Click Here to Know About Whitman’s Passage to India – https://getsetnotes.com/summary-of-walt-whitmans-poem-passage-to-india/
In Paths Untrodden (1860), written by Walt Whitman deals with the self-realization of comradeship and the journey of self-discovery. The poem addresses it clearly to the friend which is a man and critics have even suggested that he could be homosexual because of his explicit exposure for the love he has for a man. Here, the poem also shows the features of Transcendental writings that includes seclusion and critique of materialistic world. Whitman however addresses the comrade as a man which he seems to finally understand the need of a friend and he is willing to let go of the urban life to become one with his comrade.
The poem opens with the poet ‘s self-realization. The poet realizes that he has been feeding his “Soul” to the materialistic world or the “life that exhibits itself”. He has discovered that he has been attached to the “pleasures, profits, conformities” and is now willing to let go of since he has now realizes his own value and new standards to live. This clearly reflects the Western individual notions that each person has its own intrinsic value and the poet’s self-realization intrigues the individual self that he wants to convey in the poem. He believes that the “soul of the man” he desires resides in the companionship of another “comrades”.
The poem also celebrates individualism which is an essence of Transcendental writings. Whitman is celebrating his own individual self and the person he was before. He is stating that he has discovered what his life was in a public space which is filled with worldly attachments and he realizes now that his soul desires something now which is a need of a comrade. The individualism becomes clearer when he states that he is all by “myself” thinking about his desires and reflecting the self or person whom he was in the lapse of nature.
The another essence of Transcendental writing is seen in the poem which is the secluded life or solitary life. Here, the poet is addressing that he is alone in the lapse of the natural world and he could be the person he wants to be amongst the landscape. It clearly shows that a man can show his individual expression and self only in the lapse of nature. The seclusion is necessary for a man since the poet is alone and “away from the clank of the world” and he is surrounded only by the “Tallying and talk’d to here by tongues aromatic” which suggests that the poet is surrounded by aromatic Calamus plants away from human existence. The poet states that he do not feel “abas’d” in the secluded place since he could not be himself in the “elsewhere” which he dares cannot be. He is stating that he cannot be truly himself in the public spot but can truly express his emotions and self in the lapse of nature or private secluded spot.
However, the poet moves on to talk about the “manly attachment” or the attachment between man. He can only express this attachments in the secluded spot which does “not exhibit life” like the urban areas that “exhibits life”. He is stating that he can project this love in this seclusion and the :”substantial life” as well as “athletic love”. Here , the “athletic love” is in reference to attachment between men. Critically, Whitman could be referencing a homosexual love between men which they could not express in public space but can express in the private secluded spot in the lapse of nature. It becomes clearer when he gives advice to “young men” who wants to celebrate the need of comrades in private space or secluded space. It becomes a mirror when he states that the affections he shares with the comrades in this secluded spot becomes a secret of his “night and days”.
Summary of Whitman On the Beach at Night – https://getsetnotes.com/summary-of-on-the-beach-at-night-by-walt-whitman/
Summary of Whitman’s In Paths Untrodden – https://getsetnotes.com/summary-of-walt-whitman-in-paths-untrodden/
Click Here to Know Analysis of Whitman’s Song of Myself – https://getsetnotes.com/critical-analysis-of-walt-whitmans-songs-of-myself/
Critical Analysis of Whitman’s O Captain ! My Captain – https://getsetnotes.com/critical-analysis-of-whitmans-o-captain-my-captain
Symbolism in Whitman’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d – https://getsetnotes.com/symbolism-in-walt-whitmans-when-lilacs-last-in-the-dooryard-bloomd/
