SOURCE: “Structure and Meaning in Whitman's Sea-Drift,” in American Transcendental Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 53, Winter, 1982, pp. 49-66.

In the following essay, Fast examines Whitman's Sea-Drift poems as a whole, focusing on how their organization within the larger Leaves of Grass helps to develop the overall themes of self-exploration and the promise of transcendence.

Criticism of Whitman's Sea-Drift sequence has been almost entirely limited to analyses of “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” and “As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life.” Although many critics have commented on the contrasts between these two poems, none has thoroughly examined Sea-Drift as a whole. Instead, critics have noted the presence of sea imagery,¹ or have made general statements about themes. For example, James E. Miller states that Sea-Drift develops the theme of the self and time, achieving hope through mystic evolution, and T. E. Crawley finds these poems representing an introspective voyage...