The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-09-17
WALT WHITMAN.
WALT WHITMAN.
The London Academy publishes
new poem by Robert Buchanan on
Walt Whitman, which concludes with
tho fOllOwinO linps.

Walt Whitman, which concludes with
the following lines:
1.-THE noblest head meath western skies,
The tendcrest heart. the clearest eyes.
Are thine. my Socrates. whose fate
Is beautifully desolate!
As deep ~ hell, as high as heaven.
Thy wisdom hath this lesson given:
Have fallen like leaves and left no sign,
The godiike Man shall still renal"
To prove Humanity dfvMe:'
That is a funny song for Buchanan
to sing!-N. Y. Truth Seeker.
Not SO funny, Bro. Truth Seeker,
but tersely and righteonsly true.
Twenty-Five years ago we hailed Walt
Whitman as the originator of an Amer
ican literature. America means De.
mocracy, not only in political freedom
but in every other freedom. Walt
Whitman, both as man and as wri-
ter, is the completest Democrat which
the Age Of Democracy has produced.
His "Song Of the Open Rssd' h the
only thoroughly. Democratic song We
have ever found in literature. Whit.
mans "Out Of the Cradle Endlessly
Rocking'' is the profoundest love-song
we know of. Simply the wall and
search of Il bird for its lost mate. We
cannot now quote line of it, but the
impression of the vail, the search, the
undying love, the question and mystic
ry Of death, all remain upon us Il pro-
found influence. In all ages male PC
cts have sung their love Of woman.
Whitman sings his love Of men, like
Jonathan's, SURPRISING the love of we.
man. Whitman sings I; love, like
Christ's, tender and yearning toward
men rs we'll as women, and lie lives it
even as Christ did when he rested the
head of his beloved John ON his bosom
Whitman sings Comr*deship, pure and
pleasant as the Communion OF Saints,
but broader, more robust, and ALIEN
bracing. Whitman sings the body as
we'll as the soul, one as divine and sa-
cred as the other, for which the Phari.
sees and hypocrits have condemned
him and endeayored to suppress his
works. Other poets have sung the his
tory and the life OF the Past Man.
Whitman sings the history and life of
the Future or Coming Man. Whit
nan confesses, Gowns up" as the
phrase goes, to all, to the whole hu-
human being, while others conceal,
suppress, whitewash, and are artificial
III striving to be ideal. Whitman lives
aud writes as though God had begot.
ten him; others write as though nell
and society had made them, as Cowpey
said God made the country and man
made the town" Lowell intimates
that Shakespeare impresses him as the
most robust member OF the human race :;
Whitman impresses US as the most
natural and robust Personality in lit
eature. Other poets have their special
tiles, but Whitman touches all, hints
at all, comes ell rapport with all, en-
braces all. Emerson says that Words
worth's "Ode OH Immortality" reaches
the hiyh.water mark of modern litera-
ture. Whitman seems to start at the
high water mark of the past and reach
a high water mark in the literature of
the future. Other poets are classej as
either objective or subjective, but
Whitman is both ut once, the poet Of
the exterior and the interior, revelilg
in all the outward shows and aspects
of nature and art, and informing tile
whole with his own divine emotion and
all-pervading spirit, with something
like araactual and realized Pantheism.
In Snort, Whitman's poems strike
us as literary earth or plane, with a
touch of everything, but Oh which Mali
heod, Humanity, Democracy and Com
radeship tower up us the principal
mountain peaks.
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