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. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... expression to forms of religious experi- ence that are present in Christianity , as he often does , he clothes them in new symbols and transforms them by adapting them to modern thought . The Leaves , with its emphasis upon the ...
... expression to forms of religious experi- ence that are present in Christianity , as he often does , he clothes them in new symbols and transforms them by adapting them to modern thought . The Leaves , with its emphasis upon the ...
Page 6
... expression in V. K. Chari's Whitman in the Light of Vedantic Mysticism . " Cowley and Chari are correct in their obser- vation that the Leaves and Vedantism both utilize a dynamic of knowing which gives the subject a sense of ...
... expression in V. K. Chari's Whitman in the Light of Vedantic Mysticism . " Cowley and Chari are correct in their obser- vation that the Leaves and Vedantism both utilize a dynamic of knowing which gives the subject a sense of ...
Page 88
... expression in the 1855 Preface when Whitman asserts that the new American poet must be " commensurate with a people " ( PW , 741 ) , and it receives further elaboration in his self - assessment in a " A Backward Glance " : " I have wish ...
... expression in the 1855 Preface when Whitman asserts that the new American poet must be " commensurate with a people " ( PW , 741 ) , and it receives further elaboration in his self - assessment in a " A Backward Glance " : " I have wish ...
Contents
Reconsidering Whitmans Intention | 1 |
A New Religion | 12 |
Interpreting Historys Meaning | 27 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
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