Walt Whitman: Homoeroticism in Leaves of Grass
analytical Essay
1867 words
Leaves of Grass is Walt Whitman’s life legacy and at the same time the most praised and condemned book of poetry. Although fearful of social scorn, there are several poems in Leaves of Grass that are more explicit in showing the homoerotic imagery, whereas there are several subtle – should I say “implicit” – images woven into the fabric of the book. It is not strange, then, that he created many different identities in order to remain safe. What Whitman faced in writing his poetry was the difficulty in describing and resonating manly and homosexual love. He was to find another voice of his, a rhetoric device, and his effort took two forms: simplified, and subverted word play.
The first was to understand and render the experience in everyday terms, as in the poem Behold This Swarthy Face. Whitman puts emphasis on masculinity “in this swarthy face, these gray eyes” (149), and other words, too, are expressive enough to explain to the reader what kind of person is to be loved. What is not as subtle as in some other of Whitman’s poems is the idea in the second part of the poem: “And I on the crossing of the street or on the ship’s deck give a kiss in / return” (149) – the meeting of the two is to be recognized anywhere, be it on the street or on a ship's deck.
When it comes to the second form, Davidson notices that “The other and far more prevalent form of presented homoerotic love was by means of terms of oppression, subversion” (54). Exemplar poem of this form is Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only. In it the lyrical subject is trapped in fears and must break out of suppression in order to be himself. In the end of the poem there is a sudden release: “O pulse of my life! / Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in...
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Bergman, David. Choosing Our Fathers: Gender and Identity in Whitman, Ashbery and Richard Howard. American Literary History 1.2 (1989): 383-403. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.
Davidson, Edward H.. The Presence of Walt Whitman. Journal of Aesthetic Education 17.4 (1983): 41-63. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.
Herrman, Steven B.. Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Imagination. Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche 1.2 (2007): 16-47. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.
Maslan, Mark. Whitman and His Doubles: Division and Union in Leaves of Grass and Its Critics. American Literary History 6.1 (1994): 119-139. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.
Metzer, David. Reclaiming Walt: Marc Blitzstein’s Whitman Settings. Journal of the American Musicological Society 48.2 (1995): 240-271. JSTOR. Web. 29 March 2012.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Pennsylvania: the Pennsylvania State University, 2007. Print.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that these are exactly the same to all in all nations.
- Analyzes how walt whitman's leaves of grass is the most praised and condemned book of poetry.
- Argues that whitman's poetry is homoerotic, but there is no proof that all what was mentioned and will be mentioned refers to his homosexuality.
- Narrates how bergman, david, davidson, edward h., herrman and the homoerotic imagination in walt whitman's leaves of grass and its critics.
Related
- analytical
- Criticism Of Walt Whitmananalytical essayCritique of Whitman’s Pedagogy (A critique of Walt Whitman’s themes and ideas in Song of Myself 6, 46, 47) Pedagogy is a teaching style that is used to help students learn. Teachers often have a unique pedagogy that they prefer to follow. Some teachers prefer to lecture, others model, some simply assign the work, and to each their own. “…there is some evidence of teachers abandoning formal pedagogies in favor of informal ones…” (Cain).
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how whitman's pedagogy is a teaching style that helps students learn. some teachers prefer to lecture, others model, some assign the work, and to each their own.
- Analyzes how walt whitman was known for his hands-on approach when it came to learning. he was fired for taking his students out to see the frogs when they had good textbooks.
- Analyzes how whitman's song of myself 46 encourages students to propose their own questions and then learn the proper inquiry as to how to answer them. the gift of self-learning is a major concept in his pedagogy.
- Analyzes how song of myself 47 proves that a swimmer who destroys the teacher, truly honors his style.
- Analyzes how whitman's pedagogy consisted of three major points: the teacher has just as much to learn from the student, self-teaching is one of the greatest assets a teacher can give, and the measure of their success is by their students' success.
731 wordsRead More - Rhetorical Analysis Of The Leaves Of Grass By Walt Whitmananalytical essayWalt Whitman is known for his excellence in writing and poetry during the mid 19th century in American Literature. The Leaves of Grass is one of his more memorable works of literature. The work expresses many thoughts and opinions about art, nature, and early nationalism. It also includes a multitude messages for the readers in an attempt to capture the reader and reinforce his points.Within the Preface of the work he talks about issues that he feels are important to inform his audience before they continue into the literature. These observations made by Whitman signify some importance to him in one way or another. Using his rhetorical skills, Walt Whitman attempts to educate his audience about the importance of self improvement and self awareness
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how walt whitman's the leaves of grass is one of his most memorable works of literature. it expresses thoughts and opinions about art, nature, and early nationalism.
- Analyzes how whitman's preface to leaves of grass hides deeper meanings in a shroud pretentious wording.
- Analyzes how whitman informs his audience that they have potential to control themselves and become great men and women of their time and of the future.
- Analyzes how whitman uses poets as a metaphor for people implying that great people do not try to create excuses or justify certain actions.
- Analyzes how whitman explains excellence in the work and how to achieve it. the best poets take their craft seriously and attempt to connect the audience with the story.
- Analyzes how whitman uses his analogy of people and poets to express his thought about making the best of all situations.
- Explains that originality is a concept that most people strive to achieve in some form, werther that is in the creation of one's personality. whitman feels no different.
- Analyzes how whitman uses poets as source to compare to people, expressing how amazing people do not slack on a final product.
- Analyzes how whitman is a patriot who believes in the people of the united states and their unlimited potential to accomplish tasks.
- Analyzes how walt whitman's preface to leaves of grass informs his audience about ways to bring about self improvements and bring awareness of oneself through comparison of people, poets, and literary arts.
1592 wordsRead More - Whitman and Homosexualityanalytical essayWhitman and Homosexuality While responses to Whitman's poetry have always been diverse in some ways, the interpretations of his homosexuality can be divided into three stages. In general terms, Whitman's earliest critics tried to deny Whitman's "deviance"; later critics accepted his homosexuality yet framed it as a marginalized truth; and contemporary critics have exploded in response to these years of oppression, outing Whitman in loud declarations of his intense feelings for men. In 1914, Basil de Selincourt in his work, Walt Whitman: A Critical Study, fights desperately against the homosexual innuendos and imagery in the "Calamus" poems, failing to name directly, in the process, that of which he is trying to prove Whitman guiltless.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how whitman's poetry has always been diverse in some ways, but his homosexuality can be divided into three stages. his earliest critics tried to deny his "deviance"
- Analyzes how basil de selincourt in his work, walt whitman: a critical study, fights desperately against the homosexual innuendos and imagery in the "calamus" poems.
- Analyzes how selincourt's "earth my likeness" is the only passage in leaves of grass that can be construed as an allusion to sodomy.
- Analyzes how whitman inserted, in many of his poems, lines and sentiments which, to the ordinary reader, are not only shocking and offensive, but are liable to produce the impression.
- Analyzes how w. h. trimble tackled the issue of sex in his 1905 whitman study.
- Analyzes how trimble defended whitman's sexual material, which he considered the most misunderstood aspect of his work. he limits his study to the "children of adam" poems.
- Analyzes how henry seidel canby's walt whitman: an american, published in 1941, spiritualized and marginalized his homosexuality, but reconfigured his male-male relationships as transcending the sexual and cohering more to the concept of paternalism.
- Explains that such men are common, especially among strong creative intellects, whose imaginative sympathies penetrate beyond sexual differences. they are rarely homosexuals in the vulgar sense of the word.
- Analyzes how james e. miller, jr., in his 1957 publication, a critical guide to leaves of grass, makes no reference at all to whitman's homosexuality.
- Analyzes how modern critics have tried to suppress and distort the many homoerotic aspects of whitman's poetry with a fervent concentration upon his homosexuality as the foremost influence on his work.
- Analyzes how whitman proposes a radical redistribution of that energy through the release of sperm.
- Analyzes how the suppression, marginalization, and full-blown analyses of the homosexual content of whitman's poetry have negated the crucial medium of homosexuality as an important influence upon his poetry.
- Analyzes how whitman challenged literary conventions, celebrated sex, internalized and universalized all people. his idea of homosexuality was never adequately placed in its 19th century context.
- Analyzes how the passages about same-sex love in whitman's poems are not out of keeping with then-current theories and practices that underscore the healthiness of such love.
- Explains that the term "homosexualitat" first appeared in 1869 in a german magazine and was diagnosed by karl westfal as an isolable medical condition.
- Analyzes how whitman's america: a cultural biography discusses other instances of male-male physical relationships in his time.
- Explains that reynolds included in his study a consensus done by michael lynch. lynch examined upwards of 75,000 indictments from new york dating from 1796 to 1893.
- Explains the concept of brotherly love and phrenology in the old testament.
- Analyzes how whitman used the theory of phrenology to give a name to the unnamed love that had existed between men since biblical times.
- Analyzes how miller saw calamus poems as a reflection of the spiritual love of man for man.
- Analyzes the attributes of the [calamus] plant: the size and toughness of spears symbolize the depth and hardiness of such love; the distinctive odor suggests the spirituality of attachments; and the seclusion indicates the rarity
- Analyzes how miller's extended metaphor of the calamus leaves may be sufficient if taken out of context of everything that whitman ever wrote, but it fails to work in the whole of leaves of grass.
- Analyzes how the calamus section needs to be taken in context with the ultimate push towards the ideal american democracy in song of myself to accurately read whitman's struggle with leaves of grass
- Analyzes how ostriker touches upon the subject that breaks whitman's poetry away from being labeled specifically as "hetero" or "homo."
- Analyzes how whitman takes "of these one and all" and "weaves the song of [himself].
- Analyzes how whitman pushes emersonian individuality to its radical end. he challenges the sexual conventions of the literary times, not just those of homosexual sex.
- Analyzes how whitman's sexual scenes are presented in a discourse of physicality, but the subjects involved are often the body and soul.
- Explains that the erotic was not sex, but a means of knowledge.
- Analyzes how whitman's homoerotic images in "we two boys together clinging" and "interpenetration" of "a woman waits for me" suggest something more than just a same-sex act of coitus.
- Analyzes how richard norton's article, "walt whitman, prophet of gay liberation," argues that the american ideal of universal equality is inherently homosexual, and homosexual love is the physiological basis of democracy.
- Analyzes how reynolds disproves the misleading notion that some have of whitman as a lonely voice crying out in the wilderness of homophobia.
- Argues that reynolds is in the minority of critics who have accurately studied the two competing dichotomies of whitman.
- Introduces robert k. martin's the continuing presence of walt whitman: the life after the life.
- Describes the books by walt whitman: a critical guide to leaves of grass.
3136 wordsRead More - Whitmananalytical essayWhitman in his time was not well understood, and his style of writing put off as childish and obscene, but what was once looked upon as overly simplistic and droll is now regarded as literary nobel, and the writer one of the greats. Part of this successful transition can be accredited to Whitman himself, for using obtuse allegory, refusing to date his poetry with the earmarks of that century, and going against traditional poetic standards. His poetry has been used a century later, especially lyrics from the 45-poem- cluster "Calamus" cluster,to become the manifesto of the 1970s gay liberation movement, (http://www.u-s- history.com/pages/h3833.html, ND, ¶ 9) proving that while not the most popular in life, Walt Whitman has left his undisputed mark on the history of poetry.
In this essay, the author
- Quotes walt whitman, one of the most outlandish and outspoken poets of his time. though he didn't create free verse poetry, a main proprietor for its rise in popularity during the late 1800's.
- Explains that whitman's life began as the world was heralding in a new era of its own, the nineteenth century. the rapid expansion of the united states during this time influenced his poetry.
- Explains that whitman's first job was as an apprentice for a local newspaper, and he frequented the editing desk throughout his life. his opinions about the slave trade and "traditional values" evoked backlash.
- Analyzes how political stigma and war plagued whitman's later life. after the civil war ended and lincoln is assassinated, he travels the wartorn country, giving the "death of lincoln" speech.
- Explains that whitman was born in long island, new york, in may 1819, and grew up in a nine-child home in brooklyn. his mother was dutch, his father was purebred english.
- Analyzes how whitman's leaves of grass received little press, except for ralph waldo emerson, who chastised him for his "sensual obscenity."
- Narrates how whitman's bloody surroundings inspired a group of war poems, called "drum taps."
- Describes how they see three forms lying on stretchers, brought out there untended lying, over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket, folding, covering all.
- Describes how whitman's life was undergoing many changes in the weeks and months following the end of the war.
- Analyzes how "on the beach at night" is one of walt whitman's less popular poems, often confused with another similarly named. the poem opens to a child and her father watching "the east, the autumn sky."
- Analyzes how the unpatterned stanza switch, common in all of whitman's poems, begins with a whispered consolation that the ravening clouds shall not long be victorious.
- Analyzes how whitman's use of brackets in the last stanza gives the suggestion of speech,words of action, and hints as to the underlying theme.
- Analyzes how he splits the stanza and slows it, where in the same place commas would’ve been read over without hesitation.
- Explains that whitman's style of writing was considered childish and obscene, but is now regarded as a literary nobel, and the writer one of the greats.
1636 wordsRead More - Walt Whitmananalytical essayCurrent, Richard N., Freidel, Frank, and Williams, T. Harry. American History: A Survey. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971. Pages 292-293 Encyclopedia of Biography: Volume 16. "Walt Whitman." New York: Gale Research Publications, 1998. Pages 249-251 Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980. Pages 124-145, 202-222, 270-303 Lowen, Nancy. Voices in Poetry: Walt Whitman. Minnesota: Creative Editions, 1994 Various. A Treasury of the Worlds’ Best Loved Poems. New York: Avenel Books, 1951. Pages 143-161 Webster, Orville III. 50 Famous Americans. Los Angeles: JBG Publishing, 1991. Pages 122-124.
In this essay, the author
- Describes walt whitman as the forerunner of 20th century poetry, praising democracy, and becoming a proclaimed poet of american democracy.
- Analyzes how whitman's 'song of myself' was a lyric poem told through the joyful experiences of the narrator.
- Describes walt whitman as a printing apprentice, journalist, editor, and school teacher. he sold his first story to 'the democratic review' shortly after leaving his teaching job.
- Explains that leaves of grass was praised by many, including ralph waldo emerson, john addington symonds, and edward carpenter, but the world was not ready for whitman's celebration of the human body and spirit.
- Analyzes how whitman's poetry became preoccupied with the soul, death, and immortality. he wrote letters to soldiers he helped during the war.
- Analyzes how whitman's poems reflected his love for his country and one of its greatest leaders. the movie dead poet’s society used the lincoln-inspired poem to make a point.
- Explains that whitman lived on a clerk's salary and modest royalties, and sent money to his widowed mother and invalid brother. he laid the foundations of humanity and sympathy in the human heart and brain.
- Explains that whitman was the poet of democracy, love, death, and the natural. his work asserted the worth of the individual and oneness of all humanity.
- Cites current, richard n., freidel, frank, and williams, t. harry. american history: a survey.
2296 wordsRead More - Whitman's Music as a Means of Expressionanalytical essayWhitman's Music as a Means of Expression In his verses, Walt Whitman eradicates divisions of individual entities while simultaneously celebrating their unique characteristics. All components of the universe are united in a metaphysical intercourse, and yet, are assigned very distinct qualities so as to keep their identities intact. Often times, Whitman demonstrates these conceptions through elements of song. “Walt Whitman caroled throughout his verse.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how whitman's poetry is a result of observing the beginnings of industrialization in new york.
- Analyzes how whitman depicts each individual adding to society as a selection of music. hearing america sing is simply observing the mechanics of how the world functions and making an effort to be aware of the contributions of all its members.
- Analyzes how whitman observes what is not obvious to the untrained ear. he hears music in mundane people performing their daily chores. the whistling and humming of the carpenter and the spinning girl are considered musical.
- Analyzes how whitman expresses a spiritual communion with all persons. he blurs the boundaries separating individual experiences while still assigning each character with their own unique qualities.
- Analyzes how allusions to music in whitman's poetry are pervading and eclectic. the song within his poetry intended to articulate the american experience, the self, and the soul.
- Opines that it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit.
- Analyzes how whitman eradicates divisions of individual entities while simultaneously celebrating their unique characteristics. his musical poetry encompasses themes of social equality.
- Analyzes how whitman's poem, "song of myself," is an ode to society.
- Analyzes how whitman dismissed boundaries that separated winners and losers, the victors and the conquered; the ultimate democratization.
- Analyzes how whitman sings to the electricity of the body, the charge it possesses, and the soul. he exemplifies the equality of all people and explores their communion with one another.
- Analyzes the curious sympathy one feels when feeling with the hand the naked meat of the body, the circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out.
- Analyzes how whitman's language conveys his vision of sexual union by capturing the musicality of the experience. he deems all persons equally and interprets their existence as pieces of music.
2421 wordsRead More - Walt Whitmananalytical essayMuch of the poetry of the 19th century and before was designed in an identical way. Most of the poems that were produced at the time had the same conventional meters, rhymes, structures, and traditional subjects. No one was going against the grain, and the traditional form of poetry was becoming a habit. One man broke free from that habit, earned a name for himself as the "Father of the Free Verse," and took a place in history as one of the most important and innovative orchestrators of American poetry. Walt Whitman set himself apart from the traditional rules that governed poetry.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how walt whitman broke free from the traditional form of poetry and became one of the most important and innovative orchestrators of american poetry.
- Analyzes how whitman contrasted with his contemporaries, who wrote about themes that many had already written about long before.
- Narrates how they became tired and sick when they heard the astronomer lecture with much applause in the lecture-room.
- Explains that whitman wanted to view the world through his own perspective, and not through the eyes, influence, or fantasy of others.
- Analyzes how whitman's independence and self rule led him to write about what was around him, what he saw on daily basis, and that was life.
- Opines that life exists and identity is intertwined with the empty and useless years of the rest.
- Analyzes how whitman's testament that life should be celebrated is again seen in "crossing brooklyn ferry." he views the closeness of humanity and interconnected love as the best defense against leading an empty life.
- Analyzes how whitman's poetry focused on anatomy and the human body, which separated him from the customs of the time, and included highly explicit sexual elements.
787 wordsRead More - Disparate Objects in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grassanalytical essayReconciling Disparate Objects in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman begins this excerpt from Leaves of Grass by describing an elusive 'this': "This is the meal pleasantly set . . . . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger. " These two clauses that are set next to each other describe 'this' as very different things. " A meal pleasantly set," evokes a quiet table in a genteel household. In contrast, "the meat and drink for natural hunger," recalls a more rugged table at which the food will be consumed after strenuous activity.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how whitman places two contrasting ideas next to each other at all levels of the excerpt.
- Analyzes how whitman's famous catalogues are the first step in creating unity by placing disparate things next to each other and recognizing no difference.
- Analyzes how whitman demonstrates how to view contrasts, and forces the reader into believing that "there shall be no difference between them and the rest."
- Analyzes how whitman's poetic rhetoric attempts to create an internal unity from the contradictions.
598 wordsRead More - The Democratic Value of Whitman's Leaves of Grassanalytical essayEarly reviews of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass evince an incipient awareness of the unifying and acutely democratic aspects of the poetry. An article in the November 13th, 1856, issue of the New York Daily Times describes the modest, self-published book of twelve seemingly formless poems: "As we read it again and again, and we will confess that we have returned to it often, a singular order seems to arise out of its chaotic verses" (2). The Daily Times's identification of "order" out of "chaos" in Leaves of Grass parallels America's theoretical declaration of e pluribus unum, one out of many—a uniquely democratic objective. Also manifesting the early perception of the democratic poetic in Leaves of Grass, yet focusing more on Whitman and his content, an 1856 edition of the North American Review asserts, "Walter Whitman, an American,—one of the roughs,—no sentimentalist,—no stander above men and women, or apart from them,—no more modest than immodest,—has tried to write down here, in a sort of prose poetry, a good deal of what he has seen, felt, and guessed at in a pilgrimage of some thirty-five years" (275). Here, Whitman is seen as the archetypal American, practicing the democratic ideal of human equality. The reviewers' awareness of order out of chaos and of the ideological American attitude of equality is a written history of the problems of nineteenth-century, post-Jacksonian America, for the presence of their observations, which celebrate Whitman's democratic vision, can only suggest the absence of that vision in American politics and culture.
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 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."
3350 wordsRead More - Walt Whitman's Drum-Tapsanalytical essayWalt 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).
In this essay, the author
- Explains that walt whitman is one of america's most popular and influential poets. the first edition of leaves of grass incorporated a collection of poems that had been offered readers in 1865.
- Explains that 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, printer, journalist, and briefly a teacher.
- Narrates how whitman was drawn to washington by the civil war and his brother's wounding, which precipitated his contact with the carnage of the war.
- Analyzes how drum-taps is the personal-historical record of whitman's wartime occupation. the early poems celebrate the coming hostilities, expressing his "early near-mindless jingoism."
- Analyzes how whitman has strong aspirations toward poetry, but he is wanting entirely in the qualities that praed possessed in such large measure.
- Compares whitman's drum-taps with the times' assessment of the poem.
- Explains that memories of president lincoln delayed the publication of drum-taps, and includes "his masterpiece of the 1860s," "when lilacs last on the dooryard bloomed" and "o captain, my captain."
- Narrates how whitman worked in the office of indian affairs after the war, and was released after his supervisor discovered he was of leaves of grass.
- Explains that whitman's esteemed positions in literature and society were rising to the heights one finds them today.
- Describes the works of walter lowenfels and martin g. murray, "traveling with the wounded: walt whitman and washington’s civil war hospitals."
- Describes the walt whitman archive, ed. folson & kenneth m. price's "whitman’s drum-taps and washington civil war hospitals."
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