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 15
... soul of the poet as the best interpreter of the divine text : " Poor though he [ the poet ] be in worldly wealth , he has a soul which in Nature's volume reads a lesson which imparts content , nay , highest happiness . That is a holy ...
... soul of the poet as the best interpreter of the divine text : " Poor though he [ the poet ] be in worldly wealth , he has a soul which in Nature's volume reads a lesson which imparts content , nay , highest happiness . That is a holy ...
Page 16
... soul . The soul was the faculty of religious experience and it enabled the human consciousness to enter into the inner life of external objects : The soul or spirit transmutes itself into all matter - into rocks , and can live the life ...
... soul . The soul was the faculty of religious experience and it enabled the human consciousness to enter into the inner life of external objects : The soul or spirit transmutes itself into all matter - into rocks , and can live the life ...
Page 136
... soul : " Oh I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only , but of the soul , / Oh I say now these are the soul ! ” ( ll . 163–64 ) . In contrast to the sense of calm and spiritual satisfaction arising from experi- encing the ...
... soul : " Oh I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only , but of the soul , / Oh I say now these are the soul ! ” ( ll . 163–64 ) . In contrast to the sense of calm and spiritual satisfaction arising from experi- encing the ...
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