loc.01153.003_large.jpg
West Park, N.Y.1
Dec. 31st, 1885
Dear Walt:
A happy New Year to you, & many returns of the same. I was right glad to get your
letter & to know your eyes were so much better. I feel certain that if you eat
little or no meat you will be greatly the gainer. It will not do to take
in sail in ones activities &c, unless he takes in sail in his food also.
We are all pretty well here loc.01153.004_large.jpg this winter so far. I have just sent off the copy for my new vol : think I shall stick to "Signs & Seasons" for the title, as this
covers all the articles.2 Kennedy3
sent me his essay on the Poet as Craftsman.4 I liked it
pretty well: what he has to say about you is excellent. He wanted my opinion about
the argument of the essay, so I told him that I never felt like quarreling with a
real poet about his form: let him take the form he can use best; any form is good if
it holds good poetry loc.01153.005_large.jpg & any form is bad that holds bad poetry. I would not have
Tennyson,5 or Longfellow6 or Burns7 use other forms than they do. If a man excells in prose
he is pretty sure to use prose. Coleridge8 is greater in prose than in poetry. Poe is
greater in poetry than in prose. Carlyle9 tried the poetic form
& gave it up.
I hope you will keep well & that I will see you again before long. How much I
wish you were here to eat a New Years dinner loc.01153.006_large.jpg with us. I wrote to Herbert
Gilchrist the other day.10 These must be dark days for he &
Grace.11 To me a black shadow seems to have settled on all
England since I read of the death of Mrs Gilchrist.12 I
wish you would send me by mail or by Express those books of Emerson,13 the essays & the miscellanies. I want to use them. I
am going to re-read Emerson, & see how he strikes me now.
With much love
John Burroughs
loc.01153.001_large.jpg
see notes Aug 3 1888
loc.01153.002_large.jpg
Correspondent:
The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle St | Camden. | N.J. It is
postmarked: WEST PARK, | DEC | 31 | 1885 | N.Y.; NEW YORK | JAN 1 | 1 30 PM | 86
| TRANSIT; CAMDEN, N.J. | JAN | 2 | 7 AM | 1886 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. In his letter of December 21, 1885, Whitman seemed to favor "Spring
Relish," which turned into the title for Burroughs's book when it appeared in
1886. [back]
- 3. William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. Kennedy had been writing a
defense of Whitman and sent a manuscript of the essay to Whitman on January 16, 1885. Growing impatient, he reminded
the poet to answer his letter on March 12. Over
two months later, on May 24, Whitman responded,
finding the manuscript "all right" as well as "lofty, subtle & true" but
suggesting Kennedy add "a criticism on Tennyson and Walt
Whitman (or if you prefer on Victor Hugo, T and
WW)." [back]
- 5. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded
William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male
friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote
after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's
poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the
visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson,
Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P.
Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July
12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman
to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
- 6. In his time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807–1882) was both a highly popular and highly respected American poet.
His The Song of Hiawatha, published the same year as Leaves of Grass, enjoyed sales never reached by Whitman's
poetry. When Whitman met Longfellow in June 1876, he was unimpressed: "His
manners were stately, conventional—all right but all careful . . . he did
not branch out or attract" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman
in Camden, Thursday, May 10, 1888, 130). [back]
- 7. Robert Burns
(1759–1796) was a Scottish poet and pioneer of the Romantic movement in
Great Britain. [back]
- 8. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772–1834) was an English poet and literary critic considered one of the
founding figures of British Romanticism. [back]
- 9. Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) was a Scottish
writer who wrote frequently on the conflict between scientific changes and the
traditional social (often religious) order. For Whitman's writings on Carlyle,
see "Death of Thomas Carlyle" and "Carlyle from American
Points of View" in Specimen Days
(Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), 168–170 and 170–178. [back]
- 10. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 11. Grace Gilchrist Frend
(1859–1947) was one of Anne Gilchrist's four children and Herbert's
sister. She became a contralto. She was the author of "Walt Whitman as I
Remember Him" (Bookman 72 [July 1927],
203–205). [back]
- 12. Anne Gilchrist died on
November 29, 1885. See Herbert's letter to Whitman of December 2, 1885. Anne Gilchrist's last letter to the poet was sent
on July 20. [back]
- 13. Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882) was an American poet and essayist who began the
Transcendentalist movement with his 1836 essay Nature.
Having read Whitman's first edition of Leaves of Grass,
Emerson wrote a letter to Whitman, famously pronouncing him to be "at the
beginning of a great career." In his response, Whitman eagerly addressed the
Concord philosopher as "Master." Whitman published both Emerson's letter and his
response in the second edition of Leaves of Grass. [back]