Abstract
<p>While Whitman’s knowledge of and affinity to Epictetus are well-known, the profound roots of <em>Song of Myself</em> in Marcus Aurelius’ <em>To Myself</em> (better known as <em>Meditations</em>) were not researched to date even though it is known that Stoicism was a powerful influence upon the autodidact poet. Through classical hermeneutical methodology, this paper shows how stoic practice and training in daily reflection, cosmopolitanism, pantheism, religious skepticism, public service, but most importantly its Platonic legacy of “doing one’s own thing” through fluxes and flows reach far beyond coincidences in Whitman’s work and may be traced through scores of sometimes verbatim parallels in Whitman’s <em>magnum opus</em>. Even if one leaves use of paradigms, vignettes, examples and transcendentalism aside, the study still shows that these parallels extend to a shared platform of individualism and higher-level virtue that cannot be reduced to the poet’s early love of classical motives and Greek culture. Epicurean materialistic atomism and its doctrine of interchangeability of all matter in metamorphosis came to him through the influence of German chemist Justus von Liebig in the perception of Fanny Wright’s novel <em>Ten Days in Athens</em>. This research traces Whitman’s stance opposed to slavery directly to Seneca and points out multiple parallels between the reflections of Marcus Aurelius on Rome and the words Whitman found for New York—each the metropolis of its day, slightly past its apex of historical power, yet peerlessly vibrant as a melting pot, engaged in cultural wars on multiple levels with forces labeled “barbaric.”</p>
Highlights
Historical BackgroundOn closer reading, Whitman’s Song of Myself reveals influences eerily evocative of Marcus Aurelius’ To Myself, the Roman Emperor’s philosophical diary or notebook in twelve volumes written circa 170-180 C
While Whitman’s knowledge of and affinity to Epictetus are well-known, the profound roots of Song of Myself in Marcus Aurelius’ To Myself were not researched to date even though it is known that Stoicism was a powerful influence upon the autodidact poet
This paper shows how stoic practice and training in daily reflection, cosmopolitanism, pantheism, religious skepticism, public service, but most importantly its Platonic legacy of “doing one’s own thing” through fluxes and flows reach far beyond coincidences in Whitman’s work and may be traced through scores of sometimes verbatim parallels in Whitman’s magnum opus
Summary
Whitman’s Song of Myself reveals influences eerily evocative of Marcus Aurelius’ To Myself (better known as Meditations), the Roman Emperor’s philosophical diary or notebook in twelve volumes written circa 170-180 C. It amazes at first sight that virtually no research appears to have been published to date analyzing Stoic influence on the very title and substance of “Song of Myself” (Note 3), which ought to conjure up immediate association with “Ta Eis Heauton” (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, “To Myself”), perhaps because it is more universally known in the inaccurate translation of its title as Meditations. It is the principal surviving literary and philosophical legacy of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, one of the greatest Roman emperors and ethicists, and indisputably the only one with an enduring intellectual legacy. Aurelius strikes a very similar tone: Always remember the following: what the nature of the Whole is; what my own nature; the relation of this nature to that; what kind of part is of what kind of Whole; and that no man can hinder your saying and doing at all times what is in accordance with that Nature whereof you are a part (Aurelius, 2008, ii, 9)
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