Tahir, The Self

For being two fundamentally different poets, both Whitman and Dickenson emphasize the importance of the self. Whitman is an effulgent poet, radiating brightness and heartfelt praise about the universe in general, and is much more effusive than Dickenson in terms of how he views the world at large. Though Dickenson is sentimental in her own way, she displays her feelings in a more subdued manner, and an overwhelming sense of melancholy pervades her work that is not apparent in Whitman. Whereas Whitman believes that everything and everyone is connected, Dickenson views herself as separate and isolated from society as a whole. This can be seen from a few lines from her poem, “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain.” “As all the Heavens were a Bell,/ And Being, but an Ear,/ And I, and Silence, some strange Race/ Wrecked, solitary, here-“ Despite their differing viewpoints in how they see themselves, both poets believe that one should never compromise who one is; the self is seen as the part of one’s soul that should be inherently implacable, firm in its resolutions and beliefs and a foundation that should never falter. From Chant 20 of Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” one can see how sincere he is about this belief: “I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or to be understood,/ I see that the elementary laws never apologize…/ I exist as I am, that is enough,/ If no other in the world be aware I sit content…/One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself…/I laugh at what you call dissolution,/And I know the amplitude of time.” Dickenson echoes a similar fortitiude in her poem, “The Soul Selects her own Society.” “…Then-shuts the Door-/To her divine Majority-/Present no more-/Unmoved-she notes the Chariots-pausing-/At her low Gate-/Unmoved- an Emperor be kneeling/ Upon her Mat-/I’ve known her-from an ample nation-/Choose One-/Then-close the valves of her attention-/Like Stone-“Dickenson is speaking of how the soul is unique, and that it seeks that quality in others whose souls are akin to its own. The soul does not bow down to others who wish to grasp at her and perhaps attempt to alter her, even if they are as powerful as emperors; one must cling to one’s own identity and personal selfhood. It is interesting that though Whitman believes in a shared personhood and a connection with the universe, and that Dickenson at times almost seems to view herself as a separate entity looking from the outside in, both intensely advocate the ineffable beauty of the self.