The influence of Emerson on Walt Whitman

Abstract

Any person who attempts to make an analysis of the sources of Walt Whitman's distinctive literary product, shortly meets the problem of determining the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson upon the author of Leaves of Grass; determining, first of all, whether such an influence existed; deciding, if it did, its extent and direction. Students of Whitman, meeting the problem, have come to varying conclusions; wholesouled devotees of Whitman, such as John Burroughs, have denied Emerson any standing as a formative influence in Whitman's works; others have seen in the Concord philosopher the grestest source of Whitman's inspiration and message. Some writers have made a study of the personal relationships between the two men, and others have attempted to cite parallels in thought and expression; few, if any, have combined with these studies an endeavor to compare the essential beliefs and practises of each writer with an aim to drawing a general conclusion. It is the purpose of the present paper to deter- mine the extent and direction of Emerson's influence on Whitman by citing significant external evidence that bears upon the problem of whitman's indebtedness; then, by turning to the writings of the two men, to show first the likenesses, then the divergences, that seem to appear from a comparison of the most characteristic ideas and expressions of each writer.