Walt Whitman and Democracy

M. C. SAXENA
Assistant Professor, Post-graduate English Dept.
Govt. College, Panna (M. P.)

In any consideration of Walt Whitman as a poet it is necessary to take into account the fact that he was essentially a poet of Democracy. “He is Democracy”, ejaculated Thoreau when he read Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself.’ It was not par hassard that Whitman extolled Democracy. The psychological make-up of Whitman was such that he was to extol Democracy, once he came to turn his attention to the political questions. Whitman extolled Democracy at a time when on the Continent Kierkegaard was issuing his unheeded warnings about the tyranny of equality. Whitman was deeply involved in the politics of his time. He made an assessment of American Democracy. There were two factors that contributed to Whitman’s interest in Democracy. First, he was involved in the vortex of politics of his time. Second, he believed that man was divine or potentially divine. This made him give a transcendental view to self. Whitman believed that democracy was not an outmoded, exploded political doctrine; for him it was a dynamic process in which human beings were continually being tested and stimulated to grow from strength to strength.

Whitman believed in the equality of all men. But this was no merely political belief. He could not imagine that there could be any difference between him and the average man. He pinned his faith in the immense potentialities of man. He was no psychologist and hence could not feel that there could be diversity in human nature. This made possible his faith in democratic principles. ‘Leaves of Grass’ is the consummation of all his democratic principles: liberty, equality and fraternity:

“In all people I see myself, none more and none a barleycorn less And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.”¹

“All is eligible to all,
All is for individuals, all is for you.”²

And he gave these rights not only to men but to women al well:

“I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man.” ³

No individual was to be barred from the embrace of his fold. In his Democracy were welcome alike high and low, rich and poor, noble and vile, educated and ignorant. Even thieves, prostitutes and drunkards were allowed in his Democracy:

“And I say there is in fact no evil;
(Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to the land, or to me as anything else.”) ⁴

Like the kingdom of heaven it was open to all alike, irrespective of any caste, colour or creed. This was why Whitman refused to accept privileges which he could not share with others:

“I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of Democracy,

By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.” ⁵

He went to the extent of saying:

“Whoever degrades another degrades me,
And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.” ⁶

His passion for Democracy was such that he refused to make poems for parts:

“I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts with reference to ensemble.” ⁷

Writing about this aspect of Whitman’s poetry Middleton Murry says, “Whitman believes in the infinite worth of the individual. It cannot be rationally demonstrated but it is self-evident...It is self-evident as a religious truth... It may fairly be said that Whitman’s great struggle as a prophet was to communicate his religious sense of the divinity of the created world; and of the democratic idea of himself as part of one, and prophet of the other.” ⁸ He clearly places Whitman’s concept of democracy in the realm of mysticism. Schyberg says, “Whitman is directly led away from thepolitical aspect of Democracy towards transcendental, pantheistic democracy, which was always the poet’s main subject. The basic emotion in Whitman’s lyricism is a feeling of kinship with all creation, evidenced in the very title ‘Leaves of Grass’.” ⁹

Man according to Whitman is not a biological phenomenon. He is essentially divine, and since the human soul is divine, man is the centre of all activity, State or society have a secondary place in his concept of the universe. The central position of soul “necessitates refusal to accept the final subordination of one soul to another and cannot be a content with any organisation of society in which such subordination is involved.” ¹⁰

Whitman asserted that individual is what Counts:

“The whole theory of universe is directed unerringly to one single individual–namely to you.” ¹¹

But how was the single individual to be associated with other individuals? The political scientists might consider it a troubling question. To Whitman it was far from difficult. The single individual is not at all alone and alienated. He is part of earth and sky. All individuals are associated through the procedures of sex and comradeship. Whitman’s is essentially a spiritual Democracy in which there are no prerogatives, no vested interests, no arrogation of power or authority by one over another. In such a Democracy it is possible to achieve universal peace, toleration and brotherhood.

These individuals were after all to live somewhere. He dreamt:

“I dream’d in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,
I dream’d that was a new city of Friends,

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest.” ¹²

The dream ultimately materialised;

“The place where a great city stands is not the place of stretch’d wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely,
Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new-comers or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
Nor the place of the tallest and Costliest buildings or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth,
Nor the place of the best libraries and schools, nor the place where money is plentiest.
Nor the place of the most numerous population.
Where the city stands with thebrawniest breed of orators and bards,
Where the city stands that is belov’d by these, and loves them in return and understands them,
Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds,
Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place,
Where the men and Women think lightly of the laws,
Where the slave ceases, and master of the slave ceases,
Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons,
Where fierce men and women pour forth as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unript waves,
Where outside authority enters after the precedence of inside authority,
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal, and President, Mayor, Governor and What not, are agents for pay,
Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the soul are encouraged,
Where women walkin public processions in the streets the same as the men,
Where they enter the publicassembly and take place the same as the men,
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
Where the city of cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of best bodied mothers stands,
There the great city stands.” ¹³

By creating the ideal city Whitman came directly in the line of Plato who alsocreated an ideal city. This city was, however, to be cared for by Guardians. Whitman did nothing of the sort; his “Presidents, Mayors” etc., were to be agents for pay only. But mere creation of an ideal city was not the end of the problem. Reality, again and again disappointed him. Whitman was confident that in the end Democracy will win over all problems: It was the “destined conqueror.”¹⁴, Whitman was confident that democracy will be able to stall the gradual, certain decadence of man. “It was a vain hope, for, as time has shown, Democracy has not retarded, but rather accelerated the decadence of man. Its doctrine of equality and the contribution it has made in other ways to the forwarding of the “levelling process” have tended to take from the individual the consciousness of an elect purpose for himself and to substitute for this a vague ideal of communal purpose. This, I say, is the result, not the intention, of Democracy, a result not very unlike that attained by the practice of the supposedly contrary ideals of communism. ¹⁵

During his own lifetime Whitman had witnessed the Civil War. He was old and could not enlist himself in the armed forces, but he used to go to the battlefield to dress the wounds of the soldiers:

“I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep,
But a day or two more, for see the frame all wasted and sinking,
And the yellow-blue countenance see.
I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bullet wound,
Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so sickening, so offensive,
While the attendant stands behind aside me holding the tray and pail.” ¹⁶

His experiences of the civil war did not, however, shake his faith in Democracy. He was simple-minded enough to think that man will be chastened by the experiences of civil war and will try to live together and in peace:

“A reborn race appears–a perfect world all joy!
Women and men in wisdom innocence and health–all joy!
Riotous laughing bacchanals fill’d with joy!
War, sorrow, suffering gone–the rank earth purged–nothing but joy left!
The ocean fill’d with joy–the atmosphere all joy!
Joy! Joy! in freedom, worship, love! joy an ecstacy of life!
Enough to merely be! enough to breathe!
Joy! Joy! all over joy!” ¹⁷

Later history has, however, made this pious utterance of Whitman hollow and unrealistic. The “reborn race” of Whitman is yet to appear on the scene.

Whitman was himself aware of the problem of equality that ultimately led to the levelling down of all individuals. Whitman had his own typical solution. He exalted liberty so much that it boardered on anarchy:

“To the States or anyone of them, or any City of the States Resist much, obey little,     Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, State, city of this earth, ever afterwards resumes its liberty.” ¹⁸
History has proved that once a state has been brought to servitude it can hardly keep its “Strenuous liberty.” ¹⁹

Another way in which he wanted to counteract the evils of Democracy was his belief in the concept of superman. In the opinion of Whitman everything gave way before a superman.

There are many echoes of the superman theme in “Leaves of Grass.” “How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man’s or woman’s look!”, he says. He continues:

“All waits or goes by default till a strong being appears;
A strong being is the proof of the race and of the ability of the Universe,
When he or she appears materials are overawed,
The dispute on the soul stops,
The old customs and phrases are confronted, turn’d , or laid away.” ²⁰

In democratic vistas he is sometimes very severe in his criticism of American Democracy. Despite history pointing to the contrary Whitman never gave up hope. He was confident that Democracy was the ultimate victor:

“Democracy, while weapons were everywhere aim’d at your breast, I saw you give birth to immortal children, saw in dreams your dilating form,
Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.” ²¹
There have been many pitfalls in the way of Democracy; but not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been ready to fall for Liberty.” ²²
It was with this hope that he poured out his heart in ‘Leaves of Grass’:

“Come I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the Sun ever shone upon, I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the lifelong love of comrades.
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.
For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you, ma femme! For you, for you I am trilling these songs.” ²³

It is a tribute to the genius of Whitman that he became a great poet without glorifying war as the ancient epic poets did. His greatness lay in his descriptions of the horrors of war and pointing towards the ideals of Democracy.

¹ Song of Myself.
² By Blue Ontario’s Shore.
³ Song of Myself.
⁴ Song of Myself.
⁵ Song of Myself.
⁶ Song of Myself.
⁷ Starting From Paumanok.
⁸ Middleton Murry: Unprofessional Essays.
⁹ Schyberg: Walt Whitman.
¹⁰ Basil De Selincourt: Walt Whitman–A Critical Study.
¹¹ By Blue Ontario’s Shore.
¹² I dream’d in a Dream.
¹³ Song of the Broad Axe.
¹⁴ Song of the Broad Axe.
¹⁵ Stuart Holroyd: Emergence From Chaos.
¹⁶ The Wound Dresser.
¹⁷ The Mystic Trumpeter.
¹⁸ To the States.
¹⁹ Milton: Samson Agonistes.
²⁰ Song of the Broad Axe.
²¹ By Blue Ontario’s Shore.
²² By Blue Ontario’s Shore.
²³ For You O Democracy.