WALT WHITMAN

Walt Whitman

the American bard

LIFE (1819-1892)

the prophet of democracy and individualism

Walt Whitman was born in West Hills on Long Island, New York, in 1819 into a working-class family. He received little formal education. He began working as a delivery boy and then as a printer’s Apprentice. Journalism was to become his career as well as a means to support radical democratic causes. When he was about thirty years old, he travelled from New York to New Orleans, returning via Chicago. This journey was a transformative experience since it brought him in touch with the vastness of his country and the variety of its inhabitants. He began to read a lot: - The bible - Homer - Dante - Shakespeare

- Carlyle - Goethe - Hegel - Emerson - Eastern religion and philosophy

LEAVES OF GRASS

In 1855 he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, containing twelve poems about his development as a poet and his experience of the American Land. Particularly relevant was the third one, in 1860, which provoked the indignation of puritanical readers and gained Whitman a reputation for obscenity and homosexuality. The fourth edition of Leaves of Grass contained poems of the Civil War and on the death of President Lincoln. This collection can be also considered a life-long poem, which the poet continued to revise and expand it throughout his life. In 1873 he retired to Camden, New Jersey, until his death. Whitman’s popularity in Europe grew in the 1870. In America, he had Ralph Waldo Emerson’s support during his lifetime and influenced later poets, such as Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg and, more recently, the Beat Generation. He is generally regarded as the father of American poetry, as that was distinctly new and “American”.

POETRY

the prophet of democracy and individualism

Whitman's poetics is pervaded by optimism and romantic faith in the dynamic future of the American nation, especially in the ''American dream'', which he always believed in. Another main theme in Whitman's poetry is himself and his task as a prophet to reveal the truth and to give voice to the common man. In fact, Whitman identifies with the crowd of man and women and embrace mankind in brotherly love, while he tries to respond to the spirit of his country. He also deals with physical love and the theme of sex with a directness and frankness that struck puritanical readers as ''immoral''. However, sex in his poem is also symbolic- of natural innocence and the regenerative power of nature. What Whitman valued most was the dignity of the individual, conceived as the unity of body and soul, with the supreme right of self-expression.

THE RIDDLE OF THE OTHER

Whitman admired and was influenced by the Transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed that a men should not seek himself outside himself. But this religion of self- reliance also results in the realisation of an unexpected otherness. This is the most complex aspect of Whitman's poetry and can be found in ''Song of Myself'', in which he devided his being into three: - ''My self'', which is the 'I' or Whitman's poetic personality; - ''Real me'' or ''Me self'', that is his inner personality; - ''My soul'', which is a strange enigma, rather like the soul of America.

''Song of Myself'' is the celebration of the meeting between an 'I', whose reality is constantly questioned and a 'you' which is often followed by the phrase ''whoever you are'', that embodies the riddle of the Other. Unless such a 'you' exists, there is no chance of turning private ''vision'' into ''public'' song. So writing implied, for Whitman, an act of faith that a real ''you'' existed somewhere.

For the frontispiece to the first edition of 'Leaves of Grass', published on July 4th, American Indipendence Day, Whitman used a picture of himself in work clothes, posed nonchalantly with a cocked hat and hand in trousers pocket, as if illustrating a line in his leading poem, 'Song of Myself'.

NEW MEANS OF EXPRESSION

Whitman's poetry required new means of expression. For example, ''Leaves of Grass'' is written in free verse and long lines, where rhythm is naturally determined by the thought or emotion expressed. The overall impression is one of fragmentation and lack of unity. In addition, his language is innovative because it mixes dialect and common speech with the jargon of science and philosophy. He also avoids similes and metaphors because the poet's aim is not to evoke but to assert and celebrate.

Oh Captain, my Captain!

“O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy on the death of Pres. Abraham Lincoln. It is noted for its regular form, metre, and rhyme, though it is also known for its sentimental nature. The poem, which was highly popular, portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea -worn ship- the Union triumphant after the American Civil War. The poem deals with the sense of relief after the end of the fearful trip from the war and the theme of accepting the Captain’s death and loss. Intended for a large, inclusive readership, "O Captain" became the most recited and popular of Whitman's works. Because of its acclaim at the expense of his other poems, Whitman expressed some small regret about writing it, but insisted that it had an emotional, historically necessary purpose.

Pannapacker, a professor at Harvard University, concludes that “O Captain” “continues to be a revealing representation of the rhetorics of despair and celebration that followed the war, and it remains Whitman’s most successful attempt to reach a national audience.”

I Sing the Body Electric

"I Sing the Body Electric" was one of the twelve poems which comprised the first edition of Leaves of Grass, in the "Children of Adam" section. Unlike many of the other poems in the first edition of Leaves, it has received little critical attention. In this poem, Whitman records his delight at the wondrous qualities of the human body. This poem is a response to those who doubt the body- doubts originating in the enduring Christian notion that the body is different from the soul, and is the seat of the soul's corruption. Whitman also finds a link, an identity, between the erotic body and the body politic. Every single body has its place in the great democratic procession. Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1860 tried to convince Whitman that Leaves of Grass would find the large audience it deserved only if Whitman cut some of the most sexual passages from "Body Electric". Whitman, however, wanted to pursue his own way.

SCANDAL!!

Some biographers have claimed that he may not have actually engaged in sexual relationships with men, while others cite letters, journal entries and other sources which they claim as third-party proof of the sexual nature of some of his relationships. Late in his life, when Whitman was asked outright if his series of Calamus poems were homosexual, he chose not to respond. There is also some evidence that Whitman may have had sexual relationships with women. In a letter dated August 21, 1890 he claimed, 'I have had six children - two are dead'. This claim has never been confirmed. Toward the end of his life, he often told stories of previous girlfriends and denied an allegation from the New York Herald that he had 'never had a love affair'.

Whitman's sexuality is sometimes disputed, although often assumed to be bisexual based on his poetry. Whitman's poetry depicts love and sexuality in a more earthy, individualistic way common in American culture before the 'medicalisation' of sexuality in the late 1800s. Though ''Leaves of Grass'' was often labelled pornographic or obscene, only one critic remarked on its author's

presumed sexual activity: in a November 1855 review, Rufus Griswold suggested Whitman was guilty of 'that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians'.