Whitman and Dickinson and Whitman: Essay

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Dickinson, however, approaches art and nature in a much different way. She does not attempt to assert herself or set herself up as "Amerian Poet" the way that Whitman does. Instead she wrote her poetry without ever once doing so for fame or fortune. She meditated on her relationship to her surroundings, her understanding of beauty, her admiration for truth, her appreciation of the essence of things. "The Sailor cannot see the North, but knows the Needle can," she wrote in 1862. She considered Death and Judgment as actual realities, doorways to Eternity, rather than the ending of existence. Dickinson looked beyond the here and now, beyond the fleeting feelings of transcendental poetry, to the Infinite. Her fascination with mortality produced vivid images and verses: "Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me; / the carriage held but just ourselves / and Immortality." Because she made herself small, as Fulton Sheen suggests, she was able to see how big everything else was. By being a humble poet, she made herself into the greatest American poet.

Whitman, on the other hand, by being a "great" American poet, failed to confine himself to a single frame of reference. Instead, his vision swooped and soared over terrains, landscapes, thoughts and feelings, always falling back to earth with a thud before whirling off again. There is little stillness in Whitman's verse. Whitman could not be as great as Dickinson because he placed his faith in himself and in a spirit that he himself created. Dickinson, however, placed her faith in Christ -- not the Christ of New England Calvinism, which like Whitman's spirit was the mere fancy of a generation.

Likewise, Dickinson was not deceived by the eloquence or naturalistic faith of her period. Her religious views were tempered by a cold skepticism, which kept her grounded in reality. The conflicting dogmas of her age were a source of confusion for her, unlike Whitman who simply rejected them and asserted his own. Dickinson writes, "I don't know why it is but it does not seem to me that I shall ever cease to live on earth" (28). Perhaps for this reason, what she discovers in Eternity is never stated: rather, the journey itself is recounted, and the fact that "centuries" in Eternity are nothing compared to a day of mortal living: "Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet / Feels shorter than the Day / I first surmised the Horses' Heads / Were toward Eternity -- " the style is all her own -- as Higginson lamented: it is "spasmodic" and "halting" -- but purposefully.

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Douglas Anderson writes that Dickinson gives "memorable expression to…the conflicting claims of two worlds…contrasting the earthly with the heavenly, the artificial with the natural" (205). This same power to contrast may be observed in the way in which she deals with Death. In "I Died for Beauty," Emily seems to be at peace with Death -- or at least finds some consolation on the other side: the meeting of a friend: "I died for beauty but was scarce / Adjusted in the tomb, / When one who died for truth was lain / in an adjoining room." In Death, Dickinson expects she will be with friends, who were moved like her in life towards some higher good -- in spite of the obstacle of death: "He questioned softly why I failed? / 'For beauty,' I replied / 'And I for truth, the two are one; / We brethren are,' he said." Emily suggests that she is not as alone as her loneliness may make her seem: her companions are in the realm of the ideal.

Whitman, on the other hand, is in the realm of the Self. He may have been great, but Dickinson's humble skill made her greater.

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