Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born on Long Island, New York. His most famous work is the collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. Today, Whitman is widely regarded as one of the greatest American poets.

Poetry and Influence

For many, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson stand as the two giants of 19th-century American poetry. Whitman's poetry seems more quintessentially American; the poet exposed common America and spoke with a distinctly American voice, stemming from a distinct American consciousness. The power of Whitman's poetry seems to come from the spontaneous sharing of high emotion he presented. American poets in the 20th century (and now, the 21st) must come to terms with Whitman's voice, insofar as it essentially defined democratic America in poetic language. Whitman utilized creative repetition to produce a hypnotic quality that creates the force in his poetry, inspiring as it informs. Thus, his poetry is best read aloud to experience the full message. His poetic quality can be traced indirectly through religious or quasi-religious speech and writings such as the Harlem Renaissance poet James Weldon Johnson. This is not to limit the man's influence; the beat poet Allen Ginsberg's reconciliation with Whitman is revealed in the former's poem, A Supermarket in California. The work of former United States Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, bears Whitman's unmistakable imprint as well.

Related Topics:
Emily Dickinson - 19th-century - Harlem Renaissance - James Weldon Johnson - Beat - Allen Ginsberg - A Supermarket in California - Poet Laureate - Robert Pinsky

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Furthermore, Whitman is a writer whose influence reaches far beyond his native homeland—he is especially influential in Latin America and the Hispanic World, where some of his more famous successors include the Chilean Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda as well as Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.

Related Topics:
Latin America - Hispanic - Chile - Nobel Laureate - Pablo Neruda - Portuguese - Fernando Pessoa

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Whitman's break with the past made his poetry a model for the French symbolists (who in turn influenced the surrealists) and "modern" poets such as Pound, Eliot, and Auden. The flavor of this power is exhibited in these lines from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry in Leaves of Grass (1855), his most famous work:

Related Topics:
Symbolist - Surrealist - Pound - Eliot - Auden - Leaves of Grass - 1855

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:I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine,

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:I too walked the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it

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:I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,

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:In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,

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:In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon me,

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:I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution,

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:I too had received identity by my body,

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:That I was, I knew was of my body—and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body.

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