Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson and their Americanism - Research Paper Example

Whitman’s Americanism is very evident since he as a man and a poet, understood his position of being an American and a citizen as well. Through his writing, he ran the risk of having his people misunderstand him especially the sectarians of all the sects, through his pursuit for purisms (Folsom and Wilson 141). Through these, he managed to anticipate the Americanism in such an ancient time, what other Americans are starting to focus on attaining in the recent days. To proof his Americanism, he renewed the expired sense of sentiment, conception, and the brotherhood in the men of the America and the western as well.

For instance, brotherhood is an aspect that had been condemned through despotic paternalism by initiating revolutionary and poetic power, which did not exist for a long time (Folsom and Wilson 136). Since Whitman lived specifically inauspicious for democracy in the entire state, the two presidential candidates of the year 1856 from his perspective were mere dwarfs in politics as compared to Emerson. The exhibition of Lilliputians in the battle for election disgusted him. His Americanism is an exhibit since he recognized the need of the uncommon citizen in the posts of authority.

To Whitman, uncommon did not mean a person lacking academic knowledge, one who is exquisitely literary, aesthetic temporary of a sage, artist abandoned through their daily life, but those who did not have the superior capacity to leadership. To show his concern to the common person, he wrote two poems as a dedication to a person seen as uncommon but having come from midst of those seen as common men, Lincoln. According to Folsom and Wilson, in dedicating these poems to Lincoln, Whitman proved and incarnated his idea of the “redeemer” for all the Americans, the concept of the “captain”, and that of “first-class leader” (138).

He had faith in democracy, looking from his side the tremendous storm passed by many institution to his nation during his time. Perceiving life in a Darwinian sense of reality, democracy as a concept of leadership inspired Whitman. This made him believe that anti-democracy was embodied in a power plutocracy as well as in absolute monarchy. To proof Americanism, he believed that race, class, and religion should be overlooked and instead Americans focus on fighting for democracy. To him, America was more of a social expanse than a physical one.

This symbolized the humanity and the future world, which through manifest destiny would concentrate majorly on the American continent. This indicated Americanism from his opinion that would possibly be compared to the Slavism of Modern Russian Stalinists, thus the American continent would be the first to implement the idea of democracy (Folsom and Wilson 143). In her writing, Dickson gives emphasis in religion as a theme in most of her work. According to her, there was a lot of questioning of previous morals and ideals that occurred during the Romantic era.

She thus scrutinized religion that existed and considered it irrelevant and out of date. All the activities that occurred in American during her time were encounters without a base. Likening them with death, she wrote her poem titled “Because I could not stop for death” for death can be looked upon as an encounter. Just as Whitman does, she tackles death as a theme repeatedly in many of her poems because she thought that without the right governance, the people of