| dc.description.abstract | Whitman's vision of woman was a vision of motherhood. Thus a woman must be dauntless, intelligent, strong because she is the mother of unborn generations. If she possesses such laudable traits, she will become the source of man's evolutionary progress: "Envelop'd in you sleep greater heroes and bards." A perfect race can come only from a perfect mother. with each step woman takes towards her own equality and the full realization of her potential as a person, mankind advances. Civilization develops. Frederick Mayer describes the ultimate product of Whitman's superb mother as "a new perfect race whose mind, body, and emotions would be expressions of the highest standards of civilization.”
Any study, then, of Leaves of Grass may acknowledge the existence of three different roles for the women in Whitman's world to assume. It may also accept Whitman's belief that the two roles of lover or comrade and equal or liberated being are subordinate to the third role, the mother. But with the delineation of these three roles comes the inevitable question, what led to Whitman's poetic adoption of these roles? Which woman had the greatest impact on Whitman's views? Although students of Whitman differ in their responses to this question, apparently many see his own mother, Louisa Van Velsor, as the wellspring of his every concept of woman. Whitman's first glimpse of woman was his mother, and the close relationship developed between them never faltered during their lives together. Louisa remained the most profound and lasting influence on his life and poetry. | en |
