The World Below the Brine”: a Challenge to Experience the Multiplicity of Perspective

In “The World Below the Brine” Walt Whitman categorizes the world as holding multiple spheres—here presenting the sphere of the ocean and the sphere of the land. First described from the interior perspective of below water, then shifting to our exterior perspective from above land, Whitman relates the commonality between these two worldviews, despite their inherent distinctiveness. Presenting descriptions from both the universal and particular frameworks, he challenges the singular perspective for its egocentricity, pushing the reader to understand coexistence of multiple worlds. On one hand, this awareness of multiple spheres leads to the attainment of a more holistic worldview. On the other hand, Whitman accounts for the imperfection of this connection, noting the limits to a complete understanding of the other spheres due to the inherent inability to participate within it.

Initially Whitman describes the world below the brine using a broad framework, letting the mere colors “pale gray, and green, purple, white and gold…” stand by themselves. Absent of detail, the list of colors is intended to produce a vague image. In considering this world through the perspective of color, we are able to unite the alien perception to our own familiar world. The world above land can be experienced through the lens of color too. Thus we see the connectivity between the two native and foreign spheres. Whitman relates the worlds in colors so that we can understand their proximity and experience their commonality.

Whitman goes on to narrow the lens of the reader, by describing the underwater world from an interior perspective. He lists particular fish, such as “The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray,” and in the quick and detailed naming of individuals, he gives them a lifelike quality. The world below the brine takes a more dynamic shape in our minds, and we begin to picture the world as another individual...