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 10
... prophet in " Song of Myself " ; his belief in im- mortality in his two great poems on death , " Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rock- ing " and the " Lilacs " elegy ; and his purposes for including two sequences of love poetry , " Children ...
... prophet in " Song of Myself " ; his belief in im- mortality in his two great poems on death , " Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rock- ing " and the " Lilacs " elegy ; and his purposes for including two sequences of love poetry , " Children ...
Page 64
... prophet to provide America with a needed new religion . According to Trowbridge's recollection , Whitman told him , while conceding the importance of Emerson's influence ( " I was simmer- ing , simmering , simmering ; Emerson brought me ...
... prophet to provide America with a needed new religion . According to Trowbridge's recollection , Whitman told him , while conceding the importance of Emerson's influence ( " I was simmer- ing , simmering , simmering ; Emerson brought me ...
Page 81
... prophet . The ideas of his new faith are developed in all his poems , but in this first major poem Whitman is especially concerned to establish himself as the prophet of a new world view who will lead the reader on into the rest of his ...
... prophet . The ideas of his new faith are developed in all his poems , but in this first major poem Whitman is especially concerned to establish himself as the prophet of a new world view who will lead the reader on into the rest of his ...
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