The English Whitman

Martin Tupper was many things: an Oxford man, a devoted Christian, a chauvinist of the Anglo-Saxon race, a barrister and constantly in close proximity to high society people in both America and the United Kingdom. With such qualities, why was he ever compared to Walt Whitman? In his paper "Martin Tupper, Walt Whitman, and the Early Reviews of Leaves of Grass" Matt Cohen explores the similarities and differences of the two poets. 

When Leaves of Grass was first published it wasn't read by many people due to the unusual style of the book: it didn't have a title or the name of the author. However, many of those who did have a chance to stumble upon Whitman's masterpiece were quick to compare it to Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. Many critics who read Whitman's blank verse compared in to Tupper's style of writing. Tupper became popular in both the UK and America, however, like Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Proverbial Philosophy took several decades to become popular. When it did become popular, Proverbial Philosophy, was part of Walt Whitman's collection of books; today the same copy with notes from Whitman can be found in the Library of Congress.

Even though the two characters seem to be people of very different interests, Tupper the upper class-man and Whitman the wannabe b'hoy, their writings have some striking similarities. After reading some of Tupper's poetry it becomes evident how Whitmanesque his writing is, or is Whitman's writing Tupperesque since the later came first?

"Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen;

Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions:

For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will,

But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance."

-Tupper.

“this is thy hour o soul, thy free flight into the wordless, 

away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson 
done, 
thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the 
themes thou lovest best, 
night, sleep, death and the stars.” 

- Whitman.