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[Some of the papers are]

About This Item

  • Title: [Some of the papers are]
  • Date: 16 November 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01226
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 16 November 1857: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Thara Michaelis Jamie DeRousse Jason Stacy Karie Cobb Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "[Some of the papers are]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01226.xml (TEI)
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Some of the papers are poking fun at Emerson1 on account of the unintelligibility of his little Mystic Song entitled “Brahma” in the new Atlantic monthly. The name of the poem is a facile key to it, Brahma, the Indian Deity, is the absolute and omnipresent god, besides whom all is illusion and fancy, and to whom everything apparent reverts in the end. This pantheistic thought Emerson expresses, not only clearly, but with remarkable grace and melody.

Notes:

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American poet and transcendentalist. [back]

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