Download
1 / 20
200 likes | 432 Vues
Walt Whitman. America’s Poet. Emerson said…. “When will we have the poet that we need? This country deserves a literature that would be commensurate with its own great beauty and power.” The poet of American life The poet of a new, American idiom (to contrast with the British idiom).
E N D
Walt Whitman America’s Poet
Emerson said… • “When will we have the poet that we need? This country deserves a literature that would be commensurate with its own great beauty and power.” • The poet of American life • The poet of a new, American idiom (to contrast with the British idiom)
Whitman comes to the rescue… • And Emerson is the first to recognize him • Leaves of Grass first published in 1855 • No author/publisher identified • 12 untitled poems and a preface • Just an engraved picture of a man….
The Man is Whitman • Age 36 • Casual • No jacket, open collar • Obvious physical pride • The American male • Scandalized society
Emerson’s Reaction to LOG: • Whitman sent him a copy • He wrote to Whitman • “I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed. I’m very happy in reading it. It has great power.” • Whitman immediately published Emerson’s letter and advertised with it…ick.
Characteristics • “In your face” sexuality for the time • Language is everyday American vernacular, not high-sounding British • Native American names, slang • Radical form (free verse) • Lists (very democratic form – everything brought together at once)
Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.
Whitman Conscious of his Role • Seeks the role of “America’s Poet” • Answers Emerson’s call directly • Says in preface to Leaves of Grass that America is itself a poem • Suspicious of the past; interested in creating something fresh and new
Characteristics • His work can be amazing, and he can also write simply awful stuff: “What other man in all the history of this planet would have said, ‘I am a habitan of Vienna?’…One has an immediate vision of him as a sort of French-Canadian half-breed to whom the Viennese are offering, with trepi- dation, through the bars of a zoological garden, little mounds of whipped cream.” --Randall Jerrell
Characteristics • Tries to do more than just describe things – • Tries to MERGE WITH, or BECOME, things: “My voice is the wife’s voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs. They fetch my man’s body up dripping and drowned….I am the man. I suffered. I was there.” “I am the hounded slave. I wince at the back of the dogs, hell and despair are upon me. Crack and again crack the marksman. I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs.”
Healing • “I celebrate myself” to “I stop somewhere waiting for you” • “Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”
IT’S ALL ABOUT VOICE • Giving voice to the people and things that, until now, have had none • The poet of democracy – Book 15 • Or of ridiculousness… “As soon as Walt knew a thing, he assumed a One Identity with it. If he knew that an Eskimo sat in a kayak, there was Walt…sitting in a kayak….Let him behold me sitting in a kayak. I behold no such thing. I behold a rather fat old man, full of a rather senile, self-conscious sensuosity.” --D.H. Lawrence
The Poet of the Present Participle • “ing” everywhere….
The Poet of the Body • Whitman was a BIG guy for the1850’s: six feet tall, 180 pounds • Physically impressive, with spooky eyes • “I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.” • The body is divine: “The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer.” Really? • Sexual innuendos are everywhere…homosexuality debated • Wartime nurse; death and dying
The Poet of the City • Brooklyn, Manhattan • City scenes, bustle, people • Romantic settings are gone • Country still has power, but city rules • “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
The Poet of Death • “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” – lines about “Death, death, death…” and the dying bird • “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” – Elegy for Abraham Lincoln • Experience as a male nurse in DC during the Civil War – death on a massive, grand scale
Legacy: • Probably unmatched among poets for creating a vivid, mysterious persona in his work • Uniquely American free verse (sprawling lines, anaphora, near-iambic meter) • Absolutely unique tone • Intensely personal • American destiny is freedom • “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” • “I bequeath myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love,/If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”
More Bio Info: • Born May 31, 1819; one of 9 children • Long Island and Brooklyn • Printer’s trade • Self-taught • Teacher at age 17, then later a journalist • Founded several newspapers • Reworked LOG throughout his life
More Bio Info: • At start of Civil War, brother is wounded, and he travels to DC to care for him • Decides to stay and work in hospitals • Ends up staying 11 years in DC • Clerk for Dept. of Interior, but fired when they find out he wrote LOG • Moved to Camden, NJ, in early 1870’s and stayed there until his death
