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Moving from Transcendentalism to Realism
The poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
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Transcendentalism1840-1860
Realism1860-1900
Walt Whitman: 1819-1892
Emily Dickinson: 1830-1886
YOUR MISSION: FIRST: Look at your note sheet. NOTICE: It has a general layout, BUT you have the freedom to figure out what to do within that layout. READ the slides, and LISTEN to my explanations. And JUDGE how you think you should take notes according to how you will BEST UNDERSTAND your notes later. For example:
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If the powerpoint read:● Transcendentalism was the first genuinely American philosophical movement, setting down the first
American beliefs and ideals.● Transcendentalists greatly endorsed the individual, an idea that is still a significant part of the
American philosophy of today.
In my notes, I would condense it and write it in a way I can connect with it later: ● Transcendentalism = THE original American philosophy; set the stage for Americans to value the
individual, even today!
Do not feel a need to write EVERYTHING! Use your best individual judgement. Some
things are not always necessary to copy down, but they enhance the material
we are learning.
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Transcendentalism vs. Realism
4What differences and similarities are there between the way transcendentalists and realists see
and understand the world?
Transcendentalism vs. Realism
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Transcendentalism● Historic context: Reaction to the
“materialism” of religion at the time○ God is not separate, but within
every human.
● Transcendentalists believed that, to make your “self” better, you should connect spiritually with nature and the world around you, using your individual mind, imagination, and creativity (Emerson’s “Poet”)
● Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and other transcendentalists often felt conflicted: Should the focus be primarily on the individual or on large-scale social change (esp. when slavery is, you know, a thing)?
○ Do some social events call for “uncivil” disobedience?
○ Did everyone have the opportunity to better their “self” in American society?
Realism● “the faithful representation of reality”
(Campbell)○ Think like a newspaper reporter
● Historic Context: ○ The Civil War and rapid shifts in culture
harnessed a desire to understand things as they are. Why do you think so?
○ In art: Emerson’s philosophy of “self-reliance” caused other American artists to strike out on their own and try new things in literature and art that better fit their “true selves.”
● Realist writers focus on the here and now, on the CONCRETE immediate surroundings and immediate actions of everyday individual Americans.
- What can I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell? - NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR SELF, BUT ALSO ABOUT OBSERVING/UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE’S SELVES!!
● Realists are interested in how humans connect to their environments (both in nature and in the city); but environments can be very unforgiving at times (ex. Jack London’s To Build A Fire).
Transcendentalism AND Realism
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson wrote during the late end of the Transcendental movement and during the early end of the Realist movement. They bridge the two schools of thought, along with other writers of that time.Whitman and Dickinson incorporate ideas from both movements in their writings, as we will see. 6
Walt Whitman -- Biography● Born in Long Island, New York to parents of a low
socioeconomic status● Stopped attending school at age 11 to earn money
for the family● Worked various jobs during the years of 1830-1848;
many jobs involved printing, editing and writing for local newspapers (intro to the basic idea behind realism)
● Very active in the arts and politics of New York City (Free Soil Party)
● After these experiences, Whitman determined that he would be become a poet... 8
Walt Whitman“After continued personal ambition and effort as a young fellow to enter with the rest into competition for the usual rewards, business, political, literary, &c., to take part in the great melee, both for victory's prize itself and to do some good; after years of those aims and pursuits, I found myself remaining possessed, at the age of thirty-one to thirty-three, with a special desire and conviction. Or rather, to be quite exact, a desire that had been flitting through my previous life, or hovering on the flanks, mostly indefinite hitherto, had steadily advanced to the front, defined itself and finally dominated everything else. This was a feeling or ambition to articulate and faithfully express in literary or poetic form and uncompromisingly my own physical, emotional, moral, intellectual and aesthetic personality in the midst of and tallying the momentous spirit and facts of its immediate days and of current America, and to exploit that personality, identified with place and date, in a far more candid and comprehensive sense than any hitherto poem or book.”
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Walt Whitman -- Biography● Began writing Leaves of Grass as early as
1850 and continued revising it until his death; it is a collection of poems meant to be an American epic for the common person
● Paid for the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855 with his own money
● Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a 5-page letter praising Leaves of Grass
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● Many disliked the collection when it was published, calling the poetry in it “obscene” because of its open attitude toward sex
Walt Whitman -- Biography● When the Civil War broke out, Whitman’s
brother George joined the Union Army; this ultimately helped open Whitman’s eyes to the bloody reality of warfare
● Never intended to go back to New York after his experiences, and stayed in Washington, D.C. throughout the Civil War
● While living in D.C., Whitman lost a brother to illness and had to commit another to an insane asylum; while George was captured by the Confederates, but eventually released and sent home
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Walt Whitman -- Biography● Suffered a stroke in 1873 that forced him to move
into his brother’s George’s home in Camden, New Jersey
● Was very productive while living there, creatively and physically; he received Oscar Wilde as a visitor while living there
● Eventually moved into his own house in Camden, where Whitman lived out the rest of his life, mostly bedridden
● Whitman did spend time in the local pastoral community of Laurel Hills where he set up a summer home for himself
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Walt Whitman’s Homes
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Whitman’s home in Camden, New Jersey
Whitman’s summer home in Laurel Hills, New Jersey
Walt Whitman -- Biography● Finished his final version of Leaves of Grass in 1891
(the “Deathbed Edition”)o “L. of G. at last complete -- after 33 y’rs of hackling
at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old…”
● Of his last days, Whitman said, “I suffer all the time: I have no relief, no escape: it is monotony--monotony--monotony-- in pain.”
● Was laid to rest in a $4,000 mausoleum he designed. At a public ceremony at the cemetery, Whitman’s friends gathered to pay tribute with speeches and live music.
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Whitman -- Themes and Techniqueso Transcendentalism
“Individuality, that new moral American continent. Those shores you found. I say, you led the States there, -- have led me there.” (Whitman in a letter to Emerson)
o Realism “The proof of a poet is that his country
absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” (Whitman)
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Whitman -- Themes and Techniques
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● Other Themeso Growth and Deatho Sexualityo Democracy, Equalityo Deism, Spirituality
Whitman -- Themes and Techniques
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● Techniqueso Free verse (unmetered)o Poetic dictiono Repetition (the anaphora)o Uses a constructed persona
The American “Poet,” a common man who has the ability to connect with and speak for all other people.
Leaves of Grass documents Whitman’s ever-changing perception of the American “Poet.”
Walt Whitman -- Themes and Techniques
M. Jimmie Killingsworth, a Whitman scholar, writes that “the ‘merge,' as Whitman conceived it, is the tendency of the individual self to overcome moral, psychological, and political boundaries. Thematically and poetically, the notion dominates the three major poems of 1855: ‘I Sing the Body Electric,' ‘The Sleepers,' and ‘Song of Myself,' all of which were ‘merged’ in the first edition under the single title Leaves of Grass but were demarcated by clear breaks in the text and the repetition of the title.”
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Whitman -- Themes and Techniques
Chapter 24 (Excerpt) from Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman am I, a Kosmos, of mighty Manhattan the son,Turbulent, fleshy and sensual, eating, drinking and breeding;No sentimentalist—no stander above men and women, or apart from them;No more modest than immodest.
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Dickinson -- Biography● Born to a well-known family in Amherst, Massachusetts
o Dickinson’s grandfather founded Amherst College in the town, which is a private liberal arts college there today!
o BUT, though well-connected, Dickinson’s family was not extremely wealthy.
● Dickinson’s father bought a house overlooking Amherst’s burial ground when she was 10 years old: called “The Homestead.”o A local minister called Amherst’s burial ground treeless
and “forbidding.” (Habegger)o Dickinson was also very familiar with death from a
young age When she was 13, her second cousin and close
friend died from typhus. Dickinson called death “the deepening menace.”
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Dickinson -- Biography
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From left: Emily Dickinson, William Austin Dickinson (“Aw”), and Lavinia Dickinson.
“The Homestead” in Amherst, Mass.
Dickinson -- Biography● Was well-educated, studying an uncommonly wide
variety of subjects for a student at that time (including Latin, lit., and botany!).o One of Dickinson’s principals called her “very
bright.”o BUT, for some unknown reason, Dickinson was
brought home from her last school by her brother at age 17.
● Practiced religion in her own individual way.o At 14, Dickinson attended a religious revival in
Amherst and began attending church services regularly.
o Her attendance at church trailed off eventually though. “Some keep the Sabbath going to
Church--/ I keep it, staying at Home” is the first line of a poem by Dickinson.
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Dickinson -- Biography● Returned to Amherst after leaving school, where she
seriously began her poetry writing career.o Dickinson befriended attorney Benjamin Newton
after her return to Amherst. Newton opened her eyes to new literature and became a close friend. He died a few years later of tuberculosis. Newton was one of SEVERAL of
Dickinson’s mentors who died during her lifetime.
o She was given Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book of poems by Newton during this time. To Dickinson, Emerson had “touched the
secret Spring.”
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Dickinson -- Biography● In the mid-1850’s,
Dickinson’s mother became ill and bedridden.o As Dickinson’s
responsibilities around the house grew, she stayed indoors more.
● Spent much of her time, starting
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at age 27, copying 800 of her poems and carefully assembling them into manuscript books.
o No one would know of these books until after Dickinson’s death.
o Only a handful of her poems were published during her lifetime.
Dickinson -- Biography● By age 36, Dickinson
was already writing significantly less poems.o She had lost her one
constant companion: her
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sixteen-year-old dog, Carlo.o Around this time, she began rarely leaving
the Homestead and began talking to visitors from behind a closed door.
o If she was ever seen, Dickinson was usually clothed in white.
o Oddly enough, she still remained an avid letter-writer during this time.
Dickinson -- Biography● In her last years, Dickinson continued writing, but
no longer edited or organized her poems.o She made her sister promise to burn her
letters when Dickinson died.● For a while, death was all Dickinson knew
during this period: From her mother and father to her favorite niece.o “The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could
raise my Heart from one, another has come.”● Dickinson’s own ill health, which had plagued her for years,
finally took her life at age 55.o Emily Bronte’s poem “No Coward Soul is Mine” was read at
her funeral.27
Dickinson -- Posthumous Publishing● Though Dickinson’s sister burned most of
Dickinson’s letters, she had been given no instructions as to what to do with the many poems Dickinson had written.o Thus, Lavinia became obsessed with getting the
poems published.o The first volume of her works was published in
1890, and it was a critical and financial success.o It took until 1955, however, for Dickinson’s
poems to be published in their original, manuscript forms. In all their punctuated, capitalized
madness!
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Dickinson -- Themes and Techniques● Themes
o Transcendentalism the “Poet” must understand the
importance of the self Writing as unmasking
o Realismo Deatho Immortality
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Dickinson -- Themes and Techniques● Techniques
o No titleso Ballad structure with irregular rhythmo Slant rhymeo Metaphor
linking physical things with abstract concepts; unity of all things = transcendentalism
o Capitalization and Punctuation (Em dashes)o Use of first person: Importance of self, no?
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Dickinson -- Themes and Techniques
It’s all in the details… Emily Dickinson’s “A narrow Fellow in the grass”
Original wordingA narrow Fellow in the GrassOccasionally rides –You may have met Him – did you notHis notice sudden is –
“The Springfield Daily Republican” versionA narrow Fellow in the GrassOccasionally rides –You may have met Him – did you not,His notice sudden is.
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ReferencesTranscendentalism vs. Realism● http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/resources/tr-bib.html● Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Date of
publication or most recent update (listed above as the "last modified" date; you don't need to indicate the time). Web. 15 January 2015.
Whitman Information● http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/roots/legacy/whitman/index.html● Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN 0-671-22542-1.● Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0-520-22687-9.● Miller, James E., Jr. Walt Whitman. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1962● Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. ISBN 0-679-76709-6.
Dickinson Information● http://m.thelearningmag.com/m/willdela/3/e7247dfb8f.html● Habegger, Alfred. 2001. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-44986-7.● Ford, Thomas W. 1966. Heaven Beguiles the Tired: Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson. University of Alabama Press.
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