Nature, Death and Immortality: The Poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson shared some similarities and had their differences when it came to the subjects of nature and of death and immortality. They shared a love for nature, but approached nature from different perspectives. Certainly, Whitman felt a deeper connection to nature than did Dickinson. Both expressed death from the perspective of those left behind to deal with the aftermath. Also, while their views of immortality were not identical, they were similar in that neither of them seemed to have expressed immortality in terms of a continued personal existence in the traditional Christian sense.

Whitman felt a brotherhood with nature, a oneness that Dickinson never achieved. This oneness was expressed in "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" when Whitman said, "But fuse the song of my dusky demon and brother, / That he sang to me in the moonlight on Paumanok's gray beach," (sec 10). Whitman here referred to the bird as his brother, expressing a deep connection to nature. In section ten of "Song of Myself," Whitman spoke of a comfort level with nature that Dickinson never would have felt when he said:

"Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt,
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee,
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-kill'd game,
Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves with my dog and gun by my side."

His references to spending the night outdoors and cooking his game over a campfire were certainly things that would never have entered Dickinson's mind or poetry.

Emily Dickinson also expressed a love for nature. In "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass," she discussed a snake. At one point, she said, "Several of Nature's People / I know, and they know me- / I feel for them a transport / Of cordiality." Dickinson expressed a connection to nature, a knowledge of nature's creatures. In "I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed," Dickinson said, "Inebriate of Air-am I- / And Debauchee of Dew- / Reeling-thro endless summer days- / From inns of Molten Blue-." Here she certainly was showing a connection to nature at some level.

While Dickinson demonstrated a love for nature, she viewed herself as an observer, someone who was on the outside looking in. At the end of "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass," she said, "But never met this Fellow / Attended, or alone / Without a tighter breathing / And Zero at the Bone-." She expressed a discomfort with being in nature that was foreign to Whitman. In "A Bird Came Down The Walk," speaking of the reaction the bird had to her presence, she said, "Like one in danger, Cautious / I offered him a Crumb / And he unrolled his feathers / And rowed him softer home-." She wasn't part of nature, as demonstrated by the bird's reaction. She certainly shared a love of nature with Whitman, but not the brotherhood with nature that Whitman expressed.

Walt Whitman spoke of death from the perspective of those who were left behind. In section eighteen of "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd," Whitman said:

"But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest-they suffer'd not;
The living remain'd and suffer'd-the mother suffer'd,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer'd,
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd."

Whitman concentrated on the suffering of those who remained alive, stating that the ones who had died were no longer suffering.

Whitman's view of immortality arises from the physical elements. In section one of "Song of Myself," he said, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." He goes on in the same section to say "My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, / Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same," indicating an ongoing transfer of atoms leading to a sense of immortality.

Emily Dickinson's view of death held similarities to Whitman's. In "There's Been a Death, in The Opposite House," she spoke more of those who were left, rather than the one who died. She wrote that "The Neighbors rustle in and out- / The Doctor-drives away" and "The Minister-goes stiffly in- / As if the House were His."

Dickinson's view of immortality included the idea that her writing would have future generations think of her. In "Of Bronze-And Blaze-," she related this idea:

"My Splendors, are Menagerie-
But their Competeless Show
Will entertain the Centuries
When I, am long ago,
An Island in dishonored Grass-
Whom none but Beetles-know."

For Dickinson, her work was the mechanism of her immortality. In this sense, it is not a spiritual immortality, but rather a continued realization of her abilities by future generations.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were much different poets, yet the also shared some similarities. They both loved nature, but Whitman felt he was a part of nature while Dickinson saw herself as merely an observer. Both spoke of death as something that had more impact on those left behind than on the one who had passed. This integrated well with their shared perception of an impersonal immortality. For Whitman, this immortality was achieved in the scattering of his atoms after his death. For Dickinson, it was through the reading of her poetry after she was gone.