I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

Emily Dickinson

I sing the body electric,

The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,

They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,

And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, the two most important American poets of the 19th century, wrote in dramatically opposite styles: Dickinson, a poet of quiet contemplation, Whitman, a poet of loud city streets. But they shared an interest in the big questions: life and death, religion and spirituality, spirituality without religion, the nature of the self, reality, sex and gender, of power and powerlessness. They influenced poets, artists, activists, and mystics across the globe. We will explore how they broke with tradition and forged a new American poetry.

Format: Discussion. Coordinators will provide topics for short presentations on an aspect of the poet’s life, themes, and style. Participants will select a topic for a presentation of no more than 10-15 minutes and provide questions about the week’s poems.

Resources/Expenses: Texts: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. T.H. Johnson. (Paper: New: $17.49; used from $1.67). Walt Whitman. Selected Poems (Dover Thrift Edition) (Paperback: New: $4.59; used from $.66).