Free Essays on Walt Whitman

. Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman grew up in poverty. He worked for many different newspapers such as, â€Å"The New York Daily Tribune† and â€Å"The New York Criterion†. This worked and satisfied him for a while, then he became bored. He started writing more and more and finally wrote a book called â€Å"Leaves of Grass†. This book caught everyone’s attention and surprised a lot of people. Man tried to discourage him by saying the book was a disgrace to humanity and telling people to throw it in the fire, beside the fact that Abraham Lincoln loved it. In fact, so much he thought it was one of the best books he had read in a long time. Though Whitman did not show his pain and disappointment in himself, he felt it inside. He showed this in his writings only a little. Walt’s poverty inspired some of his writings. Most of them In fact. His homosexuality even inspired some of Walt’s writings. One big event that inspired some of his writings was in the late 1862. Whitman went to the battle-front to find his brother George, who had been injured in Virginia. He saw a lot of cruel unkind things. He then went on to Washington to work in the government. Lincoln’s death also helped him write some of his poems like â€Å"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d† and â€Å"O’Captain My Captain†. Though his father died, he was too heart broken to write about this due to him and his father’s bond. This made Walt the provider for his family and he then had to borrow $200 from a friend. James Parton, he was a husband o... Free Essays on Walt Whitman Free Essays on Walt Whitman Walt Whitman Walt Whitman, a great poet, is said to be one of the best poets of his time. â€Å"A very lazy person with a lot of time on his hands† was what Whitman thought of himself. Though he was nothing of that sort. Whitman took his poetry seriously and everything he wrote came from his heart. In this writing I will try and explain Whitman’s passion in my own words. Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman grew up in poverty. He worked for many different newspapers such as, â€Å"The New York Daily Tribune† and â€Å"The New York Criterion†. This worked and satisfied him for a while, then he became bored. He started writing more and more and finally wrote a book called â€Å"Leaves of Grass†. This book caught everyone’s attention and surprised a lot of people. Man tried to discourage him by saying the book was a disgrace to humanity and telling people to throw it in the fire, beside the fact that Abraham Lincoln loved it. In fact, so much he thought it was one of the best books he had read in a long time. Though Whitman did not show his pain and disappointment in himself, he felt it inside. He showed this in his writings only a little. Walt’s poverty inspired some of his writings. Most of them In fact. His homosexuality even inspired some of Walt’s writings. One big event that inspired some of his writings was in the late 1862. Whitman went to the battle-front to find his brother George, who had been injured in Virginia. He saw a lot of cruel unkind things. He then went on to Washington to work in the government. Lincoln’s death also helped him write some of his poems like â€Å"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d† and â€Å"O’Captain My Captain†. Though his father died, he was too heart broken to write about this due to him and his father’s bond. This made Walt the provider for his family and he then had to borrow $200 from a friend. James Parton, he was a husband o... Free Essays on Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was one of the great innovators in American literature. He has achieved two main contributions to American literature: the introduction of the genuine epic poem for the first time in America and the introduction of a new poetic style which is now called free verse. The free verse is poetry with neither a fixed beat nor a regular rhyme scheme. He innovates such a style because he was convinced that the voice of democracy should not be haltered by traditional forms of verse; as he was a supporter of Jackson’s democratic party in the 1840s . He also favored the exclusion of slavery from the states and because of this he was dismissed from his job in 1848. disappointed by dismissal, he traveled to new Orleans, Chicago and the western frontier and there is no doubt that his experiences in these trips marked a turning point in his career. The influence of Whitman on the poetic technique of other writers was small during his lifetime. But today the elements of his style are apparent in the works of many poets. For example, many of the twentieth century poets such as Carl Sandburg, and Allen Ginsberg have owed a lot for him. The first collection of his poems was published in 1855 under the title of Leaves of Grass. Most of the poems of this collection are around one main theme which is the relationship between man and nature. However, a small number of the deal with other themes such as the city of New York that fascinated him or The Civil War, in which he served as a volunteer male nurse. In his poetry, Whitman has combined the ideal of the democratic common man and that of the rugged individual. He sees the poet as a hero, a savior and a prophet, one who leads the community by his expressions of the truth. With the production of Leaves of Grass, Whitman was praised by Emerson and a few other men of letters, but was attacked by the majority of the critics because of his unconventional style. He wanted his poetr...