WALT WHITMAN ON LIVING
WITH ANIMALS
Walt
Whitman (31 May 1819—26 March 1892 ) was an American poet, essayist and
journalist.
As
a poet he was amazingly original and unlike traditionalists. He was his own
model. He wrote on new themes in simple,
yet forceful and stimulating language.
He
was a perfectly democratic poet who wrote about everything including leaves of grass and animals.
He
was a poet both of the body and the soul. His initial reception in the literary
world was very slow, but when it began fast, he began to be considered as a
great poet and his popularity became extremely extensive.
Today
he is studied and appreciated in the whole literary world.
Given
below is a part of his poem on living with animals. It is available in his
anthology of poems called Leaves of
Grass.
Briefly speaking, the poem “contrasts the
perceived simplicity and contentment of animals with the complexities and
anxieties of human life.
Unlike
humans, animals live according to their instincts. They have no rationalistic, philosophical or
moral code to follow. Hence, they are happier and unrepentant.
Here
is a relevant extract from the poem:
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of
owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands
of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in
their possession.
********
G.R.Kanwal
15 May 2025
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