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Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection
History

Walt Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, wearing hat and sweater, holding butterfly

[Detail] Walt Whitman holding butterfly

Transcendentalism

Many passages referenced above also apply to Transcendentalism. Additionally, students may find citations about the relation of mind and matter, body, soul, and spirit on pages 75 and 200-201 of Notebook #94 and pages 26, 29-32, and 42-44 of Notebook #80. Ask students to consider whether Whitman's ideas about the individual, nationhood, and poetry seem to express more his interest in Transcendentalism or Nation Building.

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