Walt Whitman 1819

1892
By: Sharon Mendez Rodriguez

Biography

Son of Walter and Louisa Velso Whitman, working-class parents

Parents had nine children.
Family moved to Brooklyn, NY, when Walt was 4 years old
Here, Walt attended public school until he was 11
He became a printers apprentice for a local newspaper when he
was 12 or 13.
Begins publishing his writing in popular New York magazine Mirror
Family moves back to the country.

 Walt joins them later and teaches school, works as printer, and briefly

establishes his own newspaper, The Long-Islander

Walt rarely holds down a job for a long time; he disliked systematic
labor and tended to roam
Impressions from his long walks through countryside, towns, and cities
(esp. New York) would leave a profound impression on his work
Whitman is overwhelmed by the carnage of the Civil War and volunteers
as a nurse, without pay, at military hospitals in Washington, D.C.
Under impression of the Civil War, he writes collection of poems, DrumTaps

 He briefly holds a government job in the Bureau of Indian

Affairs; is fired because Secretary of Interior James Hartland
objected to sexual imagery in Leaves of Grass
1882: publisher suppresses the book after the Massachusetts
District Attorney threatens to prosecute on the basis of
obscenity laws (thus: Leaves of Grass one of a long list of
banned or challenged books)
Weakened by strokes and tuberculosis, Whitman dies of
pneumonia on March 26, 1892.

Leaves of Grass
A spiritual autobiography
Expanded and revised 9 times throughout Whitmans life.

Poetic Devices of Whitman

Alliteration
Assonance
Imagery
Onomatopoeia
Catalog
Personification
Metaphor

Consonance

Parallel structure

Repetition

Anaphora (repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of

consecutive lines or sentences)

Cadence

Informal or slang; invented words

Tone

Alliteration
The repetition of the same
or similar consonant
sounds in words that are
close together.
It is used to create musical
effects and to establish
mood.

From Song of Myself #1

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Assonance
The repetition of similar
vowel sounds followed by
different consonant
sounds; especially in words
that are close together.

From Song of Myself #1

I loaf and invite my soul,

I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

Imagery
The use of language
to evoke a mental
picture or a
concrete sensation
of a person, place,
thing, or idea.

Leaves of Grass #10

Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt,
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee,
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-killed game,
Falling asleep on the gathered leaves with my dog and gun by my
side.

Catalog
A list of people, things, or
events.

Whitman uses long,

descriptive lists to express
the voice of America.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,/ Those of

mechanicsThe carpenter singingThe mason singingThe
boatman singingThe wood-cutters song

Parallel Structure
The repetition of words or
phrases that have similar
grammatical structure.

I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,

I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs..

Make It Sound Like Music

Cadence: The natural, rhythmic rise and fall of language
as it is normally spoken. It is not written to a particular,
predictable meter of language.
Free Verse: Poetry that does not conform to a regular
meter or rhyme scheme.
Walt Whitman was the first American poet to use free
verse.

New LANGUAGE
Whitman used chunky language to enlarge the
possibilities of American poetry.
He used slang words or invented words like Yawp to
reflect the depth of heart he hoped to express.
In repetition he trumpeted America as a land of greatness,
diversity, passion, and optimism. He wrote of a great
America.

Whitmans Poetry

Whitman declared his poetry would have:

Long lines that capture the rhythms of natural speech.
Free verse.
Vocabulary drawn from everyday speech.
A base in reality, not morality.

Critics
Critics of his time where often appalled by:
His lack of regular rhyme and meter (free verse) and
nontraditional poetic style and subject matter shocked
more traditional writers.
He also wrote poetry with unabashedly sexual imagery
and themes, some of them homoerotic. Examples
include the Calamus poems and I Sing the Body
Electric.

Themes
Democracy As a Way of Life
The Cycle of Growth and Death
The Beauty of the Individual

Motifs
Lists
The Human Body
Rhythm and Incantation

Symbols
Plants
The Self

When I read the Book

To a Stranger

Once I Passd Through a

Populous City

I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak

Growing

Song of Myself (1892 version)