The Impact of Eastern philosophy and Thought on American Poets

Abstract

Many American poets of the 19th and 20th centuries were influenced by Eastern philosophy. Poets embraced oriental thought & spirituality. These themes are reflected in their poetry through symbolism, references and imagery. These poets find peace, solace and shelter in eastern philosophy. They searched immensely for the solution to their problems but found materialism and brokenness. T.S.Eliot, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau expressed their views which resonate with eastern philosophy and spirituality. T.S. Eliot found peace in the Upanishad and the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita. One should practice the triad Da Da Da as proposed by T.S. Eliot in his Magnum opus “The Waste Land”. Walt Whitman was not a preacher of the Hindu religion but his poetry echoes oriental philosophy and ideas like non-dualism, transcendentalism, self-reliance interconnectedness, universal soul and rejection of materialism. Whitman integrated oriental and Western thought. These writers weave above mentioned themes in their verses. Henry David Thoreau wants to lead the life of a recluse through his essay Walden. Walden is the product of Henry David Thoreau's life experiments. He chooses life in the woods over materialism and wants other Americans to follow the same path. Gandhi was greatly influenced by Walden. In Walden, Thoreau advocates a life of simplicity and self-reliance. Walden is made into many chapters, each part describing one or the other aspects of simple and common life. Thoreau’s ideas on life are divided into different chapters such as economy, life, reading, solitude, the village, the ponds and higher laws. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American poet and essayist and was one of the members of a group of New England idealists known as transcendentalists. He magically weaved God, nature and individuals into one whole. Emerson says that prayer is the disease of the soul as a creed is the disease of the intellect. He proposes that one should not pray to beg for worldly pleasures. He also puts forth that one should not travel as travel is not the food of the soul.