The Oneida Community

I am yet to find a direct connection between Whitman and The Oneida Community but there are certainly a number of interesting parallels between the lifestyle of the Oneida Community and some of the themes Whitman focuses on in his poetry. Regarding a direct connection, I still think there is probably one out there somewhere – I look forward to hearing/reading what others have found on the topic (Iona’s post was a great one!). Most interestingly, the editor of our recommended edition of Leaves of Grass, David S. Reynolds, wrote the NYTimes review of Spencer Klaw’s book Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community when it was published twenty years ago. Hmmm.

A number of the theories, or practices, of the Oneida Community remind me of Whitman’s poetical themes, in particular the idea of “perfectionism” and the practice of “communalism.” Perfectionism, a belief that humans could live free of sin in a heaven-like community on earth, is a theme echoed in Song of Myself. While the Oneida Community was theoretically a religiously driven community while Whitman, respectful of various religious, was more interested in writing the “religion of himself” (as I like to call it), there are endless passages in Song of Myself that speak to Whitman’s views of his earthly existence in a divine, perfection-like manner. One of my favorites being the lines:

“Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of god is the elderhand of my own,
And I know that the spirit of god is the eldest brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers…. and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a keelson is the creation of love;”

Communalism, or the practice of communal ownership, is another life practice of the Oneida Community that I hear in Song of Myself – “…For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” Whitman viewed himself and all people as equal in terms of possibilities of their worldly experience and he tied his views on the efficacy of his writing to a need for ubiquitous applicability across all people. While these stances are not exactly the same as communalism as a community practice, the Oneida Community’s practice of communalism represent to me a microcosm of Whitman’s larger views on one’s place in the world relative to all other people.