Literature Network » Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman and Negative Capability

Content courtesy of

From: The Virginia Quarterly Review
Date: 20050401
Author:Kinnell, Galway

Walt Whitman had Keatsian "negative capability"-a certain shapelessness of personality, a peculiar power to obliterate himself and flow into some other being and speak it from within-and speak himself in the process. "I am the man-," he wrote, "I suffered-I was there." A transaction seems to occur: Whitman gives whatever he flows into a presence in human consciousness, and in return, this other thing or creature gives Whitman a situation and vocabulary which enable him to see and articulate his own being in a new way.

If you talk to a baby in iambs, it may laugh, for probably all sensible ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Walt Whitman

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.