Whitman as a mystic poet

 Whitman as a mystic poet:

It is an established fact that Mysticism is not a philosophy, or doctrine, but rather a temper of mind. A mystical experience, according to Bertrand Russell, involves insight, a sense of unity and the unreality of time and space, and a belief that evil is mere an appearance. Whitman’s poetry is full of mystic and transcendental strains. He had no coherent philosophy of life, but he certainly shows a strong note of mysticism and transcendentalism in his poetry. Here it is important to note that he was deeply influenced by Emerson, the American transcendentalist.

Walt Whitman is considered a mystic poet because he wrote about mystical experiences and the relationship between the human soul and the universe. Like all mystics, he believed in the existence of divine spirit, in the immortality of human soul, and in the capacity of human being to establish communication between his spirit and divine spirit. But he divers from the oriental or traditional mystics in that he doesn’t subscribe to their belief that communication with the Divine spirit possible only through denial of senses and mortification of the flesh. Whitman declares that he sings of the body as much as of the soul. He feels That spiritual communication is possible, indeed desirable, without satisfying the flesh. To Whitman, the mystical state is achieved through the transfigured senses rather than by escaping the senses.

Whitman doesn’t reject the material world. He senses the spiritual through the material. He doesn’t subscribe to the belief that objects are illusive. There is no tendency on the part of soul to leave the world for good.

. His poetry is known for its long lines of the free verse and his use of the poet as a symbol for the universal soul. But he was mystic with a difference. One cannot call him a pure mystic in the sense of oriental mysticism. He isn’t a ‘praying’ man. Like all mystics, he believed in the existence of Divine Spirit, in the immortality of the human soul, and in the capacity of human being to establish communication between his spirit and the Divine Spirit. To Whitman, the mystical state is achieved through the transfigured senses rather than escaping the senses.

 Whitman doesn’t reject the material world. He senses the spiritual through the material. He doesn’t subscribe to the belief that objects are illusive. There is no tendency on the part of the soul to leave the world for good. In Crossing Brookland Ferry, we find the soul trying to play a significant role in the administration of the world of senses, sights, sounds etc. Whitman doesn’t belittle the achievements of science and materialism. In the poem, Song of Myself, he accepts the reality of materialism and says:

Hurrah for positive science!

Long live exact demonstration!               

Whitman honors the men of science. But these ‘facts’, though useful, are the steppingstones towards goals beyond the world of facts and science. He accepted the theory of Evolution but could not believe evolution to ne a mechanical process. In the slow process of growth, development and change that science was revealing, Whitman saw God making Himself evident and unmistakable to man. The soul of man finds full satisfaction only in seeking out the reality behing the manifestation.