Walt Whitman Influences

Walt Whitman was a poet unlike any other in his time. He is known for being extremely influential and insightful during the Civil War era. He wrote with no filter, and no fear. Many of his pieces in his long awaited book Leaves of Grass were controversial and seen as acts of rebellion against the government. Making numerous revisions and releasing multiple editions of Leaves of Grass, Whitman made absolutely certain to have his views and opinions come across clearly. One of those was that writer and reader should be seen as equal. He did not agree with the typical “hierarchical relationship” in which the author speaks separately from the people rather than for and with them (Erkkila 3). This would help with getting the public to hear his points and take them more personally while he pushed political boundaries and challenged people to think deeply.

Walt Whitman’s father was born just after the American Revolution. He was a liberal thinker and he admired the work of Thomas Paine. This could have been an influence for Whitman having more different political views. Because of the pretty recent

In his public school, there was a classroom for African Americans that was separate from all the others. This part of his childhood could easily have contributed to his very strong anti-slavery beliefs he had later on in life. He even ended up losing a job as a journalist in New York City because his publisher sided with “pro-slavery democrats” and clashed with Whitman on those issues (Folsom). On the subject of education, Whitman hated corporal punishment and later let these feelings become the object of some of his journalism. He obtained most of his meaningful education from museums, libraries, and lectures he started attending from a young age. The first lecture he attended was given by a radical Quaker leader named Elias Hicks. While Walt’s parents were not religious, he himself had some Quaker