Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 2, Summer 2002 | Page 151

Whitman and Working Class Reform 147 see men and women as dreams or dots,” but as symbolic of the “eternity in [all] men and women.”^"^For Whitman, the American poet must celebrate all elements of America and, in his wide arms, enclose and expose as whole what appears to be separate and conflicting. The poet, according to Whitman, serves a purpose higher than patriotic entertainment or individual aesthetic enlightenment. He is to be the nation’s “referee.” With the rise of national sports in the last one-hundred years, this term raises images of a striped whistle-blower who enforces rules in a timed competition. However, Whitman’s use of the term hearkens back to an earlier meaning. Between the early-eighteenth century and the rise of organized sports in the 1870s, a referee could be defined as one to whom “the management or superintendence of something is entrusted.”^^ This is essentially Whitman’s vision of himself. Namely, he has been “entrusted” to manage and purvey the unified vision of the American nation and people back to the people themselves. However, this position is not one of authority and status. In fact, the poet “is a seer, he is an individual...he is complete in himself...the others are as good as he, only he sees it and they do not.”^^The poet, then, is “Everyman” who knows that, in the national scope, all are Everyman. His only claim to authority is his knowledge that he is no better than anyone else. This total egahtarianism, coupled with a symphonic vision of the cohesive nation, will allow Whitman to propose a reformist program which will avoid the “dreams and dots” of individuals, and call for a public enlightenment as to the essential perfection of the nation in the present. Whitman, however, does not embrace everything that exists. If he were to do so, the poet would be a mere observer rather than a visionary. For Whitman, the good state, by its nature, includes an acknowledgement of its organic and mutuallybeneficial elements as well as an egalitarianism which seeks a flattening of status, and an enlightenment as to the integral, harmonious weave of the nation’s different parts. This enlightenment and acknowledgement entails the acceptance that “the known universe has one complete lover and that is the greatest poet.”^^ This poet, however, as stated above, is no better than any other citizen. In fact, “if the savage or felon is wise it is well...if the President or chief justice is wise it is the same...if the young mechanic or framer is wise it is no more or less...if the prostitute is wise it is not more or less. The interest will come round...all will come round.”^®For Whitman, wisdom and enlightenment are a product of an individual, in his or her “place” and complete as him/herself, acknowledging the completely symphonic nature of the nation. This realization will force the melting away not of distinction, but of the arrogance of illusionary status and of divisive jealousy. Whitman’s reform, then, incorporates some elements of both conservative (the organic) and radical (the egalitarian) reformers. What he dismisses, in essence, is their acceptance of hierarchy and the divisiveness it entails in the policies of both. These are to be