Whitman’s mysticism and transcendentalism in “Song of Myself”

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." 

  

Humour in Joseph Andrews

Humour is defined as that quality of action, speech or writing which excites amusement, the faculty of perceiving what is ludicrous or amusing. Humour arises from the perception of the incongruities of life, from the writer’s awareness of the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be.

Henry Fielding, the father of English novel, is one of the greatest humourists in English Literature. Fielding’s humour is wide in range. It arises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing heights of the subtlest irony. Joseph Andrews which started as a parody of Richardson’s Pamela, ended as an excellent work of art in its own right.

There is plenty of humour in the novel. A number of characters are definitely humorous in their conception. Parson Adams and Mrs. Slipslop’s characters are the true sources of pure comedy.  In fact, Parson Adams’ character is fully exploited by Fielding. His very appearance is ridiculous. No body can believe that he is a parson. “He possesses a comical face, with bearded chin and deeply wrinkled cheeks,  a fist rather less than the knuckle of an ox, with a wrist which Hercules would not have been ashamed of. His legs are so long that they almost touch the ground when he drives on his horse’s back. He usually wears a tattered old cassock and a periwig on his head”.  We are also given funny sketch of Mrs. Slipslop’s appearance:

“She was not at this time remarkably handsome; being very short, and rather too corpulent in body, and somewhat red, with the addition of pimples in her face. Her nose was likewise too large, and her eyes too little; nor did she resemble a cow so much in her breath as in two brown globes which she carried before her.” In spite of all that she considers herself a lovable and rebukes Joseph when he does not reciprocate her love.

 Fielding’s professed aim in Joseph Andrews was to tear the veils of hypocricy and affectation. In his Preface to “Joseph Andrews", Fielding concludes that affectation is the source of the ridiculous, springing from vanity or hypocrisy. Fielding intends to laugh mankind out of its follies and foibles. Fielding, thus, employs ironical and satirical humour in several places.

Joseph Andrews has a large variety of humour. Farce is not excluded. Farce is humour arising from situation, and it evokes loud laughter. The keynote of a farce is exaggeration to excite boisterous laughter. Joseph Andrews is a string of farcical situations. Several situations such as the fight scene at the inn, Joseph falling from his horse and hurting his knee, Joseph sitting by the fireside while the hostess of the inn rubbing his knee, Parson Adams in a pan of hog’s blood, Parson Trulliber, mistaking Adams as a hog dealer and sending him into the hogs’ shed where he is thrashed by the hogs, the hounds of the Squire tearing at Parson Adams’ cassock, Mrs. tow-wouse discovering Betty in Tow-wouse’s bed,  Didapper mistaking the room and entering Mrs. Slipslop’s room and Adams mistaking Didapper for the distressed lady and getting hold of Mrs. Slipslop as the attacker, punching her mercilessly till Lady Booby arrives on the scene with a lighted-candle; Adam’s taking a wrong turn in Fanny’s bed and going to sleep; all these scenes are farcical.

There runs a fine streak of irony as well. For example, the patriot who boasts of his patriotism and wants to hang all the cowards , himself turns the tail and runs away in a critical situation. Even Adams himself is not spared of ironical humour. Adams’ learned advice to Joseph on moderation and philosophical acceptance of misfortune is thrown to the winds when his own son is reported to be drowned. He is vain enough to consider his sermon a masterpiece. There are, of course, sharp touches of irony in Mrs. Slipslop’s portraiture and Lady Booby’s affectation.

Fielding develops the satirical theme most effectively in the scene where each of the coach passengers is stripped spiritually naked in their confrontation with naked Joseph.The lady’s false delicacy, the old gentleman’s selfishness and the lawyer’s professional cautiousness, are all exposed in Fielding’s humourous tone.

Joseph Andrews abounds in humorous characterization. The most remarkable figure in Joseph Andrews,  Parson Adams is a creation of pure humour. He is eccentric, forgetful, absent-minded, and impractical man. He leaves for London to sell his sermons but forgets the precious manuscripts at home. Then he marches away completely forgetting the horse itself. In addition to his absent-mindedness, he has  odd gestures and funny mannerism. Adams never loses his dignity, however much of humour is involved in his portraiture – that speaks of Fielding's skill as a comic artist. Mrs. Slipslop is another entirely humorous character. Rearing pigs and being with them continuously has made Parson Trulliber appear increasingly like a pig.

In Joseph Andrews there is plenty of burlesque in diction. The mock-heroic technique produces plenty of humour in the novel. The funny situation of the bloody fight in which Parson Adams gets doused in hog’s blood is described in Homeric terms. Similarly Joseph’s encounter with the dogs let loose on Parson Adams is also described in epic-style. The discrepancy between the high style and the ridiculous situation produces laughter.

Summing up, Henry Fielding is a master of  various forms of humour—farce, satire, irony, humorous characterization, and the parody. At the same time, his humour is very much spontaneous. Humour arises naturally; it is never contrived. Coleridge is right when he compares Fielding’s humour with that of Richardson: “There is a cheerful, sunshiny, breezy spirit that prevails everywhere strongly contrasted with the close, hot, day-dreamy continuity of Richardson”. He grips the attention of the readers by his amusing situations and humour. He has been very appropriately called “a laughing philosopher”.