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 34
... Society , 1815 ; the Bible Society , 1816 ; the Colonization Society , 1817 ; the Tract Society , 1824 ; the Sabbath Union and the Home Missionary Society , 1828 ) . These groups often used mil- lennial imagery to motivate their armies ...
... Society , 1815 ; the Bible Society , 1816 ; the Colonization Society , 1817 ; the Tract Society , 1824 ; the Sabbath Union and the Home Missionary Society , 1828 ) . These groups often used mil- lennial imagery to motivate their armies ...
Page 56
... society officially committed to the principles of freedom and equality . These contradictions were all the more threatening to those Americans nursed upon the mythic un- derstanding that the preservation and dissemination of these ...
... society officially committed to the principles of freedom and equality . These contradictions were all the more threatening to those Americans nursed upon the mythic un- derstanding that the preservation and dissemination of these ...
Page 176
... society needs a shared religious faith ; and ( 2 ) American artists and intellectuals must take up the challenge of forging a new national vision that will unify and guide the American people . Yet these ideas are arguably sound and ...
... society needs a shared religious faith ; and ( 2 ) American artists and intellectuals must take up the challenge of forging a new national vision that will unify and guide the American people . Yet these ideas are arguably sound and ...
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