A reoccurring theme in both Walt Whitman's poems and Emily Dickinson's is a celebration of the self. While both place great influence on the individual, they do so in very different ways. In class, we have already discussed that Emily Dickinson lived much as an observer of life, by sealing herself away from it. This is apparent in her poem, 'The Soul Selects her own Society'. In the poem it gives the imagery of the soul isolating itself from the rest of society, content to be stand by itself. Once the individual has “shut the door”, they are free to create the world around themselves, just as an “emperor” would.
Walt Whitman also displays a distaste for society, acknowledging its darker sides, but maintains that there is a universal brotherhood between people, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”. But this connection we share as people is through our own individual connection to nature and the joys of being oneself cannot be over looked. As Walt Whitman wrote in the second chant, “I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it...It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it...I am mad for it to be in contact with me.” But these joys come not from seal oneself away, but from going out into the world, nature in particular.
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