Containing Multitudes: Walt Whitman and the British Literary Tradition
Gary Schmidgall
Abstract
This study explores Walt Whitman’s contradictory response to and embrace of several great prior British poets: Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Blake, and Wordworth (with shorter essays on Scott, Carlyle, Tennyson, Wilde, and Swinburne). Through reference to his entire oeuvre, his published literary criticism, and his private conversations, letters, and manuscripts, this book seeks to understand the extent to which Whitman experienced the anxiety of influence as he sought to establish himself as America’s poet-prophet or bard (and the extent to which he sought to conceal such influence). An attempt ... More
This study explores Walt Whitman’s contradictory response to and embrace of several great prior British poets: Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Blake, and Wordworth (with shorter essays on Scott, Carlyle, Tennyson, Wilde, and Swinburne). Through reference to his entire oeuvre, his published literary criticism, and his private conversations, letters, and manuscripts, this book seeks to understand the extent to which Whitman experienced the anxiety of influence as he sought to establish himself as America’s poet-prophet or bard (and the extent to which he sought to conceal such influence). An attempt is also made to lay out the often profound aesthetic, cultural, political, and philosophical affinities Whitman shared with these predecessors. In addition, this analysis focuses on all of Whitman’s extant comments on these iconic authors. Because Whitman was a deeply autobiographical writer, attention is also paid to how his comments on other poets reflect on his image of himself and on the ways he shaped his public image. Finally, there is contemplation as to how Whitman’s attitudes toward his British forerunners changed over the nearly fifty years of his active career.
Keywords:
Walt Whitman,
British poets,
literary influences,
transatlantic literature,
Leaves of Grass,
Whitman’s literary criticism,
British Poetry,
history of American Poetry,
Whitman’s Public Image
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199374410 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199374410.001.0001 |
