Hinduism and American Literature

By Subhamoy Das, About.com Guide

The American poet laureate Walt Whitman, in Leaves of Grass, freed American verse from the shackles of European conventions. Turning away from Europe, he turned toward Asia and wrote these lines in his famous poem 'Passage to India':

"Passage to India!
Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
O soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those?
Disportest thou on waters such as those?
Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas?
Then have thy bent unleash'd"

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• Journey of the Upanishads to the West
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Herman Melville
• Walt Whitman

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