Walt Whitman Essays

  • Walt Whitman Influences

    1889 Words  | 8 Pages

    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

  • Walt Whitman Views

    1214 Words  | 5 Pages

    Walt Whitman, vastly considered as one of the most influential poets of American literature, often expressed his emotions and opinions about key events in American history which occurred during his lifetime. One of such events was the assassination of the nation’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. When news of Abraham Lincoln’s death reached Whitman, he had been preparing a volume of poems called “Drum-Taps.” However Whitman, who “was a great admirer of Lincoln, whom he felt embodied the American

  • Walt Whitman And Transcendentalism

    575 Words  | 3 Pages

    Transcendental Writing Walt Whitman was a Transcendentalist that commonly focused on individualism in his writings. He focused on each character he wrote about and described their life through jobs in America. An example of a profession Whitman describes is, “The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,” (Whitman). This imagery helps the reader visualize Whitman’s goals in life, which were to have everyone working together to form a strong country. He also believed in the American

  • Walt Whitman Influences

    1122 Words  | 5 Pages

    Walt Whitman is a huge influence to some of the big name poets today, such as William Carlos Williams and Carl Sandberg. Whitman ushered a new era in poetry by using no strict meter and no structured stanzas. Whitman’s career is based around “otherness” he did not want to be like everybody else (Whitman:“The Americanization of Romanticism”). Realist poetry which whitman is, is an aesthetic attitude stressing the truthful treatment of material. Walt Whitman contributed to american literature by beginning

  • Walt Whitman Meaning

    1502 Words  | 7 Pages

    Poetry is an extremely expressive form of art, and Walt Whitman truly takes the cake for expressiveness. Walter Whitman, born May 31, 1819, can be credited as the father of free verse. With no formal education, all of Whitman’s poems and work are accredited to him and his experiences. He came from a large family with eight siblings and an alcoholic father, but managed to keep a positive view on life, as shown by some of his later works (Chase 334). Whitman was a man of many jobs, from carpentry to journalism

  • Walt Whitman Tone

    706 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cole Teeter Ms. Mathes English 11-3 9 February 2023 Wild Whitman’s Poem In the poem “A child said, what is the Grass?” by Walt Whitman, the poem tells a story about how the character is caught between life and death. The character Whitman uses begins to understand and accept the ideas and topics presented. Whitman’s key tones presented in his poem are confused/confusing, understanding, and acceptance. The story discusses a confused character about life, death, and nature. He expresses his feeling

  • Walt Whitman Poet

    1595 Words  | 7 Pages

    Walt Whitman was a poet, and a journalist who changed poetry completely, he didn 't use traditional rhyme or meter. He is one of America’s greatest poets, he was born 1819 in the West Hills of New York. Walt Whitman is best known for Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself, and his poem O Captain! My Captain! He is the quintessential humanist poet. But was he racist against black people? Whitman did call them ' 'baboons ' ' and was against them voting, but he was also commonly seen as one of the white American

  • Essay On Walt Whitman

    631 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walt Whitman’s poems in his book, “Leaves of Grass” are very interesting because of the amount of descriptive details that he uses throughout his works. When read out loud, I was really able to imagine what Whitman was writing about at certain points. For example, in describing grass in Poem number 6, Whitman describes it as, “This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, darker than the colorless beards of old men, dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths” (1397)

  • Walt Whitman Accomplishments

    482 Words  | 2 Pages

    American Poet Walt Whitman had this to say about the USA, “The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.” In the early 1800’s the United States and the common people that made the country so genius was a long ways away from being what it is now. Present day America is a well-blended mix of races, religions,

  • Excelsior By Walt Whitman

    303 Words  | 2 Pages

    written by Walt Whitman, he was an american poet and journalist who lives in the nineteenth century. One of the things that I believe greatly influenced this poem is the state of being that Walt Whitman described as “the merge”. Walt Whitman characterized ‘the merge’ as the state in which an individual overcomes the psychological, moral, and political boundaries that defined a person’s life. Walt Whitman displayed many poetic techniques throughout “Excelsior”. The most notable technique that Walt Whitman

  • Walt Whitman Accomplishments

    2285 Words  | 10 Pages

    is an artwork with words. One man helped progress the changes made within the style of writing poems today. Walt Whitman, was a fascinating and transcendent poet. He lived a whole-hearted life without limitations, and many were against the lifestyles he chose. Nevertheless, no one could stop him from writing, and eventually, Walt Whitman revolutionized American poetry. Walter “Walt” Whitman, a famous American poet, also known as, The Bard of Democracy or The Father of Free verse, (European Graduate

  • Walt Whitman Symbolism

    294 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walt Whitman, born in 1819, was an American writer who in the 1940’s published a number of poems and short stories including the book of poems “Leaves of Grass.” One of those being A song of Myself which wasn’t actually titled like this until 1881. A song of myself is filled with detail and symbolic meaning. One example of symbolism is when a child asks the narrator “What is the grass”. At first the narrator did not know how to answer the question of the child and began wondering if he himself knew

  • Walt Whitman Beliefs

    515 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walt Whitman, who is a major poet and an outstanding person when it come to the history of America. He was born in West Hills , long island in New York. Whitman had many views about teaching and education. Everyone has their own opinions on teaching and how they should be taught. Continue to read and I will share my opinion and thoughts along side with Whitman's thoughts and his opinions as well. Walt Whitman's main focus was on the potential of average children, to teach them better and to have

  • Walt Whitman Paradox

    1107 Words  | 5 Pages

    Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist who was alive from 1819 until 1892, being a well noted author of the transcendentalist movement that took over American literature during this time period. He was the second of eight surviving children, and grew up with his father always switching jobs in order to keep the family financially stable. When the financial situation started going south, Whitman’s father pulled him out of school so he could work and try to help the family. At the age of

  • Walt Whitman Research Paper

    475 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walt Whitman Walt Whitman was a transcendentalist poet who contributed to America’s history of literature through his poetry and literature (“Walt Whitman”, 2017). Whitman’s poetry often commemorated democracy, love and friendship (“Walt Whitman”, 2018). This can be seen in his most popular piece of poetry, “Leaves of Grass” (“Walt Whitman”, 2018). Whitman is considered one of America’s greatest poets of the 19th century as had large influences on the literature of that era, and influence on

  • Walt Whitman Research Paper

    440 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walt Whitman as a Romantic When one thinks of American Romantics often the name Walt Whitman comes to mind. Walt Whitman almost created the Romanticism movement. With his writing using personal opinions that perfectly mirrored ideals of the Romantics, such as patriotism, personal voice, and nature themes throughout his pieces. These beliefs are depicted in Whitman's poems such as “Song of Myself XXVI”, and or “A Boston Ballad”. Whitman’s ideas seemed to be a nudge in the right direction

  • Walt Whitman Research Paper

    1185 Words  | 5 Pages

    Thomas Hart 5-4-17 Walt Whitman Essay Mr. Leonard Walt Whitman Walt Whitman was born on May 31st, 1819 in West Hills, New York. When Whitman was thirty- six, he published the collections Leaves of Grass; the book is now very important in today's American Literature. His main job though was to be a nurse in the civil war. During his work there, he made a collection called Drum Taps in 1865. Whitman eventually died on March 26th, 1892 in Camden, New Jersey. Whitman started out in Long Island

  • Walt Whitman Literary Devices

    679 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walt Whitman does this by using certain literary devices, which are tone, alliteration, and hyperbole. He uses tone to show the joy in American workers where he wrote,” Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,”(2, Whitman). This shows how the mechanic is working hard for his country like the others. There is also tone in the ending where he wrote,” Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,” (9, Whitman). This gives us a hint on how they all do their

  • Walt Whitman Research Paper

    531 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walt Whitman is a landmark in the history of American literature but do you really know who he is? Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. Whitman is an American poet, journalist, essayist and a man that loves to read. Whitman was self-taught and became a very great reader, in fact at one point in time he became a teacher. Why did Whitman start to write poems? Whitman got the inspiration to write from Ralph Waldo Emerson who sent Whitman a letter that expressed what Emerson

  • Walt Whitman Research Paper

    422 Words  | 2 Pages

    Spears Honors English 9 March 6th, 2018 Walt Whitman’s Life. Walter (Walt) Whitman was born in Long Island, New York, on May 31, 1819 and died March 26, 1892. He was of Dutch and English decent. As stated on www.britannica.com, Walt was working as a schoolteacher, printer, and journalist when he started to write poems and short stories. He continued to write these throughout his life. He wrote and published multiple editions of his book, Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman inspired many with his writings, and