Roots stronger in the earth; |b a study of Whitman's L̲e̲a̲v̲e̲s̲ o̲f̲ g̲r̲a̲s̲s̲ in relation to Emerson's poetic theories

Abstract

Perhaps no correspondence between American authors has been of more interest in the literary world than that of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman--surely none of such limited extent. No biography of either man seems complete without the inclusion of Emerson's famous letter greeting Whitman "at the beginning of a great career" and of Whitman's public reply in the second edition of Leaves of Grass. The evident recognition on the part of Emerson of a kindred soul in the author of the poems contained in that volume, and Whitman's long tribute to Emerson, "dear Friend and Master" as Walt addressed him, show certainly a feeling on the part of each man that he had discovered in the other's writing the essence of the Truth he saw in the universe. However great or small the influence of the one on the other, however many or decided the denials of that influence during the later years, there must have been a spontaneous realization of identity of insight, purpose, or of method that moved both Emerson and Whitman at the beginning of their acquaintance. Emerson, usually sparing of his praise of American writers, wrote to Whitman in what seems even today to be enthusiastic terms.