eventually learn “to know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as
roads for traveling souls.” Once possessed of such knowledge they may
even aspire to become enlightened seers. Whitman’s road is a palimpsest
of possibilities. It may even lead the journeyer on a path to behold the
effulgent image of God (like Dante in the Paradiso)—to meet Whitman’s
supreme “Camerado” on equal terms.
Some of the many avenues to self-realization lead to death and be-
yond. In the poem’s second half, the persona emerges once again as a
prophetic speaker who relates the truths he has absorbed along the road
of his life. He claims to have experienced the elevated state of awareness
(like that which Richard Maurice Bucke calls “cosmic consciousness”)
that allows him to proclaim “the certainty of the reality and immortality
of things, and the excellence of things.” But this sort of wisdom, the poem
cautions, cannot be taught or “passed from one having it to another not
having it,” because it is “of the soul.” Each must discover it alone. Social
and material advances along this road are interpreted as harbingers of
individual spiritual advancement—“the progress of souls.” Conversely,
spiritual progress necessarily implies social and material advancement.
Nevertheless, even though the persona seems con¤dent that his journey
will turn out well, he does not hazard a guess about his destination or
about the road’s terminus. He does, however, make one of the strongest
af¤rmations in all of Leaves of Grass that every soul is indestructible and
that it will persevere toward its unfailing destiny:
All parts away for the progress of souls,
All... falls into niches and corners before the processions
of souls along the great roads of the universe.Of all the progress of the souls of men and women along the
grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed
emblem and sustenance.
Forever alive, forever forward,
Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baf®ed, mad, turbulent,
feeble, dissatis¤ed,
Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men,
They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where
they go;
But I know that they go toward the best—toward something
great.^31“The Progress of Souls” / 117