Michael Robertson – image by kenne
Like good wine, good poets get better with age — therefore, so too does the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council (MALAC) annual birthday celebration of America’s greatest poet, Walt Whitman. However, our event in Conroe, Texas, is but a baby when compared to the annual birthday celebration the people of Bolton, Lancashire, England have conducted since the 1870’s. Dare I say, Whitman may also be England’s greatest poet. If not, the people of Bolton are the true disciples of Walt.
As already noted in a previous posting, titled Worshipping Walt Whitman, our guest lecturer for the afternoon session on the campus of Lone Star College – Montgomery, was previous guest, Michael Robertson, author of the recent publication, Worshipping Walt – The Whitman Disciples. As part of his presentation, Michael set the stage for the Conroe event to give homage to our friends and comrades in Bolton. “The Lancashire Whitman celebration is unique, a product of the English fondness for the outdoors, intense interest in local traditions, the continuity of a democratic socialist tradition, and an openness to Whitman’s prophetic dimensions,” writes Robertson.
Worshipping Whitman brings to mind Emile Durkheim’s dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, which captures the universality of Whitman’s very being. No wonder he is revered by so many. But as Robertson writes, “More than any other poet, I think, Whitman evokes not just admiration but love. The disciples felt that love in the Leaves, they sought it from the man, and although things did not always turn out as they expected, none of them was entirely disappointed.”
kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 