Comparing Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman had very different points of view towards society, one accepting it more than the other. Emily Dickinson was a very exclusive person, different from Walt Whitman, who was truly inclusive. Walt Whitman was a person who accepted everyone in the society with no judgements and saw them all as equals. While Emily Dickinson tried to exclude herself from society and only interacted with those she deems as worthy for her. Moreover, both of them had very different points of view, even in their shared time period. Emily Dickinson was very exclusive, believed that the soul wanted to surround itself with people it chose and how this chosen group can be small. She believed that by choosing her friends she will surround herself with the right people. As shown in her poem "The Soul selects her own Society", readers are able to see more of Dickinson's thoughts of small groups of people and how for the soul they are a "divine Majority" (line 3). With this in mind, it can be noted that she did not favor large groups or accepted people just because of who they are. Therefore, social statuses were not important to her, as it

Walt Whitman has shown how accepting he was in many of his works and through them he tried to find and show the balance that exists between everyone and how everyone in society needs each other. He believed that everyone was the same and that everyone is equally important. Whitman saw everyone as an extension of himself and saw how everyone was connected and embraced it in his life with great passion in comparison to those of his time period. He didn't care about the differences in statuses, as seen in Section 15 of his poem "Song of Myself" where he lists all these occupations making them all look equally important. Whitman encouraged this behavior upon others, of accepting those around