Similarities Between Whitman And Merwin

An analysis of Merwin’s tone in his literary works compared to Whitman’s tone in his works was brought forth by L. Edwin Folsom, a professor of english at the University of Rochester, Massachusetts with a Ph.D in the subject. He specializes on the literary works of Walt Whitman and analyzes the different tones, but same purpose found in the literature of Merwin and Walt Whitman. Folsom begins with a quote from Merwin saying that he identifies himself as being an American poet, but not in any way Whitmanesque. Folsam agrees with this statement that Merwin is not Whitmanesque but has some similarities with Whitman. Merwin, like Whitman, has been obsessed with the meaning of America. Through his poetry like, The Lice and The Carrier of Ladders, Merwin addresses Whitman’s enthusiasm over the American creation, but portrays it in a different way. Merwin portrays the American creation by answering the questions, “What America is?” and “What America was?”. He portray America as it really is or was compared to Whitman’s optimism toward such events. An example of such contrast between Whitman and Merwin is seen how Whitman describes the expansion west of America. Whitman accepted the need for American expansion and showed enthusiasm towards it, as shown in “Song of the Redwood-Tree”. He saw the …show more content…
In his poem “The Free”, Merwin portrays the Native American removed from his land (“... no one hears/our voices/ above the sound of the reddening feet”); the Whitman/American possessor claims the land and moves the people by force and ignoring them along the way. Merwin emphasizes it is not “abosorbing” the race, but systematically exterminating them; we play tricks on language that come back to destroy us. Whitman believes that the Indian was not killed, he was absorbed through Turner’s progression of Indians. While Merwin believes that we have simply destroyed and