In section 6, the poet sings of the “marriage of continents.” Europe, Asia, Africa, and America are dancing “as brides and bridegrooms hand in hand.” The “soothing cradle of man” is India. The poet perceives India as an ancient land of history and legend, morals and religion, adventure and challenge. Brahma and Buddha, Alexander and Tamerlane, Marco Polo and other “traders, rulers, explorers” all shared in its history. “The Admiral himself” (Columbus) is the chief historian. The poet says the culmination of heroic efforts is deferred for a long time. But eventually their seeds will sprout and bloom into a plant that “fills the earth with use and beauty.”
Here Whitman has explored the swift passage of time and has invoked the India of Buddha through the present achievement of the linkage of continents by modern technology. The poet thus becomes a time-binder. He also attempts to fuse the familiar with the unfamiliar and the physical with the spiritual. He stands “curious in time,” but he also stands outside of time, in eternity, in his spiritual quest.
Section 7 confirms that a passage to India is indeed a journey of the soul “to primal thought.” It is not confined to “lands and seas alone.” It is a passage back to the Creation, to innocence, “to realms of budding bibles.” Whitman is anxious for himself and his soul to begin their journey.
The language of section 7 is highly metaphorical. The return of the poet and his soul to the East is envisaged as a journey back to the cradle of mankind, to the East, where many religions had their birth. It is a journey “back to wisdom’s birth, to innocent intuitions.” The poet and his soul seek a mystical experience of union with God in the realm of the spirit.
In section 8, the poet and his soul are about to “launch out on trackless seas” and to sail “on waves of ecstasy” singing “our song of God.” The soul pleases the poet, and the poet pleases the soul, and they begin their spiritual exploration. They believe in God “but with the mystery of God we dare not dally.” They think “silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death.” The poet addresses God as “O Thou transcendent,/ Nameless,” as the source of light and cosmic design and a “moral, spiritual fountain.” Whitman “shrivels at the thought of God,/At Nature and its wonders,” but he expects the soul to bring about a harmonious reconciliation with these forces. When the soul accomplishes its journey and confronts God, it will be as if it had found an older brother. It will finally melt “in fondness in his arms.”
The last two sections of this poem are marked by an upsurge of spiritual thought and an ecstatic experience. The poet and his soul, like two lovers, are united in harmony. They seek the mystical experience of union with God. The poet reflects on the nature of God as a transcendental deity. By comprehending God, the poet is enabled to comprehend himself and also man’s complex relationship with time, space, and death. The soul is eternal and establishes its relationship with time. The soul is vast and expansive and thus forms a relationship with space. The soul is alive forever and thus conquers death.
In section 8, the poet and his soul together seek to perceive the Divine Reality. Both eagerly await a mystical experience of union with God, of merging with the Divine Being. God is conceived of as a “fountain” or “reservoir” and this image is similar to the basic metaphor of water, which is necessary to nourish the greenery” of Leaves of Grass.
In section 9, the journey which the soul embarks on is a passage to more than India.” It is a challenging spiritual journey. Whitman asks the soul if it is ready: “Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?” The passage to the divine shores, to the “aged fierce enigmas,” and to the “strangling problems” is filled with difficulty and “skeletons, that, living, never reach’d you”—but it is a thrilling journey. The poet, fired by the spirit of Columbus, is intent on seeking an “immediate passage” because “the blood burns in my veins.” He “will risk ... all” in this bold and thrilling adventure; but actually it is safe enough, for are they not all the seas of God”? Thus the passage to India—and more—is a journey of man through the seas of God in search of an ideal. It is marked by intense spiritual passion.
This last section presents the final evolution of the symbol of India, which began as a geographical entity and culminated in a timeless craving of man for the realization of God. The words “passage” and “India” both have an evolving symbolic meaning and significance in this richly evocative poem and the growth of their meanings is indirectly the growth of the poem itself.
