America’s
Poets, Walt
Whitman and
Emily Dickinson
Whitman and Dickinson
From Godey's Magazine (November,
1896): "[Emily Dickinson] and Walt
Whitman and Poe are this nation's most
original contributions to the world's
poetry. Poe was typical only of Poe. But
Emily Dickinson and Whitman, with their
unbending comradery with God and
humanity, are our best realizations of the
distinctively American spirit."
Walt Whitman
America’s
Poet
Whitman’s Background
 Born on May 31, 1819, Walt
Whitman was the son of a
housebuilder,
 The family lived in Brooklyn
and Long Island in the 1820s
and 1830s.
 At the age of twelve Whitman
fell in love with the written
word.
 Largely self-taught, he read
the works of Homer, Dante,
Shakespeare, and the
Bible.
Whitman the Abolitionist
 In 1841, he founded a
weekly newspaper, LongIslander, and later edited
a number of Brooklyn and
New York papers.
 In 1848, Whitman left
Brooklyn to become
editor of the New Orleans
Crescent.
 In New Orleans he
experienced at first hand
the viciousness of slavery
in the slave markets of
that city.
Whitman the Poet
 On his return to Brooklyn,
he founded a "free soil"
newspaper, the Brooklyn
Freeman.
 In 1855, Whitman
published the first edition
of Leaves of Grass and sent
a copy to Emerson in July
of 1855.
 Whitman continued to
refine the volume,
publishing several more
editions of the book.
Whitman
and The
Civil
War
 At the outbreak of the Civil
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
War, Whitman wrote
journalism and visited the
wounded at New York-area
hospitals.
He went to Washington, D.C.
to care for his brother who
had been wounded in the
war.
Overcome by the suffering of
the many wounded, Whitman
decided to stay and work in
the hospitals.
Whitman stayed in the city
for eleven years.
He took a job in the
Department of the Interior.
Emily Dickinson
The Belle of Amherst
 Heralded as one of the
most gifted American
writers, Emily Dickinson
authored nearly 2,000
poems.
 Most were published after
her death in 1886.
 Dickinson focused on
themes relating to death,
eternity, and love, usually
in short four-line stanzas.
Dickinson’s Background
 Birth -December 10, 1830 and Death May 15, 1886
 She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts
 She is known for exploring personal themes of love, death,
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and religion in short, lyrical poems
In the 1840s she attended Amherst Academy and Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College)
In the 1850s She began writing poetry voluminously,
organizing her work into small booklets
She sent four poems to American writer Thomas Wentworth
Higginson for his opinion; he advised her not to publish
them
After Dickinson's death, her sister Lavinia discovered her
poems and gave them to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and
Mabel Loomis Todd for publication.
Emily Dickinson
 In 1890, editors Higginson and Todd published about 115
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of Dickinson's poems in Poems of Emily Dickinson.
In 1955, The first complete collection of Dickinson's
poems appeared in The Complete Poems of Emily
Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.
Of the 1,775 poems Dickinson wrote, only 7 were
published during her lifetime.
Dickinson rarely left Amherst, and in her later years she
rarely left her family home.
While Dickinson is often characterized as reclusive and
somewhat eccentric, she is known to have maintained close
relationships with family and friends.
Dickinson: The Poetic Influence
 Emily Dickinson
suffered severe
homesickness and
returned home
after one year of
college.
 In the years that
followed, she
seldom left her
house and visitors
were scarce.
The Poet
 She was particularly stirred by the
Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom
she met on a trip to Philadelphia.
 By the 1860s, she lived in almost total
isolation but actively maintained many
correspondences and read widely.
 Her poetry reflects her loneliness and
the speakers of her poems generally
live in a state of want; but her poems
are also marked by the recollection of
inspirational moments which are
decidedly life-giving and suggest the
possibility of future happiness.
Her Work
 Her work was heavily influenced by the
Metaphysical poets of seventeenthcentury England, as well as by her Puritan
upbringing and the Book of Revelation.
 She admired the poetry of Robert and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John
Keats.
 She was dissuaded from reading the
verse of her contemporary Walt Whitman
by rumor of its disgracefulness. the two
poets are now connected by the
distinguished place they hold as the
founders of a uniquely American poetic
voice.
Can You Answer these Questions?
 What was Whitman’s
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 What kind of rhyme does
contribution to literature?
What did he accomplish
with his poetry?

What poetic devices does he
use?

Why and how is “O Captain,
My Captain” different?
What were his
beliefs/philosophies and
how are they reflected in his 
poems?
What is his message and
device in “A Noiseless

Patient Spider”?
Dickinson use in her poetry
and why?
How did the events in her
life influence her poetry?
What poetic device does
Dickinson use in “Tell all
the Truth but tell it Slant”
and how does it reflect the
theme?
In “Because I could not
stop for Death,” can you
discuss the techniques and
the views?
What were her primary
themes?