An American Poet: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important American Poets of all time. He lived in the 1800s and grew up in New York.  He mainly taught himself and read works of literature by Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare, and read the Bible. Throughout his life he worked as a teacher, journalist, printer, editor, and even founded his own newspaper. Later in life he moved down to New Orleans and there he started to really see first-hand the slavery in the South. He once wrote “You are either to abolish slavery or it will abolish you.” He clearly was disgusted by slavery and wanted a changed in the US. During the Civil War Whitman made his way back to New York and spent all of his time visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital. He wanted to live a cleansed life. Any money Whitman ever made, which wasn’t a lot, went to buying medical supplies for the patients he visited. 

His most famous piece of work is Leaves of Grass. It was a collection of his poems that was published several times during his life time, adding more poems with each publication. It was inspired by his travels around the US and the author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Leaves of Grass celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. It was criticized immensely. Critics found the style and the subject matter unnerving. It was too open regarding sex, which has lead scholars today to believe Whitman was either gay or bisexual, people didn’t like the representation of himself as a rough looking working man, his stylistic innovations were not received well, and they didn’t like that he didn’t use regular meter or any rhyme patterns. He even lost his job in Washington DC because of Leaves of Grass being published. Today of course he is considered a genius and a very important figure in American Literature.

His other works also include similar themes as the ones that appear in Leaves of Grass. Other themes that show up frequently are the body and soul, found beauty, and reassurance, even in death. In terms of any religious aspects influencing his poetry, Whitman wasn’t particularly religious. He embraced all religions equally. He didn’t think any religion was more important than another. The one religion that scholars find the most influential in his works is Deism. Deism is a religion that looks at the relationship between a creator and the natural world. And we see that in many of his works, religion is represented through nature.

            To study Walt Whitman, we read his elegy for President Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”.  Whitman was a huge supporter of the North winning the Civil War and wrote several poems to encourage the North to fight and win the War. Because of that viewpoint he was also a strong supporter of Lincoln and wrote other poems about him as well. Because of Whitman’s passionate view about the war, slavery, and democracy it makes sense that after Lincolns death Whitman would honor him with a poem. Throughout the poem there is a lot of nature references. For example Whitman describes lilacs, great star, a bird, skies, leaves, flowers, swamps, bushes, spring, land, woods, and more. The whole poem also doesn’t follow any specific meter or rhyme scheme which we know is common for Whitman. I believe this whole poem is a way for Whitman to grieve about Lincolns death. Lincolns assassination obviously struck the country and lead to some panic. The war just ended. Now what is going to happen to the country. Throughout this poem it seems like Whitman is suggesting that they still need Lincoln around. They need his wisdom, they weren’t ready for him to leave yet. Then as the poem goes on I feel like there is more acceptance in his death. This poem focuses on three symbols; the bird, flower, and star. All three represent Lincoln in some way and scholars argue over which symbol actually is representing Lincoln. I think it is a combination of the three. That combination of a star watching high in the night sky, a flower returning to bloom every spring, and a wise bird flying from spring to night, keep Lincoln alive and remembered which is what Whitman would have wanted. Whitman’s poems discuss death a lot, but always in a more uplifting way. It doesn’t have to be dark and depressing. There is reassurance in death which Whitman conveys. I find that the reassurance isn’t conveyed immediately but more towards the end of the poem. This represents true human emotions. No one is ok with death right away. But after grieving and coming to terms with the death we accept life for what it is and then we can move on.

            Whitman was a brilliant man in poetry and an extremely kind man in life. Whitman saw beauty in everything and transferred that beauty onto paper. He transferred his kindness onto paper. He was caring and selfless and fought for what was right in the country he loved. He really a timeless poet and one of the most important poets in American History. What I really found the most interesting about him is his view on religion. Most early American Poets were very religious and that was shown in their works. Whitman embraced all religions, a task most people can’t even do today. In my opinion his view points were ahead of his time and even ahead of our time. But that is what makes him and his poetry amazing. It’s all about beauty which he was able to find anywhere he went.

Works Cited

"Walt Whitman." Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/walt-whitman>.

"Walt Whitman 1819-1892." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitman#about>.