Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2001

Thesis Director

Mark Christhilf

Abstract

E.M. Forster may have best described Walt Whitman's prevailing optimism in the following passage:

He is the true optimist—not the professional optimist who shuts his eyes and shirks ... but one who has seen and suffered much and yet rejoices. He is not a philosopher or theologian; he cannot answer the ultimate question and tell us what life is. But he is absolutely certain that it is grand, that it is happiness, and that 'wherever life and force are manifested, beauty is manifested.' (Allen, World 52)

Whitman was aware of the social taboos and social evils of his time, witnessing them up close during his long-time journalism career, and expressing his opinion of them in various works of prose. However, his outlook on life and the world remained cheerful; he "patiently accepted the temporary inequalities and injustices" of the world (Allen, Handbook 358). He was able to turn virtually any social taboo or negative social reality into something to be celebrated. This optimism derived from Whitman's beliefs that all beings are equal and deserving of inclusion, and that the human race is becoming more perfect as the world evolves. He believed that social taboos and social ills would ultimately diminish as the world progressed. This optimistic attitude led Whitman to accept social taboos and social ills in his poetry and transform them into positive conditions.

In Walt Whitman Handbook, Gay Wilson Allen refers to Whitman as "ambitious to be the poetical rather than the political spokesman of his time and people. . . . The literary role which he assumed in ... Leaves of Grass was that of 'the caresser of life' embracing all forms, good and evil alike, with a democracy that made no distinctions between persons or fractions . . . he attained an almost Brahman serenity" (354). The "caressing" and "embracing" that Allen refers to derives from Whitman's main ideology, pantheism. Pantheism was the driving force behind Whitman's persona, and there are many examples of his pantheistic persona throughout Leaves of Grass.

This paper explores Whitman's pantheism, beginning with the basic premise of pantheism and leading into the various ideas and extensions of pantheism, specifically, evolutionary pantheism. Due to his evolutionary pantheistic beliefs, which included the obligation of the poet taking on a prophetic role, Whitman was able to accept and celebrate virtually all social taboos and negative social conditions in his poems such as insane individuals, criminals, sex, poverty, and even war. He exuded the optimistic persona of an evolutionary pantheist, hoping to leave readers with a "bible" to learn from and follow, helping to lead America, and ultimately the world, into a brighter future.

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