The form in which they write is perhaps the first characteristic of both poet's work that any reader encounters and struggles to understand. Because the question of form is central to the transcendentalist debate over the relationship between self and nature, the way both poets handle the problem informs our understanding of their presentation of the sublime. Whitman's corpulent verse shuttles across and down pages. His vocabulary swells, unchecked, through the lines. He speaks of "gymnasiums" and "quahaugs." His "free verse" is not altogether formless, but rather provides a deviation from traditional Hebraic form in its repetitions and call and response rhetoric. His formal interpretation of the sublime emerges from the formal rhetoric of prophetic literature. Whitman's use of Hebraic form[1], like his use of iambic pentameter, signifies an attempt to incorporate tradition within himself. It is an act of sublimation, rather than defiance. The act of drawing traditional forms of poetry into his work closely parallels his attempts to locate the sublime inside of himself.

In her discussion of the way Whitman and Dickinson use the traditional metrical code of iambic pentameter, Annie Finch argues that:

Dickinson usually finds the pentameter a suffocating threat to the self -- an attitude that correlates with her cultural situation as a female poet. Whitman, by contrast, tends to fall back on the authority of the pentameter as a reassurance of the ego's power and autonomy. (31)

While I would agree with Finch that the two poets use iambic pentameter in ways which correlate with their separate political and religious agendas, I would argue that Whitman gains his authority by subsuming the authority of the traditional metric code, rather than falling back on it as a prop. Both poets set their poetry in opposition to traditional codes, but their methods of resistance differ.

Dickinson's hard-as-a-line poetry cuts at the paper. Her slant rhymes hold intelligent sovereignty. Her poetry, like Whitman's plays off two metrical traditions -- the iambic pentameter, and the hymnal. It has been said of Dickinson's work that it may be sung to the tunes of popular hymns such as Amazing Grace, with which she would have been familiar. Dickinson offers an alternative hymnal. Like the Calvinist-interpreted hymnals with which she would have been in contact , her hymnal locates the sublime or divine at distance, but she does not recreate a union in her work with that distant figure.

Whitman and Dickinson both grapple with the poem as a genre which both privileges form and the word itself[2] and is restricted by formal semantic associations with metrical codes[3]. The debate over the division of self and sublime is fought over and through the medium of the text and body in Whitman and Dickinson's work. Ultimately, the Me/ Not Me distinction rests on the problem of form and physicality.

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE BODY FIGURED IN THE TEXT, CLICK HERE

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE SUBLIME AS A SEXUAL UNION, CLICK HERE

TO READ MORE ABOUT RESISTANCE TO DEMOCRACY AND ISOLATION IN DICKINSON'S WORK, CLICK HERE

TO RETURN TO MY INTRODUCTION, CLICK HERE