Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is the embodiment of Emerson’s Essay on Self-Reliance. It is a poem that was way ahead of its times and completely original in form, language, and ideas. It is a perfect example of what Emerson says in his Essay on Self-Reliance:
“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”
Emerson is saying, look within to find wisdom and truth. Don’t think you will find it in books and in the laws of society. You will only regret it if you live your life as a sheep. Discover your own wisdom. Don’t think that because it came from your own consciousness that it is second rate and that others, such as the organized religions, know better.
Walt Whitman, in his exuberant, Song of Myself (from Leaves of Grass) says:
“Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in
books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.”
This simple, direct, and artistic language points to the same thing Emerson directs us to: Listen to everyone and then come to your own truth. Do not rely on what’s written, the priest, the teacher, or what you have been conditioned to believe by the society you were born into. Listen to your inner wisdom for you are as good as anyone else, as Whitmans says:
“I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”
Emerson is saying, look within to find wisdom and truth. Don’t think you will find it in books and in the laws of society. You will only regret it if you live your life as a sheep. Discover your own wisdom. Don’t think that because it came from your own consciousness that it is second rate and that others, such as the organized religions, know better.
Walt Whitman, in his exuberant, Song of Myself (from Leaves of Grass) says:
“Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in
books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.”
This simple, direct, and artistic language points to the same thing Emerson directs us to: Listen to everyone and then come to your own truth. Do not rely on what’s written, the priest, the teacher, or what you have been conditioned to believe by the society you were born into. Listen to your inner wisdom for you are as good as anyone else, as Whitmans says:
“I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
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