Poetry Comparison of Dickinson & Whitman

This paper will discuss the similarities and the differences between selected poems of Emily Dickinson and of Walt Whitman. Dickinson is famous for her homebound ways, was apparently strongly introverted, had a narrow field of acquaintances, and never traveled far from home. Whitman, on the other hand, was a worldly New Yorker, a man interested in politics who lived the life of a journalist, a traveler, an altruist, and a man-about-town. However, the poems of Dickinson and Whitman share an important concern with the nature of the human spirit and the quest to know the Self as spirit. In Dickinson, the quest for comprehending the nature of things spiritual in her distinctly modern voice is played out again and again in the poems that will be analyzed here. In Whitman, a very different kind of narrative voice explores these same issues.

The thesis in this essay is, then, that both of these poets explore the "transcendental" nature of human consciousness and write poems to educate us in the nature of the human spirit. This involves several separate "lessons." First, both poets are interested in how they might immerse themselves so wholly in the "now" that it becomes a "forever." Secondly, both poets concern themselves with the nature of death and the possibility of immortality. Hence, in spite of their great personal differences as individuals in the world, Dickinson and Whitman show a distinct similarity in asking questions about the nature of living a life of the

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e grave. These "transcendental" concerns make Whitman's poetry rhapsodic and inviting. It carries us away to a place where we can contemplate, along with the poet, what the nature of death is, itself. In Whitman, mortality is contrasted to immortality, but they are not held in opposition. In fact, they exist simultaneously, and are, finally, one and the same. Dickinson's view of death is probably more down to earth, as suggested above in the analysis of "I like the look of Agony." But, like Whitman, Dickinson focuses us on the unfolding moments of "now." Thus, again and again, she wants to explore, through the metaphors she uses, the nature of human consciousness, and how perceptions are shaped by opposing realities, including the realities that go beyond the physical. Another example of how Dickinson uses opposition to explore spiritual life is in "Much Madness is divinest sense," (#435), where she says: Much Madness is divinest Sense To a discerning Eye Much Sense the starkest Madness Tis the Majority In this, as All prevail Assent and you are sane Demur you're straightaway dangerous And handled with a Chain-- (Lines 1-8) Here, Dickinson contrasts sanity and madness, and by doing so against the backdrop of the "maj

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