Was Walt Whitman a Transcendentalist? His Beliefs Explored
Alright, so you wanna know about this fella, Walt Whitman, and if he was one of them… uh… trans…transcend…you know, them fancy-thinkin’ folks? Well, lemme tell ya, it ain’t so straightforward like plantin’ corn, you know? Corn goes in the ground, it grows, simple as that. But this Whitman fella, he’s a bit more like a wild vine, growin’ all over the place.
Now, them real Transcendentalists, they was mostly up in New England, you know? Fancy pants fellas like Emerson and Thoreau, always writin’ and thinkin’ deep thoughts. They was all educated and proper, went to them fancy schools. Whitman, he weren’t like that. He was more…of the people, you know? Like me and you, just folks tryin’ to make sense of things.
- He wasn’t from New England.
- He didn’t go to no fancy Harvard school.
- He wasn’t no preacher or scholar’s kin.
But, see, even though he weren’t one of them by birth or raisin’, he sure did think a lot like ’em sometimes. He wrote about nature, like them Transcendentalists did. Talked about trees and spiders and stars. You know, simple things, but he made ’em sound all…deep and meaningful. Like that poem about a spider? “A Noiseless Patient Spider” he called it. Talks about a spider sendin’ out its web, lookin’ for somethin’ to connect to. Kinda like us folks, lookin’ for somethin’ to hold onto in this big ol’ world, ain’t it?
And he wrote about the common man, too. Not just the rich folks or the fancy folks, but everybody. The workers, the farmers, the everyday people. He saw the good in everyone, just like them Transcendentalists believed everyone had a little bit of God in ’em. He wrote this poem, “I Hear America Singing,” about all different kinds of folks singin’ their own songs. It’s like he’s sayin’, everyone’s got their own voice, everyone’s got their own worth. That’s what I think anyway.
He also wrote this other poem, “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing.” Again, talkin’ about nature, but it ain’t just about a tree. He makes it sound like that tree is connected to everything else, to people and to life itself. Like we’re all part of one big…thing. That’s that Transcendentalist idea right there, that everything’s connected, like one big ol’ quilt stitched together. That’s kinda how I see it too. Everything is somehow connected.
Then there’s this other one, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” He talks about listenin’ to some smarty-pants astronomer talkin’ about stars and charts and such, but then he just goes outside and looks at the stars himself. He’s sayin’, you don’t need all that fancy learnin’ to understand the world. You just gotta look, and listen, and feel. That’s somethin’ I believe in. Too much book learnin’ makes your head fuzzy and you forget to just look around.
So, was he a Transcendentalist? Well, it ain’t a yes or no answer, is it? He weren’t one of ‘em by birth or by raisin’, but he sure did share a lot of their ideas. He wrote about nature, and the common man, and the connectedness of things. He used his words to try and make folks see the world in a new way, just like them Transcendentalists did. Maybe he was a Transcendentalist at heart, even if he didn’t wear the fancy clothes or go to the fancy schools. He was just a regular fella, writin’ about regular things, but makin’ them sound extraordinary. Kinda like findin’ a pretty rock in your garden, you know? It’s just a rock, but it’s special, too.
In short, maybe he wasn’t a “proper” Transcendentalist, but he sure did think like one. He just did it in his own way, the way a regular person would, not all highfalutin and fancy. And that’s why I reckon folks still read him today. He talks about stuff that matters, stuff we all can understand, whether you’re a fancy scholar or just a plain ol’ person like me.
So, there you have it. That’s what I think about this Walt Whitman fella and them Transcendentalist ideas. He might not have been one of them by name, but he sure did share their spirit. And that, I reckon, is what really matters.
Tags: [Walt Whitman, Transcendentalism, American Literature, Nature, Common Man, Poetry, 19th Century, Philosophy, American Poets]
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