"All the great poets have looked away from their disgusting surroundings and fleshly fetters, into a world of their creation that was bright and ethereal, but Whitman cries: 'I am satisfied with the perishable and the casual.' This alone would debar him from the company of the great masters of song."
Professor Newcomer of Stanford University, divides honors by offending and defending:
First: "It deliberately violates the rules of art, and unless we admit that our rules are idle, we must admit Whitman's defects."
Second: "It is diffuse, prolix."
Third: "This is perhaps the most that can be charged—he was needlessly gross."
Fourth: "The innovations in his vocabulary are inexcusable."
In the following, he as faithfully defends the poet.
First: Of the charged egotism: "It was not to parade himself as an exceptional being, but rather as an average man to hold the mirror up to other men and declare his kinship with them."
Second: "Taking Whitman simply at his own valuation we get much. The joys of free fellowship, the love of comrades, none has sung more heartily or worthily. And his courage and optimism are as deep as Emerson's."
Third: "He became the truest laureate of the war, and of Lincoln the idol of the people."