Walt Whitman
"Ineffable light, light rare, untellable, light beyond all signs, descriptions and languages." This philosopher/poet has been called a spiritual leader by many and was hailed by Richard Bucke M.D in his now famous book Cosmic Consciousness. It is likely that Walt Whitman was of an even greater spirit than his works have shown and several movies, such as "Dead Poet's Society" starring Robin Williams and "Beautiful Dreamers" starring Rip Torn, suggest this to be the case. In reference to his poetry, Whitman brought a greater awareness to millions of readers who have sought to understand the great mystery that lies beneath the simplest of things. |
A child said 'What is the grass?' Fetching it to me with full hands; Born in 1819 in Long Island, NY, Whitman began as a small time newspaper editor for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and later served in the Civil war as a medic. Seemingly out of the blue, he published what would eventually become a masterpiece of poetry, Leaves of Grass, in which he tells of his mystical journey across America as well as many other great truths about the individual and the universe. Ralph Waldo Emerson first wrote to Whitman after having read an early draft of his "Leaves" and said, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes you happy….I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty." Although he is more often referred to as poet, Whitman interspersed philosophy throughout his work. The soul, forever and forever-longer than soil is brown and solid- longer than water ebbs and flows Whitman was later criticized by the district attorney in Boston as it was said that his works should be withdrawn and suppressed. This was, he said "within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature". Whitman only commented "I tickle myself with the thought how it may be said years hence that at any rate no book on earth ever had such a history." References Bucke, Richard, M.D., (1991), Cosmic Consciousness; A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind, Penguin |