Whitman's philosophy was mysticism which comprehends his philosophy of the unity of all things. He believed that nature is alive and that there is an essential identity of the individual existence because they derive their existence from the supreme soul, God Who is One. Whitman was a believer in transcendentalism which encompasses the conception of the unity of all things and beings despite their discrete appearances. Things and beings are separate, but only apparently; essentially they are bound together.
Even the distance of time and place does not affect the essential unity of all. An individual is affiliated to all men and women of all generation. When the poet looks on the river and the sky, on the numerous masts of ships and the thick-stemmed pipes of steam boats, he feels that he is connected to them by an invisible bond. He says:
It avails not, time nor place__distance
avails not
I am with you, you men and women of a
generation, or ever so many
generations hence
The relationships between things and beings, between the humans and other beings and things transcend the limitations of space and time. All things and beings that will be born in the future are also existent simultaneously with those bom in the present or the past.
All things belong to a single, simple pattern in which everything has its particular position and place. The scheme is well-joined; all things that belong to it have their apportioned and allocated places. The poet feels himself disintegrated from the compact scheme, yet actually he belongs to it. Everything, however tiny is a part of this compact scheme.
The bond that exists between himself or any other being or thing, and the simple, single compact scheme, is impalpable. The poet says:
The impalpable sustenance of me from all
Things at all hours of the day,
The simple, compact, well-joined scheme,
myself disintegrated, everyone
disintegrated yet part of the scheme.
There is a paradox in the conception here: “everyone disintegrated yet part of the scheme”. A thing which is disintegrated from something cannot be a part of it at the same time. The paradox is resolved by the conception that visible, disparate things, are connected together by an invisible bond.
The experiences of the phenomena of nature that the poet had in the past are similar to the experiences that other men are having at the present. He says:
Just as you feel when you look on the
River and sky, so Ifelt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd,
I was one of a crowd.
The people crossing the Brooklyn ferry are now experiencing and enjoying all the things that the poet had experienced and enjoyed in the past.
Whitman's philosophy of the unity of all things is related to his concepts of mysticism and transcendentalism It is very clearly enunciated in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.
0 Comments