Minor Prophecy: Walt Whitman's New American ReligionIndiana University Press, 1989 - 240 pages Many of Walt Whitman's earliest readers hailed him as a religious prophet. For them, Leaves of Grass was more than literary art; it was sacred scripture. Recent scholarship has, however, dismissed those early enthusiasts as naive, if not crazy. David Kuebrich's new study of Whitman corrects that academic oversight by giving the early Whitmanites their due as the critics who most clearly perceived the nature and purpose of the poet's labors—to begin a new religion. Kuebrich's thorough, intelligent study, based squarely on textual evidence, offers a revisionist interpretation of America's great poet, returning religious vision and spirituality to the center of Whitman studies. |
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Page 39
... describes the poet as " pregnant with the deductions of the geologist , the astronomer , the great anti- quary , the ... describe spiritual relations and states and such phrenological terms as “ ama- tiveness " to describe love between ...
... describes the poet as " pregnant with the deductions of the geologist , the astronomer , the great anti- quary , the ... describe spiritual relations and states and such phrenological terms as “ ama- tiveness " to describe love between ...
Page 80
... describes it as the " dramatic representation of a mystical experience " which parallels the phases of Christian mystical development but differs from them in that it celebrates the senses and the self . Cowley describes its subject as ...
... describes it as the " dramatic representation of a mystical experience " which parallels the phases of Christian mystical development but differs from them in that it celebrates the senses and the self . Cowley describes its subject as ...
Page 137
... describes as the " furious storm through me careering " ( " From Pent - Up Aching Rivers , " 1. 30 ) also served to carry the soul to a moment of freedom and ecstasy : One hour to madness and joy ! O furious ! O confine me not ! ( What ...
... describes as the " furious storm through me careering " ( " From Pent - Up Aching Rivers , " 1. 30 ) also served to carry the soul to a moment of freedom and ecstasy : One hour to madness and joy ! O furious ! O confine me not ! ( What ...
Contents
Reconsidering Whitmans Intention | 1 |
A New Religion | 12 |
Interpreting Historys Meaning | 27 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
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afterlife American antebellum argued asserts belief body Brooklyn Daily Eagle Calamus Christian mysticism church Civil conceived consciousness cosmology Cradle creation critics culture democracy Democratic depicts describes discussion divine earlier earth edition Emerson Emory Holloway ence Essays evolutionary existence faith freedom Gay Wilson Allen God's homosexual human human sexuality Ibid ideas immanent immortality interpretation Kuebrich later Leaves of Grass Lilacs literature male manly love millennial millennialist millennium Miller modern moral nation natural fact night passage perfect perfectionism phrenology poem's poems poet poet's poetic political present Press proclaim progress prophet race Ralph Waldo Emerson readers realization reform religion religious cosmology religious democracy religious experience religious symbols religious vision sense sexual society Song soul soul's spiritual development stars suggests theme theory thought tion traditional transcendent understanding Union Univ universe Walt Whitman Whit Whitman believed Whitman's poetry women world view York