Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

Professur für Amerikanistik

Seminar: Walt Whitman and American Culture

Dozent: Prof.Dr. Christine Gerhardt, Prof. Dr. Ed Folsom

Winter semester 2022/23

The Seeds of Deep Ecology: Eco-activism in “Song of the

Redwood Tree” and “As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life” by

Walt Whitman

Iryna Pushko

Matrikelnummer: 2006161

English and American Studies

4th semester

Profile Module English and American Literature III

E-Mail: iryna.pushko@stud.uni-bamberg.de

Number of words: 5204

Date: 19.03.2023
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3

2. Transcendentalists and Deep Ecology ..................................................................... 4

2.1 The View of American Transcendentalists on Nature ......................................... 4

2.2 Deep Ecology and Eco-Activism ......................................................................... 6

3. Walt Whitman as Eco-Activist .............................................................................. 10

3.1 “Song of the Redwood Tree” and Exploitation of Nature ................................. 10

3.2 “As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life” and the Acknowledgement of Human’s Lost

Connection with Nature ................................................................................................ 15

4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 17

Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 19

Declaration ................................................................................................................... 22
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1. Introduction

In his essay “The Poet” (1844), Ralph Waldo Emerson attempts to define the essence of

the poet. For him, “the Universe has three children, born at one time, which reappear, under

different names, in every system of thought […], the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer” (11).

The last one, the Sayer, is the poet — somebody who “turns the world to glass, and shows us

all things in their right series and procession” (25). Similar view on the figure of the poet also

had Walt Whitman, who, in the preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855), called the

poet ‘a bard’ who “is to be commensurate with people” (iv). The Whitmanian poet is in the

constant connection with his surrounding, his nation: “He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is

the key. He is the equalizer of his age and land… he supplies what wants supplying and checks

what wants checking” (Preface LG 1885 iv). He is very sensitive to the mood within the society

and reflects it in his poetry. In his article, French draws attention to another hypostasis of the

bard, which Whitman mentions in the Preface, — ‘a seer’ — which presupposes the function

of the poet as a guide for his nation (543). Thus, through his poetry, Whitman not only

represents the reality of the 19th century but also sees beyond his present and becomes the poet

who can speak through time and express ideas which are relevant today, especially when it

comes to eco-activism.

One of Whitman’s main themes, that he discusses in his poetry, is nature. According to

Killingsworth, Whitman has a “tendency to see the things of the earth as resonant spirits,

available to human consciousness only indirectly” (11). This transcendentalist idea which he

internalized after reading the works of Emerson and Thoreau resonates with the 20th century

‘Deep Ecology movement’ (which, according to Naess, presupposes “rejection of the man-in-

environment image in favour of the relational, total-field image” (95)). In my thesis, I would

like to prove that the poems “Song of the Redwood Tree” (later “Song”) and “As I Ebb’d with

the Ocean of Life” (later “As I”) criticize the anthropocentric perspective of the 19th century on
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the human-nature relationship. Additionally, this criticism can be viewed as a form of eco-

activism and bear in it the fundamental principles of Deep Ecology. In chapter 2, I will discuss

the philosophical ideas of American transcendentalists and the role they played in the Deep

Ecology movement. Chapter 3 will be devoted to establishing the image of the Whitmanian

poet as an eco-activist and the analysis of the poems “Song” and “As I” in the context of Deep

Ecology. Even though the chosen poems first appeared in different editions of Leaves of Grass,

for my quotations I will use their latest versions — the 1891–1892 edition.

2. Transcendentalists and Deep Ecology

2.1 The View of American Transcendentalists on Nature

According to Peckham, “romanticism consists in a shift […] a shift away from thinking

of the universe as a static mechanism, like a clock, to thinking of it as a dynamic organism, like

a growing tree” (in Adams 419). This shift was a reaction on the post-Revolution period of the

‘Age of Reason’ and Calvinism; it was supposed to satisfy the desire of the young nation for its

individuality and independence:

[Americans] looked for a philosophy which would be more cheerful than Calvinism, more

inspiring than a philosophy of mere bourgeois common-sense, and also a doctrine of life which

would be directly accessible-no more dependent on abstract rationalistic discussions (possible

only for a limited number of leisurely people anyway) than on a Revelation-because it must

be of a pragmatic nature. (Schinz 52)

When talking about the period during which the philosophy of Transcendentalism came

to be, Emerson calls it “the age of severance, of dissociation, of freedom, of analysis, of

detachment” (in Capper 506). The ‘new age’ required also new ideas which were introduced to

the future American Transcendentalists through Coleridge’s translations of Critique of Pure

Reason and Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant. However, the most influential text
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or the so-called ‘Old Testament’ of American Transcendentalism was Aids to Reflection by

Coleridge in which he defines the ideas of Understanding and Reason (based on Kant) but

develops them in a way that is distinct from the original Kantian thought. As Marsh summarized

it, “the Understanding was the faculty for dealing with material objects while Reason was a

faculty for apprehending spiritual truths” (in Boller 46). According to Harvey, for Coleridge,

and later for Emerson:

Reason was a priori, unconditional, grounded only in itself, and capable of perceiving the

divine law, whereas the understanding was limited to knowledge gained from the world of

sense. Thus, the distinction provided the framework for a harmonized view of the Romantic

triad [nature, spirit and humanity], in which both nature and spirit played equally valid, but

distinct, roles in human knowledge. (59)

In the so-called ‘New Testament’ of American Transcendentalism — the essay Nature,

Emerson focuses on the human-nature relationship and uses the mentioned above concepts of

Understanding and Reason to show the human-nature interaction. He gives two definitions of

nature — a philosophical one and a common one:

Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as

the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked

under this name, Nature. […] Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by

man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. (Nature 7)

Emerson emphasises on a human who shall be a “transparent eye-ball” within nature

(13). This means that one has to dissolve themselves in nature and observe the surrounding

using their vision in order to learn and understand it. The process of emergence into nature

presupposes discovering its laws not through the findings of the Scientific Revolution; instead,

it challenges one to come to these findings through their own observation. For example, in his

poem “Song of Myself”, Whitman asks his famous question “What is the grass?” and tries to
 6

find the answer by suggesting a number of ideas: “I guess it must be the flag of my disposition,

out of hopeful green stuff woven”, “Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord”, “Or I guess

the grass is itself a child . . . . the produced babe of the vegetation” (LG 34). By using the word

‘guess’, Whitman emphasises on the indefinity of his answer which highlights the continuous

process of trying to reach the understanding of ones surrounding by using intuition. This

placement of a human within nature emphasises on a fact that a human is a part of nature and,

thus, he or she does not obtain power over it to suppress and exploit it.

In Nature, spirituality plays a big role in a human-nature relationship. According to

Labriola, for Emerson “the conscious spirit in man and the unconscious spirit of nature come

together in Transcendental harmony” (128). When talking about the connection between a

human and nature; Emerson says: “[t]hat spirit, that is, the Supreme Being, does not build up

nature around us, but puts it forth through us” (Nature 79). He compares a human to “a plant

upon the Earth” who finds its power from being nourished by nature.

2.2 Deep Ecology and Eco-Activism

The preconditions for the appearance of the Deep Ecology Movement and the

Transcendentalist philosophy have in common an anthropocentric view on the human-nature

relationship. In 1830, Governor George R. Gilmore of Georgia pointed out that humans should

live “by virtue of that command of the Creator delivered to [them] upon [their] formation — be

fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (in Nash 31). During the process of

colonization, exploitation of wilderness was motivated by the word of the Bible in which a

human, who was created according to the image of God, was in the centre of the world and,

thus, was intitled to tame nature.

As for the situation a century later, the mankind is no longer ‘fulfilling its purpose

intended by the Creator’; instead, the humans themselves became the Creator with the rapid
 7

development of science and technology. According to Devall, “Nature, in this paradigm, is only

a storehouse of resources which should be ‘developed’ to satisfy ever increasing numbers of

humans and ever increasing demands of humans” (300). The reaction on the symptoms of the

ecological crisis that came with aforementioned treatment of nature was ‘reformist

environmentalism’ which includes “several social movements which are related in that the goal

of all of them is to change society for ‘better living’ without attacking the premises of the

dominant social paradigm” (302). In other words, reformist environmentalism does not change

the anthropocentric view on the human-nature relationship, but it makes efforts to solve current

ecological problems by implementing nature-preservation policies. Arne Naess, Norwegian

philosopher and ‘father’ of Deep Ecology, calls this approach The Shallow Ecology Movement.

For him there are two types of people: “those who see the problems in isolated ways compatible

with mild reform, and those who see the problems holistically, requiring a deep change in our

values and ways of life” (Drengson 10).

According to Drengson, by being a response to reformist environmentalism, the Deep

Ecology Movement “recognize[s] the need for a fundamental shift to ecological paradigms of

human–environmental relationships that recognize the interconnections of these living fields

and processes” (10). There are eight main principles of Deep Ecology which were summarized

by Arne Naess and George Sessions in 1984:

1. The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman Life on Earth have value in

themselves (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the

usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes.

2. Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also

values in themselves.

3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
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4. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the

human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.

5. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is

rapidly worsening.

6. Policies must therefore be changed. These policies affect basic economic, technological,

and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the

present.

7. The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of

inherent value) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be

a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.

8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to try

to implement the necessary changes. (in Deep Ecology Devall 70)

In the aforementioned principles, humans are considered a part of nature and, thus, their

value does not prevail over the value of the so-called ‘nonhuman’ world. By establishing the

balance of power between the two subjects (human and nature), the philosophy of Deep

Ecology excludes the exploitation of nature as a natural human right and promotes ‘biospherical

egalitarianism’ with presupposes equal value of all the species. According to Naess, “the so-

called struggle of life, and survival of the fittest, should be interpreted in the sense of ability to

coexist and cooperate in complex relationships, rather than ability to kill, exploit, and suppress”

(96). For him, humans should not try to have the wilderness under their control because, due to

the scientific and technological progress, they know what is best for it. Instead, the mankind

should be a part of nature and interact with it without positioning itself in the centre or, in

Emersonian terms, be a ‘transparent eye-ball’ that blends with the surrounding and becomes

one with it.

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Naess and Sessions emphasise on using natural resources in order to fulfil one’s vital

needs instead of increasing one’s standard of living. This idea is similar to Emerson’s use of

nature as a commodity in which he mentions a human becoming a part of nature and living of

its gifts once learning how to interact with it: “The misery of man appears like childish

petulance, when we explore the steady and prodigal provision that has been made for his support

and delight on this green ball which floats him through the heavens” (Nature 15).

The last principle of Deep Ecology is a call for implementation of the aforementioned

ideas which means that the movement is not only a philosophy based on theory but also it

presupposes a certain form of action from its supporters. One of the examples of eco-activism

is bioregionalism — “a movement that advocates land management policies consistent within

bioregions or ecoregions, which the Environmental Protection Agency defines as land areas

with ‘similarity in ecosystems’ (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2006)” (Dolezal 2). It

promotes the change of the anthropocentric paradigm to the post-anthropocentric and post-

humanist one: “it values the natural world intrinsically, for its own sake, rather than merely for

its usefulness to human being” (Taylor 50). The groups of people live in decentralized

communities (“participatory democracy”) and learn about their areas in terms of climate,

wildlife, water, etc in order to carry out a sustainable way of living (50). This approach of

‘learning the lore’ has its roots in American Transcendentalism, especially Henry Thoreau’s

documented experience of living in solitude Walden. In the memoir, Thoreau emphasises on

the notion of “necessary of life” — “The necessaries of life for man in this climate [Concord,

Massachusetts] may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter,

Clothing, and Fuel” (Walden 11). Thoreau explores his surroundings, learns about the flora and

fauna of the Walden Pond through being in contact with nature in order to take from it only the

necessities to ensure his survival.

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Apart from bioregionalism being a form of activism in terms of a lifestyle, Lindholdt

mentions literary activism which implements bioregionalistic ideas into literary works (127). It

presupposes focusing on a specific region, describing its nature and wildlife, exploring its

peculiarities as well as drawing reader’s attention to the harm that was caused by the long-time

policies of exploitation of the land in question or its colonization taking into account the

suffering of the indigenous inhabitants. In the 20th and 21st centuries, which are considered the

periods of rise of the environmental writing, the following American authors have contributed

to the discourse — Gary Snyder, Terry Tempest Williams, Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey,

Rick Bass, Upton Sinclair and many more. According to Lindholdt, “[t]he values of literary

activism, using bioregional approaches, include an ability to have an impact on wide audiences

with well-placed books or articles” (131).

Even though being a writer of the 19th century, Walt Whitman also had a goal to reach

his audience and make a change in the perception of nature and a place of a human in it. By

proclaiming himself the American national poet — ‘a bard’ who leads the masses — Whitman

encourages his audience to “read these leaves in the open air every season of every year” and

internalize his thought-provoking messages about the place of a human in nature and in society

(Preface LG 1885 vi). In the next chapter, I would like to analyse his poems “Song” and “As I”

from the perspective of literary eco-activism and trace the ideas of Deep Ecology movement

that take their roots from Transcendentalism.

3. Walt Whitman as Eco-Activist

3.1 “Song of the Redwood Tree” and Exploitation of Nature

The poem “Song” was written in 1874 and first published in Harper’s New Monthly

Magazine. Later it entered the 1881-1882 edition of Leaves of Grass. It tells a story of old

redwood trees in California which are being cut down in big amounts by people who are
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“[c]learing the ground for broad humanity, the true America, heir / of the past so grand, / To

build a grander future” (LG 169). As for the structure of the poem, it consists of 3 parts each of

which covers a certain topic. The first and the longest part focuses on the redwood trees and

their song which is presented in the text in italics. The second part is aimed at contrasting nature

and culture by drawing attention to the human invasion into the untouched wilderness. Lastly,

the third part highlights the new American society that is about to rise on the Western shores.

Being “a local and regional poet”, Whitman describes the area on which the poem takes

place — California (Gerhardt 167):

Along the northern coast,

Just back from the rock-bound shore and the caves,

In the saline air from the sea in the Mendocino country

(…)

The flashing and golden pageant of California,

The sudden and gorgeous drama, the sunny and ample lands,

The long and varied stretch from Puget sound to Colorado south,

Lands bathed in sweeter, rarer, healthier air, valleys and mountain

cliffs,

The fields of Nature long prepared and fallow, the silent, cyclic

chemistry,

The slow and steady ages plodding, the unoccupied surface ripen-

ing, the rich ores forming beneath; (LG 166-168)

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In this description, Whitman is being very specific when it comes to the location of the

redwood forest that is being taken down. He mentions Mendocino County which in 1852 was

widely discussed in the newspapers and “ignited the nation’s imagination with reports of the

‘discovery’ of giant redwoods in the Sierra Nevada” (Selzer 159). In her article, Selzer explains

that in 19th century, most of the Americans could see the giant trees only through the countless

exhibitions which were held “from San Francisco to the Eastern seaboard” as well as in the

Crystal Palace in London (159). However, the public’s appeal was not oriented towards the

trees’ beauty in their natural habitat. Instead, the exhibitions were feeding into “the public’s

interest in the industrial techniques used to harvest redwoods [which] can be traced all the way

from the 1853 felling of the Discovery Tree to the 1893 harvesting of a section of the General

Noble redwood for Chicago’s Columbian Exhibition (and beyond)” (162). This illustrates

people’s attitude towards nature which encompassed fascination with the ways to exploit and

conquer the wilderness but not being appreciative and co-existent with its beauty.

In “Song”, Whitman attempts to transport his audience to the original location of the

trees — Mendocino County — and make them immersed into the surrounding. By taking the

trees out of the exhibitions, where they play a role of lifeless objects, and placing them into

their natural ‘context’, Whitman gives the trees a voice, which we can hear through their song:

“(…) there in the redwood / forest dense, / I heard the mighty tree its death-chant chanting” (LG

166). At the same time, the poet or the ‘bard’, who is the only one who can hear the trees,

performs a function of an interpreter and transmits the trees’ message to the common people

like an activist who wants to reach the wide masses to provoke change.

In her book New world, new earth, Tichi criticizes Whitman’s decision to make the trees

‘abdicate’ and fall under the ‘new race’s’ aspiration to civilize the nature (248). However, if to

look at the poem as an example of eco-activism, the ‘abdication’ or extinction of untouched

nature can be viewed as consequence of direct human activity rather than praising of the rise of
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a great nation of oppressors. According to Buell, one of the features of environmental text is

the fact that “the nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a

presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history” (7). This

presupposes the view on nature as a subject rather than an object.

Apart from giving the trees an actual voice, Whitman, when talking about the cutting

down of the redwood trees, uses language which describes human-like suffering: “The falling

trunk and limbs, the crash, the muffled shriek, the / groan” (LG 168). The personification of the

trees is used as a rhetoric technique to build the connection between the reader and the nature.

With this kind of portrayal, nature’s suffering stops being something abstract and distant.

Instead, Whitman explains to his audience in familiar concepts the harm that is done to the

redwood trees and the whole region altogether. This way of reaching the audience works

particularly well in the frame of the anthropocentric worldview of the 19th century which

presupposes perception of ones surrounding through an individual’s perspective. Thus, in my

opinion, the main function of “Song” in terms of eco-activism is to bring awareness to the issue

of deforestation instead of instantly provide a solution.

In their article, Blakemore and Noble also discuss the poem in terms of humanisation of

the redwood trees, however, they focus on the aspect of the process of cutting down the trees

being a metaphor for the ‘Indian problem’:

The Redwood’s reddish bark and heartwood make it analogous to the Indians’ ‘red skin,’ and

there was a series of tribes denominated ‘Redwood Indians’ that inhabited the northern coast

of California, precisely the locus of Whitman’s redwoods along ‘the northern coast’ in

Mendocino country, the coastal county north of San Francisco. (110)

From the perspective of western colonizers, the indigenous people of America “were

seen as part of the natural world” (Martinez 247). Therefore, they had to be civilized in the

same way as anything else that seemed wild or could be used as a resource for the ‘new race’.
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According to Blackmore and Noble, there was the Modoc tribe, which had the northern

California as their original area of settlement but in 1873 they were forced to leave for a

reservation in Oregon (111). The resistance of the Modocs and the unwillingness of the U.S.

troops to find a compromise resulted in the Modoc War, which was widely covered in the

American newspapers like The New York Times, New York Herald and Harper’s Weekly. In the

same year, Whitman published his “Song” in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine raising the

question of the Indian crisis on a wide audience. Similarly to Tichi, Blackmore and Noble stress

on the ambiguity of Whitman’s messages describing them as imperialistic and interpret the

tree’s song as the “Indian’s [choice] to fade away or be sacrificed of their own accord” (112).

However, in his poem, Whitman emphasises on the voices of the trees (or, in this case, the

indigenous people) that being unheard: “The choppers heard not, the camp shanties echoed not,

/ The quick-ear'd teamsters and chain and jack-screw men heard / not” (LG 166). He criticizes

the new American nation for its unwillingness to listen to the needs of the indigenous tribes

when there is great financial gain and power on the horizon.

In the second part of the poem, Whitman draws the reader’s attention to the intrusion

into the nature’s peace:

The fields of Nature long prepared and fallow, the silent, cyclic

chemistry,

The slow and steady ages plodding, the unoccupied surface ripen-

ing, the rich ores forming beneath;

At last the New arriving, assuming, taking possession,

A swarming and busy race settling and organizing everywhere (LG 168)

As an eco-activist, he highlights the inability of the ‘New’ to coexist with nature and

describes them as almost uncontrollable savages who do not see value in the land on which they
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just stepped. By praising the American nation in a very exaggerated and grotesque way,

Whitman shows the need for the immediate change in the perception of nature and its treatment.

3.2 “As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life” and the Acknowledgement of

Human’s Lost Connection with Nature

The poem “As I” was first published in the Atlantic Monthly and then appeared in 1860

edition of Leaves of Grass. It consists of four parts which depict the narrator walking the shores

of Paumanok the “fish-shaped island” and focus on the transformation of his inner self (LG

202). Similarly to “Song” in which Whitman uses the Native American name for the area he is

describing — Mendocino County — Paumanok is an original name for Long Island, a place

where he was born. According to Folsom, Whitman “was part of a revival of interest in native

names, a movement in the 1840s to absorb Indian words into the language by restoring their

names to the geography of the land” (80).

However, the Native American references are not limited to the geographical names

only. Killingsworth points out that in “As I” Whitman does not use a common personification

of the earth as a lover; instead his “fierce old mother” as the ocean and father-island “resonat[e]

with the Native American mythology of mother earth, father sky” which presupposes human-

nature family-like relations (127). These family ties between human and nature present different

kind of power dynamics than in a case of nature’s personification as a female lover which puts

nature into the inferior to a human position:

I throw myself upon your breast my father,

I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me,

I hold you so firm till you answer me something.

(…)
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Ebb, ocean of life, (the flow will return,)

Cease not your moaning you fierce old mother,

Endlessly cry for your castaways, but fear not, deny not me,

Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet as I touch you

or gather from you. (LG 203)

According to Gerhardt, “[t]he speaker’s conflict with his overpowering nature-parents

suggests the struggles involved in recognizing not only nature’s autonomy but also its possible

dominance” (127). Apart from nature’s autonomy, Gerhardt also points out nature’s authority

and subjecthood which results in its “strain against being conceptually grasped and thus

contained” (128). While in “Song” the redwood trees’ subjecthood was implemented through

giving them a voice, in “As I” the nature’s power is portrayed through human’s inferiority.

During his walk along the shores of Paumanok, the speaker realises how far in his poetry he

was from understanding the true greatness and essence of nature: “I perceive I have not really

understood any thing, not a single / object, and that no man ever can, / Nature here in sight of

the sea taking advantage of me to dart / upon me and sting me, / Because I have dared to open

my mouth to sing at all” (LG 203). This perspective rejects the anthropocentric view on nature

in which the mankind already obtains all necessary knowledge. Instead, it focuses on the

speaker’s remorse for his people acts.

In the last part, the poem reaches a point of culmination which is introduced with a

parenthesis: “(See, from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last, / See, the prismatic colors

glistening and rolling,)” (LG 203-204). These lines signify the death of the speaker, his

surrender before the nature in an attempt to become one with it. The ‘I’ gives up his subjecthood

and turns into just a physical body among “[t]ufts of straw, sands, fragments” in order to reunite

with his ‘parents’ whom he betrayed by not being in contact with nature (LG 204).
 17

However, even though the speaker dies in the middle of the fourth part, the poem

paradoxically continues which leaves literary scholars to plenty of interpretations. In her book,

Gerhardt summarizes the points made by Killingsworth and Outka in the following way: To

Killingsworth, the speaker manages “to overcome the loss of self” and then reconnect with the

natural world again, while Outka sees his death as “the split between language and the material

world” which results in the poet speaking on behalf of the nature (129). As for Gerhardt, she

interprets the poet’s speaking in death as Whitman’s success “in both imagining the impossible,

namely, our becoming one with the world even as this implies a loss of self, and capturing the

very impossibility of such a move as a viable speaking position” (129). If to look at the poem

from the ‘art as activism’ perspective, the aforementioned paradoxical episode becomes an

attempt to define activism in literature. Whitman’s speaking while being dead is a metaphor for

the eternity of literary works as well as effect on the reader which is independent from the fact

whether the author is still alive or not. Even though the span of poet’s life is limited, his works

will be read over and over after his death; they will keep transmitting the initial messages as

well as will be interpreted in many different ways discovering new senses. Thus, “As I” is a

poem which illustrates the ability of Whitman to speak to his 21st century audience and promote

the ideas of unity with nature.

4. Conclusion

In my thesis, I stated that in the poems “Song” and “As I”, the critique of the 19th century

anthropocentric view on nature is a form of literary eco-activism which is a part of the 20th

century Deep Ecology movement. In the selected poems, I attempted to highlight the ideas of

Deep Ecology as well as point out eco-activistic messages.

In both poems, the topics of regionalism are very prominent. “Song” takes place in

California, Mendocino County focusing on its issue of deforestation and exploitation of nature,
 18

while “As I” describes Long Island (Paumanok) drawing the reader’s attention to the shore

landscape as well as raising a question of humans’ disconnection from nature. Moreover, by

using the original names of the areas, Whitman also highlights the Native American question.

In “Song”, he creates a metaphor for the displacement of indigenous people in America from

their original areas by using the image of the redwood trees that are being cut down. “As I”

mentions Native Americans through their typical familial mythology by assigning the ocean

and the island family roles of a mother and a father.

Another important aspect is the technique of personification used to show the

subjecthood of nature. From the point of view of Deep Ecology, nature cannot be objectivised

and, thus, exploited for one’s personal gain. In “Song”, Whitman gives the trees a voice and

describes the harm done to nature through the perspective of its suffering. On the contrary, in

“As I”, nature is personified to show its dominance and power over a human. The anger of the

mother-ocean and indifference of the father-island makes the speaker question all his previous

actions and finally come to a conclusion to re-establish the lost connection with nature through

his death.

Lastly, in both poems, Whitman emphasises on the importance of being in harmony

with nature in a sense of not viewing it through the anthropocentric lens. In “Song”, his great

attention to the achievements of the ‘New race’ performs rather as criticism and insensitivity to

the nature’s needs than an attempt to praise deforestation. To the similar kind of criticism is

also exposed the reader of “As I” in which Whitman portrays nature’s dissatisfaction with the

human behaviour and stresses on the importance to analyse one’s acts and attitude towards

nature. All in all, “Song” as well as “As I” are filled with eco-activist messages which are able

to target a reader of the 21st century. Even long after his death, Whitman’s poems keep speaking

to his audience and remain relevant in their ideas.

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Works Cited

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Declaration

Ich erkläre hiermit, dass ich die vorstehende Seminararbeit selbständig verfasst und keine

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sind und die Arbeit noch in keinem anderen Prüfungsverfahren vorgelegt wurde. Ich erkläre hiermit

außerdem, dass ich per Email eine elektronische Version der Seminararbeit an die Dozentin des Kurses

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I hereby declare that this term paper is the result of my own independent scholarly work. Material from

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no material other than listed has been used. This written work has not been submitted elsewhere.

I hereby also declare to have e-mailed an electronic version of my term paper to the instructor of this

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