Chapter III. Individual and Common Man in Whitman s Democracy. this concept of the individual. He projects himself as a citizen of the ideal

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1 Chapter III Individual and Common Man in Whitman s Democracy Importance of the Individual The importance that Whitman gives to the worth of individual is the guiding force behind his principle of democracy. Whitman, the poet-prophet of democracy is convinced that democracy can be justified only on the basis of the infinite worth of the individual. Whitman gives a religious significance to this concept of the individual. He projects himself as a citizen of the ideal democracy where individual shall be accepted with all his imperfections and limitations. It is a society in which the individual is above every law. In fact it is a society whose law is love. It is based on this law of love that Whitman sings of equality and fraternity in Song of Myself as if in the light of a mystical experience: And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers, And that the kelson of the creation is love (LG 27).

2 It may be noted that his rebuke of the idea of preference or denial was complementary to his idea of individuality. In the poem By Blue Ontario s Shore he says: Underneath all, individuals, I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals, The American compact is altogether with individuals, The only government is that which makes a minute of individuals, The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual namely to You (LG 278). In Democratic Vistas Whitman makes a vigorous attempt to project the importance of the individual in society. He argues that it is the individual, male or female, that gives at least some sort of stability to all the fluctuations in society and strengthens the movements of politics of the nations. Underneath the fluctuations of the expressions in society, as well as the movements of the politics of the leadings nations of the world, we see steadily pressing ahead and strengthening itself, even in the midst of immense tendencies toward aggregation, this image of completeness in separation, of individual personal dignity, of a single

3 person, either male or female (LG 471). He makes it explicit that individuals constitute society and that society exists for individuals. Here he tries to reconcile and unite the two themes of Leaves of Grass: the I and the masses. He was hopeful that in the course of time democracy would promote the merging of the individual with the totality of his country in a patriotic spirit. It was with this conviction of the solidarity of the individual with the totality of a great aggregate nation that he expressed his hope in the immense potential of the idea of perfect individualism. In A Backward Glance he says: While the ambitious thought of my song is to help the forming of a great aggregate Nation, it is, perhaps, altogether through the forming of myriads of fully develop d and enclosing individuals (LG 555). A number of principles which Whitman had affirmed for a long time are grouped around this central doctrine and thus acquire a new significance. Among these is his instinctive individualism. Whitman asserted over and over again that each individual is an end in himself or herself; only individuals really matter. He believed that An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation (LG 459). Whitman accepted the theory of evolution and expressed his conviction that the body of each man is the supreme out come of the evolution of the universe for thousands of years. He who attributed divinity to every individual, found no reason why he should leave out anyone from his song of universal divinity. In Our Old Feuillage he asks: Whoever you are! How can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am? / How can I but as

4 here chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of these States? (LG 141). Though Whitman spoke vehemently about the importance of the individual in democracy, he did not give undue importance to either the individual or to democracy. The idea of superman or supreme individual was never a programme in his agenda. It was only with the idea of making the individual self reliant that he promoted the need to be independent. He did not want the individual to stand apart from the mass but to merge into the mass and become a part of the en-masse. For this the most suited political philosophy, according to him, was democracy with a stress on American individuality. Whitman wrote his poems to make America a great nation of great individuals: I have allow d the stress of my poems from beginning to end to bear upon American individuality and to assist it not only because that is a great lesson in Nature, amid all her generalizing laws, but as counterpoise to the leveling tendencies of Democracy and for other reasons. While the ambitious thought of my song is to help the forming of great aggregate Nation, it is, perhaps, altogether through the forming of myriads of fully develop d and enclosing in the individual (LG 555). Whitman, who gave importance to the individual and the common man, made it a habit to visit places and to identify himself with every person and to share with them their joys and sorrows. Even in his poems, more than insisting on any philosophy, Whitman, who is always faithful to the conviction

5 that living is joyful, makes a joyful journey over the world and establishes identity with all kinds of people. As John Bailey comments on Song of Myself : The poem insists less on any philosophy than on its joyous journey over the world. It cannot be analysed, it must be read. The poet goes everywhere, and identifies himself with every person and every action, good or bad, every joy and every pain. The baby, the youngsters, the stickman, the suicide, the boat man, the trapper, the slave, the bride, the prostitute, the old husband sleeping by his wife, the birds and the oxen, the land and the sea (Bailey 143 ). The importance that Whitman gives to the individual has definitely contributed to the making of his sensibilities. The Divine Average In keeping with the Freudian concept of the individual, Whitman believed in the inseparable relationship between body and mind. This concept of the union between the body and soul magnifies the divine nature of the individual. The body, Whitman believed, attained a divinity as a result of the union with soul. He believed that the soul of every man is individual and unique, separate and distinct, becoming a self, a person. In the poem Children of Adam he asks: And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul, / And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul? (LG 78). Whitman believed that the best illustration of the modern man may be

6 found in the democratic comradeship of the everyday American. His Song of Myself is just as well a song of yourself. Throughout the poem his object is to picture a typical American, a divine average humanity. He considers the average man divine because the poet has come to see, in the simplest of lives, a timeless grandeur of body and soul (Foerster 851). In section five Whitman explains how this grandeur became clear to him. This experience of revelation seems to have transformed the whole world to him in a new perspective. Thereafter he is capable of addressing his readers with the zeal of an evangelist and he gives a theological dimension to his sense of equality of man stretching it as far as to the concept of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man: And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters And that a kelson of the creation is love (LG 27). The divinity that Whitman attributed to the individual prompted him to place individuality over against equality or democracy. Whitman s individual personal self has a universal dimension. As Briggs remarks: This individual personal self has a cosmic extent. It has a potential power such as Nature does not have in itself. It gives Nature meaning. It gives God and immortality meaning also; without the individual man the self, the person, they

7 too are nothing (Briggs 66). Whitman, who always glorified the importance of the individual, wanted society to recognize the infinite worth of the individual. His ideal society is one where the individual has a divine character. A significant factor in Whitman s political philosophy is the glorification of the individual and a belief in the fundamental divine character of the individual. One can easily assume that his concept of social equality emerged from this belief. He believed that the mere fact of living conferred a divine character even upon the most despicable being. He knew that social equality could be established only by accepting the divine nature of the individual. If Whitman could sing, without distinction, of the blacksmith, the Negro tea master, the butcher, the farmer, the soldier, the prostitute and a hundred others, it was because he was inspired by the notion of the infinite worth of the individual and was guided by the cardinal principles of democracy, equality, fraternity and liberty. Thus, by 1860 Whitman quite naturally arrived at the notion of average man and of divine average. These terms were used by Whitman to signify the importance of the common man. He believed that divinity always dwelled more with the common folk than with the people who lived in the higher strata of society. Therefore, Whitman wished to address the common men as divine average and was ready to declare his earnest desire to make them his friends and comrades. He liked to be in their company and to walk with them hand in hand. In Song of the Open Road he sings: Comerado, I give you my hand!

8 I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? Will you come, travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? (LG 127). From then onwards the idea of the average man was everywhere present in his Leaves of Grass. In Good- bye My Fancy he has underlined its importance: I chant my nation s crucial stage, (America s haply humanity s) -the trial great, the victory great, A strange eclaircissement of all the masses past, the eastern world, the ancient, medieval, Here, here from wanderings, strayings, lessons, wars, defeats-here at the west a voice triumphant justifying all, A gladsome pealing cry-a song for once of utmost pride and satisfaction; I chant from it the common bulk, the general average (LG 417).

9 Discussing man s duties and relations in society and the role of laws in governing, in Democratic Vistas Whitman makes it clear that the divine nature of man places him above any rule, authority or even religion: For after the rest is said after the many time-honour d and really true things for subordination, experience, rights of property, &c., have been listened to and acquiesced in after the valuable and well-settled statement of our duties and relations in society is thoroughly conn d over and exhausted it remains to bring forward and modify every thing else with the idea of that something a man is, (last precious consolation of the drudging poor,) standing apart from all else, divine in his own right, and a woman in hers, sole and untouchable by any canons of authority, or any rule derived from precedent, state-safety, the acts of legislatures, or even from what is called religion, modesty or art (LG 471). It is this divine nature of man that makes him immortal. Whitman exulted in the joyful companionship with the immortal divine average man. In Song of Myself he declared in clear terms: I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself, / (They do not know how immortal, but I know (LG 29). To his fold of human fraternity Whitman did not deny admission to any one. The thieves, drunkards and prostitutes have within them the divine nature. He believed that given chance, they would be as refined as any other

10 honourable gentleman. They were as immortal and great as the president himself. In his Song of Occupations he sings: Why what have you thought of yourself? Is it you then that thought yourself less? Is it you that thought the President greater than you? Or the rich better off than you? Or the educated wiser than you? (Because you are greasy or pimpled, or were once drunk, or a thief, Or that you are diseas d, or rheumatic, or a prostitute, Or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no scholar and never saw your name in print, Do you give in that you are any less immortal?) (LG 170). Whitman s faith in the divine average made him consistent in his effort to argue in favour of social equality and to embrace the good and bad alike on all occasions. So he repeatedly celebrates every one and all that belongs to them: Good or bad I never question you I love all I do not condemn any thing, / I chant and celebrate all that is yours yet peace no more, (LG 234). It was Whitman s conviction that a true democracy should stand for liberty and equality of the individual. A democracy that could not unite

11 the citizens was not conceivable to him. Often the poet worried about such social problems as inequality and poverty. He was constantly disturbed by the scandalous anomaly of the poverty question in a democratic society. He did not fail to address the children of the poor and the ignorant, the young and old workers who often did not get a decent reward for their hard labour. In A Song of Occupations he sings: Offspring of ignorant and poor, boys apprenticed to trades, Young fellows working on farms and old fellows on farms, Sailor-men, merchant-men, coasters, immigrants, All these I see, but nigher and farther the same I see, None shall escape me and none shall wish to escape me. (LG 170). Whitman s concept of the importance of the common man is closely linked with his political philosophy inherent in his concept of democracy that of mutual support and dependence among the members of a democratic society. In keeping with the spirit of a democrat Whitman believes in the dignity and equality of all men. It is from the stand point of this conviction that he argues for equal opportunities of self development for every human being. It is this stand that makes him the champion of the poor, the downtrodden and the

12 oppressed. His social sensibility extends to their cause and he is ever ready to stand up for those whose rights have been trampled upon. To be the voice of the underprivileged and to be the supporter and to be in the company of the underprivileged is Whitman s style of action. In section fourteen of Song of Myself we get an interesting example of many such instances in which Whitman merges his sensibility with that of the common labourers who live with the sweat of their brow: I am enamour d of growing out-doors, Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods, Of the builders and steers of ships and wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses, I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out (LG 34). It was Whitman s conviction that no human creature could be rejected or scorned by anybody or any system. Such was the principle of his democracy which always upheld the dignity of each individual. Every kind of human being, every variety of race and nation, every kind of culture is acceptable and admirable to him. He is the comrade of everyone, high and low, weak and strong. His admiration of a strong, healthy, and beautiful body, or a strong, healthy, and beautiful soul, is great when he sees it in a statesman or servant; it is precisely as great when he sees it in the ploughman or the smith

13 (Marx 65). With his sense of equality Whitman did not confine his egalitarianism to any social or political doctrine. He was against any hierarchy in society that divided it into different classes and strata. If Whitman has been acclaimed as the poet of America and the poet of democracy, his inspiring theme is the unity of America based on the concept of equality. The major theme for both his poetry and prose is American democracy built on the principle of equality. The Leaves of Grass is a symbol of this democratic spirit. He believes that it is the duty of a poet to bring about this unity strongly built upon the concept of democracy. It is his strong belief that of all mankind the poet is the equable man. In the poem By Blue Ontario s Shore he says: Of these States the poet is the equable man, Not in him but off from him things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns, Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad (LG 273). In fact, it is the word equable that best sums up, to a great extent, the temper of Whitman. As a poet and democrat, Whitman believed in equality and was a strong advocate of the law of equality. In the Preface to 1855 poems, he says in strong terms that the poet is an equalizer and seer who sees others as good as himself. There is an inner order in the manner in which the poet in Whitman equalizes the young and the old, presidents and prostitutes, the foolish

14 and the wise and breathes grandeur into the trivial. He claims: The greatest poet hardly knows pettiness or triviality. If he breathes into any thing that was before thought small it dilates with the grandeur and life of the universe. He is a seer. The others are as good as he, only he sees it and they do not he is the president of regulation (LG 445). Whitman, whose democracy acknowledged the idea of equality, regarded the average man as a real blessing to every country. In his ideal society there is no inequality and social injustice. Every one is equal. He makes no difference between the rich and the poor. In fact, in his democracy there is a predilection for the under privileged. In his famous lyric I Hear America Singing Whitman celebrates the mechanics, the carpenter, the mason, the boatman, the deckhand, the shoe-maker, the woodcutter and the plough boy: I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on

15 the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter s song, the ploughboy s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious song (LG 11). Whitman s social doctrine of equality goes hand in hand with his idea of the poet as an equable man. In his poem For You O Democracy Whitman gives us the quintessence of his spirit of democracy and fraternity built on equality: I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,

16 I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other s necks, By the love of comrades (LG 96). Individual and Liberty Whitman realizes the fact that while equality befits the mass, freedom promotes the concept of individual personality of the divine average. For a proper understanding of Whitman, we need to take into consideration how he wanted the poets to take it as their mission to carry the great idea of perfect and free individuals integrating the concepts of freedom and equality. In the poem By Blue Ontario s Shore he makes it clear: For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals, For that the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders, The attitude of him cheers up slaves and horrifies foreign despots, Without extinction is Liberty, without retrograde is Equality, They live in the feeling of young men and best women, (Nothing for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty) (LG 274).

17 These words of Whitman tell us how much, as a true democrat, he was concerned about the liberty of the individual. He deliberately uses the capital letter for the word Idea to express his regard for the idea of perfect and free individuals and to stress the fact that to give proper respect to the divine character of the individual, liberty was an indispensable condition. Roger Asselineau in his book The Evolution of Walt Whitman makes an apt remark: Individual liberty seemed to him the indispensable condition of democracy (Asselineau II, 149). It is from this philosophical concept of the individual that Whitman asserted that the governors are only delegates of the governed. They are in power to serve the people, not the other way round. His arresting words in Preface, 1855 the President taking off his hat to them and not they to him capture our attention and take us along with him. As Bradley says: they take us with him to his poems that safeguard the rights of the individual (Bradley 454). Whitman s concept of individuality was based strongly on his sense of democracy. It was built on the idea of egalitarianism. He strongly believed that society can progress only on the basis of its individual s progress. Commenting on this conviction of Whitman, Roger Asselineau remarks: He had realized that human nature could not be changed by decree and that progress could be made only as a result of slow and gradual evolution, depending not on a reform of society but on the moral improvement of individuals. (Asselineau 98). He believed that if democracy could produce great individuals, all the rest would follow. As editor and writer he came close to all categories of people.

18 But whether among the lowly or the mighty, it was a miracle of human personality that he sought to observe. Individualism was the root and branch of his democracy (Bradley x). His prose work, Democratic Vistas is an eloquent document of the ideal of liberal democracy and its fundamental principles. In it he stresses the need for observing the principle of freedom and liberty with a strong sense of responsibility. Whitman had a clear idea of democracy. To him democracy meant a self governing society of free and responsible individuals. Though he pointed out the short comings of democratic practices and the political corruption prevalent in his day, he often asserted his faith in democracy. Of course, he stressed the fact that the hope for the reform and improvement of democracy lay in the self-reform of the individual and in personal integrity. The purpose of democracy is to illustrate, at all hazards, this doctrine or theory that man, properly trained in sanest, highest freedom, may and must become a law, and series of laws, unto himself, surrounding and providing for, not only his own personal control, but all his relations to other individuals, and to the State; and that this, as matters now stand in our civilized world, is the only scheme worth working from, as warranting results like those of Nature s laws, reliable, when once established, to carry on themselves (LG ). Whitman emphatically affirmed that a true democracy stood for liberty and equality of the individual. He believed that it was one of the prime

19 concerns of a democracy to keep the citizens united. A democratic society, he asserted, should protect personalism and safeguard the rights of the individual. Whitman s Philosophy of Personalism and the Culture of Democracy Whitman, who announces the two themes, one, the word En- Masse, and the other, One s-self a simple separate person, later in his reflections on democracy in Democratic Vistas embraces a philosophy of personalism. He believed that it was the espoused mission of democracy to raise all men to the highest possible level by fostering the individual. As a means of promoting the individual, he developed and presented his theory of personalism. Whitman, who shared with Rousseau a strong distaste for the conception of a decadent aristocratic culture which has only a semblance of all the virtues, recommended a democratic culture that promotes even a kind of aristocracy that fosters individualism. He based his political theory on the recognition that there is a natural relationship between democracy and radical form of individualism. It is not an aristocracy of the conventional type that promotes a democratic leveling in the name of equality, but the one that will inspire men to be more autonomous and impersonal to a large extent. This notion of Whitman about radical individualism is not against the principle of equality. It only encourages and strengthens the democratic principle of freedom to permit men to grow up to be autonomous and independent so that they can maintain their individuality. As Goldhammer points out: Whitman s political theory thus revolves around the reconciliation of the tension between the autonomy of the individual and the connectedness and uniformity of the community

20 (Goldhammer 35). Such an idea of radical individualism countervails the argument that the poet who adheres to radical individualism has no reason to believe in the merits of equality in democracy. Whitman, who combined democracy with the concept of the average man, gave equal importance to the principles of equality as well as to that of individuality and personalism. Whitman viewed democracy not only as a political theory, but also as a cultural idea. He was, therefore, against the principle of conformity. He was concerned that a culture such as this would prevent Americans from achieving the literary greatness that was needed for the development of the kind of democracy that he envisioned Hence Whitman declared that every form of democracy need not suffer the social effects of conformity. He regretted that the America that he knew had yet to attain the most developed form of democracy. Only a harmonious blending of the activities of a new group of leaders and individuals with a different kind of social dimension in the back drop of a new culture can usher a democracy in America to redeem its individuals from the stifling effects of conformity. Whitman called this new kind of individualism, Personalism, and claimed that it would serve as an effective remedy against conformity which he considered to be one of America s most problematic social diseases. He looked forward to a democracy in America that would promote the literary greatness needed to foster personalism. He chooses poets (not philosophers) for creating an atmosphere of spiritual democracy in America that will encourage personalism. He believed more in the power of poetic and

21 imaginative vision than in reason or knowledge in bringing about a transformation in politics. In Song of the Open Road he writes: Here is the test of wisdom, Wisdom is not finally tested in schools, Wisdom cannot be pass d from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof (LG 121). Whitman the poet was convinced that the nursery teacher of personalism is the literature of the highest order produced by men of high literary calibre. His poets have a functional role to play in society as teachers. They can, through their great literary works, give moral as well as aesthetic guidance to the masses and prepare them for spiritual democracy. His notion of democratic culture encourages the creation of great literary works by great writers whom he liked to call divine literatus. He hoped that only a new race of such writers and native literature of America would teach the nation to have a comprehensive outlook on the personalism of the divine average and thus, reweave the fabric of American culture. Thus, Whitman wanted the poets to wield enough cultural power through literature that would have more influence on the people than political power. He considered himself the harbinger of the divine literatus who would do more to shape the destiny of America than any politician, preacher, or teacher. In the Inscription he wrote: POETS to come! Orators, singers,

22 musicians to come! Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known, Arouse! For you must justify me (LG 12). By the term personalism Whitman does not mean individualism in an ordinary sense. He has never defined the term, but what he seems to understand by the term is a transcendent form of individualism. Whitman s personalism demands the active participation and involvement of the individual in all the endeavours of human activity. The individual is, at once, a separate identity and an inevitable part of the whole concept of humanity. This highly metaphysical concept readily admits the idea that each man or woman is at the same time a human personality separate from all others and a citizen, an inseparable member of a certain society. He believed that this ideal of a healthy average personalism could flourish only in an atmosphere of true democracy and that personalism transforms average American men and women into the ideal citizens of spiritual democracy. From Individual to the Common Man the Divine Average Whitman s notion of the perfect and free individual and his

23 favourite concept of personalism agree perfectly with his regard and esteem for the common man whom he calls the divine average. By 1860 Whitman quite naturally arrived at the notion of average man and of divine average which from then onwards was everywhere present in Leaves of Grass. Whitman liked to acknowledge his companionship with the immortal divine average man. In Song of Myself he declared in clear terms: I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as my self (LG 29). It is his strong adherence to the principle of democracy that makes Whitman the poet of the common man. He is a great singer of the greatness of the common man. He identifies himself with the common man and believes that poetry should be written for and about the common man. Hence he writes in a style and language of the common man. His genius to a large degree consists of his purity of utterance resulting from his passionate love for the average man and his identification is usually with the slaves, the suffering and the downtrodden. For instance, in section thirty-three of Song of Myself he sings : I am the hounded slave I wince at the bite of the dogs, Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksmen, I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded

24 person, My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe (LG 55 56). Whitman s instinctive empathy with the poor and the downtrodden seems to have been the driving force behind Democratic Vistas. As Clark remarks: Democratic Vistas was, then, Whitman s attempt to outline systematically his concept of the common man and the America to come. Democracy was to be a moral force as well as a political force, and the average man was to be taught his own divinity and lifted to new levels of greatness. The future should see an America peopled by superlative men and women, parents of a yet greater generation to come, all having come about under the guidance of the divine literatus (Clark 131). Whitman achieves a balance or synthesis of democracy which includes both equality and freedom and reconciles the concepts of the common man and the divine average individual. He puts his trust in the infinitely expanding individual who is always on the process of becoming. It is this infinite potential of the individual that gives direction to Whitman s concept of the common man. In his poetry Whitman makes a consistent effort to show that the American common man, the democratic average man of America, has infinite potential and was eligible to the grandest and the best. In Democratic Vistas he says: The average man of a land at last is important. He, in these

25 States, remains immortal owner and boss, deriving good uses somehow, out of any sort of servant in office, even the basest (LG 482). The very expressions, divine and the democratic average, are a key to his notion of the place of the common man in Leaves of Grass. Whitman stood for the average man of the nineteenth century America and his songs were the songs of every man. From the beginning of his career Whitman praised the glories of Democracy as a new political ideal. He constantly remarked that the common man and woman should take the place of the traditional romantic heroes and heroines. Whitman includes the ideas of Equality in his Democracy, and regards the average man as the real asset to every country in the world (Dhavele 70). The importance that Whitman gives to the individual and the divine average man of America has definitely contributed to the making of his sensibilities. His regard for the common man, his concept of the divine average and his concern for the suffering humanity have enhanced his social sensibility that turned him into a great prophet of democracy. Leaves of Grass the Symbol of the Common Man The Title Leaves of Grass is one of the finest inspirations of the poet. One of his biographers observes that the title is the outcome of a mystical experience the poet had one mid summer morning after his return from New Orleans. It is definite that the title was a spontaneous outcome of the poet s inner convictions and faith in the common people. It was perhaps a deliberate attempt from the part of the poet to contrast the common or rather, humble leaves with

26 the rare or rather glittering flowers. It could be even an attempt from the part of Whitman, the poet of cosmos to identify himself with the leaves of grass that represented the common man. Whitman wanted to identify himself, as Bradley remarks: With the leaves which are, as it is here, the common people of the vegetable world than with the flowers which are its rare ornaments and glories. So certainly he must have liked taking grass for the name of his poems: grass, the humblest, the most universal, the least noticed, the most downtrodden of plants; grass which feeds the beasts and men who trample it under their feet; grass which has little form and no stiffness or rigidity at all, but yields and bows itself to every passing gust of wind; which leaves best in the shade, loves obscurity and shuns the blaze of the midday sun (Bailey 130). Moreover, grass, like the common man, is found every where. The plight of the grass is similar to the plight of the common man. To Whitman, who always was concerned with the plight of the common man, the plight of the grass, which is rooted out often as weeds, must have been an added reason to choose it as the symbol of his poems. Though rooted out continually, like the poor common people they appear and reappear anywhere and everywhere whether they are wanted or not: This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, / This is the common air that bathes the globe. (LG 38). Whitman was struck by the simplicity, universality and vitality of the grass

27 which he observed in the common man as well. In fact, it is this very simplicity and the unsophisticated nature of the common man that the poet adopted for the style of his poetry too. Love of Comrades Whitman s attitude towards social democracy was built on his conception of comrades: I say democracy infers such loving comradeship, as its most inevitable twin or counterpart, without which it will be incomplete, in vain, and incapable of perpetuating itself (LG 505). He preferred to express his very deep sense of human brotherhood in terms of comradeship. His repeated declaration in Song of Myself that he is the comrade of all kinds of people is only one among the many instances of his use of the word Comrade to suggest ties of friendship and love: Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners,(loving their big proportions,) Comrade of rafts men and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat (LG 37). Whitman expresses most eloquently his concept of the true basis of democratic society in the phrase love of comrades. Perhaps Whitman frequently used the word comrade to show his dislike for the terms fraternity and brotherhood which were used exclusively without much of sincerity by the church of his days.

28 As the poet of America and the poet of democracy, Whitman introduced the spirit of comradeship often in his writings. The very title, Leaves of Grass is a symbol of the democratic spirit, the spirit of the equable man, a phrase so dear to Whitman. He imbibed the British liberal thought of his contemporaries, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin and Morris. He seemed to combine all their influences, and bring forth something radically new. He became a prophet and a political seer to the liberals by singing rhapsodic praises of democracy and the love of comrades. In the poem, For You O Democracy he sings: Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon, I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life-long love of comrades (LG 96). Whitman s views on common man and his love of comrades were moulded by his theory of spiritual democracy. Even as early as his journalistic days he had started to voice the views of the average common man. After 1855 he concentrated much of his time on both prose and verse offering to the world his theory of spiritual democracy. Guided by this spiritual theory, Whitman often showed a cosmic outlook in his concept of man. His common man was therefore not of America alone but of all nations. The lines Camerado, this is no book, / Who touches this touches a man, (LG 391) are a condensed form of his expressed role to be a lover of mankind. This lover of mankind always

29 entertained a great belief in the oneness of man, a belief that gave a strong unity to his Leaves of Grass: The Whitman of Leaves of Grass contained all, comprehended all and was willing to accept all. The fulcrum was to be the dear love of Comrades which would bind together that great array of superb individuals who constitute the divine average, the great, native, American man (Clark 113). Thus, imbued with a humanistic spirit, Whitman s dream of democracy had an overtone of friendship of an all encompassing kind. To set an example of friendship or comradeship, Whitman was ready to give himself to others; and what he wanted in return was the other man as fully as he had given himself: Comerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? Will you come, travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? (LG 127). He knew that only this kind of friendship of complete surrender would last long, as long as life itself. Whitman s Identity with the American People

30 Inspired by his strong sense of equality, Whitman achieved complete identity with the American people. He became their spokesman. He wanted to be a singer of American states united in spirit as equals with no one subjected to another. In the poem Starting from Paumanok he sings: I will make a song for these States that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State, And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all the States, and between any two of them, I will acknowledge contemporary lands, I will trail the whole geography of the globe and salute courteously every city large and small, And I will report all heroism from American point of view (LG 15-16). Just as Whitman took pride in being one with the people of America, he also took pride in his country, its physical vastness and its infinite natural riches. Thus his poetry evinces his strong desire to celebrate man and to celebrate his country. In Preface, 1855 he celebrates the poetical nature of his

31 country as well as its people: The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem (LG 441). His poetry sings of democracy, of the average man, of the en-masse. It contains many pictures of American people and their way of life. All kinds of people, especially the working class men move through his poems in a procession full of life and vitality. Whitman, a singer and bard of American life, a true spokesman of America and its democracy, will accept only what others can also have on the same terms. His identification with others is total and in keeping with the spirit of true democracy. Whitman, a true representative and spokesman of America, wrote several poems which contain many things characteristically American. For example, the Wound Dresser and Come up from the Field Father describe the horrors of the civil war. If the war had a cause to justify, Whitman finds no justification for the human damage even if the cause is for democracy. The greatest damage caused by the after-effects of war is the death of Abraham Lincoln. Whitman s social sensibility and his sentimental attachment to the nation is best expressed in his feelings towards the American President. The death of Lincoln was a heavy blow to the American sentiment. It was more than a shock to Whitman. He was strongly influenced by Lincoln s regard for the people of America and the principles of democracy. Therefore, it would be unjust to avoid Whitman s regard for Lincoln in any discussion of his regard for democracy and the people of America. He has vividly brought out his feelings

32 and the feelings of the people of America in his two elegiac poems: O Captain My Captain and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d. Whitman the poet of democracy admired Lincoln, the Captain of American democracy, because of the president s strong regard for the principles of democracy. He was taken up by the role of Lincoln in the civil war. He considered Lincoln to be the embodiment of democracy and the grandest figure on the canvas of nineteenth century democracy. Whitman s appreciation for Lincoln developed as a result of their common love for and dedication to the cause of American democracy. It would make an interesting study to note certain common factors that went into the making of the sensibilities of these two staunch supporters of American democracy. Both, Lincoln and Whitman, had a heart large enough to contain a nation and showed a strong will to stand for the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Both stood firm and courageous when it came to serving their country. Both of them came from plain people and had very little formal education. Both had a strong inclination to suffer for the freedom of the slaves and the cause of the Negroes. Above all, both displayed an unshakable faith in democracy. Hence it was only natural that the two men came to be regarded as the representative voices of America. Today, Lincoln is known as The Man of the People and Whitman as The Poet of the People. Whitman s admiration of Lincoln sprouted from his love of democracy. What was so common in both of them was their social sensibility. While Whitman extended his sensibility to the common

33 man and the average citizens of America, Lincoln, as the president of America focused his attention and devoted his social sensibility for the cause of the slaves. Though Whitman never published any praise of Lincoln while the president lived, he almost immortalized Lincoln in the famous poem, O Captain! My Captain!. The poem begins with a celebration of the victory of the cause for which he shared with Lincoln the same sensibility and feeling: O CAPTAIN! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring (LG 266). The prize that both Lincoln and Whitman sought was the same. It was the abolition of slavery. In a truly democratic spirit Whitman praises Lincoln who captained the struggle for the freedom of the slaves. The poet of democracy then mourns deeply the assassination of a president who best exemplified the principles of American democracy. He considered the assassination as a personal bereavement and memorialized the tragedy in the great elegy, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d. The poem expressed to the world in heart-felt words how similar and thoughtful their sensibilities had been about the cause of the suffering Negroes and how, even

34 after Lincoln s death, Whitman nostalgically reflected on their common feelings. O western orb sailing the heaven, Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walk d As I walk d in silence the transparent shadowy night, As I saw you had something to tell as bent to me night after night, As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where you sad orb; Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone (LG 261). Whitman identified his thoughts and dreams with those of America and went about with a very great vision of the future of America. The poems, One s Self I Sing, Turn O Liberated Pioneers, O Pioneers etc are songs dealing with the future of America.. In Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood, the poet makes a prophetic expression of the future wealth and civilization of America: Thee in thy own musicians, singers, artists, unborn yet, but certain, Thee in thy moral wealth and civilization,

35 Thee in thy pinnacles, intellect, thought, thy topmost rational joys, Thy love and godlike aspiration, In thy resplendent coming literati, thy fulllung d orators, thy sacerdotal bards, kosmic savans These! these in thee, (certain to come, ) today I prophesy (LG 357). Whitman s hope in the divine average man and his dreams of America are closely linked. In the poem I Dream d in a Dream he sings: I DREAM D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth, I dream d that was the new city of Friends, Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest, It was seen every hour in the actions of men of that city, And in all their looks and words (LG 107). The Role of the Divine Literatus Whitman believed that the divine literatus has a great role to play in bringing about all kinds of changes in the society and in influencing the course of civilization. He can shape events and mould men and women in a

36 thousand effective ways. It is only a divine literatus who can create and announce a mentally conducive programme to the development of a civilization heralding the equality of all men in its spiritual as well as political perspective. Whitman s concern was for the society of the present not of the past or far off future. His programme of equality and freedom was for an immediate social democracy and social effectiveness. He believed that the poet has a duty, without waiting for the future to bring together the disjoined present, past and future and to integrate them for the benefit of the people: Past and present and future are not disjoined but joined. The greatest poet forms the consistence of what is to be from what has been and is (LG 448). Whitman had great hope for the future of America and the common man of America. He looked forward to an America peopled with excellent men and women, to be formed under the guidance of the divine literatus, who could give such a divine message to the people that they would all be put on equal terms and feel supreme. In Preface, 1855 he says: The message of great poets to each men and women are, Come to us on equal terms, Only then can you understand us, we are no better than you, Did you suppose there could be only one supreme? We affirm there can be unnumbered Supremes, and that one does not countervail another any more than one eye sight countervails another and that men can be good or grand only of the consciousness of their supremacy within them (LG 449). Whitman has expressed his idea on the coming of the divine

37 literatus and his function in shaping the destiny of the United States and the common people. He is a seer he is individual he is complete in himself. the others are good as he, only he sees it as they do not. He is not one of the choruses. he does not stop for any regulation he is the president of regulation. What the eyesight does to the rest he does to the rest (LG 445). The divine literatus should take it as their mission to produce such literature which will instill a sense of self respect and dignity in the common man who should wake up to be proud, divine and upright. A single thought of a writer can some times effect a greater change than a war. Whitman wrote: a single new thought, imagination, abstract principle, even literary style, fit for the time, put in shape by some great literatus, and projected among mankind, may duly cause changes, growths, removals, greater than the longest and bloodiest war, or the most stupendous merely political, dynastic, or commercial overturn (LG 464). It may be noted, however, that Whitman the poet did very little to fulfil the role of a divine literatus. He only pointed the way for the divine literatus. And declaimed poets like Tennyson and Shakespeare unsuitable for America and drew the guide lines for the divine literatus. How then did he play his role as a poet? One of his attempts in Democratic Vistas was to express his ideas on the concept of the common man and his dreams about the future of

38 America. He wanted the average man to know more and more of his divine identity and be lifted to the level of being great. He wanted America to be a nation of the divine average guided by the divine literatus. He loved to be in the company of the common man. But Whitman s friends among the common people did not know that he was a poet. He probably shared his dream with them orally. It was his dream that man could be great. Commenting on his faith Clark points out: Man could be great, man should be great, man must reach his greatest in America, man is divine these were Whitman s dreams, and he expected these dreams to be romantically achieved. Rather than re-educate the existing man and attempt to resolve existing differences of opinion arising out of different racial, social, religious or economic backgrounds, Whitman chose to proclaim the new man to come the divine average would just happen (Clark 129). Whitman wanted democracy to be a moral force as well as a political force that would soon realize his dreams about America where men would look at each other as bothers and sisters and would be ready to sit together at the same table of brotherhood.