FIELD AND STUDY 



because his spirit and aim are so foreign to theirs. 

 The spirit of these men was not inclusive but exclu- 

 sive; not one of them could say: — 



"My spirit has passed in compassion and determination around 

 the whole earth; 

 I have looked for equals and lovers and found them ready 

 for me in all lands." 



Whittier was a democratic poet within certain 

 narrow limits, as are most of our poets, but as an 

 enclosure of his country, and of the modern world, 

 he is a child compared with Whitman. The poets 

 just named are poets of the select, the refined, the 

 exceptional. Whitman is the poet of the All. But 

 all is not beautiful or poetic. Granted. Yet Whitman 

 included it just the same, and, what is more, he 

 gives you the impression of being adequate to in- 

 clude it. It does not stagger him or swamp him; his 

 spirit dominates it. Had he not loaded his work with 

 material which in itself does not awaken the poetic 

 thrill, he could not have given this impression of 

 all-inelusiveness and of cosmic power. 



Whitman's catalogues, and his affiliations with 

 what is considered unclean, would have destroyed 

 Whittier, because Whittier's spirit was not ade- 

 quate to bear this burden. Nothing but Whitman's 

 tremendous egoism, and the power to keep his own 

 spirit always to the front, enabled him to stand up 

 under the load he assumed. 



This want of selection in Whitman, which Mr. 

 226 



