Mystical Discourse In Wordsworth And Whitman: A Transatlantic Bridge( Series - Studies In Spirituality Supplements )

This volume contains a lucid analysis of the connections between William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman. As the author demonstrates, the "transatlantic bridge" between both poets lies in their privileging of a type of mystical language he calls "cosmic" rhetoric, which served the function of ideological resistance, as it enabled them to rebel against Enlightenment modes of thinking and being. In a thorough engagement with the work of these poets, Moores shows that the cosmic rhetoric of both writers involves a subversive reorientation towards self and society, nature and God, and knowledge and religion, as well as a radical revisioning of language and poetics.