Walt Whitman's Life Reflected In Langston Hughes Work

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Walt Whitman is, with only a small bit of hyperbole, one of the most prolific and influential poets in the history of American literature (Norton, Pg 20). His influence is felt even today, decades after his death, and is sometimes called “the father of free verse.” His influence can be felt in many poets, from Pablo Neruda to Langston Hughes. Hughes, an avid reader and student of poetry, no doubt read Whitman and followed Whitman in using his own voice, unashamedly individualistic and pioneering just as the master himself. They differ considerably dialectically and in some ways stylistically, but the realism that Whitman expressed in his poetry can be very clearly felt in much of Langston Hughes’ work. Whitman, himself influenced heavily by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Norton, Pg 20), often wrote about the world’s wild places, the solitude and spirituality of nature, but also experimented with transcendentalism, while Hughes’ work was often more …show more content…

Dunbar was born the son of former slaves (Norton, Pg 621), and wrote prolifically about the hardships that African Americans faced, utilizing regional dialect to evoke powerful emotions in his readers. First published at the tender age of 16 in his local newspaper, Dunbar would become, arguably, one of the nation’s first great African American poets, or at least one of the nation’s first well-known black poets (Norton, Pg 621). Displaying not only a mastery of the art form but a powerful command of the English language itself, Dunbar presented his readers with an unflinchingly realistic and heartfelt portrait of the plight of his people, and while this earned him many admirers and much praise, it also made him a lightning rod for controversy in a nation still stinging, in many ways, from the Civil War. Dunbar’s influence on the life and writing of Langston Hughes, himself a poet who avidly used dialect in his work, cannot be

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