9.5 American Romanticism

Did you read aloud? If not, try again. Read and listen. Or listen to the audio file above. The poem is highly rhythmic. But its rhythm is different from what we might expect in a poem. Can you hear it?

“A Noiseless Patient Spider” has no Meter. No strict pattern determines numbers of syllables per line or where the stresses fall. Nor do we find any Rhyme or Rhyme Scheme. But by now we know what to do with non-metrical verse, don’t we? Remember how we recognized the poetry in Biblical verse? We listened for oratorical patterns, Figures of Scheme such as Parallelism, Anaphora, and Catalogue.

Whitman’s verse patterns here have an ancient, global heritage. But the tradition of English poetry was deeply committed to Meter and, to a lesser degree, to Rhyme. To this day, many people assume that lines of verse must at least rhyme.

Walt Whitman challenged those assumptions. He composed most of his poetry in what would come to be called Free Verse: poetry that found rhythms that included no Meter or Rhyme. Heavily influenced by Biblical poetry, Whitman’s verse forms emulate the spider he seems patiently forming a fragile web on the rock. He spins out a line, then another, then another, sketching a theme, then repeating it, letting it play out in longer and longer lines, but tying it all together with parallel forms.

So what theme does this liberated verse develop? The poem expresses a reflection on a moment’s observation of nature, a brave but vulnerable spider spinning a web on a rock pounded by the surf, exploring the “vacant vast surrounding” world of ocean. The poet “marks”—i.e. takes notice of—the tireless, repetitive motion of spinning that web “out of itself.”

“Out of itself.” The web reaches out but does so by projecting a filament out of its own body. So stanza two makes the obvious connection: we stand, as does the spider, on the shore of a vast, destructive environment. Something in ourselves, some spirit or soul reaches out into “measureless oceans of space,” seeking a grip that might “catch somewhere,” finding an anchor that might hold us within a safe harbor.

This is pure American Romanticism, the sensitized Soul wandering through Nature, reaching out to form a bond between the “vacant vast surrounding” cosmos and the infinity within. The vision is not religious, but it is deeply Spiritual: a mysterious human inwardness that yearns to transcend life and death and connect with forces of creation.

Whitman’s Song of Myself

The 52 cantos of Song of Myself comprise perhaps Whitman’s most famous poem. Before proceeding, however, let’s pause on that title. Song of Myself?  What sort of colossal ego would choose such a narcissistic title and begin “I celebrate myself, and sing myself”?

The answer is, a democratically minded American mind which had adopted the Romantic conception of the self as a standard more authentic than social norms. And this, of course, is how many Americans think today, prioritizing their own viewpoints over “society’s” or over those of “the experts.”  Whitman represented the democratic spirit of a nation eager to shrug off the traditions of the old world and follow the banner of rugged individualism.

And it isn’t just egoism. In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson sees the “self” as a spiritual opening onto infinity. Whitman’s self lies within him and within everyone: “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” Today, social media venues teem with thousands of voices singing of themselves under the assumption that their thoughts, behaviors and meals are worthy of everyone’s attention on social media.

From Song of Myself (1892).