Walt Whitman and his democratic poetry

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819, New York – March 26, 1892, New Jersey) By Tetiana Hulatkan 11-c

By the age of eleven Walt Whitman had first worked as an office boy for a prominent lawyer, who arranged for him a subscription to a library, where his self-education began. He was interested in: literature, history, geography, music, theater and archeology.

“the proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it”

Walt Whitman created new poetry that celebrated the democratic spirit of his native land. His poems have been translated into Ukrainian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese.

Walt Whitman created one of the greatest books in American literature – Leaves of Grass. His new style and method was free verse. Free verse (вільний вірш) Poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line, length.

Trends Movements Transcendentalism

Walt Whitman wrote democratic collection Drum-Taps and he supported A. Lincoln in his poetry.

O Captain! My Captain! 

“O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!..” О Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But О heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. О Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult О shores, and ring О bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Walt Whitman - assembled true facts from life; - found his own style of expressing them; - created a new form of poetry; - believed a real democracy would be made possible; - hoped that such democracy would come into being after the complete victory of the Northern states in the Civil War; - insisted that the human being can enjoy his right to human dignity and clear conscience only under a just and complete democracy.