Walt whitman

1819 – 1892

Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) is a poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was born in a small country place on Long Island, not far from New York into a family of nine children and was raised in Brooklyn. His father was a poor farmer and a carpenter. When Walt was 11, he had to leave school and start working. He became an office boy at a lawyer's office. Later he worked for a small newspaper where he learned printing. Then he went to the country and worked as a schoolteacher. When he had time he studied literature and history and tried to write. He made his first trip to New Orleans to visit his brother Jeff in 1848, and remained there for several months as an editor of the “New Orleans Crescent”, but eventually returned to Brooklyn where he became the editor of “The Brooklyn Times”. He wrote poems, short stories and newspaper articles. He wrote about the common, hard-working people of America. In 1847 an editorial appeared in the paper under the title “America Workers Are Against Slavery”. For this bold and fearless protest against the politics of the planters Whitman was immediately dismissed from his post. In1848 Whitman was offered the post of editor-in-chief of a newspaper called “The Freeman”. He again began writing bold essays and articles against the slave owners and once again was dismissed. This time Whitman returned to the profession of his father – a carpenter – a profession he had always been proud of.

Whitman’s collection of poems was named “Leaves of Grass”, published in 1855 by Whitman himself. It consisted of only twelve poems. The book did not make the poet famous, but later it became a masterpiece of world literature. His revising of “Leaves of Grass” would continue for the rest of his life, and by 1892, “Leaves of Grass” had been reissued in more than seven different versions.

Whitman's health had been shaky since the mid-1870s, and by 1891 it was clear he was dying. He therefore prepared his so-called "Deathbed" edition of “Leaves of Grass”, which contained two appendices of old-age poems as well as a review essay in which he tries to justify his life and work. The "Deathbed Edition" came out in 1892; Whitman died that year.

CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE:

1. What was Whitman’s education?

2. When did Whitman become a journalist? What did he write about as a journalist?

3. What makes Whitman a people’s poet?

Whitman's lifetime saw both the Civil War and the rise of the United States as a commercial and political power. He witnessed both the apex¹ and the abolition of slavery. His poetry is thus centered on ideas of democracy, equality, and brotherhood. In response to America's new position in the world, Whitman also tried to develop a poetry that was uniquely American, that both surpassed and broke the mold of its predecessors. “Leaves of Grass”, with its multiple editions and public controversies, set the pattern for the modern, public artist, and Whitman made the most of his role as celebrity and artist.

The collection begins with the “Song of Myself”, which is a poetical manifesto of the author. He proclaims the unity of a poet and people, glorifies the labour of people with the white and black skin, admires their strength and adroitness, curses the slavery and obedience.

Whitman's poetry is democratic in both its subject matter and its language. Whitman is concerned with cataloguing the new America he sees growing around him. Just as America is far different politically and practically from its European counterparts, so too must American poetry distinguish itself from previous models. Thus we see Whitman breaking new ground in both subject matter and diction.

Whitman’s poetry celebrates life, America, and the greatness of the individual. He takes as his model himself. The stated mission of his poetry was, in his words, to make "[a]n attempt to put a Person, a human being (myself, in the latter half of the 19^th century, in America) freely, fully, and truly on record." A truly democratic poetry, for Whitman, is one that, using a common language, is able to cross the gap between the self and another individual, to effect a sympathetic exchange of experiences.

The poetic structures he employs are unconventional but reflect his democratic ideals. Lists are a way for him to bring together a wide variety of items without imposing a hierarchy on them; this is a truly democratic way of presenting material. It is also an easy way for him to go about cataloguing America, a nation that is raw material for poetry. Perception, rather than analysis, is the basis for this kind of poetry, which uses few metaphors or other kinds of symbolic language. Whitman seldom uses rhymes in his poems and there are very few “poetic” words in them. He avoids traditional structures like rhyme because he wants to show that his is a truly American poetry, one that is fresh and new, and not indebted to previous poets from other countries. He used everyday words and his poems were more like prose than poetry. But he showed America as no one ever had, he was a truly democratic poet.