WALT WHITMAN SAID
Walt Whitman was an American poet and
essayist. He was born at West Hills, New York on 31 May 1819 and died on March
26, 1892 in Camden, New Jersey.
His book Leaves
of Grass, a collection of various poems on several topics, was published in 1855. A good deal unprecedented in style at the
time of its publication, it is now considered a landmark in American
literature.
Whitman
compares leaves of grass to letters dropped by God. A poem on the road is a vast
place filled with innumerable things and
actions. In a long poem about himself he tells the readers that he is as much a
poet of the body as of the soul. .
One
of the most famous poems in the book is
about animals in which he says:
“I
think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self- contained.
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.
The
British philosopher and logician (1872-1970) found in these lines an unparallel
secret of happiness.
The
Indian mystic and philosopher Acharya Rajneesh (1931-1990). popularly known as
Osho observed after reading these lines: If you look at the animals it is
natural to be tempted by their silence, by their acceptance, by the peace that
surrounds their being, by the non-tense, non-neurotic state of their minds. It’s
very natural to be tempted by the animals.
He
further says: It seems man has fallen. It seems there has not been an
evolution, man has not progressed ---just the contrary. For three hundred years
the scientists have been telling man that there has been a great evolution and
the evolution has happened in man, man has come far above the animals.
However,
concluding his ideas on evolution, Osho says only the high can fall: if you are
not high, where are you going to fall. The animals cannot fall ---there is
nowhere to fall to.
********
G.R.Kanwal
18 November 2025.
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