The time of Romanticism brought upon many trends extending from the idea of individualism as a rebellious separation from the classics, an idealistic outlook and finally to a strong religious base. Most of the writers of the Romantic period followed Pantheism "God is everything and everything is God ... the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature" (Owen 1971: 74). The idea of Pantheism was that everything in the world worked in unity. In some of the works of the Romantic period the expression of nature and humans are not separate entities, but one in the same. Even though in reality it did not work this way Pantheism was the ideal of most these writers and idealism in itself was yet another trend in the Romantic period. Another trend in the Romantic period was religion and the idea of sprits. Many writers of the Romantic Period such as Rousseau, Montaigne and Walt Whitman all shared this idea of being individualistic and in most their works it came out as an ego of self expression. Being an individual at the time was a popular thought of people living in the 19th century; thus, the start of the Civil War after most of poetry from this period was published.
During the 19th century Walt Whitman was known as an unconventional writer. His work was rebellious and did not stick to any trends of poetry before his time. However, in this technique or lack of technique Whitman marked a new trend of free-verse. Whitman's anthology Leaves of Grass caused a conservational uproar which was no surprise due to his repetitive use of slang, angry diction and an all around "savage" style, (Matthiessen, 181).
This now is too lamentable a face for a man;
Some abject louse, asking leave to be-cr...
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...rns of the poetry before him. For Whitman he felt he did not need to stick to a pattern, likewise he wanted his poetry to come to him randomly, "like music." For Whitman expression was the only purpose to his poetry and everything else was not important, (Allen, 212).
Works Cited
Allen, Gay Wilson. The New Walt Whitman Handbook. New York: New York University
Press, 1975.
Greenspan, Ezra, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman (Cambridge UP, 1995),
Matthiessen, F.O. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and
Whitman. London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1941.
Owen, H. P. Concepts of Deity. London: Macmillan, 1971.
Saintsbury, George. Review of Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman. Academy 10 (1874)
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism/
During the late romantic period, two of history’s most profound poets, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, emerged providing a foundation for, and a transition into Modern poetry. In its original form, their poems lacked the characteristics commonly attributed to most romantic poets of the mid to late nineteenth century who tended to utilize “highly stylized verses, having formal structures, figurative language and adorned with symbols” (worksheet). Unique and “eccentric use of punctuation” as well as “irregular use of meter and rhyme” were the steppingstones for this new and innovative style of writing (worksheet). Even though these two writers rejected the traditional approach, both remained firmly dedicated to their romantic idealism of the glass of water being “half full” opposed to “half empty.” Noted for his frequent practice of catalogs and parallelism, Whitman stirred up much controversy with his first edition of “leaves of Grass” in 1855. Many critics responded negatively to the ...
Walt Whitman is considered one of the famous American writers who lived in the 19th century. The author is primarily known for his poetry, and also best known for his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, which was published in 1855 as a collection of 12 poems. Whitman’s poems were different from those written during the era, and this is because they had a unique style, as well as a concentration of commonplace subjects. The use of commonplace subjects led to many people calling the author the “poet of democracy.” This paper compares Pre-war Whitman and Post-war Whitman. However, this is done through comparing the Song of Myself, Beat! Beat! Drums!, and The Wound Dresser. In addition, the essay also focuses on other facets of the poet.
Walt Whitman is one of America’s most popular and most influential poets. The first edition of Whitman’s well-known Leaves of Grass first appeared in July of the poet’s thirty-sixth year. A subsequent edition of Leaves of Grass (of which there were many) incorporated a collection of Whitman’s poems that had been offered readers in 1865. The sequence added for the 1867 edition was Drum-Taps, which poetically recounts the author’s experiences of the American Civil War.
Very few people will contest that Walt Whitman may be one of the most important and influential writers in American literary history and conceivably the single most influential poet. However many have claimed that Whitman’s writing is so free form as evident in his 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself that it has no style. The poetic structures he employs are unconventional but reflect his very democratic ideals towards America. Although Whitman’s writing does not include a structure that can be easily outlined, masterfully his writing conforms itself to no style, other then its own universal and unrestricted technique. Even though Whitman’s work does not lend itself to the conventional form of poetry in the way his contemporaries such as Longfellow and Whittier do, it holds a deliberate structure, despite its sprawling style of free association.
Whether they have loved or loathed his poetry, each writer or critic who has encountered "Leaves of Grass" has had to come to some sort of reckoning with Walt Whitman. The Good Gray Poet, the grandfather of American poetry, has been deified by some and labeled a cultural and artistic barbarian by others. While Whitman freely admitted in his preface to the final publication of "Leaves of Grass" that the work was faulty and far from perfect, some critics see no redeeming qualities in Whitman's art. Henry James goes so far as to say, "Whitman's verse...is an offense to art." (James, p.16) James chastises Whitman for extolling and exploiting what James feels are truisms. To James, Whitman's poetry is completely self-aggrandizing; it lacks substance and coherence. Through an examination of a specific poem, "The Wound Dresser", the claims of James and other negative critics can be refuted.
A technique Whitman used in his poetry was to write in free verse, making his poetry unrestricted and easy to read. Whitman's unique way of writing poetry that was easy to read made it inclusive, this fits in with his themes of democracy as a democracy includes everyone. In conclusion, “Leaves of Grass” embodied the spirit of democracy that Whitman was so fond of. The theme of democracy is evident in Walt Whitman's poetry. Walt Whitman had liberal values for his time as he was a supporter of rights for women and homosexuals. Whitman wanted an equal democratic America which was what the Founding Fathers of America had set out to create.
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”.
The homosexual themes displayed in Walt Whitman’s works, especially in his most famous collection of poems Leaves of Grass, raise the question of his own sexuality. Many of his poems depicted affection and sexuality in a simple, personal manner, causing nineteenth century Americans to view them as pornographic and obscene. Based on this poetry, Whitman is usually assumed to be homosexual, or at least bisexual. However, this assumption does not account for major influences of his writing such as the shift from transcendentalism to realism and the American Civil War. After considering these factors, it can be concluded that Whitman’s poems were not intended to set apart a few homosexual men, but to bring all men and women together. Walt Whitman’s poems of spiritual love and physical togetherness of both genders emphasized exalted friendships and are indicative of his omnisexuality, or lack of a complete sexual preference, rather than his alleged homosexuality.
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.
(A critique of Walt Whitman’s themes and ideas in Song of Myself 6, 46, 47)
While Wordsworth formatted his poetry into beautiful ballads, Whitman wrote in more relatable poems, some of which truly did not follow any form. According to William E. H. Meyer Jr., “Indeed, the very substance of Whitman 's ‘barbaric yawp,’ in contrast to Wordsworth 's ‘plaintive numbers,’ is the revolutionary and unbridgeable gap that exists between a ‘song of myself’ and a ‘prelude’ or ‘lyrical ballad.’”(Meyer 83). While Wordsworth keeps more structure and regulation in his ballads, Whitman does what feels most effective. This allows for Whitman to be slightly more organic in form than Wordsworth. However, this difference can also be seen as an addition to Wordsworth, as Wordsworth advocated for organic form. Whitman’s further use of organic form is still within the influence of Wordsworth, as it ties back to the Romantic ideals he put forth. Overall, while Whitman may have denied inspiration from Wordsworth, the evidence points in a different
His greatest work was ‘leaves of grass’, which is a collection of poems which he first self-published at the age of 37 in the year 1855. It was a free-verse that was loosely inspired by the Bible. It was at first criticized in his country for its ‘raw sexuality’ but was widely acclaimed elsewhere in Britain by prominent writers. It was an attempt by Whitman to get through to the ordinary American people by giving them their very own ‘epic’. He went on changing and adding material to this work until his death in the year 1892 in Camden, New Jersey. The poem ‘America’ is one of the late additions to the collection, written in 1888.
He crossed the boundaries of the poetry literature and gave a poetry worth of our democracy that contributed to an immense variety of people, nationalities, races. Whitman’s self-published Leaves of Grass was inspired in part by his travels through the American frontier and by his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson (Poetry Foundation). He always believed in everyone being treated equally and bringing an end to slavery and racism. Through his poetry, Whitman tried to bring every people in America together by showing them what happiness, love, unison, and real knowledge looked. His poetry and its revolution changed the world of American literature
The Dream of American Romanticism The Romantic Movement seized America from 1800 to 1860. A romantic is the name given to those who value feeling and intuition over reason (Arpin 162). During this time period, Americans were migrating westward to explore the land of America. Moving towards the countryside, they pursued beauty and tried evading their daily troubles. Romantics argued that art rather than science could best express universal truth (The Romantic Period, 1820-1860: Essayists and Poets). The romantics took a less rational approach with their beliefs. Rationalists and romantics had a very different look on cities. Rationalists looked at them as a place for success. Romantics ran from these cities viewing them as a place of poverty and death. During this time Americans felt a sense of freedom from English rule. Frontier promised opportunity for expansion, growth, freedom; Europe lacked this element (American Romanticism Overview). Americans felt the need to explore science and the land of North America. This movement brought literature of fireside poetry to the American Hero. Over the course of the American Romantic Period, focusing on emotions, changed the way Americans comprehended upward mobility in the American dream, which in turn changed the way authors wrote and lived their lives. The numerous characteristics of the romantic period helped shape the era. Romantics obsessed over the idea of individuality. They felt the need to have self-expression. They felt that they could do anything with self-reliance. “One could live without fear not because it was possible to control events but because it was possible to achieve self-control” (Cullen 71). Henry David Thoreau expressed himself by getting away from everybody and ...
Walt Whitman was one of the most controversial poets of his day. The background of Whitman for his styles of poetry included love, friendship, sexuality, and democracy. Because of these topics, Whitman published his own works because no one would publish them. In fact, if anyone were to obtain a copy of the book Leaves of Grass, they were told to burn and destroy it. The works Song of Myself, which is included in Leaves of Grass, was no less different in his controversial works. Today, these works are