Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Song of Myself
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking
O Captain, My Captain
Walt Whitman was born on Long Island, New York. His family moved to Brooklyn in 1823, when young Whitman was four. He attended public school, but left when he was 12 to learn the printing trade. At this time, he also worked as a reporter for the Long Island Patriot. Due to a fire in the printing district of New York, Whitman was forced to seek employment as a rural school teacher. While he was like by students, he often clashed with those in charge of educational system. He returned to New York in 1841. By 1846, he became the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, an important newspaper. However, Brooklyn Daily Eagle fired Whitman two years later, due to his growing political activism and support of abolishing slavery. Afterwards, he worked in New Orleans as the editor the Crescent City newspaper for a brief period of time. His trip there cemented his support for abolishing slavery. Upon his return to New York, Whitman attended lectures by prominent thinkers, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson’s work was particularly inspirational for Whitman, who embraced Emerson’s idea of Transcendentalism in his work “Song of Myself” from Leaves of Grass (1855-1892). During the Civil War started, Whitman served as a nurse. After the war, Whitman enjoyed some success for his work on Abraham Lincoln and from his published poetry. However, his writing was experimental in nature, and often contained erotic elements that garnered him harsh criticism. His most influential collection is Leaves of Grass, which he continued to revise and republish until his death. From that work, “Song of Myself” is seen as the hallmark piece. In this poem, Whitman introduced his free verse style that would transform American poetry. He experiments with repetition and catalogues to communicate his ideas. “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking” appeared in the 1860 collection of Leaves of Grass. The poem uses nature imagery to document the speaker’s transformation into a poet. Whitman focuses on nature and brotherhood in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” which appeared in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass. The poem expresses Whitman’s concept of his feeling of oneness with the world that transcends time. One of his more traditional works in terms of meter and form is “O Captain, My Captain,” which first appeared in the 1865 edition of Leaves of Grass. Easily Whitman’s most popular poem in his lifetime, this elegy conceptualizes President Abraham Lincoln as the captain of ship. Whitman’s continued process of refining and reinventing his poems cemented his reputation as an influential literary and cultural figure in America.
Consider while reading:

1. How does Whitman use prosody to underscore the meaning in his poems?
2. What is the significance of Whitman’s use of nature?
3. Whitman was influenced by Emerson’s ideas of the enlightened poet. How and where does he use this idea in “Song of Myself”?
4. What is effect of Whitman using lists in his poetry?

Written by Laura Ng