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
... progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe , all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance " ( " Song of the Open Road , " 1. 183 ) . The " roads " of the universe were " grand " because there ...
... progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe , all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance " ( " Song of the Open Road , " 1. 183 ) . The " roads " of the universe were " grand " because there ...
Page 40
... progress were guarded and intentionally somewhat vague . Sometimes , as in " Self - Reliance , " Emerson ex- plicitly rejects a belief in historical progress : " Society never advances . It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the ...
... progress were guarded and intentionally somewhat vague . Sometimes , as in " Self - Reliance , " Emerson ex- plicitly rejects a belief in historical progress : " Society never advances . It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the ...
Page 41
... 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 Emerson ...
... 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 Emerson ...
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