Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : The Role of Nature in Transcendentalism : Thoreau, Whitman and Emerson • Transcendentalism and the Poetry of Walt Whitman •   Analysis and Summary of “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau •  Persistent Themes in the Poetry of W.B. Yeats  • Summary and Analysis of the Poem “Departmental” by Robert Frost  •  Poem Analysis of “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford

While there were less than fifty years separating the births of Walt Whitman and Ruben Dariò, the two great poets could not have written in more contrasting circumstances. The transcendentalist poet Walt Whitman wrote about the merging of transcendentalism and realism, Ruben Dariò found his niche as the Father of Modernism. Although it may seem impossible for Walt Whitman, the poet of Democracy, he of the barbaric yawp, and Rubin Dariò, a poet who concentrated both on the ideas of love and sensuality to be comparable, there is one thing that ties the two poets together. Both Ruben Dariò and Whitman write unapologetically and openly on the topics of human emotion, proving that despite realism, despite modernism, the virtue of humanism reigns supreme.

Walt Whitman was an American poet born in 1819, who practiced his writing in the era that separated transcendentalism and realism, and as such, both topics were heavily referenced in his works. Whitman’s greatest accomplishment lies in the production of Leaves of Grass, a poetic anthology that follows the life of Everyman. In fact, according to the essay “Walt Whitman: Man and Myth” by Jorge Borges, Whitman’s followers often attribute to him the characteristics of Everyman. They view Whitman as ambitious and confident, yet, like other contemporaries of his, a poet of American democracy, an “American vagabond” (Borges, 710). However, most are disappointed to find that Whitman was actually quite conceited, and sought out attention at every opportunity, quite unlike Everyman (Borges, 710).  However, despite his differences with his epic hero, Everyman, Whitman did embody many of the characteristics of the less illustrious every man. Many of his poems deal with issues that haunt men in every day life, from the realistic effects of war, to the loss of a friend, to the question of the soul. Whitman eloquently and justly deals with these topics in his own terms, showing that while he may not be Everyman, he is most certainly a part of mankind.

Ruben Dariò was born in Nicaragua less than fifty years after Whitman’s American birth. In 1867, Dariò came into the world, and by age sixteen, he was creating poetry that the nation would one day fall in love with. According to “Lo de Dentro” in Ruben Dariò by Lola Boyd, Dariò was always considered a poet with great stylistic genius. However, the technical aspects of his poetry were not what drew in his followers. Instead, Dariò cemented favoritism by writing poetry that people could empathize with. His focus was often on the themes of human emotion, in fact, his ability to concentrate on “lo de dentro” (the inside) and “lo de fuera” (what is outside) were the crowning achievements of his poetic career (Boyd, 651). Although Dariò did focus on modernism, his writings focused on emotions that were far from modern. In fact, his obsession with the ancient drama of love shows up in nearly every one of his published writings. Much like Whitman, Dariò is every man; multilayered and self-disciplined, yet yearning for the constraints of love.

For instance, both Dariò and Whitman write about the loss of a loved one, although they both go about it in very different ways. For the transcendentalist poet Walt Whitman, in “O Captain! My Captain”, a sailor has just made a very successful, very dangerous voyage. Everyone is celebrating on the deck, when the sailor comes across the body of the captain of the ship, his father. The sailor is in shock, and laments the loss of his father, begging him to awaken,  “O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;” (line 9). Here, in the poem “O Captain! My Captain” Whitman is showing childlike vulnerability of the sailor who is desperately hoping that his father still has the ability to arise.