Journal 39

With his poem "Bardic Symbols," Whitman applied to the Everyman pretty well I think. Basically he just talked about how every person at one point or another has tried to explain something about life through the means of literature, yet he gets the feeling sometimes that nobody really knows anything at all. Despite how hard he tries to convey some hidden meaning left by the gods in nature, he can never quite put his finger on exactly what he is trying to say. He strives and strives to find the words but it is as though they are mocking him and just out of his reach. I think this applies to a lot of people. While not everybody is going to strive to write deep and meaningful poetry about the meaning of life, people often still find it difficult to express themselves in just the way that they're looking for.

I thought it was a pity when I read about the way that people reacted to Whitman's poems. Although the critics loved them, the people just simply did not appreciate them the way they should have. Still, I can understand how they would have frowned upon his work. The people disapproved of his style because it was a different style than they were used to seeing in that time period. He did not use the forms and usages that they were used to and apparently he also kicked some laws that they were used to out the window in a manner of speaking.

I really liked the critic's viewpoints about criticism. Critics are only swift to judge when they do so out of prejudice or ignorance. A person who is a worthy critic will take his or her time to assess all points of the thing that they are criticizing and then make an informed decision based upon facts rather than passionate nonsense. And those who are quick to believe these critics are also either prejudiced or ignorant.

Selected bibliography

"Bardic Symbols." Atlantic Monthly 5 (April 1860): 445-447. Revised as "Leaves of Grass. 1" in Leaves of Grass (1860) and reprinted as "Elemental Drifts," Leaves of Grass (1867). The final version of the poem, "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life," was published in Leaves of Grass (1881–82).

[Howells, William Dean]. ""Bardic Symbols"." The Daily Ohio State Journal (28 March 1860): 2.