Walt Whitman

1
Walt Whitman

• 1819-1892

2
Background

• Born in Long Island
• Jobs
• Office clerk
• Printers assistant
• School teacher
• Journalist/editor
• Part-time carpenter and building contractor

3
Leaves of Grass

• Published at his own expense, 1855
• Went unnoticed (too new/different)
• Sent samples, one to Emerson, who embraced it
• Republished 9 times, ending in 1891

4
The Image of the Poet

• Carefully crafted an image
• Full of contradictions
• A con artist and a saint
• An artist and a hobo
• Brags, but shy
• Enjoyed the public eye, sought it out
• Always, he was real a man of the people

5
His Unique Style

• The father of free verse poetry with no rhyme
  or meter
• Cadence the natural rhythm of speech patterns
• Wrote in long lists
• Rambles and repeats himself
• Makes up new words

6
Subject matter

• The unique American experience
• Democracy and the limitless potential of the U.S.
• Unspoiled beauty of nature, where he finds
  spiritual truth and inspiration
• The common working person
• Equality
• Civil War
• Celebrates humanity and the human body
• Celebrates himself, in the sense that he stands
  for every American

7
Subject Matter Contd

• Believed he understood every American because
  every American was a part of him and he a part of
  them (shared the same atoms)
• Celebrates and expresses an exuberance for life