Walt Whitman Proves that Greatness Comes in Many Ways, Shapes, and Forms

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A Literary Hero

What makes a poet spectacular? Some people say that a poet needs a good educational background. Well in this poets case it’s almost the exact opposite. Walt Whitman was a poet with a light educational background, he was enrolled in school until he was 11, and from then on he was self-taught. It is said that, “At a young age he fell in love with the written word and his fans fell in love with his work” (Mark Heftier). Whitman is an inspiration to many; he proved that greatness comes in many ways, shapes, and forms.

Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Long Island; to a working class family. He was the second of nine children. In his very young years of his life he grew up in New York. At that time it was still developing into a big city. Whitman had many jobs, he worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and on the side in addition to publishing his poetry he was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Later on in Whitman’s life he moved back to New York and became ...

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