Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819—1892), was an American poet who wrote «Leaves of Grass». This collection of poems is considered one of the world's major literary works.

Whitman's poems sing the praises of the United States and of democracy. The poet's love of America grew from his faith that Americans might reach new worldly and spiritual heights. Whitman wrote: «The chief reason lor the being of the United States of America is to bring about the common good will of all mankind, the solidarity of the world».

Whitman may have begun working on «Leaves of Grass» as early as 1848. The book's form and content were so unusual that no commercial publisher would publish it. In 1855, he published the collection of 12 poems at his own expense. In the preface, Whitman wrote: «The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem». Between 1856 and 1882, Whitman published five more revised and enlarged editions of his book. He believed that «Leaves of Crass» had grown with his own emotional and intellec­tual development.

His work. «Song of Myself», the longest poem in «Leaves of Crass», is considered Whitman's greatest. It is a lyric poem told through the joyful experiences of the narrator, simply called «I», who chants the poem's 52 sections. Sometimes «1» is the poet himself— «Walt Whitman, an American». In other passages, «I» speaks for the human race, the universe, or a specific character being dramatized. Like all Whitman's major poems, «Song of Myself» contains symbols. For example, in the poem he describes grass as a symbol of life — «the babe of vegetation», «the hand­kerchief of the Lord/A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt».

«Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking» tells of a man reminisc­ing over a boyhood experience in which a mockingbird lost its mate in a storm at sea. The memory of (he bird's song teaches the man the meaning of death and thus the true vocation of a poet to cel­ebrate death as merely part of the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.

Whitman wrote «When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd» on the death of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln died in April, a time of rebirth in nature. As his coffin is transported from Washington, D. C. to Springfield, 111, it passes the young wheat, «every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen». Whitman says that each spring the blooming lilac will remind him not only of the death of Lincoln, but also of the eternal return to life. The evening star Venus symbolizes Lincoln, who has «droop'd in the western sky».

In «Passage to India», Whitman sees modern achievements in transportation and communication as symbols of universal broth­erhood. First, individuals are to be united with themselves and then with God, the «Elder Brother».

A group of Civil War poems called «Drum Taps» describes battlefield scenes and Whitman's emotions during wartime. «О Captain! My Captain!», another poem on Lincoln's death, is Whitman's most popular poem, but differs from his others in rhyme and rhythm. The «Children of Adam» poems defend the sacredness of sex. The «Calamus» poems praise male compan­ionship.

Whitman wrote in a form similar to thought-rhythm, or paral­lelism. This form is found in Old Testament poetry. It is also found in sacred books of India, such as the «Bhagavad-Gita» which

Whitman may have read in translation. The rhythm of his lines suggests the rise and fall of the sea he loved so much. This struc­ture is better suited to expressing emotion than to logical discus­sion.

In general, Whitman's poetry is idealistic and romantic while his prose is realistic. His best prose is in a book of essays, mostly autobiographical, called «Specimen Days» (1882). Whitman's es­say «Democratic Vistas» (1871) deals with his theory of democ­racy and with the creation of a democratic literature.

His life. Walter Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, New York, and grew up in Brooklyn. He worked as a school teacher, printer, and journalist in the New York City area. He wrote articles on political questions, civic affairs, and the arts. Whitman loved mixing in crowds. He attended debates, the theater, concerts, lec­tures, and political meetings. He often rode on stagecoaches and ferries just to talk with people.

During the Civil War, Whitman was a government clerk and a volunteer assistant in the military hospitals in Washington, D. C. After the war, he worked in several government depart­ments until he suffered a stroke in 1873. He spent the rest of his life in Camden, N.J., where he continued to write poems and articles.

Whitman believed that the vitality and variety of his life re­flected the vitality and variety of American democracy during his time. Most critics accept this view of the man and his poems. How­ever, some insist Whitman was not a prophetic spokesman, but sim­ply a powerful and unusual lyric poet.