IMAGINATION, COGNITION AND PERSONALITY, Vol. 9(1)75-86, 1989-90 THE POETICS OF MEDITATION: WHITMAN'S MEDITATIVE CATALOG CHANITA GOODBLATT The Hebrew University and The Open University of Israel JOSEPH G L1CKSOHN Tel Aviv University and The Open University of Israel ABSTRACT Whitman uses the meditative catalog to depict and convey his subjective experiences to the reader. We argue that this type of catalog is a poetic realization of the meditative technique of mindfulness. In analyzing examples of such a catalog, using a cognitive-poetic approach, one can illuminate both the process of mindfulness and its literary depiction. Apart from being a depiction of ongoing perceptual experience, one especially involving the visual, auditory and olfactory senses, the catalog also presents instances of physiognomic perception and other syncretic phenomena. It is from the poet's detailed depiction of his own subjective experience that one can glean insight into the meditative experience. The meditative experience is described in the poetry and prose of Walt Whitman primarily through the use of his catalog structure. In analyzing these texts, therefore, one can illuminate both the subjective experience of meditation and its literary depiction. The cognitive-poetic approach [1, 2] to the text which we have adopted, focuses on the poet's detailed description of the unfolding of perceptual experience, when following the meditative technique of mindfulness. As we shall argue, the poet employs certain poetic structures in order to depict and convey his subjective experience to the reader. Shapiro notes a number of strategies employed to study the subjective experience of meditation [3]: 1) the analysis of classical texts [4, 5]; 2) retrospection of subjective experience while meditating [e.g., 6] ; and 3) what 75 © 1989, Baywood Publishing co., Inc. doi: 10.2190/D37J-P7UE-TU96-G45H http://baywood.com