Walt Whitman was also a "tweener" when it came to his writing philosophy. Walt Whitman was mostly transcendentalist (Whitman). In his poem "Song of Myself", he emphasised the development and celebration of himself and used nature to show human life and to show human thought as well as self-consciousness about the role of the poet (Whitman). Whitman also wrote about himself in a spiritual role, not just in a literary role (Whitman). "Whitman experimented with longer unstructured lines of prose-poetry and a wider range of subject matter than poets before him", which shows that he was mostly in the transcendentalist and modernism categories of writing. He wrote in free verse, and did not include iambic pentameter in his writings or a certain number syllables or rhyming words. Whitman held Transcendentalist beliefs and thought that "divine truths and principles could be found in ordinary life and ordinary people" (Connors). He wrote about all kinds of ordinary people. He wrote about people that were men and women, young and old, black and white, and wrote about just the regular Joe type of people. Especially in his writings in "Leaves of Grass" Whitman wrote about ordinary people. Whitman wrote for the purpose "to sing the praises of all of America, the ordinary and the extraordinary, so that all its citizens, wealthy and working man alike, could appreciate the power of the written word and celebrate the goodness of their nation" (Connors). Whitman's writing had many ideas of Democracy in it (Connors). His writing was also quite optimistic about the progress of human society (Connors). "Walt early [in life] felt the pride of being an American. Many of his poems concern this theme, of a great expanding nation, young and virile and filled with the joy of life. It was actually an expression of his own feelings towards himself, for he regarded himself as an expression of the nation in which he lived" (Leipold, 58). Whitman's writings were purely American. Unlike all other writers of his time, Whitman was not an old-stock English poet (Oliver). Walt Whitman was indeed an American writer who kept his roots from growing up in the country (Oliver). Whitman held true to his beliefs that he had always held with a high regard to nature, individualism, and democracy (Connors). Whitman was also part of the Free soil party, and thought that slavery should not expand Westward (Connors). When Walt Whitman published "Leaves of Grass", he did not say that he was the author. He only claimed that he wanted it copy writed. In not claiming himself as the author, he was conveying that he believed "Leaves of Grass" could be interpreted into anyone's life (Connors). Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendentalist, and he praised Whitman's work (Connors). Emerson saw potential in Whitman's writings and thought that Whitman had a long life of writing ahead of him (Connors). Whitman's writing was somewhat of the transcendentalist era, however, there was something in his writing that Emerson saw that was different than any other writers of their time (Connors). Whitman added his own spark to transcendentalist writing.
Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh02&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 15, 2012).
"Walt Whitman." The American Romantic Movement. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .
Leipold, L. Edmond, Famous American Poets. Minneapolis: T.S. Denison & Co., 1969.
No comments:
Post a Comment