Edward Dowden to Walt Whitman, 23 July 1871
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Montenotte
Cork, Ireland
July 23 1871
My dear Sir,
I wished to send you a copy of the July No of the Westminster Review containing an
article by me which attempts a study of one side of your work in literature. I wrote
to Mr. W. M. Rossetti to enquire for your address & he tells me that he has
already forwarded a copy to you. But I will not be defrauded by Mr. Rossetti of the
pleasure I had promised
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myself & therefore you must accept a second copy of the Review (which I post
with this letter) & do what you like with it.
I ought to say that the article expresses very partially the impression which your
writings have made on me. It keeps, as is obvious, at a single point of view &
regards only what becomes visible from that point. But also I wrote more cooly than I
feel because I wanted those, who being ignorant of your writings are perhaps
prejudiced against them, to say "Here is a cool, judicious, impartial
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critic who finds a
great deal in Whitman—perhaps, after all, we are mistaken." Perhaps this will
be unsatisfactory to you, & you would prefer that your critic should let the
full force of your writings appear in his criticism, & attract those who are to
be attracted, & repel those who are to be repelled, & you may value the
power of repulsion as well as that of attraction. But so many persons capable of
loving your work, by some mischance or miscarriage or by some ignorance or removable
error fail in their approach to you, or do not approach at all.
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that I think I am justified in my attempt.
You have many readers in Ireland, & those who read do not feel a qualified delight in your poems—do not love them by degree, but with an absolute, a personal love. We none of us question that yours is the clearest, & sweetest, & fullest American voice. We grant as true all that you claim for yourself. And you gain steadily among us new readers & lovers.
If you care at all for what I have written it would certainly be a pleasure to hear
this from yourself. If you do not care for it you will know
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did.
My fixed residence is 50 Wellington Road,
Dublin,
Ireland.
My work there is that of Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin.
We have lately had a good public lecture in Dublin from a Fellow of Trinity College
on your poems—R. Y. Tyrrell a man who knows Greek poetry very well, & who
finds it does not interfere with his regard for yours. If the lecture should at any
time be published
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I shall send you a copy.