God as the great friend and lover.
The concept of eventual reconciliation of seemingly different aspects of experience and views enunciated by the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel inspired Whitman to hope for national unity underlying the multiple and conflicting elements of national life.
Emerson’s influence on Whitman was seen since 1842 when Whitman might have attended Emerson’s lectures on poetry in New York. Emerson called for a new kind of poet, an American bard who would create a new kind of poetry. The transcendental idea of God and Nature is also seen in Whitman’s poems. He was familiar with transcendentalist thinkers like Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Whitman was also influenced by oriental literature through transcendentalist philosophical writings and thought. The concept of immortality of soul, the concept of death as a stage in evolution of soul, the concept of universal soul, the symbolic interpretation of nature and universe reveal the influence of Indian religious scriptures. In his famous epic “Leaves of Grass”, Whitman identified himself as the Cosmic Self beholding himself in every person and thing transcending the barriers of time and space. In Bhagavad-Gita also Lord Krishna in his mystic cosmic form revealed the identity of the whole universe within His Cosmic Self.
Whitman’s conception of the poet as the spokesman for the nation and its people resembles Emerson’s concept of the prophetic and representative role of the bard as described in Emerson’s essay on “The poet.” Emerson praised Whitman “Leaves of grass” in his introductory letter thus:” I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it as great power makes us happy." In his letter of encouragement he added,” I greet you at the beginning of a great career.” Whitman too responded by saying,” I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.” But later as a result of Emerson’s increasing reservations about Whitman’s verse, Whitman too felt reluctant to acknowledge about Emerson’s influence.
Prior to his journalistic career he was very much impressed by novels of Sir Walter Scott, Janes Fenimore Cooper and poems of Mc Donald Clarke. Like Wordsworth Whitman deviated from conventional and poetic style, and also broadened the thematic range by describing many topics such as everyday life, democracy, growth of America, modern developments, positive attitude towards life and death and celebration of the individual.
Whitman’s upbringing and his association with working class people naturally drew him towards the goals and values of Democratic party, the party of the common man. He worked as the editor of the Whig Weekly paper “Long-Island Star” for some time. During his stay in New York he founded his own newspaper” Long-Islander” and later sold the publication to E.O.Crowell in July, 1839. In 1842 he was the editor of the” Aurora” and worked as the editor of the “Brooklyn Eagle” from 1846 to 1848. But he was later disillusioned with the democratic party as it did not support anti-slavery movement. He moved away from party politics and believed in the role of the poet as a representative of people and who would give a sense of moral direction in national life.
Whitman’s emotionally charged style and realistic images of common themes with romantic idealized setting to a certain extent owe a great deal to the influence of fine arts like painting, photography, theatres and music. His friendship with the fellow-poet William Cullen Bryant made him familiar with a number of Hudson River school Artists and artists of the American art Union. Whitman passionately involved himself as an advocate for the important impact of art on democracy. The realistic American paintings, especially of nature paintings and of every life designed for mass audience inspired Whitman to a large extent. Whitman also developed an interest in the new art of photography with its ability to offer an honest, unvarnished representation of everyday life. He tried to capture the vividness of visual art in language and imagined his poems as paintings with mental and emotional stimulation. In “Leaves of Grass” Whitman depicted in vivid detail the contemporary, historical and imaginary scenes in a visual language.
Both in painting and photography he saw an opportunity to refine and uplift the perception of the public. Whitman was also influenced by the play houses of his day. Whitman’s favourite actors like Junius Brutus Booth and Edwin Booth with their vehement and rhetorical style and sensational and melodramatic approach added dramatic and emotional element to his poetry. The emotional intensity and powerful imagery of opera songs and American popular music also shaped his poetry. He wrote the book “The Leaves of Grass” with the goal of creating a literature that was authentic and organic to the United States in every sense.
Thus, diverse influences of music, drama, painting and popular music reveal his wide range of his vision and his urgent desire to offer an image of the whole of his future and to represent the totality of experience and fullness of life.
Whitman’s influence is seen on Beat Movement poets like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s and 1960s and on anti-war poets like Adrienne Rich, Gary Sander and Alicia Ostriker. Allen Ginsberg addressed his poem “A supermarket in California” to Walt Whitman. The influence of Whitman on Ezra Pound is seen in Pound’s modernist poetic experiments. In the essay “What I feel about Walt Whitman” Pound declared Whitman as “America’s poet” and also wrote that “He is America”. The poems of Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson also show Whitman’s influence in themes and approach.
Rabindranath Tagore praised Whitman's understanding of oriental philosophy. "No American has caught the spirit of the oriental spirit of mysticism as well as he." Whitman's use of free verse influenced Tagore's prose-verse and style. Tagore's verse in "Gitanjali" shows simplicity combined with sublimity, use of graphic and vivid imagery. According to Ezra Pound, Tagore's style and rhythm are determined by the requirements of thought and emotion and not by the laws of the metre. It is a chantable prose with Biblical rhythms. It is a series of spiritual lyrics.
Andrew
Carnegie aptly called him “the greatest poet of America so far.” Really as
Whitman expressed, he is unique and untranslatable. But his wild spontaneous
verse inspires and catches the attention of everyone with its friendly, humane
and candid approach."
“I too am
not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the
world.”
------ “Leaves of
Grass”
