Minor Prophecy: Walt Whitman's New American ReligionMany 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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... suggests that he thought that at least one major obstacle to the millennium , sexual repression , could be speedily removed . Later , as he wrote " Children of Adam " and " Calamus " for the 1860 Leaves , Whitman believed that he was ...
... suggests that it is the state of consciousness induced in the soul by comradeship , more than anything else , which provides the basis for man's belief in the existence of a higher spirit- ual order . In this notion , we have Whitman's ...
... suggests in another 1860 poem , the main creation to others ? Poets to come ! orators , singers , musicians to come ! Arouse ! for you must justify me . Leaving it to you to prove and define it . Expecting the main things from you ...
Contents
Reconsidering Whitmans Intention | 1 |
A New Religion | 12 |
Interpreting Historys Meaning | 27 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown