preview

Examples Of Transcendentalism In Walt Whitman's Poems

Decent Essays
Open Document

Walt Whitman is one of the most prominent transcendental poets of all times. His famous poems are a call to celebrate humanity and nature. He believes in embracing nature, life and humanity. These beliefs are present in most of his poems. We can also say that because of this, his poems have affected and elevated human values in time. One of the most present themes in Whitman’s poems is nature, which reflects his transcendentalist belief. This idea if exemplified in one of the stanzas in “I Celebrate Myself and Sing Myself”: I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. This shows the author’s connection to nature with just a single spear of grass, the author invited us to share this connection with nature which we seem to have lost in our busy lives. …show more content…

In “A child said, What is the grass?”, Whitman says: And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. We are all connected to nature. We came from it and we’re returning to it, and because of that, we are all connected to each other. He also explains in this poem that human life is eternal, and we are always alive somewhere in an endless cycle. We can also conclude from Whitman’s poems is that we are all interconnected. In “I Understand the Large Heart of Heroes”, Whitman is emphasizing on the theme of Universal Brotherhood. Whitman describes how a skipper who saved the people on his ship, a mother who was accused of being a witch died in front of her children, a fireman who died saving everyone and an artillerist protecting his base are all heroes. We are all capable of being heroes, and because of our connection of being able to empathize with everyone, Whitman believes that we’re all brothers and sisters, regardless of our race, color and

Get Access