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 28
... faith . On a psychological level , it seems that he always found security in his relationship with his mother . Furthermore , upon careful examination Whitman's faith appears not so much an evasion of reality as a highly original and ...
... faith . On a psychological level , it seems that he always found security in his relationship with his mother . Furthermore , upon careful examination Whitman's faith appears not so much an evasion of reality as a highly original and ...
Page 41
... faith in progress , but his is not the idea of progress of the progres- sive millennialists who believed they could read the course of historical de- velopment and usher in the millennial era by their own conscious efforts . Instead ...
... faith in progress , but his is not the idea of progress of the progres- sive millennialists who believed they could read the course of historical de- velopment and usher in the millennial era by their own conscious efforts . Instead ...
Page 149
... faith : " Sweet FAITH , beyond all lore and riches in the world , may somewhere somehow by the path I lead you , among these leaves , an odorous glistening blossom , ap- pear , O friend and become yours " ( NPM , IV , 1479 ) . It is not ...
... faith : " Sweet FAITH , beyond all lore and riches in the world , may somewhere somehow by the path I lead you , among these leaves , an odorous glistening blossom , ap- pear , O friend and become yours " ( NPM , IV , 1479 ) . It is not ...
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