Containing Multitudes: Walt Whitman and the British Literary Tradition

Synopsis

This Study Explores Walt Whitman's Contradictory Response To And Embrace Of Several Great Prior British Poets: Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Blake, And Wordworth (with Shorter Essays On Scott, Carlyle, Tennyson, Wilde, And Swinburne). Through Reference To His Entire Oeuvre, His Published Literary Criticism, And His Private Conversations, Letters And Manuscripts, It Seeks To Understand The Extent To Which Whitman Experienced The Anxiety Of Influence As He Sought To Establish Himself As America's Poet-prophet Or Bard (and The Extent To Which He Sought To Conceal Such Influence). 1 Leaves And The Retrospective Lands: An Introduction 1 -- Terrible Query: An American Literature? 5 -- That Wonderful Little Island-british Literature In Leaves 14 -- Prospective: Lacks And Wants Yet 23 -- 2 Shakespeare & Whitman 27 -- Whitman And The Bacon Debate 27 -- Walt Vs. The Bard 31 -- Mellifluous And Honey-tongued Poets 35 -- Whitman And The Romantics' Shakespeare: Victor Hugo 48 -- Parallel Lives? 57 -- 3 Milton & Whitman 63 -- Debutant Poets: 1645, 1855 63 -- Whitman & America Read Milton 69 -- Camerados Close 81 -- Life = Art 81 -- Self-esteem 82 -- Liberty 83 -- Prophet-seers 84 -- Mentor-poets 87 -- Satan And Walt 90 -- Answerable Styles? 98 -- Strange Bedfellows, After All? 104 -- Awakeners 106 -- 4 Burns & Whitman 110 -- Camerado Bards 110 -- Walt Reads Rob 114 -- Self-esteem 124 -- Mystic Tie Of Brotherhood 127 -- The Self-satisfied Preachers 133 -- Outré Beings 137 -- Conscious Painful Being 140 -- Old Acquaintance 143 -- Of Tombs: A Coda 148 -- 5 Blake & Whitman 151 -- Making The Connection 153 -- Two Mystics Together Clinging 167 -- Other, Stronger Lessons 172 -- Poets Of Contrariety And Rebellion 174 -- Iconoclasts: Poetry Unfettered 179 -- Poets Of Sexual Delight 186 -- Announcing Adhesiveness 189 -- Death's Door: A Coda 196 -- 6 Wordsworth & Whitman 200 -- Walt On Wordsworth 211 -- The Prelude To Whitman 224 -- Prospectus: Knowing The World 226 -- Self-empowerment 227 -- Green Poets: Nature And Democracy 230 -- Mighty Scheme Of Truth: Prophets Of A New Religion 234 -- Great Social Principle Of Life: Comradery 240 -- At War With General Tendency 245 -- Separate Persons 247 -- 7 Whitman And Some Other Big Fellows 252 -- Walter Scott 255 -- Thomas Carlyle 264 -- Alfred Tennyson 272 -- Oscar Wilde 280 -- Algernon Swinburne 288. Gary Schmidgall. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.