I | INTRODUCTION |
Walt
Whitman (1819-1892), American poet, whose work boldly asserts the worth
of the individual and the oneness of all humanity. Whitman’s defiant break with
traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American
thought and literature.
Born near Huntington, New York, Whitman was the
second of a family of nine children. His father was a carpenter. The poet had a
particularly close relationship with his mother. When Whitman was four years
old, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended public school for
six years before being apprenticed to a printer. Two years later he went to New
York City to work in printing shops. He returned to Long Island in 1835 and
taught in country schools. In 1838 and 1839 Whitman edited a newspaper, the
Long-Islander, in Huntington. When he became bored with the job, he went
back to New York City to work as a printer and journalist. There he enjoyed the
theater, the opera, and—always an omnivorous reader—the libraries. Whitman wrote
poems and stories for popular magazines and made political speeches, for which
Tammany Hall Democrats rewarded him with the editorship of various short-lived
newspapers (see Tammany Society). For two years Whitman edited the
influential Brooklyn Eagle, but he lost his position for supporting the
Free-Soil party. After a brief sojourn in New Orleans, Louisiana, he returned to
Brooklyn, where he tried to start a Free-Soil newspaper. After several years
spent at various jobs, including building houses, Whitman began writing a new
kind of poetry and thereafter neglected business.
II | LEAVES OF GRASS |
In 1855 Whitman issued the first of many
editions of Leaves of Grass, a volume of poetry in a new kind of
versification, far different from his sentimental rhymed verse of the 1840s.
Because he immodestly praised the human body and glorified the senses, Whitman
was forced to publish the book at his own expense, setting some of the type
himself. His name did not appear on the title page, but the engraved
frontispiece portrait shows him posed, arms akimbo, in shirt sleeves, hat cocked
at a rakish angle. In a long preface he announced a new democratic literature,
“commensurate with a people,” simple and unconquerable, written by a new kind of
poet who was affectionate, brawny, and heroic and who would lead by the force of
his magnetic personality.
Whitman spent the rest of his life striving to
become that poet. The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass contained 12
untitled poems, written in long cadenced lines that resemble the unrhymed verse
of the King James Version of the Bible. The longest and generally considered the
best, later entitled “Song of Myself,” was a vision of a symbolic “I” enraptured
by the senses, vicariously embracing all people and places from the Atlantic to
the Pacific oceans. No other poem in the first edition has the power of this
poem, although “The Sleepers,” another visionary flight, symbolizing life,
death, and rebirth, comes nearest.
III | LATER EDITIONS |
Stimulated by a letter of congratulations
from the eminent New England essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whitman
hastily put together another edition of Leaves of Grass (1856), with
revisions and additions; he would continue to revise the collection throughout
his life. The most significant 1856 poem is “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” in which
the poet vicariously joins his readers and all past and future ferry passengers.
In the third edition (1860), Whitman began to give his poetry a more allegorical
structure (see Allegory). In “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” a
mockingbird (the voice of nature) teaches a little boy (the future poet) the
meaning of death. Italian opera, of which Whitman was extremely fond, strongly
influenced the music of this poem. Two new clusters of poems, “Children of Adam”
and “Calamus,” deal with sexual love and male friendship.
Drum-Taps (1865, later added to the
1867 edition of Leaves) reflects Whitman’s deepening awareness of the
significance of the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the hope for
reconciliation between North and South. Sequel to Drum-Taps (1866)
contains “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” the great elegy for
President Abraham Lincoln, and one of Whitman’s most popular works, “O Captain!
My Captain!””Passage to India” (1871) used modern communications and
transportation as symbols for its transcendent vision of the union of East and
West and of the soul with God.
Finally, in 1881, Whitman arranged his poems
to his satisfaction, but he continued to add new poems to the various editions
of Leaves of Grass until the final version was produced in 1892. A
posthumous cluster, “Old Age Echoes,” appeared in 1897. All of his poems were
included in the definitive “Reader’s Edition” of Leaves of Grass (1965),
edited by Harold W. Blodgett and Sculley Bradley.
IV | CIVIL WAR AND LATER LIFE |
During the Civil War Whitman ministered to
wounded soldiers in Union army hospitals in Washington, D.C. He remained there,
working as a government clerk, until 1873, when he suffered a stroke that left
him partially paralyzed. He then went to live with his brother George in Camden,
New Jersey, until 1884, when he bought his own house. He lived there, writing
and revising Leaves of Grass, despite failing health, until his death. In
his later years Whitman also wrote some prose of lasting value. The essays in
Democratic Vistas (1871) are now considered a classic discussion of the theory
of democracy and its possibilities. The collection Specimen Days and
Collect (1882) contains his earliest recollections, descriptions of the war
years and of the assassination of Lincoln, and nature notes written in old
age.
V | WHITMAN’S REPUTATION |
Today, Whitman’s poetry has been translated
into every major language. It is widely recognized as a formative influence on
the work of such American writers as Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and
Wallace Stevens. Allen Ginsberg in particular was inspired by Whitman’s bold
treatment of sexuality. Many modern scholars have sought to assess Whitman’s
life and literary career. Works such as the 5-volume edition of his
correspondence (1961-1969) and the 16-volume definitive edition of his
Collected Writings (1963-1980) provide a balanced view of his
achievements.
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