As regards the contents of his verse,
it is plain that he included much material unfused and
untransformed by emotion. These elements foreign to the nature of
poetry clog many of his lines. The enumerated objects in his
catalogue or inventory poems often remain inert objects only.
Like many mystics, he was hypnotized by external phenomena, and
he often fails to communicate to his reader the trancelike
emotion which he himself experienced. This imperfect transfusion
of his material is a far more significant defect in Whitman's
poetry than the relatively few passages of unashamed sexuality
which shocked the American public in 1855.
The gospel or burden of "Leaves of Grass" is no more difficult of
comprehension than the general drift of Emerson's essays, which
helped to inspire it. The starting point of the book is a
mystical illumination regarding the unity and blessedness of the
universe, an insight passing understanding, but based upon the
revelatory experience of love. In the light of this experience,
all created things are recognized as divine.
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