Breathing Deep of This Earth: Whitman and Dickinson’s Stance Toward Religion

           Just as their lines and syntax is different, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson differ in their approaches to God and religion. Certainly, both can be thought of as “spiritual” poets.  Both were not quite orthodox and seemed to find the reigning religious structures of the day lacking in a present joy. Both seemed to find spiritual experiences on earth—albeit in very different ways. Like his breathless style, Whitman rushes to include all religions and faiths and rejoice in the now and present and everything and everyone and Nature and the universe and grass and this man and that man and himself and yourself…. Dickinson, on the other hand, breathes deep. She ponders, and experiences God individually and inwardly.

                It is not hard to find religious references and influences in both Whitman and Dickinson’s work. This is not surprising, as both the national and familial contexts in which Whitman and Dickinson grew up in were religious. Born in 1819 to Quaker parents, Whitman grew up in the period known as the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840). Long-winded preachers hollered in tents at camp meetings leading to “mass conversions.” The influence of these long exhortations can be seen in Whitman’s lengthy and breathy style of writing poetry—for him, there was something uniquely American about this spontaneous oratory. Similarly, Dickinson was born in 1830 under the atmosphere of revival toward the end of the Second Great Awakening. Her family was religious as well. In an adolescent letter, she writes, “[My family] are all religious—except me—and address an Eclipse, every morning—whom they call ‘Father’ (Lauter 3042). Her attendance at the very religious Mount Holyoke Female Seminary endured merely a year. Calvinism and Puritanism provided frames of reference for Dickinson; seen in the Biblical imagery threaded through much of her poetry.   

                In light of these religious influences, neither Whitman nor Dickinson seemed to accept traditional religion. Whitman had to have found organized religion exclusive. In his gleeful optimism he includes everyone and every religion in his poem, “Song of Myself,” barely making a condemnatory remark in his entire poem. Organized religion appeared to him to draw divisive—Whitman’s purpose was to unite. He does make it clear that he puts “creeds and schools in abeyance” (line 10) and that he has “no chair, no church, no philosophy” (line 1205). He will not accept a traditional religion.

Dickinson’s complaint against organized religion was hypocrisy. She writes, “A Counterfeit—a Plated Person—/ I would not be—/ (“1453” lines 1-2). She refused to confess to faith at Mount Holyoke despite incredible pressure from the principal, staff and, one can imagine, from peers as well. She took a firm stance against personal hypocrisy and condemned it in others. Poem “1207” is scathing toward a preacher who “preached upon ‘Breadth’ till it argued him narrow —…And of "Truth" until it proclaimed him a Liar —… Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence” (lines 1,3,5). She goes so far as to say that she likes “a look of Agony, / Because I know it’s true” (“241,” lines 1-2). Her ironic tone in poems “185”, “1129,” and “1545” also seem to subtly hint at church member’s hypocrisy.  

                Both Whitman and Dickinson seemed to reject or rebel against traditional views of God and Christ. For Whitman, one religion was simply too narrow. Jesus could not have been “the way, the truth, and the light” (John 14:6) as “All truths wait in all things,” (“Song of Myself,” line 648). In lines 1096-1110 of “Song of Myself,” Whitman couples Christ with oracles, sun gods, and other gods. Dickinson’s view is more complicated. For her, the God of church is a “distant—stately Lover—“ (“357” line 1). She finds it hard to reconcile with God’s Envoy and Wooer, Christ. She writes in ironic tones, “lest the Soul—like fair ‘Priscilla’ / Choose the Envoy—and spurn the Groom— / Vouches, with hyperbolic archness— / ‘Miles’ and ‘John Alden’ were Synonym” (“357” lines 4-8). Her aforementioned letter indicated the distance of God, seeing him as an “Eclipse” and incongruously called “Father” (Lauter 3042). Her individuality seems to be threatened by this “Father,” and she rebels against this invasion. Yet Christ seems to be personal to her—some of her poems speak of mystical unions, and this “marriage” could be interpreted as a union with Christ in some cases.

                Perhaps the crux of the matter was joy. Both Dickinson and Whitman felt that the Bible and traditional religion were condemnatory, dwelt on sin, and had eyes only for heaven. In their view, religious people of their day, by and large, missed the joy of the earth and the present. Dickinson seemed to question man’s sin nature. Despite the pressure in Mount Holyoke to confess to religion, Dickinson’s letters indicate that she “refused to profess a sense of sin” (Lauter 3043), leading her to be classed among the students with “no hope.” In one of her letters, she (almost proudly, it seems) writes, “I am one of the lingering bad ones” (Baym 75). However, as one critique writes, “it was her very ‘failure’ to conform to the conventional expectations of her evangelical culture that helped to liberate her to think on her own—to ‘pause,’ as she put it, ‘and ponder, and ponder’” (Baym 75). This view carried through her life and writings. For example, in poem “1453,” she questions, “Whatever strata of iniquity / My Nature underlie—….”  (lines 3-4). Her view of sin is especially present in poem “1461,” where she seems to criticize God for creating a man capable of falling into sin and then holding him responsible for his actions. In poem “1545,” Dickinson clearly finds the Bible condemnatory, or at least the way that preachers present it. She writes of the Bible that “had but the Tale a warbling Teller—/ All the Boys would come— / Orpheus’ Sermon captivated—/ It did not condemn—” (lines 13-16).  Whitman seems to share similar sentiments: the Christian religion was focused on condemning sin. In “Song of Myself,” he writes, “I think I could turn and live with animals….They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God” (line 684). For both Whitman and Dickinson, traditional religion reveled in condemnation and lost the soul of joy.  

                Both Dickinson and Whitman found heaven on earth and in the present. Whitman’s effusive language is celebratory of the sensual, the here, and the now. Whitman sees God in everything. He writes, “Why should I wish to see God better than this day? / I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, / In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass” (“Song of Myself,” lines 1283-1285). Again, he finds the supernatural in all and everything: “the bull and the bug never worshipp’d half enough, / Dung and dirt more admirable than was dream’d, / The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes” (“Song of Myself,” lines 1048-1050). His religion is sensual and tangible and concrete. It is of this earth: “I believe in the flesh and the appetites, / Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle” (“Song of Myself,” lines 522-523). He continues, “Divine am I inside and out” (524). This must have been considered heretical and pantheistic by the established churches of the day.  

Dickinson also finds the sacred in nature, although there is a greater sense of reverence here, and a little less sense of heresy. It is not “myself” she is worshipping, but Someone transcendent. Her use of more traditional religious words helps aid this slightly more orthodox feeling. In poem “324,” she writes, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—/ I keep it, staying at Home— / With a Boblink for a Chorister— / And an Orchard, for a Dome—/…So instead of going to Heaven, at least— / I’m going, all along” (lines 1-4, 11-12) (poems “130” and “322” echo this sentiment). There is a rapture and a beauty in nature and in the present earth that ushers in the Infinite for Dickinson.

                However, Whitman and Dickinson do differ in their approaches to religion and spirituality. Whitman is very universalistic and relativistic—like the overall thrust of his poem “Song of Myself,” his religion becomes very “democratic” as well. He writes, “Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion” (line 346). He reiterates that he embraces the Quaker religion and the Methodist preacher, the native and the foreign (lines 774-778). This expands in lines 1096-1110 to faiths of “all time, the world over.” He mentions gods, worshiping the sun, Native American religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism, Christianity, etc. His universalism even takes a pantheistic (and egoistic) turn: “For I who am curious about each am not curious about God….I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, / Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself” (lines 1279, 1281-1282). For Whitman, there is no one true god, and god is all and in all and this “myself” is god.

While Whitman is very forthright with his universalism and beliefs, Dickinson is more ambiguous. Whitman seems to adopt all religions; Dickinson seems to adopt her own. Typical of Dickinson, her religious approach seems to be very individualistic and inward. In poem “324,” where she declares her church to be outside and in nature, it is her own church. There are only birds and trees to keep her company. In “306,” she declares, “The Soul’s Superior instants / Occur to her—alone—“ (lines 1-2).  She has an individual experience with God, and will accept that as her religion.

Both Whitman and Dickinson breathed deep of this earth. They found spiritual experiences on earth, in nature, and in this life. They both had little patience for those who moaned about sins and had eyes for only heaven, and missed the beauty and joy of this life.  

Works Cited

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C. 7^th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company. 2007.

Dickinson, Emily. “185.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C. 7^th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 80.

---. “130.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3048.

---. “241.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3049.

---. “306.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3054.

---. “322.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company,  2006. 3055-3056.

---. “324.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C. 7^th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 81.

---. “357.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company,  2006. 3058.

---. “1129.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C. 7^th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 91.

---. “1207.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company,  2006. 3076-3077.

---. “1453.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company,  2006. 3079.

---. “1461.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3079.

---. “1545.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company,  2006. 3079-3080.

Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature.Vol. B. 5^th ed. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2006.

Whitman, Walt. “A Song of Myself.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C. 7^th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 30-74.