Walter Whitman, Jr., was born on May 31, 1819, at Long Island, New York, to poor, obscure parents of English, Dutch, and Welsh descent– the second son in a family of nine children. The first of his work was called “Leaves of Grass”, at 1855. “It represents him as such, in shirt and trousers, with one hand on his hip and the other in his pocket (7; 137).” ” ‘Leaves of Grass,’ is Whitman’s own means of freeing himself from the outward and understandable world of precipitating himself into the mood of ecstasy (7; 164).” About eight hundred copies of “Leaves of Grass” were printed. Very few were sold. Dr. Bucke, Whitman’s first biographer, replies, “Whitman can in the ‘Leaves of Grass’ identify the traces of Whitman’s first remarkable mystic experience (7; 144).” The readers of “Leaves of Grass” discovered that there was twelve untitled poems and a preface explaining the poets view of poetry and its purpose.
Whitman has made an impact Walt Whitman also understands how the past continues to exist: it exists in the present, and comes into living form only when some individual man is willing to challenge it. “Whitman’s poetry has delicacy of music, of diction, and of form (8; 88).” Whitman quotes, “Soul sympathizes with soul . And that which tries to kill my soul, my soul hates. My soul and body are one. Soul and body wish to keep clean and whole (8; 22).” His message about himself is that he is the master of his fate. He is the captain of his soul. Whitman’s essential message was the “open road.” “Now Whitman wanted his soul to save itself, ‘he’ didn’t want to save it.
The Essay on Walt Whitman Wrote Grass Whitmans
Walt Whitman An American poet, whose work boldly asserts the worth of the individual and the oneness of all humanity. Walt Whitmans defiant break with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American thought and literature. He is something that no other country could have produced. He is utterly lawless, and in consequence passes for being a great original genius. His ...
It is a narrow, tight way, where the soul walks hemmed in between compulsions (8; 20).” His heroic message is: the soul is not to pile up defenses round herself. She is to go down the open road, as the road opens, into “Now Whitman was a great moralist. He was a great leader. He was a great changer of the blood in the veins of men (8; 18).” “Whitman is a very great poet, at the end of life. A very great post mortem poet, of the transitions of the soul as it loses its integrity (8; 17).” Whitman was the first to break the mental allegiance. He was the first to smash the old moral conception, that the soul of man is something “superior”, and “above” the flesh. “Whitman would never have been the great poet he is if he had not taken the last steps and looked over into death (8; 17).” There is much nonsense in Whitman, but there is also one of the finest qualities of the American artist. “The ‘Open Road’ is one of the most haunting of all his compositions.
It symbolizes to enter heartily upon the journey of life, questing for the unknown (7; 155).” Some of his other works like “Salut au Monde” is the first of his few well- articulated poems, a survey of the whole world– its sounds, its physical aspect, its rivers, and deserts. From Gilbert Highet, he criticises about “The Fourth of July,” he says, “Sometimes he seemed willfully grotesque, as though he enjoyed his own clumsiness, like a lazy cowhand slouching on the back of an ill-cared-for horse (6; 123).” Whitman described, ” ‘Specimen Days’ is perhaps the most wayward, spontaneous, fragmentary book ever printed (2; 37).” “Specimen Days” is to be found much of Whitman’s most complex and beautiful poems. Somewhat resembles an opers, beginning with a rich overture in which the themes are stated and the mood evoked. The language and imagery in which “Out of Cradle” reflects a world of pain assuage, contradictions reconciled, and disruptive power placated. “The basic weaknesses of ‘Democratic Vistas’ is its unquestioning belief in progress, its lack of an objective sense of history and of an understanding of society as the focus of evolving institutions (2; 36).” “Democratic Vistas” is Whitman’s most considerable pronouncement on social and cultural issues. The message of American democracy, the true democracy, where soul meets soul, in the open road. Democracy.
The Essay on Critique Of American Democracy
The introspective argument produced by Alexis De Tocqueville in his literary work entitled Democracy in America of the American democratic system is both cynical and enlightening. His prospective as a Frenchman on the bureaucracy of this nation cast new light on a government that is proclaimed to be superior then all others. How persuasive his arguments are that any American citizen who has had ...
American democracy is where all journey goes down the open road. So he sings of mystery of mainly love, the love of comrades. Out of this manly love will come the inspiration for the future. Everything was female to him: even himself. Nature was just one great function. “As soon as Walt ‘knew’ a thing, he assumed an one identity with it (8; 14).” Whitman’s remark to his Camden freinds in 1889: I pride myself in being a real humorist beneath everything else (2; 27).” “Song of Myself” is the identification of the self with other selves, often highly incongruous ones, followed by the extrication of the self from its momentarily assumed identity.
It also tells of every atom of him is healthy and death has not overcome yet. From “Starting From Paumanok”, he describes how he matures, learns and experiences new things in the New World. “Mannahatta” talks about his city where he lives in detailed description, what happen on an average day, and how he enjoys every minute of it. “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” is showing how a baby is being described of its ways it got to the world and it brings emotional feelings. “Drum-Taps” was added to the revised adition of “Leaves of Grass” which reflects Whitman’s deepening awareness of the significance of the American Civil War and the hope for reconciliation between the North and South. Having set himself a difficult task– to create a poetry that would reflect the American melting pot of races and nationalities, the democratic aspirations of the people, and the physical vastness of the United States– to accomplish his goals Whitman replaced traditional English form and meter of lines.
The Essay on United States American People World
During the end of the 19 th century, the United State's foreign policy became a major issue and was in an ideological conflict within the nation. A national debate grew between citizens as to the role of the United States and its overseas and military endeavors. Americans attempted to decide the role of democracy in the world and how the United States should act in world affairs. It all started ...
The subject matter, like the rhythm, was intended to be as free as the people and included topics usually avoided by the era’s poets– commonplace experiences, labor, sexuality. He remains the nation’s great celebrator and affirmer of democracy, freedom, the self, and the joys of living. In “Passage to India”, Whitman says that poets will teach people to use modern achievements in transportation and communication to unite the Eastern and Western worlds. And eventually, poets would lead people’s souls back to God. Whitman believed that the vitality and variety of American democracy was during his time. Most critics accept view of man and his poems.
However, some insist Whitman was not a prophetic spokesman, but simply a powerful and unusual lyric poem. In 1873, Walt Whitman suffered a paralytic stroke that unfortunately left him crippled. He moved to Camden, New Jersey, to be near his mother and his brother, George. Although he never held a job, he regained some of his formal strength and supported himself by printing and selling his own books and writing for newspapers and magazines. “Leaves of Grass”,which was constantly being expanded slowly became known in the United States and abroad. He died in New Jersey in the year 1892.
Bibliography: kim,richard.”whitman.”.
