Walt Whitman
1819 – 1892
Walt Whitman
(1819 – 1892)
• an American poet, essayist,
journalist, and humanist.
He was a part of the
transition between
Transcendentalism and
realism, incorporating both
views in his works.
Whitman is among the
most influential poets in
the American canon, often
called the father of free
verse.[1] His work was
very controversial in its
time, particularly his
poetry collection Leaves of
Grass, which was
described as obscene for
its overt sexuality.
Walt Whitman
(1819 – 1892)
• Life
• Major works
• Analysis
• Free Verse
• His selected poems
– Song of Myself
– I Sit and Look Out
Life
• born in New York, a common family
• five years education, variety of jobs
• before wrote poems, wrote kinds of
other literary productions
• inspired by grandeur landscape of
America, wrote lots of poems, thus a
famous poet
Major works
• Leaves of Grass《草叶集》(famous
poems such as “Song of Myself” and
“O! Captain! My Captain!”)
• totally nine editions and last edition
includes more than 400 poems
Analysis
• A. He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and
celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of
the common man.
• B. employing “free verse” (no conventional rhyme and
meter) as the form of his poems with two characteristics:
parallelism; phonetic recurrence (P92-P93)
• * What is the difference between free verse and blank
verse? (blank verse has no rhyme, but it should be iambic
pentameter)
• C. frankness of the commonplace and the ugly sides in
human life
• D. direct, plain and even vulgar language
• E. “untold latencies” (his poetry suggests rather than tell)
• F. great influence on the 20th century American poets
Free Verse
• Free verse, also known as “open form” verse, is
the verse without regular meter, line length,
rhyme(scheme), or stanza form, depending on
natural speech rhythms related to the actual
cadence of the poet expressing himself. It is
different from the conventional schemed verse in
several aspects:
– Regular meter, or controlled rhythmic pattern, is
essential to conventional poetry; but free verse is based
on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrenc, with
variation, of phrases and syntactical patterns rather
than the recurrent metrical patterns.
– Rhyme occurs in most traditional poetry(except blank
verse), and often with various schemes. In free verse,
however, rhyme may or may not be present; but when
it is used with great freedom.
– In conventional verse, the unit is often foot, or the line;
but in free verse, the units are much larger, sometimes
being paragraphs or strophes. If the free verse unit is
the line, as it is in Whitman, the line is usually
determined by qualities of actual speech rhythm and
thought, rather than feet or syllable count; thus the line
may be as short as one word, or as long as a passage.
– In comparison with conventional verse, free verse may
be composed with rhythms and melodies more personal
and individual, more appropriate to the subject and the
theme. In the hands of the gifted poets free verse very
often acquires rhythms and melodies of its own. There is
in free verse greater flexibility of the form and greater
agreement between sound and sense.
Song of Myself
• It is a poem consisting of 1345 lines. It is the
longest poem in Leaves of Grass. The poet takes
for granted the self as the most crucial element
of the world and thus sets forth two of his
principal beliefs: first, a theory of universality;
second, all things are equal in value.
• In Part 1 of the selected sections, the author
unfolds the theme of “ a leaf of grass is no less
than the journey-work of the stars” by cordially
celebrating himself. Meanwhile, he “extols the
ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates
the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of
the common man.’
Song of Myself
• In part ten he told us his experience in walking
the countryside. He went to the mountain, to the
sea and to take part in the marriage ceremony of
an Indian couple. At last he told us an experience
of saving a runway slave, which showed his
attitude toward slavery.
• In the Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of
Grass, Whitman says: “ The art of art, the glory
of expression and the sunshine of the light of
letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than
simplicity.” “Song of Myself” is characterized by
simplicity of simplicity, but also by art of art.
Song of Myself
• The simplicity lies in the simple expression—the
wording and the sentencing and the natural lining
of the poem. The art lies in the varying rhythms of
the poem---the ebb and flow of emotion within it.,
the shift of mood, the alternation between
moments of intensity and moments of relaxation.
• And the Preface says,” The messages of great poets
to each man and woman are,…What we enclose
you enclose, What we enjoy you may enjoy.” “Song
of Myself” is saturated with the the pride of the
persona himself and with the vehemence of the
audacity of freedom. And the persona, that is, the
“I” in the poem, is Walt Whitman, is every American
and is every human being. The vehemence of pride
and audacity flows not only in words, but also from
and in the sounds of the lines, powerful and
torrential lines bursting out in succession.
Song of Myself
• The oneness of the persona with every
American man and woman and with every
human being, agrees to the varying but
unifying rhythm, and to the harmonious
melody. And in other words, not only the
words describe the oneness, but also the
melody expresses the oneness. This is the
agreement between sound and sense.
• The “Song of Myself”, is the song of
oneness, in terms of the sense and the
sound.
I Sit and Look Out
• It is a short poem of 10 lines, opens with
immediate presentation of the speaker’s stance
and frame of view. The stance, sitting, is fixed,
and within the frame are placed “all the sorrows
of the world.”
• Following the opening line, 7 lines, containing 11
juxtaposed parralled clauses, present, in
sweeping and scanning way, 1 group of auditory
images (I hear,,,”) and 10 groups of visual and
kinesthetic images(I see…”, I mark…I observe…”)
these groups of images are typical ones or
representatives of the sorrow of the world.
I Sit and Look Out
• The 9th line, abruptly, an end to the view of the
sorrows that occur “without end,” and brings the
speaker and the reader back to the stance of the
view: a sitting-look-out-upon stance. Upon the
stance, the speaker continues to see and hear
more of these without end. What he chooses to
do or can do is to be silent.
•
What more is heard and seen? Why is he silent?
And for how long will he be silent? There is a
large blank that the reader should fill in with his
own sensation and imagination.
The End
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