Known as the “Bard of Democracy,” Walt Whitman Jr. has proven himself throughout his lifetime to be known as one of the greatest and most influential poets of the nineteenth century. There are many things Walt Whitman did to capture the eye of the world. He was a nurse, a clerk, a school teacher, a poet, as well as a printer (“Walt Whitman,” poetryfoundation.com). Although most successful as a clerk, Walt is most credited for being a poet and an author. Walt had many credible literary works, such as “O Captain! My Captain!,” and “Song of Myself .” Walt Whitman Jr. accomplished many objectives during his lifetime in the nineteenth century. Being a nineteenth century poet, Walt wrote in two styles of poetry, free verse and the Elizabethan …show more content…
This is when Walt developed his dream of being a poet and writer. In the hopes of pursuing his dreams as a writer, Walt left the law firm and began working at a printing office. During Walt’s time at the printing office he worked as a printer and a delivery boy( Also during this time, Walt began journalism just as a hobby, and occasionally he was allowed to include his articles in the weekly newspaper. Walt loved working at the printing office, until one day in 1835 there was a massive fire destroying many printing offices. When the fire took place, Whitman was devastated that it destroyed the printing offices, because he loved working as a printer. In search for another job, Whitman wanted to also show his love for literature, so he became a teacher. Walt taught in a small one-room schoolhouse in Long Island. However, Walt was not your everyday teacher, he engaged his students. Walt made his students love to learn, by doing projects, skits, and by not using a paddle. Whitman did not want his students to fear him, he only wanted their respect. By doing all these things, he did gain their …show more content…
For this reason, in 1841, Walt abandoned teaching and began journalism as a full time career. Walt began his own newspaper, called the Aurora. It was a Manhattan daily, and it focused on the habits of daily life. He wanted to show people that that there was more to life than just doing the same task over and over again. Walt hired many people to help him run the newspaper, because all Whitman wanted to do was be a journalist. Whitman worked here for five years, until he was fired. When he was fired, he left New York, for New Orleans. This is when Walt experienced slavery for the first time. During his time in New Orleans, He worked at the New Orleans Crescent. It was a young newspaper, but it paid very well. Although the newspaper paid very well, Whitman could no longer bear to stay where there was slavery and discrimination. In only three short months, Whitman had already decided to leave New Orleans, and depart for
Walt Whitman’s early life and childhood had an impact on his works of poetry later in his life. Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, New York. His parents were Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. At the age of four, Whitman and his family moved to Brooklyn, living in a series of different houses due to bad investments by his parents. Whitman later viewed his childhood as sad and unhappy, because his family frequently moved and they were in a poor financial situation. Throughout most of his childhood, Whitman and his family were in constant financial duress. At the age of eleven, Whitman finished his formal education and started to look for a job. Whitman finished school at such a young age, so he could get a job
American Bards: Walt Whitman and Other Unlikely Candidates for National Poet. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2010. Print.
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 to a family with seven siblings. He started work at a printing service when he was just a boy in order to help out his family financially. During his tenure in the printing industry, Whitman began to read and write. He fell in love with the art of writing and would eventually go into editing as a career. Whitman created a new style of poetry called free verse, and at the time American culture would reject this
...s a man of the world, the spiritual citizen of the universe.(Baudelaire 7) It is fundamentally a way of thought and thought process which artists, writers, and poets commonly have, Walt Whitman being one of them. He is a mirror as vast as the crowd itself who responds to each movement, then reproduces the multiplicity of life and the flickering grace of all elements of life. (9) Of course he is not a genuine flâneur like Monsieur G. but he continues to take in his city of Brooklyn, his nation of America, and himself as Walt Whitman: the poet and analyzes the world, soaking it in and not letting it pass him by like the many who keep their eyes glued to the never ending sidewalk.
Throughout the span of this semester, much of the literature discussed revolved around the so-called renaissance of American literature and its impact upon both the nation and its people. Of all the authors studied in this time period, Walt Whitman may well be known as the quintessential American author. Famous for breaking every rule known to poetry in the inimitable compilation, Song of Myself, Whitman provided a fresh and insightful commentary upon the dualistic nature of society, love, and life itself. Through defining these essential aspects of humanity, Whitman indeed composed one of the most accurate and enduring definitions of the individual self that literature, American or otherwise, has ever seen. Specifically, this was done through
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island. His early years included much contact with words and writing; he worked as an office boy as a pre-teen, then later as a printer, journalist, and, briefly, a teacher, returning eventually to his first love and life’s work—writing. Despite the lack of extensive formal education, Whitman experienced literature, "reading voraciously from the literary classics and the Bible, and was deeply influenced by Goethe, Carlyle, Emerson, and Sir Walter Scott" (Introduction vii).
Walt Whitman is an American poet, journalist, and essayist whose Versace collection Leaves of Grass is a landmark in the history of American literature.
Walt Whitman was an American poet, born in 1819. Whitman published a collection of poetry in which he outlined his democratic vision for America. Walt Whitman was credited with being the founder of a literature that was uniquely American. America was a very new country at this time, the Declaration of Independence, in which America claimed independence from England was signed in 1776 and was still quite recent. In 1781 America had proclaimed themselves as the First New Nation. They then began to create a culture that was uniquely American to give Americans a sense of nationalism. America had been influenced by English literature and now there was a search for a uniquely American literature. Walt Whitman took it upon himself to help to promote American identity. Whitman was very liberal as he was pro-homosexuality and an early supporter of women's equality. Whitman was also a passionate believer of an American Ideology that believed in American's exceptionalism. Whitman used his poetry to spread his democratic vision for America; there are many good examples of the theme of democracy in Whitman's poetry.
Walt Whitman’s hard childhood influenced his work greatly, he was an uneducated man but he managed to become one of the most known poets. Whitman changed poetry through his work and is now often called the father of free verse. Especially through Leaves of Grass he expressed his feelings and sexuality to world and was proud of it. He had a different view at life, his hard childhood, and his sexuality that almost no one understood made him introduce a new universal theme to the world. Almost all critics agree that Walt Whitman was one of the most influential and innovative poet. Karl Shapiro says it best, “The movement of his verses is the sweeping movement of great currents of living people with general government and state”.
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 on Long Island. As a child he loved to read Sir Walter Scott (Baym 2076). As an adult he took a major interest in the Democratic party, and "began a political career by speaking at Democratic rallies" (2077). However, he is not remembered for his political action; Americans remember Whitman for his amazing poetry. He was one of the first American poets to write his poetry "without rhyme, in rolling, rhapsodic, metrical, or semi-metrical prose-verse of very irregular lengths" (Rossetti), as one of his contemporary critics noted. This new style was not the only way Whitman broke from the way the traditional poets wrote. As Rossetti described, "He not unfrequently alludes to gross things and in gross words—the clearest, the bluntest, and nearly the least civilly repeatable words which can come uppermost to the lips." Whitman’s refusal to shy away from taboo subjects disgusted and offended many of the people of his day, but Whitman possessed "determination not to yield to censorship or to apologize for his earlier poems" (Baym 2079).
Poetry is a universe of subjectivity. When two poems are set up, side-by-side, to create discussion, results may vary. But it is clear in Sherman Alexie’s two poems, “Defending Walt Whitman” and “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel”, where the discussion must go. Alexie explores Native American culture and the effect that the Europeans have had on the native people of the United States. This feat is accomplished through the thoughtful use of several literary devices, including tone, simile, allusion, and metaphor.
Wikipedia contributors. "Walt Whitman." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Walt Whitman had many ideas of how America was not living up to what the founding fathers had hoped to have achieved in their democracy a century before in succeeding from England. Whitman thought that the government was beginning to resemble what the founding fathers had fought and multitudes of soldiers died to escape from. In contrast to what the government had been returning to, Americans as a whole were finding their identity as a very young nation and were proud to call themselves Americans. Whitman was progressive when it came to his ideas on women and industry and it showed in the book Democratic Vistas.
One of the most popular American poets is Walt Whitman. Whitman’s poetry has become a rallying cry for Americans, asking for individuality, self-approval, and even equality. While this poetry seems to be truly groundbreaking, which it objectively was, Whitman was influenced by the writings of others. While Whitman may not have believed in this connection to previous authors, critics have linked him to Emerson, Poe, and even Carlyle. However, many critics have ignored the connection between Walt Whitman and the English writer William Wordsworth. A major proponent of Romanticism, Wordsworth’s influence can be seen in Whitman 's poetry through a Romantic connection. Despite differences in form, one can see William Wordsworth’s influence on Walt
Walt Whitman is arguably America’s most influential poet in history. Born Walter Whitman in May 31st, 1819 to Walter Whitman and Louisa van Velsor, he was immediately nicknamed ‘Walt’ to distinguish him from his father. He came to life in West Hills on the famous Long Island, the second of nine children that grew up in Brooklyn. He came to be fondly known as ‘the Bard of Democracy’, mainly because that was a main message in his work. He is also celebrated as ‘the father of the free verse’. He was a liberal thinker and was vehemently against slavery, although later on he was against the abolitionists because, according to him, they were anti-democracy. He managed to marry transcendentalism with realism in his works. His occupation was a printer school teacher and editor.