Bits of Life 2

M-2 Words-875

acts of utter and despicable revenge motive robs the general reader of signs of sympathy for him.

Besides English literature, we also had the pleasure of reading and facing examinations in American Literature and Indo-English Literature as well.
Among the American greats, I distinctly recall the poetry of Walt Whitman, whose Leaves of Grass made a deep impression on me. His democratic ideals and ideas appealed to me.

“I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

Despite the adverse criticism, Leaves of Grass stood the test of time and is regarded as a classic.

He revolutionized American poetry with free verse. It is as if he stands before us and speaks his mind in the most casual manner.

““Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

Man is indeed capable of containing multitudes. The human mind is a complex, vast, and often chaotic repository that holds a diverse array of thoughts, emotions, memories, and subconscious impulses. It acts as the central processor for our experiences, shaping our perception of reality, our actions, and our self-image. More than anything else man is capable of unlimited imagination whether it is with regard to sciences including mathematics or arts which are sixty four as per Indian ancestral studies.

Prior to Whitman was Emerson whose American Scholar is an inspirational essay for all young students of the world.

"The American Scholar" is a famous 1837 speech by Ralph Waldo Emerson, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard.

It was often called America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence". The speaker urges the intelligentsia of America to rise above the European traditions and declare themselves independent of thinking and creating a new American culture, which in every way should be unique.

There are three important features of this historical speech.

First of all, connecting with nature. This in turn would help man in understanding himself with ease.

Second of all, is the influence of books and the past. Past is important in creating a dynamic present and future. As T.S. Eliot said,

“"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past."”

So while allowing past its role in our lives, we however, should not chain ourselves to it. We should understand the lessons served by past and should move on.

The third important feature of this lecture is, to become a complete human being, a man must be capable of action. He must be determined to put his thoughts into practice.

He was known to be founder of transcendentalism.

What is transcendentalism?
It means according to the message given by Emerson is to transcend the material world “to a higher spiritual state through intuition and inner reflection, rather than through dogma or rationalism.”

To me, it sounds like yoga, a major part of which is inner reflection and discovering core abilities.
We are advised to keep individual thinking and not conforming to past or present dogmas or doctrines.

We studied Emerson’s famous poem “Brahma” in detail and drew our conclusion that the poet believed the truth reiterated by Lord Krishna to his disciple Arjuna in the treatise, The Bhagavad Gita.

“If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.”

He is indeed beyond comprehension for the ordinary people because they can never give up attachment and egocentricity, which blind them to supreme reality..


Brahma the supreme soul is above all. He is the substance of prayer. He is the doubt and the doubter too.

“I am the doubter and the doubt,
I am the hymn the Brahmin sings.”

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Emily Dickinson was a poet I studied in my later years. I couldn’t have understood her deeply psychological poems such as “I am nobody” “Hope is the thing with feathers” during my college days.

Recently I read a poem of hers and understood why she was called a Poets’ Poet.

“Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –“

Her imagination is of another level. In this poem Death is portrayed as a "kindly" gentleman coachman, making the experience feel courteous and unhurried.

Mortality is a natural phenomenon after passing through all the stages of life. It takes place gradually and quietly like the other stages we go through.

This thought process of treating death as friendly person is very much like India’s Noble Laureate Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s comparison of death to a loving person.

He says in his much acclaimed Geethanjali, which means of a garland of songs,

“"After the wedding the bride shall leave her home and meet her lord alone in the solitude of the night".”

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I have studied Robert Frost in detail and learnt many lessons of importance. Almost all his poems carry a lesson we would like to take with us. In addition to that, we come to know of the realistic life of New England depicted in his poems.


“At Woodward Gardens” demonstrates the lack of understanding between human beings and animals. The boy in the poem wants to show how a