Abstract

The Walt Whitman Archive contains a rarely discussed letter to Whitman written in 1888 from the little-known British poet Charles William Dalmon (1862-1938). It opens the door to a neglected case of late nineteenth century transatlantic Whitman-worship by an unusual, if not unique, literary disciple. Dalmon’s identification with Whitman was literary, political, and homoerotic, comparable to the cases of more prominent middle- and upper-class British and Irish contemporaries such as Roden Noel, John Addington Symonds, Edward Carpenter, and Oscar Wilde. Dalmon is set apart, however, by his thoroughly working-class background. The article discusses the contents of the 1888 letter in the light of what is currently known of Dalmon’s biography, focusing on his efforts to enter London’s literary and artistic milieu in the late 1880s-early 1890s. It shows how Dalmon’s response to Whitman arose from a wholly different set of socio-economic circumstances and with a correspondingly different set of priorities to those of his Whitmanite peers. The article also considers the ostensive products of Dalmon’s Whitman-worship, two poems published in his debut verse collection, Minutiae (1892): “The Good Grey Poet”, purportedly written at the time of the letter to Whitman; and “Walt Whitman is Dead!” evidently written soon after Whitman’s death in March 1892. The poems are revealed as the work of a rare Whitmanite responding to the intersecting political and homoerotic themes in Leaves of Grass as one of the working-class “comrades” to whom Whitman’s poetry is addressed.

Keywords: Charles William Dalmon, working-class, queer, Walt Whitman, letters, correspondence

How to Cite:

Sheppard, D. J., (2025) ““But if I could see your face – if I could hear your voice!”: A Neglected Case of Transatlantic Whitman-Worship”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 42(3/4), 161-184. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/0737-0679.33796