Daniel Charland

5/3/18

The Unifying Spirit of Nature: Emerson and Whitman

The Transcendental movement in American literature was marked and defined by many

things, a focus on equality, and greater and more inclusive spiritual insight than the old Calvinist

traditions. One all-inclusive topic that served as a connecter to everything else, however, was

nature. In particular, the idea that the divine can be experienced through the creation of nature

and that this spiritual insight connects all people, no matter who they are. Two of the great

poets/thinkers of this period— Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman— made several such

connections in their writings between nature and the simple things that connect all humans.

Emerson’s “Nature” and Whitman’s “Song of Myself” focus on natural environment as a uniting

force that brings all people together through its spiritual and educational nature in, among

other things, simple understanding and childlike wisdom, an appreciation for beauty, and the

common elements of life and death.

As a starting point for understanding the benefits of connecting though nature, both Emerson

and Whitman use the image of a child to demonstrate how opening ourselves to the spiritual

aspect of nature allows us to see past our acquired jadedness and adult biases and see with the

wonder and innocence of a child. Among several of his quotes on the subject, Emerson writes,

“The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the
child.” (Emerson) Like many of his “bumper-sticker worthy” quotes, this line illuminates and

puts into words something that we all pretty much know but don’t always think about: that it is

children, the freshest and most open among us, who can appreciate nature to its fullest and

embrace it with their whole being instead of with just part of a distracted mind. Emerson

wishes us all to be as accepting as a child when he says, “I have no hostility to nature, but a

child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons. Let us speak her fair. I

do not wish to fling stones at my beautiful mother, nor soil my gentle nest”. For Emerson, a

child’s love is one of the purest forms, not wishing any harm but non-selfishly embracing and

appreciating all the good things that come from the object of the affections. Whitman’s “Song

of Myself” adds to this notion by reminding us that, in the grand scheme of all there is to be

known and experienced, we are all children,

“A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full

hands,

How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any

more than he.” (Whitman)

In short, all people, no matter how adult their bodies and experiences may be, are all children

in the eyes of nature and the divine, so the best way to experience and live life is to embrace

that part of our nature. It is something we all have in common, a unifying aspect.
 One of the chief themes of nature writing in Transcendentalism is appreciating the

beauty of nature by allowing yourself to, in a sense, become one with it. Whitman writes that

humans have a great connection to the rest of the world because we are all governed by the

same natural laws,

“The sharp-hoof'd moose of the north, the cat on the housesill,

the chickadee, the prairie-dog,

The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,

The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-spread

wings,

I see in them and myself the same old law”. (Whitman)

While humans are distinct from the rest of nature in our capabilities, there are two ways in

which we are the same as the rest of nature. The first is that we are all created by God, or as

the transcendentalists tend to say, the divine. Sharing a creator has a similar effect as a brother

and sister sharing parents. They are two distinct people with their own paths in life, the there is

a bond that comes from having a common origin. The second way humans and nature are the

same, and the one that Whitman emphasizes in this passage, is that we are all bound by the

same natural laws and affected by the same things, like gravity, heat and cold. All living things

have the same common needs, such as food, shelter, energy, and oxygen. What affects one

being’s needs affects the rest, and thus a very strong practical connection is forged.

Emerson has his own famous take on becoming one with nature, “Standing on the bare

ground, Note -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean

egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the
Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.” (Emerson) This quote

received a fair amount of criticism and mockery during Emerson’s day and was chalked up to

madness, but it is actually very insightful. Emerson does not mean he is a literal eye-ball, or that

he has delusions of divine power. Instead, he is providing an alternative to a popular standing of

the day, being entirely self-sufficient, yet is easily misunderstood n its own. As Christopher Leise

ponders, “As a counterexample to the self-sufficient man, Emerson offers his image of the

"transparent eye-ball." “It may be difficult to understand the claim that egotism vanishes upon

claiming one's self godlike. This is the same self-reliant soul that "shun[s] father and mother

and wife and brother when my genius calls me." How do we save such callous disregard for

one's family and friends from the trappings of mere self-interest? It may not be entirely

possible--but it certainly requires a careful consideration of the eye-ball.” (Leise) The

consideration of the eye-ball that Leise requests is actually rather simple. They eye-ball is

Emerson abandoning any thoughts about himself, worries about the past or the future, and

simply being in the present. He is allowing himself to see everything around him to the extent

that it is almost as if his entire being is nothing by an eye. Emerson calls for this in others as a

unifying aspect, recognizing how close you are with nature and allowing yourself to abandon

constant self-assessment enough to truly see the world around you.

Perhaps there is no greater bond that unifies all living things together as much as the

fact that all living things must die, but that their life is yet beautiful and meaningful in spite of

how finite it is. Death and its repercussions are a major theme in “Song of Myself”, such as this

line:
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,

And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at

the end to arrest it,

And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.

Death not something to be feared and dreaded, but rather a natural part of the cycle of life.

Living things like plants start as sprouts, grow into full plants, and eventually die. However, the

dead plants are decomposed and fertilize the soil to allow new life to begin. The same can be

said for all life, including humans. While the natural aspect of a decomposing human body can

work like that of a plant, the “death feeding new life” aspect also works on a relationship scale,

as the actions, teachings, and sometimes even the death itself of an individual can become

inspiring to others and feed into their lives.

The subject of death apparently fascinated Whiteman as it is a major theme on “Song of

Myself”, particularly a spiritual dimension of it. Ernest Smith speaks of this when he writes, “In

the final section of the poem, Whitman is able to "bequeath" himself to the earth and air and to

his future readers. He ends the poem not by conquering death but by continuing to engage it as

possibility, alternately feared and welcomed, but part of a process and not a final event.”

(Smith) Death, while not something to be sought after, is not to be shunned either. While the

natural fear of death is a universal human element, so is the ability to make peace with it.

Whitman doesn’t count out divine revelation from this equation either. As Janice Law Trecker

writes, “Although this was an unconventional nineteenth century position, the Whitman of

Song of Myself was certainly not an atheist or even an agnostic. He doesn't even object to what

he calls "special revelation." Rather he sees miracles, though miracles of a distinctly physical
nature, in the every day: a mouse, rightly considered, is enough to "stagger sextillions of

infidels" (667) and the unaccountable working of his body as he climbs his stoop is miraculous.”

(Trecker) Everything about life is a miracle to some extent. The very fact that life exists is a

miracle when you really think about it. It takes a mind undistracted and focused on nature to

notices this though, which is a large portion of the point that Whitman is making.

Emerson too has some words to be said about life and death. He writes, “And no man

touches these divine natures, without becoming, in some degree, himself divine. Like a new

soul, they renew the body. We become physically nimble and lightsome; we tread on air; life is

no longer irksome, and we think it will never be so. No man fears age or misfortune or death, in

their serene company, for he is transported out of the district of change.” Emerson makes the

case that being in nature is like stepping into some timeless fairy world, away from the

constant changes and craziness that life can throw at a person, the most permanent of which is

death. Similar to his eye-ball quote, Emerson is advocating for people to take advantage of the

natural world to abandon their own small, closed-off mind, and open themselves up to feel

closer to the world around them that we all have a natural connection to. This is perhaps one of

the purest forms of nature unifying all humankind, the idea of reaching a sort of enlightenment

that allows a person to transcend themselves and, at least momentarily, become one with all

the rest of humanity and the entire rest of Creation.

Emerson and Whitman shared the Transcendentalist notions of human equality and the

natural connection. The connection, when experienced, allows the mind to be opened, loving,

and receptive in the ways that usually only a child can accomplish. It unites us through its sheer
beauty and reminding us that we are all connected by the same creator and the same laws that

govern the rest of nature. Lastly, it is able to free us from the fear of death, one of the greatest

sources of unhappiness in history, by reminding us that, not only is there spiritual comfort to

relieve us from death, but death itself is merely a part of the natural order of things and is, in

fact, also something that nourishes new life. For Emerson and Whitman, the connection is not

just between people, not just between one person and the natural world, but a connection that

includes us and the entire cosmos.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, “Nature,” http://transcendentalism

Whitman, Walt, “Song of Myself”,

Leise, Christopher. "The eye-ball and the butterfly: beauty and the individual soul in Emerson
and Hawthorne." Philological Quarterly, vol. 92, no. 4, 2013, p. 471+. Literature Resource
Center,
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.loras.edu/apps/doc/A398627464/GLS?u=lorascoll&sid=GLS&
xid=5a60e5ad. Accessed 3 May 2018.

Trecker, Janice Law. "The Ecstatic Epistemology of Song of Myself." The Midwest Quarterly, vol.
53, no. 1, 2011, p. 11+. Literature Resource Center,
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.loras.edu/apps/doc/A272079323/GLS?u=lorascoll&sid=GLS&
xid=bfc57ebb. Accessed 10 May 2018.

Smith, Ernest. "'Restless Explorations': Whitman's Evolving Spiritual Vision in Leaves of Grass."
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Kathy D. Darrow, vol. 205, Gale, 2009.
Literature Resource Center,
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.loras.edu/apps/doc/H1420088189/GLS?u=lorascoll&sid=GLS
&xid=dee1e731. Accessed 3 May 2018. Originally published in Papers on Language and
Literature, vol. 43, no. 3, Summer 2007, pp. 227-263.