Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in New York; he had little formal education and became a
journalist to support radical democratic causes. During his life he read widely, acquiring a
self-taught culture which included the Bible, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Hegel and
Eastern religion and philosophy. In 1855 he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass,
containing 12 poems about his development as a poet and his experience of the American
land. Nine editions followed, each containing new poems. In 1865 he published Drum-Taps,
a collection of lyrics where he talked about the abolition of slavery and the issues of Lincoln’s
govern. In the same year followed Sequel to Drum-Taps. In 1873 he retired in New Jersey
where he continued to write poetry and some prose essays till he died in 1892. Whitman’s
popularity in Europe grew during the 1870s, while in America he is considered the father of
American poetry.
Leaves of Grass (1855)
All of Whitman’s poetry was incorporated in the different editions of Leaves of Grass. In the
first one, we have a picture of Whitman himself dressed up as a democratic bard and a
preface where he introduced the subject, the language and the aim of his poetry. Therefore,
Leaves of Grass is seen as a long-life poem where we can see at the same time a
development and a unity of life and experience. Thus Whitman rejected the traditional forms
and structures of 19th century poetry.
Whitman’s view of nature
Whitman treated the natural world as the body of the earth, a material entity with a character
that attracted the poet’s curiosity. The human body was as continuous with nature; Whitman
discovered in himself the same energies that brought the earth to life, but at the same time
his relation to the earth was also mystical because it identified the self with this larger, more
powerful and only partially knowable entity.
Style
Leaves of Grass is written in free verses: he wrote long lines where the rhythm was
determined by the thought or emotion expressed. His poems proceed by accumulation and
addition and the overall impression is lack of unity. About his language, it's new: he mixed
dialect and common speech with words from science and philosophy.
O Captain! My Captain!
This one is one of Whitman’s most famous poems, reflecting his deep awareness of the
significance of the figure of Abraham Lincoln in American history. The poem was written
after Lincoln’s assassination, in 1865, by an actor who had been plotting against the
President. Whitman’s lines give Lincoln the stature of a myth, the symbol of American
democracy.
