Walt Whitman

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Walt Whitman

• The Poet
• of
• America

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BORN MAY 31, 1819

LONG ISLAND, BROOKLYN PRINTER, TEACHER,
JOURNALIST, EDITOR, FOUNDED NEWSPAPER
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Why Do We Study Whitman?

• Whitman is perhaps the most important
  American poet
• He lived in the same world that Poe did, but Poe
  wrote poetry like a blind man. Whitman
  incorporated all the sounds, sights, experiences
  of life, of the common man, of the city.
• He is the voice of America and all Americans.

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WHY IS WALT WHITMAN SO IMPORTANT TO AMERICAN
LITERATURE?

• HIS POETRY IS A CELEBRATION OF
  AMERICA. HE WAS A TRUE PATRIOT WHOSE POEMS
  SING THE PRAISES OF AMERICA AND
  DEMOCRACY.
• WHITMAN ABANDONED TRADITIONAL RHYME SCHEMES AND
  FORMAL METERS IN FAVOR OF THE NATURAL RHYTHMS AND
  SPEECH PATTERNS (CADENCE) OF FREE VERSE

1869
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CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITMANS POETRY

• 1. FIRST AMERICAN WRITER TO USE FREE
  VERSE -NO REGULAR RHYME SCHEME OR METER
•  
• 2. PARALLELISM/PARALLEL STRUCTURE REPETITION OF
  SIMILARLY CONSTRUCTED PHRASES OR CLAUSES OR
  SENTENCES.
• 3. IMAGERY USE OF LANGUAGE TO EVOKE VISUAL
  IMAGES, AS WELL AS SENSATIONS OF SMELL, HEARING,
  TASTE AND TOUCH

1889
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CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITMANS POETRY

• 4. CADENCE THE RUN OF WORDS THAT RISE AND FALL
  IN EMPHASIS WHEN HE HAS A PARTICULAR POINT TO
  MAKE AND MEASURES HIS LINE TO MAKE IT
• CATALOGS LONGS LISTS OF IMAGES, PEOPLE, or
  THINGS USED TO EMPHASIZE AN IDEA
• 6. ALLITERATION

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Words of Wisdom from Walt

• I AM THE POET OF THE BODY AND I AM THE
  POET OF THE SOUL.
• THE PLEASURES OF HEAVEN ARE WITH ME AND THE PAINS
  OF HELL ARE WITH ME.
• . . . I AM THE POET OF THE WOMAN THE SAME AS THE
  MAN.
• AND I SAY IT IS AS GREAT TO BE A WOMAN AS TO BE A
  MAN.
• . . . I AM NOT THE POET OF GOODNESS ONLY. I DO
  NOT DECLINE TO BE THE POET OF WICKEDNESS ALSO.

1848
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1854
A GREAT POEM IS FOR AGES AND AGES IN
COMMON AND FOR ALL DEGREES AND COMPLEXIONS AND
ALL DEPARTURES AND SECTS AND FOR A WOMAN AS MUCH
AS A MAN AND A MAN AS
MUCH AS A WOMAN A GREAT POEM IS NO FINISH
TO A MAN OR WOMAN BUT RATHER A
BEGINNING
1859
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1860
NOW I WILL DO NOTHING BUT LISTEN, TO ACCRUE WHAT
I HEAR INTO THIS SONG, TO LET SOUNDS CONTRIBUTE
TOWARDS IT
1864
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Walt Whitman Do I contradict myself?Very well
then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain
multitudes.)
1851
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Whitman and the War

• Whitman experienced the Civil War first hand
  impacting his poetry.
• Great admirer of Abraham Lincoln
• O Captain! My Captain!
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd

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Aroused and angry, I thought to beat the alarum,
and urge relentless war But soon my fingers
faild me, my face droopd, and I resignd
myself, To sit by the wounded and soothe them,
or silently watch the dead.
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What Others Say about Walt

• WHITMAN THROWS HIS CHUNKY LANGUAGE
  AT THE READER. HE CAJOLES AND
  THUNDERS HE CHANTS, CELEBRATES, CHUCKLES, AND
  CARESSES. HE SPILLS FROM HIS
  CAPACIOUS AMERICAN SOUL EVERY
  DREG OF UN-ENGLISHNESS, EVERY
  STREET SOUND THUMBING ITS NOSE AT
  TRADITIONAL SUBJECT MATTER AND
  TONE. HERE IS SAMSON PULLING
  THE HOUSE OF LITERATURE DOWN AROUND
  HIS EARS, YET SINGING IN THE RUINS
  (Paul Zweig).

1869
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What Others Say about Walt

• Dont expect Whitman to provide a story or drama.
  Instead, he offers
• A condensed scene, emotion, or story
• A glimpse of something greater than ourselves

• A stop sign that keeps us from rushing from
  moment to moment
• A mental accelerator that, if mastered, can cure
  anguish or cause joy

1870

• (Joesph Brodsky)

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What Others Say about Walt

• Remember that he made poetry celebrate things
  that arent normally considered poetic. Take
  time to notice the world around you. See the
  ordinary in the extraordinary.

1878
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Whitmans World

• pre-Civil War depression, post Civil War recovery
• Loss of life a fact of life epidemics
  virtually unchecked in Manhattan annual death
  rate climbed from 1 in 40 to 1 in 27 by
  1855 yellow fever, measles, tuberculosis,
  cholera, suicides escalating
• Part of the Victorian era Piano legs decorously
  covered with frilly stockings undergarments were
  called inexpressibles, arms and legs called
  limbs or branches
• YET
• Prudish and pornographic treatment of sex
  demeaned women and threatened to keep them in
  suppression.
• Prostitution was rampant.

1879
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So Whitman, who believed America might be saved
by poetry, wrote his first edition of Leaves of
Grass.
In 1855, at his own expense, he published the
first edition of Leaves of Grass.
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Reception of the volume of poetry was poor, so
Whitman sent a copy to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who
said,
WOW!!!!
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Song of Myself

• Inter- relationship of all being
  and all matter
• Filled with symbols of resurrection and rebirth,
  from fish eggs to sprouting grass
• 52 stanzas 52 weeks of year cycle

• Anchor poem in Leaves of Grass, along with 11
  other poems
• 1,346 lines to begin with, and is the longest
  poem in Leaves of Grass
• Begins in tone of boastful authority
• Asserts notion of self and identification with
  all selves

1880
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The poem follows an epic journey. . .

• 1-5 entry into mystical state
• 6-16 awakening of the self chief
  image of grass
• 17-32 purification of self
• 33-37 illumination dark night of soul
• 38-43 union (emphasis on faith love)
• 44-49 union (emphasis on perception)
• 50-52 emergence from the mystical state

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DIED MAY 26, 1892
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Hopefully, you too will be inspired but this
great poet -- perhaps the most influential poet
in American history.
1891