Walt Whitman

1. Walt Whitman 1819-1892

2. Never went to college • Whitman’s feelings for the written word and Brooklyn’s boomtown atmosphere led him into journalism • Wrote editorials for The Brooklyn Freeman • Took difficult trip to New Orleans so he could write about the people and places from a first person point of view

3. Whitman paid for his first copy of Leaves of Grass because he could not get funded • Whitman sent copies of Leaves of Grass in order to gain acceptance and stir up interest • Ralph Waldo Emerson sent a letter to Whitman calling Leaves of Grass “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.” • “I hear America Singing” illustrates the theme of America’s cultural diversity

4. 1855 1st edition of Leaves of Grassis published and this has been expanded and revised through nine editions containing nearly 400 poems • Whitman abandoned rhyme schemes and formal meters in favor of free verse • Whitman used alliteration, repetition, and parallel structure in order to use free verse successfully • Bill Clinton gave Monica Lewinsky a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass- When this came out the literary world knew he was guilty.

5. Add to vocab list • *Imagery- The use of language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person, place, thing or experience • *Catalogs- List of related items, people, or events. Whitman used this in his writing often • *Facsimile- This is a copy (Where we get the word fax machine) • *Metapoetry- Poetry written about poetry