![]() The American Sublime: Merging with the Other The rest of this lesson will suggest how to read “Song of Myself,” an epic poem within Leaves of Grass. That hope, a kind of poetic manifesto, is found in Emerson’s 1844 essay “The Poet.” Whitman even published a review of his own poetry, declaring “An American bard at last!” In his eyes, Leaves of Grass was the consummation of Emerson’s great hope for an American poet, freed from European conventions. ![]() Whitman was such a self-promoter-akin to the most shameless celebrity on Instagram or Twitter-that he republished Emerson’s letter without asking permission. I wish to see my benefactor, and have felt much like striking my tasks and visiting New York to pay you my respects. I did not know until I last night saw the book advertised in a newspaper that I could trust the name as real and available for a post-office. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging. I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I find the courage of treatment which so delights us, and which large perception only can inspire. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I give you joy of your free and brave thought. ![]() It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy nature, as if too much handiwork, or too much lymph in the temperament, were making our western wits fat and mean. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of “LEAVES OF GRASS.” I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.
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