Mysticism
is not really a coherent philosophy of life, but more a temper of mind. A
mystic vision is intuitive; a mystic feels the presence of divine reality
behind and within the ordinary world of sense and perception. He feels that God
and the supreme soul animating all things are identical. He believes that all
things in the visible world are but forms and manifestations of the one Divine
life.
The
self-proclaimed “American Bard” Walt Whitman is undoubtedly a mystic and
transcendental poet. He shocked his contemporaries by his embrace of the
sensual; “Song of Myself” has been
regarded as a prolonged expression of an experience that is essentially
mystical. The beautiful sampling of Whitman’s poetry from “Song of Myself” offers a glimpse into the spiritual side of his
most radical themes–love for country, love for others and love for self.
Whitman seeks to tear down the belief the spiritual resides only in the
religious and embraces the idea that nothing is more divine than humankind,
nothing greater than individual soul. There is a great deal of sexual elements
in Whitman’s poetry; sexual connotations are inseparable from the mystical
experience.
In “Song of Myself” Whitman’s overjoyed
revelation of union of his body with his soul has been depicted in his mystic
expression. Held in the trance-like grip of the soul from beard to feet, the
poet has a feeling of fraternity and oneness with God and his fellowmen:
“And
I know the hand of God is the promise of my own
And
I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own
And
that all – of the creation of love.”
As
a mystic Whitman believed that there is no difference between Creator and the Creation.
His “self”
is a universal self. He sees people of both sexes, all ages, many different
walks of life; even animals are included. The poet along with the divine spirit
not only loves them all; he is also a part of them.
In “Song of Myself”, mystical experience
is symbolically conveyed through a piece of sensuous experience. Being a mystic
poet of his own kind, Whitman gives equal importance to body and soul; he
becomes the spokesman of the “forbidden voices” of
‘sexes
and lusts indecent.’ He loves his body and is sensitive to another’s
touch. Both the lady and the prostitute enjoy equal position in his poetry, for
the inner reality, the soul has been created by the same God. Whitman declares:
“If
anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.” Thus he takes equal
delight both in good and bad, noble or ignoble.
Whitman
does not reject the material world. He seeks the spiritual through the
material. He does not subscribe to the belief that objects illusive. There is
no tendency on the part of the soul to leave this world for God. Whitman does
not belittle the achievements of science and materialism.
“Hurrah for positive science!
Long
live exact demonstration.”
Whitman
praises not merely life, but absolute worth of every particular and individual
person. Thus, his comic consciousness is the result of the expansion of the
ego. The word “I” assumes an enlarged universal connotation bringing the smallest
and the greatest things of the universe within its compass.
James
E. Miller considers Whitman’s Song of Myself as “inverted mystical experience”.
While the traditional mystic attempts to annihilate himself and mortify his
senses in preparation for his union with the divine; Whitman magnifies the self
and glorifies the senses in his progress towards the union with the absolute. Although
Whitman is influenced by Emerson and oriental mysticism, yet there is a
difference between Whitman’s mysticism and the mysticism of Orient. Oriental
mystic believes that communication between soul and God is possible only
through the mortification or conquest of the senses and the physical appetites.
On the other hand Whitman believes that spiritual experiences are possible
without sacrificing the physical appetites.
Whitman
seldom lost touch with the physical reality even in the mist of his mystical
experience. Physical phenomena for him were symbols of spiritual reality. He
believed that “the unseen is proved by seen”; thus he makes use of highly
sensuous and concrete imagery to convey his perception of divine reality. He
finds a purpose behind any natural objects- grass, sea, birds, flowers animals
etc.
Whitman
is a mystic as much as he is a poet of democracy and science, but a “mystic
without a creed.” Song of Myself
portrays Whitman's poetic birth and the mystical journey; the poet feels the
exhilaration of being no longer bound by the ties of space and time: he is "afoot
with" his "vision."
He feels able, indeed, to range back and forth over all time, and to soar like
a meteor out into space. His entity is unique: he can assume the "gigantic
beauty of a stallion" and can turn himself into a departing air or annihilate himself
into a dirt.
The poet does not deny but dismisses his "contradictions,"
asserting, "I am large, I contain multitudes." In the beginning
the poet vows to "permit to speak at every hazard, / Nature without check with
original energy." Leaving "Creeds and schools in abeyance" ,
he goes "to the bank by the wood” and becomes “ undisguised and naked"
similarly, at the end, he describes himself as "not a bit tamed,"
as "untranslatable," as one who sounds his "barbaric
yawp over the roofs of the world." His journey over and done, he
prepares for departure, bequeathing himself "to the dirt to grow from
the grass" he loves, and tells the reader: "If you want me again look
for me under your boot-soles." At the end, the poet admonishes his
readers to "keep encouraged" and continue their search for him,
promising: "I stop somewhere waiting for you."