Rihner, Whitmand and Dickinson

In Dickinson's "hope is the thing with feathers," we see a connection with nature that we can also find in Walt Whitman's 39th chant in "Leaves of Grass." Both poets write about their character's with a beautiful mystique and bind to the natural world. Whitman's character is a nomad, a traveler that is not bound by any home or societal duties. "Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire him, They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them, stay with them." This character, this "savage" is much like Dickinson's generous bird of "hope." Dickinson's bird is not so much of a nomad (it probably has a nest somewhere), yet it is a free being of the wild that is loved by world, just like Whitman's traveler. "I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me." As poets, Whitman and Dickinson seem to write with similar attitudes of mystique and inquiry. They write about their characters attributes without precisely stating the character's person. They both write about free beings, about natural life, as the hope and beauty of the world. The bird is free and hopeful, and the stranger is free and joyful.