Transcendentalism in The Works of Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, and Self-Reliance and The Poet by Ralph Waldo Emerson can relate to each other about the authors' thoughts on transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the connection between people and nature. These writers believe that the universe and the individual soul have a deeper connection connected with one other. Emmerson was considered to be one of the most well-known transcendentalists of this time. People started to think deeper into things and started to believe there must be more to life besides the logical reasoning behind things they do and why. Transcendentalists also believed that individuals should go beyond themselves and be confident and follow their passions in life.

Emmerson expresses his views about people and their relation to society and what an individual should accomplish. John Bryant states, “The Poet”, the process of writing itself is an exercise of “genius” that allows us to discover the liberation of our creativity and comprehend more experientially the connection between the material and the ideal.” Emmerson believes that a poet is someone who can see past the blinded eye of humanity and reveal the truths about the earth. He thinks that people should not rely on others, instead, we should rely on ourselves. He believed that we should not base our choices on other’s opinions, and we should not look for other people to tell us what directions we should take in our life. You can gather from the short clip from Emmerson’s essay on transcendentalism “Self- Reliance” he strongly believed that if you were with nature, you would also be with God. He wants people to not only look at things in nature as one, but he also wants people to view nature as a whole. Very quickly the reader learns that you can be civilized, but you should not compare it with the natural world in which you live in. This shows his transcendental views on life.

According to Mary Eleanore, “To Whitman, the universe is an ever-changing system, producing new ideas and forms that will combine, a la Hegel, into ever new and better life.”

The universe is always changing in some way. Identity is a major theme in Song of Myself. Whitman has three different identities that people see thought this poem, but he believes that all three are connected as one when reading the poem which shows his transcendentalist views on things. In the first section of Song of Myself, Whitman states in the first and second stanza, “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, born here of parents born here from parents the same.” Whitman thinks deeply about where he came from and where the ones before him came from. He mentions that every atom inside of him came from the soil that grows the grass. You can infer from those 2 lines that he is one with nature. In section 2, he continues to describe nature, stating that he could get drunk off the air that he is breathing and says he will go to the bank and get naked. This shows literary transcendentalism and how if you open yourself up to nature it will benefit you for the better.

Section 4 talks about all the people in his life like the “trippers and askers around me.” He is referring to all the things in life that make people lose sight of the big picture like worrying about things, wondering who whose friend is and who is no, or who loves who. He says all these thoughts come to him throughout the day, but they do not affect the “Me myself.” The me myself he is referring to is his inner self. His inner self did not care about the things of the world, he could stand away and apart from these feelings and thoughts. In section 6 a child asks him “What is the grass” he then starts thinking of all the things grass could represent. He finally rationalizes with himself that the grass represents being born and dying. He then begins to think of who all could have died and been buried beneath him. He then states that no one ever truly goes away for good even after death. Because we all belong to natural death could not be as bad as most people make it out to be. Whitman could be very sensitive and gentle in one line and the next he could be very dark which made for a different mixture of images that the reader would get from reading this poem.

Section 11 informs the reader that there are 28 men bathing by ashore and a woman is watching the men bath without them knowing. Many people hide their feelings and sexual desires though others like what was done here. This shows a sense of identity and how the body and the mind work as one in nature. The writer’s imagination was big and the emotions that the individual was feeling were very intense which show literary romanticism because of the wild emotions the reader was feeling at the time.

In section 14 he states, “The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk he says, it sounds it down to me like an invitation.” He is inferring that everything on this earth has a purpose you need to search and find it. The lines that follow state that some people may find their life meaningless, but in order to find the meaning of your life you must look up and take in what is around you. Emmerson believes that everyone and everything on this earth has a meaningful purpose for being here. Because nature is always around us Emmerson believes that most people take it for granted. Nature has a meaning behind it, but sometimes you have to take in your surroundings and look up to find the true meaning. As you can see Whitman was very close to nature and believed that he was very close to God also.

Whitman can relate to Emerson’s thoughts about transcendentalism in many ways. Emerson believed that being in with nature you were with God also. Emmerson also believed that people take nature for granted and needed to start paying closer attention to fully understand their meaning on earth and to also have a better understanding of what they were to do here on earth. Everyone should have a personal understanding of the earth and the universe in which they live to understand the deeper meaning of transcendentalism. Both writers believed in the same core values which were: individualism, romanticism, and the art of being with nature. The world we live in today is always changing. If we want to be closer to nature and one with God, we can think more like transcendentalists and take in what is around us rather than just looking at it and not thinking of the deeper meaning behind things.