The Democratic Value of Whitman's Leaves of Grass

In this essay, the author

• Analyzes how early reviews of walt whitman's leaves of grass evince an incipient awareness of the unifying and acutely democratic aspects of poetry.
• Analyzes how the language of mid-nineteenth-century reviews of leaves of grass reflects nostalgia for the community focus of early jeffersonian america, influenced by andrew jackson's liberal individualism.
• Explains that he was different from the founding fathers', and far more democratic. he maintained that the people always remain active in the governing process. they exercised their right of self-government through the ballot box.

• Analyzes how early reviews of walt whitman's leaves of grass evince an incipient awareness of the unifying and acutely democratic aspects of poetry.
• Analyzes how the language of mid-nineteenth-century reviews of leaves of grass reflects nostalgia for the community focus of early jeffersonian america, influenced by andrew jackson's liberal individualism.
• Explains that he was different from the founding fathers', and far more democratic. he maintained that the people always remain active in the governing process. they exercised their right of self-government through the ballot box.
• Analyzes how government officials feared the social and political manifestation of jackson's radically democratic theories. jackson trusted in the deep-seated integrity of american citizens.
• Explains that jackson's ideas certainly influenced american political organization, although not in the optimistic manner that he conceived. his radical democracy led to threats of secession by the southern states in 1850.
• Analyzes how individualism pervaded american society beginning with jackson's presidency in 1829. alexis de tocqueville’s democracy in america observes the state of democracy in mid-nineteenth-century america from the perspective of its french author.
• Explains that the family controlled only until children reached adulthood; people of conspicuous ability or ambition readily changed locale and jobs as opportunity offered; class connections changed as one succeeded or one failed, especially in an economic sense.
• Explains that with all of this individual mobility, american society could no longer boast of union. "from many, many" replaced e pluribus unum.
• Analyzes the tension between individualism and balance between the individual and the community in walt whitman's america.
• Analyzes how whitman's democratic vision, like all visions, was forward-looking, although it is fermenting at all times in the present national psyche.
• Analyzes how whitman worked within the individual / community opposition of mid-nineteenth-century america, an opposition that defines the ultimate threat to the united states at the time.
• Analyzes how whitman in "as i ebb'd" is concerned with his failure as a poet to recognize the elements of the world that are external to his self.
• Analyzes whitman's annoyance as he recalls the nature of an earlier poetic vision, a vision that dealt too much with his own self.
• Analyzes how whitman's new identity in "as i ebb'd" allows him to envision a truly democratic union of individual and community.
• Describes the main points of the paper.
• Describes the main points of the paper.
• Analyzes how whitman accepts his position among the sands, first observing himself, then perceiving the community, and finally noting the individual members of that community.
• Analyzes how whitman confirms his mature democratic vision in "on the beach at night alone." he understands the "clef" of the universe, the guiding tone that unites "all" in harmony.
• Analyzes how whitman's democratic revelation is largely a personal vision, yet in "song for all seas," it grows to encompass the political sphere.
• Analyzes how whitman applies his new philosophy of democracy to national politics, reconciling these differences and ending "song for all seas" with a poetic celebration of this reconciliation.
• Analyzes how political differences, rooted in individualism, disappear as "all nations" of political thought are merged in a common "signal."
• Analyzes how whitman celebrates his reconciliation of the individual / community opposition in the political sphere by illuminating society with his reformed political ideology in "after the sea-ship."
• Analyzes how whitman preserves the individuality of people in his democratic poetic, for they are still "flecks of foam and many fragments."
• Analyzes how whitman's philosophical position on the role of literature in america allows his poems to exist as cultural artifacts, influenced by historical political and social discourse.
• Explains adolph, robert, and donald e. morse's the delegated intellect: emersonian essays on literature, science and art in honor of don gifford.
• Introduces grimsted, david. notions of the americans: 1820-1860.
• Analyzes the rev. of leaves of grass, by walt whitman.
• Analyzes the rev. of leaves of grass, by walt whitman. north american review jan.
• Analyzes levine, herbert j., "union and disunion in 'song of myself.'" american literature 59.4: 570-589.
• Explains miller, james e., jr. leaves of grass: america's lyric-epic of self
• Explains that remini, robert v., the legacy of andrew jackson: essays on democracy, indian removal, and slavery. baton rouge: louisiana state up, 1988.
• States southard, sherry, "whitman and language: great beginnings for great american poetry."
• Analyzes bradley and blodgett's "as i ebb'd with the ocean of life."