Great post, maybe the first treatment of these poets I've read that transcends mere academia. I warmed to Whitman in college but couldn't stand Dickinson, who apparently didn't know the difference between a dash and a comma. Every line filled with dashes, like she's constantly interrupting herself. Not everything is an afterthought, Emily . . .
The one poet I discovered in college who has stuck with me through the years is Robinson Jeffers, who lived in a stone house he built on a California cliff in the first half of the 20th century, from where he saw everything that was coming. He's an acquired taste, I guess, a dose of cold and prophetic comfort. Here's one from 1941:
That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.
Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Ah, yes as the empire is hollowing out and The West is collapsing on its failed experiment with making itself God, it is wise to contrast these two mindsets. Like Dickenson's work or hate it, she is a testament to the beauty and expanse of the human mind, a rich inner life and the power of the pen. She rarely traveled, yet she could reach so many with her words because there really is something more to being human than visiting or even moving to the most fashionable places and having sexual exploits. Whitman is a victim of the disintegration that the "Enlightenment" led to. Be your own boss. Worship your self and your sensual experiences. What could go wrong? Well, who knew it would lead to population collapse, mass surveillance, censorship, an opioid epidemic, porn addiction, mandatory gene therapy jabs and drag queen story hour, but it did. I have in the past tried to use Whitman to help people snap out of depression that our nihilistic dominant culture leads to, but I now see why that was never going to work. Emily hold us, no doubt b/c she was constrained. I have kept her "Tell all the truth, but tell it slant" close. It is one of the few poems I have memorized. It is advice I need to keep working to better follow. I highly recommend Blaise Pascal's "The Penses" as a response to the unleashing of the intellectual reframing that was taking place in the 17th century that led us here. I am reading a translation with notes from Prof. Peter Kreeft. Even if you reject Catholicism, if you are interested in understanding The West as either a member or its victim, you might want to understand the history of its philosophical underpinnings more fully.
All these years after Whitman and Dickinson, America is still singing a song of itself, by itself. Okay, maybe it's more doing a drill rap rather than anything those poets would have recognised as "singing", but still. I recall Brett Easton Ellis once claiming it was pop music that had killed poetry.
If guys like Whitman or Euro poets like Wordsworth and Keats were young guys today they'd need to get behind a turntable or strap on a guitar to even hope to be noticed. Poetic expression in the form of written text is a cultural anachronism. Fact is, figures like Dickinson and Whitman were relative toddlers doodling with crayons in comparison to today's handful of actually gifted American poets such as filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and Joanna Newsom:
Great post, maybe the first treatment of these poets I've read that transcends mere academia. I warmed to Whitman in college but couldn't stand Dickinson, who apparently didn't know the difference between a dash and a comma. Every line filled with dashes, like she's constantly interrupting herself. Not everything is an afterthought, Emily . . .
The one poet I discovered in college who has stuck with me through the years is Robinson Jeffers, who lived in a stone house he built on a California cliff in the first half of the 20th century, from where he saw everything that was coming. He's an acquired taste, I guess, a dose of cold and prophetic comfort. Here's one from 1941:
That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.
Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.
Ah, yes as the empire is hollowing out and The West is collapsing on its failed experiment with making itself God, it is wise to contrast these two mindsets. Like Dickenson's work or hate it, she is a testament to the beauty and expanse of the human mind, a rich inner life and the power of the pen. She rarely traveled, yet she could reach so many with her words because there really is something more to being human than visiting or even moving to the most fashionable places and having sexual exploits. Whitman is a victim of the disintegration that the "Enlightenment" led to. Be your own boss. Worship your self and your sensual experiences. What could go wrong? Well, who knew it would lead to population collapse, mass surveillance, censorship, an opioid epidemic, porn addiction, mandatory gene therapy jabs and drag queen story hour, but it did. I have in the past tried to use Whitman to help people snap out of depression that our nihilistic dominant culture leads to, but I now see why that was never going to work. Emily hold us, no doubt b/c she was constrained. I have kept her "Tell all the truth, but tell it slant" close. It is one of the few poems I have memorized. It is advice I need to keep working to better follow. I highly recommend Blaise Pascal's "The Penses" as a response to the unleashing of the intellectual reframing that was taking place in the 17th century that led us here. I am reading a translation with notes from Prof. Peter Kreeft. Even if you reject Catholicism, if you are interested in understanding The West as either a member or its victim, you might want to understand the history of its philosophical underpinnings more fully.
I thought a little hard on Emily, she didn't get out much. Now Walter, yes, he was as pompous as they come.
All these years after Whitman and Dickinson, America is still singing a song of itself, by itself. Okay, maybe it's more doing a drill rap rather than anything those poets would have recognised as "singing", but still. I recall Brett Easton Ellis once claiming it was pop music that had killed poetry.
If guys like Whitman or Euro poets like Wordsworth and Keats were young guys today they'd need to get behind a turntable or strap on a guitar to even hope to be noticed. Poetic expression in the form of written text is a cultural anachronism. Fact is, figures like Dickinson and Whitman were relative toddlers doodling with crayons in comparison to today's handful of actually gifted American poets such as filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and Joanna Newsom:
https://youtu.be/koEIfaZAvkw?feature=shared
Lyrics, "Sawdust and Diamonds"
https://genius.com/Joanna-newsom-sawdust-and-diamonds-lyrics