Poetry and Comics: The Necessity of Variety in Medium

There are many ways of dealing with unique human experiences of reality, and naturally it is the subject of many arguments in the modern art world. Romantic poets write about the beauty of their surroundings and the difficulties of expressing the intensity of human emotion. Alfred Lord Tennyson writes, “So runs my dream: but what am I? / An infant crying in the night: / An infant crying for the light: / And with no language but a cry.”(1) in clear recognition and angst about the inability to express his innermost feelings.

Conversely, Walt Whitman writes, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”(2) The Transcendentalist poets rejoice in the fact that humans can share their experiences. However, if all humans have similar experiences, it is interesting that Transcendentalists still see the need to point out the human ability to communicate.

The Transcendentalists also emphasized the infinite beauty of simple things. They demonstrate that humans can indeed focus attention upon different details, and yet they still assert that we all are parts of the same unified reality. Is it redundant to recount something that everyone experiences?

---

1. Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam. London: E. Moxon, 1850, ll. 17-20.

2. Walt Whitman. “Song of Myself.”