Whitman on the “Soul”

Whitman’s preface to “Leaves of Grass” outlines some of the driving forces behind his poetic voice.  Certain ideas are revisited throughout the preface in order to emphasize their power and importance in the process of creating and reading “great poetry.”  Among these is Whitman’s admiration for the divinity within human beings, which he claims is evidenced best in the concept of the soul.  “The greatest poet,” he says, “does not moralize or make applications of morals…he knows the soul” (Whitman 13).  This distinction is key because it reveals Whitman’s emphasis on the individual defining morality in his or her own terms, rather than relying on a higher power or a seemingly morally upright person to define it for them.  He goes on to justify the purity of the intentions of the soul  which”has measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own.  But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride and the one balances the other…” (Whitman 13).  This revelation is essential to understanding Whitman’s admiration for the soul evident its ability to relate to fellow man while remaining true to itself.  He sees this as proof of divinity within mankind and therefor lays the foundation for a voice that is not concerned with a higher power beyond this earth.  In the paragraphs that follow Whitman asks the reader to “stand by (his) side and look in the mirror with me,” (Whitman 14) providing that the reading of his poetry and the analysis of his poetic voice should provide for observation of him balanced by introspection into oneself.  This idea plays into all of Whitman’s work because it harnesses what he believes to be the most compelling quality of humanity: the ability to explore one’s own complexities through the observation and understanding of another.