Notes on Walt Whitman
His Leaves of Grass (book) is his collected work -- he added and removed poems over time as well as revising and reorganizing poems from edition to edition. He also saw this book, his collected work, as a single poem.
"Leaves" and "Grass" are central images in many of his poems.
"Leaves" = sheets of paper
"Grass" = poems
He believed that each person is a leaf or blade of grass -- they are divine in nature as nature is divine; they are significant as individuals and they are significant as a mass. Likewise, each poem is a leaf or blade of grass. A blade of grass is ordinary, but a blade of grass is also divine since it is a part of nature. A blade of grass is significant either individually or in the mass. A blade of grass is also a symbol of democracy.
In Leaves of Grass, Whitman is the "part" (the "I") standing for the "whole." He was the "representative man." It was his desire to incorporate the entire American experience into his life and his poetry. Hence, to do so, he aspired to be and envisioned himself as a "cosmic consciousness" and a "bard of democracy." In other words, he had an "expansive, oceanic vision" in which he incorporated "everything" into his poetry. He identifies with the cosmos. Thus, he saw himself as the public poet, a spokesman celebrated by men and women because he, in his poetry, "celebrated" everything. He cultivated the image of the "good gray poet."
From the Barnes and Noble "Book a Day" Calendar:
"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars," Whitman proclaims in his groundbreaking collection of American verse, Leaves of Grass. His goal was to invent a new style of poetry that was as simple and as natural as the ordinary Americans he saw every day. Yet, for all their simplicity, Whitman's poems have an incredible power to exalt the spirit. Begin with "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric." Move on to "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" And savor that magnificent elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Door Yard Bloom'd."
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Whitman's Romanticism
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Whitman's Realism
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"Dreamy" quality to the man and some of his poems He's "impractical" He's a drifter, an adventurer Sentimentalism in some of his poems His poetic inspiration - "death" (?) His "conversations" with the dead His belief that Nature is divine His belief in the divineness of ordinary men and women His transcendentalism -- his belief, similar to Emerson's "Oversoul," that we are all a part of Nature -- his "nebulous float" might be analogous to the "oversoul" His "expansive vision" and his "expansive self" -- his "oceanic vision" and his idea of the "cosmic consciousness" His vision of his work as a single poem His desire to incorporate the entire American experience into his poety Some say he created his own "mythic world" His stress on the importance of the individual His optimism His visions of democracy His looking above and beyond the actual and the ordinary for the ideal His belief in the role of the poet as a "prophet" -- a priest or a spokesperson |
He does not value imagination in the same way as other
Romantic writers The formlessness of his poetry His other departures from the poetic conventions of the times His use of "free verse" -- he used this to replicate the sounds and cadences of spoken English His "incantations" and "boasts" His "barbaric yawps" His exotic and vulgar language His commonplace language His sexuality His commonplace subjects -- people and places His accurate representations of these subjects His use of disorganized and raw experiences |
Notes about "Free Verse"
Whitman is an early example of “Free Verse.”
"Free verse" is used to recreate more nearly the sounds and cadences of spoken English.
In "free verse," poets avoid close adherence to rigid rules of prosody (writing poetry) and use variable and irregular rhythms and meters that are based on loosely recurring patterns of words, phrases, and images.
Elements of “Free Verse”: