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 22
... indicate , Whitman could envision the day when all of humanity's accomplishments , the virtuous activity , the heroism , the science and technology , the art and the religion , would culminate in the creation of a perfect world . Then ...
... indicate , Whitman could envision the day when all of humanity's accomplishments , the virtuous activity , the heroism , the science and technology , the art and the religion , would culminate in the creation of a perfect world . Then ...
Page 90
... indicate ... the beauty and dignity which always attach to dumb real objects , " for people also expected him " to indicate the path between real- ity and their souls " ( PW , 439 ) . In the catalogs Whitman discloses two path- ways ...
... indicate ... the beauty and dignity which always attach to dumb real objects , " for people also expected him " to indicate the path between real- ity and their souls " ( PW , 439 ) . In the catalogs Whitman discloses two path- ways ...
Page 161
... indicated in the following line from a letter Whitman wrote him in June 1877 ( Stafford was then nineteen years old ) ... indicate his awareness of the homosexual nature of his feelings for Peter Doyle , but they also suggest that the ...
... indicated in the following line from a letter Whitman wrote him in June 1877 ( Stafford was then nineteen years old ) ... indicate his awareness of the homosexual nature of his feelings for Peter Doyle , but they also suggest that the ...
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