DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT IN WHITMAN'S POETRY

Among poets, Walt Whitman, the poet-prophet is undoubtedly the greatest champion of
democracy. Many of English romantic poets were staunch supporter of democracy but Whitman’s
approach to democracy was much more vivid and realistic. Whitman uses “I” refer not only to
himself, but to a larger “I” that includes the reader and humanity in general. According to him the
grass is the great symbol of democracy in nature and it is by lying on it and observing it that the poet
sings. The grass grows in all places. It grows among the black as well as the white, in broad as well
as narrow zones. This is very suggestive of the democratic spirit which the poet always emphasizes.
The democratic poet does not celebrate an individual hero. Nor does he celebrate himself. The ‘I’ in
Whitman’s poem has never been so much a personal references but it is a fusion of several
characters, a composite character, who are not existing in any place other than in the poem. Whitman
has a sense of identity with man. He has a sense of identity with all living creatures. This sense of
“oneness of all” makes his democracy universal and pantheistic. The poet has pity for older nations
of Europe and Asia. He is proud of his American nationality. The American nation visualized as the
leader of humanity, is the true hero of his poetry. However, Whitman’s democracy is spiritual. In,
Whitman’s Introduction to Leaves of Grass, (page. 5 of 1855 edition) he writes: “The Americans of
all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The poet expresses
the very spirit of attachment of the Americans to freedom. He visualized democratic America and its
people expressing the spirit of democratic America just as the epics of Homer and Virgil express the
spirit of their ancient Greece and Rome. This paper attempts to explore the democratic undercurrent
in Whitman’s Poetry.