Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

1. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Two of the greatest American poets of the 19th century!

2. Walt Whitman • personality - sociable and gregarious. He was a traveler. • expectations - wanted his message to be carried to the world. • famous - during his lifetime (Leaves of Grass published in 1855.) • poetic style - public spokesman of the masses - prophet of progress - extravagant with words and careless with repetition and self-contradiction

3. Walt Whitman • used long lists (catalogues) • used “cadence” (the long easy sweep of sound that echoes the Bible and speeches of orators and preachers.) • often wrote in free verse (no rhyme or meter) • importance - model for 20th century poets (public) • personal life • born in May 1819 • at the age of twelve, Whitman began to learn the printer's trade • at the age of 17, he began his career as teacher in a one-room school house in Long Island • continued to teach until 1841 and then turned to journalism as a full-time career • struggled to support himself through most of his life • at the outbreak of the Civil War, Whitman vowed to live a "purged" and "cleansed" life • died in March 1892

4. Emily Dickinson • personality - very shy and a recluse • expectations - message was to die in oblivion • famous - after her death • poetic style • found in nature a metaphor for the spirit and recorded them with no thought for an audience • wrote with precision of a diamond cutter • meticulous focus on diction (choice of words) • aimed to evoke the feelings of things rather than simply to name them • economical technique • uses rhyme and meter

5. Emily Dickinson • Importance - model for 20th century poets (private) • Personal life • Lived a life of self imposed seclusion in her family’s home after college (gradual shift to secluded life) • Born December 1830 in Massachusetts • Family was a pillar in the community (politically active family) • was a bright and intelligent student as a child • father was very strict; he censored her reading (“Whitman too inappropriate”) • was a descendent of early Puritan settlers (religion important) • Emerson had a great influence on her writing • wrote over 1,700 poems and many letters • died at the age of 55 from Bight’s disease, which is caused by kidney degeneration • after her death her sister found a boxful of Emily’s poems and letters • First set of Dickinson’s poems published by her sister (Vinnie) and family friend (Mabel) in 1893