I'll leave whitman aside, since I am "poetry blind"
Thanks for this honesty Brad. It saves both of us a lot of time because; as the Perloff article I sent explores, I see Wittgenstein as a poetic philosopher.. I am an amateur self taught student of philosophy. My background is in child development - Piaget et al. I developed an interest in the history and philosophy of science which led me to make sense of the concept 'paridigm shift' and that took me to Ludwig Fleck and Wittgenstein who both used this language early in the 20th century.
Wittgenstein wrote the way he did precisely because of how he understood language (meaning and understanding). Some people hate poetry because of 'hidden meaning' . The Emily Dickinson poem I sent has no hidden meaning, it shows us a profoundly different way of experiencing the world. Some of us might embrace this way of being. And because of this new way of being so many of the old philosophical problems aren't solved; they disappear. That is the ladder metaphor that Wittgenstein uses. This is what Russell came to see but couldn't bring himself to embrace.
Take care,
Brian
