W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was

This essay recounts the author’s decades-long conversations with W.S. Merwin about Walt Whitman. Critics have long assumed that Merwin had a primarily negative attitude toward Whitman’s poetry, viewing him as a spokesperson for the U.S.’s embrace of manifest destiny and its catastrophic ecological i...

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Main Author: Ed Folsom
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2024-12-01
Series:Transatlantica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/23791
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author Ed Folsom
author_facet Ed Folsom
author_sort Ed Folsom
collection DOAJ
description This essay recounts the author’s decades-long conversations with W.S. Merwin about Walt Whitman. Critics have long assumed that Merwin had a primarily negative attitude toward Whitman’s poetry, viewing him as a spokesperson for the U.S.’s embrace of manifest destiny and its catastrophic ecological impact. Some of Merwin’s dismissive attitude toward Whitman was inherited from two of Merwin’s acknowledged poetic mentors, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, who both also had mostly negative attitudes toward Whitman. The essay argues, however, that both Pound and Eliot had somewhat hidden reserves of admiration for Whitman, and that the same is true of Merwin. The essay examines those aspects of Whitman that Merwin was both attracted to and influenced by—those moments when Whitman spoke of the grass and those moments when Whitman confronted silence and wordlessness—and analyzes Merwin’s poems “A Contemporary” and “Whoever You Are” as direct responses to Whitman, places where Merwin records his deep and intimate engagement with Whitman.
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spelling doaj-art-81d64864cbb34df582b269ac37cb78972025-01-30T10:48:24ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662024-12-01210.4000/134gmW.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He WasEd FolsomThis essay recounts the author’s decades-long conversations with W.S. Merwin about Walt Whitman. Critics have long assumed that Merwin had a primarily negative attitude toward Whitman’s poetry, viewing him as a spokesperson for the U.S.’s embrace of manifest destiny and its catastrophic ecological impact. Some of Merwin’s dismissive attitude toward Whitman was inherited from two of Merwin’s acknowledged poetic mentors, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, who both also had mostly negative attitudes toward Whitman. The essay argues, however, that both Pound and Eliot had somewhat hidden reserves of admiration for Whitman, and that the same is true of Merwin. The essay examines those aspects of Whitman that Merwin was both attracted to and influenced by—those moments when Whitman spoke of the grass and those moments when Whitman confronted silence and wordlessness—and analyzes Merwin’s poems “A Contemporary” and “Whoever You Are” as direct responses to Whitman, places where Merwin records his deep and intimate engagement with Whitman.https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/23791Walt WhitmanEzra PoundW.S. MerwinT.S. EliotLeaves of Grass
spellingShingle Ed Folsom
W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
Transatlantica
Walt Whitman
Ezra Pound
W.S. Merwin
T.S. Eliot
Leaves of Grass
title W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
title_full W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
title_fullStr W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
title_full_unstemmed W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
title_short W.S. Merwin’s Search for Walt Whitman, Whoever He Was
title_sort w s merwin s search for walt whitman whoever he was
topic Walt Whitman
Ezra Pound
W.S. Merwin
T.S. Eliot
Leaves of Grass
url https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/23791
work_keys_str_mv AT edfolsom wsmerwinssearchforwaltwhitmanwhoeverhewas