| 沃爾特·惠特曼 | |||||
閱讀惠特曼 Walt Whitman在诗海的作品!!! | |||||
惠特曼1855年《草葉集》的第1版問世,共收詩12首，最後出第9版時共收詩383首，其中最長的一首《自己之歌》共1,336行。這首詩的內容幾乎包括了作者畢生的主要思想，是作者最重要的詩歌之一。惠特曼詩歌的藝術風格和傳統的詩體大不相同。他一生熱愛意大利歌劇、演講術和大海的滔滔浪聲。西方學者指出這是惠特曼詩歌的音律的主要來源。他的詩歌從語言和題材上深刻地影響了二十世紀的美國詩歌。
美國詩人。生於美國長島一個海濱小村莊。父親當時是個無地的農民。惠特曼5歲那年全家遷移到布魯剋林，父親在那兒做木工，承建房屋，惠特曼在那兒開始上小學。由於生活窮睏，惠特曼衹讀了5年小學。他當過信差，學過排字，後來當過鄉村教師和編輯。這段生活經歷使他廣泛地接觸人民，接觸大自然，對後來的詩歌創作産生了極大的影響。1841年以後，他又回到了紐約，開始當印刷工人，不久就改當記者，並開始寫作。幾年以後，他成了一傢較有名望的報紙《鷲鷹報》的主筆，不斷撰寫反對奴隸製，反對雇主剝削的論文和短評。40年代未他加入了“自由土地黨”，反對美國的蓄奴製，主張土地改革。1848年西歐各國爆發了革命，對惠特曼影響很大。他在報紙上發表文章謳歌歐洲革命，並寫了不少詩來表達自己的心境，其中包括《歐洲》、《法蘭西》、《近代的歲月》等等。1850年起他脫離新聞界，重操他父親的舊業——當木匠和建築師。這期間，他創作了他的代表作詩集《草葉集》（1855）。1861年美國南北戰爭爆發。內戰結束後他自費發表了反映內戰的詩篇《桴鼓集》(1865)。幾個月後他又出版了一本續集，其中有悼念林肯的名篇《最近紫丁香在庭院裏開放的時候》，《哦，船長！我的船長》等等。
由於內戰時辛勞過度，惠特曼於1873年患半身不遂癥，在病榻上捱過了近20年。1892年3月26日惠特曼在卡姆登病逝。
惠特曼的民主主義思想有兩個主要來源，少年時代，他多次聆聽了他傢常客托馬斯·潘恩的談話，後者激進的民主傾嚮和空想社會主義的思想給他留下深刻影響，使他從小就立志成為一個潘恩式的民主鬥士。成年以後，適逢超驗主義運動興起，他為愛默生的學說所迷醉，更加熱愛大自然和普通的勞動人民，強化了自己的民主立場。
惠特曼從1839年起開始文學創作，寫一些短詩，同時參加當地的政治活動。1842年他擔任《紐約曙光》報的編輯。1846年初，他又擔任《布洛剋林每日鷹報》的編輯，因在該報發表反對奴隸制度的文章，於1848年1月被解職。後來還擔任過《自由民》報的主編，終因政見不合而於1840年離開新聞界。
從1850年開始，惠特曼一方面從事體力勞動，作木匠和建築師，一方面展開了他的旺盛的詩歌創作活動，他開始在報紙上發表自由詩，表達對大自然的熱愛和自由民主生活的贊頌，南北戰爭爆發後，積極支持林肯解放黑奴的主張，並親身參加戰鬥。抒發了自己追求民主進步的理想。內戰期間，詩人自動到紐約百匯醫院作看護，後來又在華盛頓的軍醫院裏服務。1873年，惠特曼不幸得半身不遂之癥，遷居新澤西州卡姆登養病，於1892年病重去世。
惠特曼的第一部詩集是《草葉集》，1855年在紐約出版時衹有94項，包括12首詩作，到1882年版時，已增加到372首詩作；1861年美國南北戰爭爆發，這個時期，他寫下了真實記錄這場革命戰爭的《鼓專用集》；林肯總統被刺後，他寫下了沉痛表達美國人民對林肯被刺而哀思的《啊，船長!我的船長》、《今天的軍營靜悄悄》等詩篇，表示了對林肯的沉痛哀悼；在有名的《神秘的號手》一詩中，他樂觀地描繪了未來的自由世界。惠特曼是美國著名的民主詩人，他歌頌民主自由，體現了美國人民對民主的渴望，他贊美人民創造性的勞動，他的詩給人以積極嚮上的生氣勃勃的精神。
晚年的惠特曼看到了資本主義發展所造成的嚴重的弊端，理想化社會遠未到來，曾著文予以抨擊並提出改良的方案，他為民主理想的實現奮鬥了一生。
惠特曼的名字，中國人民是早已熟悉的。五四時期，詩人郭沫若在名詩《匪徒頌》中就贊揚過惠特曼為文藝革命傢。
惠特曼是土生土長的美國詩人，他創造了一種新型詩體：自由體詩。即不受格律、韻腳的限製和束縛，人思想和語言自由自在的發揮，詩作《草葉集》奠定了美國詩歌的基礎，並對美國及其他國傢的詩歌藝術産生了相當大的影響。
1825 全家遷至布魯剋林。父親放棄農業，成了一個城市木工。惠特曼就學於布魯剋林公學。
1829 由於家庭睏難，給一個律師當聽差。
1831 去印刷廠當學徒，開始在《長島愛國報》的印刷廠學習排字。
1834 在《長島愛國報》報社正式做排字工人。開始業餘寫作。
1837 到長島鄉下的小學教書。
1838-1839 在長島亨廷頓辦《長島人報》。
1840 在布魯剋林長期定居下來，在《新世界》報館當印刷工人，並開始參加當地的政治活動。
1842 2月，給《美國佬》周刊寫文章，回答華盛頓某報對第一次來美旅遊的英國作傢狄更斯的攻擊。成了《紐約曙光》小報的編輯。
1846 初，在《每日鷹報》當編輯，同時為報社撰寫社論。
1847 在美國和加拿大徒步旅行。春天，在報紙上發表一篇題為《美國工人反對奴隸制度》的論文。開始了後 來編入《草葉集》詩篇的寫作。
1848 1月，被《每日鷹報》解雇。
1849 “自有土壤派”在布魯剋林辦起了自己的機關報《布魯剋林自由人》，惠特曼成了該報的編輯。秋天，因“自由土壤派”領導人的變節，憤然辭職，並在9月11日《布魯剋林自由人》上刊登聲明。
1850 紐約各報刊登了惠特曼的三首詩：《某國會議員之歌》、《血腥的金錢》和《朋友之傢》。本年，還在紐約的一傢報紙上發表了一首題為《歐羅巴》的詩篇。
1851 3月11日，在“布魯剋林藝術協會”演講，演講全文發表在4月3日布魯剋林《廣告人日報》上。
1855 詩集《草葉集》第一版在紐約自費出版。
1856 《草葉集》印行第二版，增加了二十首新詩。
1857 在布魯剋林《時報》擔任編輯，開始為該報撰稿。
1860 反對黑奴製的共和黨人林肯當選聯邦政府總統。
1861 美國南部各州先後宣佈獨立，組成“南方聯盟”，發動內戰。南北戰爭開始。
1862 5月，林肯頒布宅地法，9月，發表“解放黑奴宣言”，極大鼓舞了工人、農民和黑人。支持解放黑奴的戰爭。12月到前綫費萊德·瑞剋堡看望在內戰中受傷的弟弟。
1863 1月，定居華盛頓。在軍醫院中，以看護、顧問、朋友的身份照料傷員。
1865 4月，南部聯軍統帥羅伯特·李投降。南北戰爭結束。結束了傷兵志願看護員的工作。1月，在政府機關找到一個差使。6月，內政部長哈南在惠特曼的桌子上發現《草葉集》這本“不道德的”小書，便把他免職了。本年出版《鼓聲集》。
1871 發表《民主的遠景》、《通嚮印度》、《畢竟不止是創造》等詩。
1872 發表詩歌《象自由翺翔的飛鳥一樣堅強》。
1873 1月，患嚴重的麻痹癥，成了一個跛腳人。
1875 完成《戰爭的回憶》。
1892 3月26日，與世長辭。
Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle.
Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though he is usually labeled as either homosexual or bisexual, it is unclear if Whitman ever had a sexual relationship with another man. Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally, but did not believe in the abolitionist movement.
Early life
Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, to Quaker parents, Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. He was the second of nine children and was immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Walter Whitman, Sr. named three of his seven sons after American leaders: Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. The oldest was named Jesse and another boy died unnamed at the age of six months. The couple's sixth son, the youngest, was named Edward. At age four, Whitman moved with his family from West Hills to Brooklyn, living in a series of homes in part due to bad investments. Whitman looked back on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy due to his family's difficult economic status. One happy moment that he later recalled was when he was lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by Marquis de Lafayette during a celebration in Brooklyn on July 4, 1825.
At age eleven Whitman concluded formal schooling. He then sought employment, due to his family's financial situation, originally as an office boy for two lawyers and later as an apprentice and printer's devil for the weekly Long Island newspaper the Patriot, edited by Samuel E. Clements. Here, Whitman learned about the printing press and typesetting. He may have written "sentimental bits" of filler material for occasional issues. Clements aroused controversy when he and two friends attempted to dig up the corpse of Elias Hicks to create a plaster mold of his head. Clements left the Patriot shortly after, possibly as a result of the controversy.
Early career
The following summer Whitman worked for another printer, Erastus Worthington, in Brooklyn. His family moved back to West Hills in the spring, but Whitman remained and took a job at the shop of Alden Spooner, editor of the leading Whig weekly newspaper the Long-Island Star. While at the Star, Whitman became a regular patron of the local library, joined a town debating society, began attending theater performances, and anonymously published some of his earliest poetry in the New York Mirror. At age 16 in May 1835, Whitman left the Star and Brooklyn. He moved to New York City to work as a compositor though, in later years, Whitman could not remember where. He attempted to find further work but had difficulty in part due to a severe fire in the printing and publishing district and in part due to a general collapse in the economy leading up to the Panic of 1837. In May 1836, he rejoined his family, now living in Hempstead, Long Island. Whitman taught intermittently at various schools until the spring of 1838, though he was not satisfied as a teacher.
After his teaching attempts, Whitman went back to Huntington, New York to found his own newspaper, the Long-Islander. Whitman served as publisher, editor, pressman, and distributor and even provided home delivery. After ten months, he sold the publication to E. O. Crowell, whose first issue appeared on July 12, 1839. No copies of the Long-Islander published under Whitman survive. By the summer of 1839, he found a job as a typesetter in Jamaica, Queens with the Long Island Democrat, edited by James J. Brenton. He left shortly thereafter, and made another attempt at teaching from the winter of 1840 to the spring of 1841, then moved to New York City in May. There, he initially worked a low-level job at the New World, working under Park Benjamin, Sr. and Rufus Wilmot Griswold. He continued working for short periods of time for various newspapers, particularly as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle for two years, as well as contributing freelance fiction and poetry throughout the 1840s.
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison.Main article: Leaves of Grass
Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet. He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period. As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. George "didn't think it worth reading".
Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself and had it printed at a local print shop during their breaks from commercial jobs. 795 copies were printed, though the author's name was not given. Instead, facing the title page was an engraved portrait done by Samuel Hollyer. The book received its strongest praise from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote a flattering five page letter to Whitman and spoke highly of the book to friends. The first edition of Leaves of Grass was widely distributed and stirred up significant interest, in part due to Emerson's approval, but was occasionally criticized for the seemingly "obscene" nature of the poetry. Geologist John Peter Lesley wrote to Emerson, calling the book "trashy, profane & obscene" and the author "a pretentious ass". On July 11, 1855, a few days after Leaves of Grass was published, Whitman's father died at the age of 65.
In the months following the first edition of Leaves of Grass, critical responses began focusing more on the potentially offensive sexual themes. Though the second edition was already printed and bound, the publisher almost did not release it. In the end, the edition went to retail, with 20 additional poems, in August 1856. Leaves of Grass was revised and re-released in 1860 again in 1867, and several more times throughout the remainder of Whitman's life. Several well-known writers admired the work enough to visit Whitman, including Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.
Amidst the first publications of Leaves of Grass, Whitman had financial difficulty and was forced to work as a journalist again, specifically with the Brooklyn's Daily Times starting in May 1857. As an editor, he oversaw the paper's contents, contributed book reviews, and wrote editorials. He left the job in 1859, though it is unclear if he was fired or chose to leave. Whitman, who typically kept detailed notebooks and journals, left very little information about himself in the late 1850s.
Civil War years
Walt Whitman, circa 1860, by Mathew BradyAs the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman published his poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" as a patriotic rally call for the North. Whitman's brother George had joined the Union army and began sending Whitman several vividly detailed letters of the battle front. On December 16, 1862, a listing of fallen and wounded soldiers in the New York Tribune included "First Lieutenant G. W. Whitmore", which Whitman worried was a reference to his brother George. He made his way south immediately to find him, though his wallet was stolen on the way. "Walking all day and night, unable to ride, trying to get information, trying to get access to big people", Whitman later wrote, he eventually found George alive, with only a superficial wound on his cheek. Whitman, profoundly affected by seeing the wounded soldiers and the heaps of their amputated limbs, left for Washington on December 28, 1862 with the intention of never returning to New York.
In Washington, D.C., Whitman's friend Charley Eldridge helped him obtain part-time work in the army paymaster's office, leaving time for Whitman to volunteer as a nurse in the army hospitals. He would write of this experience in "The Great Army of the Sick", published in a New York newspaper in 1863 and, 12 years later, in a book called Memoranda During the War. He then contacted Emerson, this time to ask for help in obtaining a government post. Another friend, John Trowbridge, passed on a letter of recommendation from Emerson to Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, hoping he would grant Whitman a position in that department. Chase, however, did not want to hire the author of a disreputable book, referring to Leaves of Grass.
The Whitman family had a difficult end to 1864. On September 30, 1864, Whitman's brother George was captured by Confederates in Virginia, another brother, Andrew Jackson, died of tuberculosis compounded by alcoholism on December 3. That month, Whitman committed his brother Jesse to the Kings County Lunatic Asylum. Whitman's spirits were raised, however, when he finally got a better-paying government post – a low grade clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior – thanks to his friend William Douglas O'Connor. O'Connor, a poet, daguerreotypist and an editor at the Saturday Evening Post, had written to William Tod Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, on Whitman's behalf. Whitman began the new appointment on January 24, 1865, with a yearly salary of $1,200. A month later, on February 24, 1865, George was released from capture and granted a furlough because of his poor health. By May 1, Whitman received a promotion to a slightly higher clerkship and published Drum-Taps.
Effective June 30, 1865, however, Whitman was fired from his job. His dismissal came from the new Secretary of the Interior, former Iowa Senator James Harlan. Though Harlan dismissed several clerks who "were seldom at their respective desks", he may have fired Whitman on moral grounds after finding an 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. O'Connor protested until J. Hubley Ashton had Whitman transferred to the Attorney General's office on July 1. O'Connor, though, was still upset and vindicated Whitman by publishing a biased and exaggerated biographical study, The Good Gray Poet, in January 1866. The fifty-cent pamphlet defended Whitman as a wholesome patriot, established the poet's nickname and increased his popularity. Also aiding in his popularity was the publication of "O Captain! My Captain!", a relatively conventional poem to Abraham Lincoln, the only poem to be anthologized during Whitman's lifetime.
Part of Whitman's role in the Attorney General's office was interviewing former Confederate soldiers for Presidential pardons. "There are real characters among them", he later wrote, "and you know I have a fancy for anything out of the ordinary." In August 1866, he took a month off in order to prepare a new edition of Leaves of Grass which would not be published until 1867 after difficulty in finding a publisher. He hoped it would be its last edition. In February 1868 Poems of Walt Whitman was published in England thanks to the influence of William Michael Rossetti, with minor changes which Whitman reluctantly approved. The edition became popular in England, especially with endorsements from the highly respected Anne Gilchrist. Another edition of Leaves of Grass was issued in 1871, the same year it was mistakenly reported that its author died in a railroad accident. As Whitman's international fame increased, he remained working in the attorney general's office until January 1872. He spent much of 1872 caring for his mother who was now nearly eighty and struggling with arthritis. He also traveled and was invited to Dartmouth College to give the commencement address on June 26, 1872.
Health decline and death
Walt Whitman spent his last few years at his home in Camden, New Jersey.Early in 1873, Whitman suffered a paralytic stroke; his mother died in May the same year. Both events were difficult for Whitman and left him depressed. He moved to Camden, New Jersey to live with his brother George, paying room and board until he bought his own house on Mickle St. in 1884. Around this time, he began socializing with Mary Oakes Davis, the widow of a sea captain, who lived nearby. She moved in with Whitman on February 24, 1885 to serve as his housekeeper in exchange for free rent. She brought with her a cat, a dog, two turtledoves, a canary, and other assorted animals. During this time, Whitman produced further editions of Leaves of Grass in 1876, 1881, and 1889.
As the end of 1891 approached, he prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, an edition which has been nicknamed the "Deathbed Edition". He wrote, "L. of G. at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old". Preparing for death, Whitman commissioned a granite mausoleum shaped like a house for $4,000 and visited it often during construction. In the last week of his life, he was too weak to lift a knife or fork and wrote: "I suffer all the time: I have no relief, no escape: it is monotony — monotony — monotony — in pain."
Whitman died on March 26, 1892. An autopsy revealed his lungs had diminished to one-eighth their normal breathing capacity, a result of bronchial pneumonia, and that an egg-sized abscess on his chest had eroded one of his ribs. The cause of death was officially listed as "pleurisy of the left side, consumption of the right lung, general miliary tuberculosis and parenchymatous nephritis." A public viewing of his body was held at his Camden home; over one thousand people visited in three hours and Whitman's oak coffin was barely visible because of all the flowers and wreaths left for him. He was buried in his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden four days after his death. Another public ceremony was held at the cemetery, with friends giving speeches, live music, and refreshments. Later, the remains of Whitman's parents and two of his brothers and their families were moved to the mausoleum.
Lifestyle and beliefs
Portrait of Whitman by Thomas Eakins, 1887-88
Alcohol
Whitman was a vocal proponent of temperance and rarely drank alcohol. He once claimed he did not taste "strong liquor" until he was thirty and occasionally argued for prohibition. One of his earliest long fiction works, the novel Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate, first published November 23, 1842, is a temperance novel. Whitman wrote the novel at the height of popularity of the Washingtonian movement though the movement itself was plagued with contradictions, as was Franklin Evans. Years later Whitman claimed he was embarrassed by the book and called it a "damned rot". He dismissed it by saying he wrote the novel in three days solely for money while he was under the influence of alcohol himself. Even so, he wrote other pieces recommending temperance, including The Madman and a short story "Reuben's Last Wish".
Poetic theory
Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society. This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration. As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people. Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses.
Religion
Whitman was deeply influenced by deism. He denied any one faith was more important than another, and embraced all religions equally. In "Song of Myself", he gave an inventory of major religions and indicated he respected and accepted all of them – a sentiment he further emphasized in his poem "With Antecedents", affirming: "I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god, / I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception". In 1874, he was invited to write a poem about the Spiritualism movement, to which he responded, "It seems to me nearly altogether a poor, cheap, crude humbug." Whitman was a religious skeptic: though he accepted all churches, he believed in none.
Sexuality
Whitman and Peter Doyle, one of the men with whom Whitman was believed to have had an intimate relationshipWhitman's sexuality is sometimes disputed, although often assumed to be bisexual based on his poetry. The concept of heterosexual and homosexual personalities was invented in 1868, and it was not widely promoted until Whitman was an old man. Whitman's poetry depicts love and sexuality in a more earthy, individualistic way common in American culture before the medicalization of sexuality in the late 1800s. Though Leaves of Grass was often labeled pornographic or obscene, only one critic remarked on its author's presumed sexual activity: in a November 1855 review, Rufus Wilmot Griswold suggested Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians". Whitman had intense friendships with many men throughout his life. Some biographers have claimed that he may not have actually engaged in sexual relationships with men, while others cite letters, journal entries and other sources which they claim as proof of the sexual nature of some of his relationships.
Biographer David S. Reynolds described a man named Peter Doyle as being the most likely candidate for the love of Whitman's life. Doyle was a bus conductor whom he met around 1866. They were inseparable for several years. Interviewed in 1895, Doyle said: "We were familiar at once — I put my hand on his knee — we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip — in fact went all the way back with me." A more direct second-hand account comes from Oscar Wilde. Wilde met Whitman in America in 1882, and wrote to the homosexual rights activist George Cecil Ives that there was "no doubt" about the great American poet's sexual orientation — "I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips," he boasted. The only explicit description of Whitman's sexual activities is second hand. In 1924 Edward Carpenter, then an old man, described an erotic encounter he had had in his youth with Whitman to Gavin Arthur, who recorded it in detail in his journal. Late in his life, when Whitman was asked outright if his series of "Calamus" poems were homosexual, he chose not to respond.
There is also some evidence that Whitman may have had sexual relationships with women. He had a romantic friendship with a New York actress named Ellen Grey in the spring of 1862, but it is not known whether or not it was also sexual. He still had a photo of her decades later when he moved to Camden and referred to her as "an old sweetheart of mine". In a letter dated August 21, 1890 he claimed, "I have had six children - two are dead". This claim has never been corroborated. Toward the end of his life, he often told stories of previous girlfriends and sweethearts and denied an allegation from the New York Herald that he had "never had a love affair".
Shakespeare authorship
Whitman was a proponent of the Shakespeare authorship question, refusing to believe in the historic attribution of the works to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Whitman comments in his November Boughs (1888) regarding Shakespeare's historical plays:
"Conceiv'd out of the fullest heat and pulse of European feudalism -personifying ill unparalleled ways the medieval aristocracy, its towering spirit of ruthless and gigantic caste, with its own peculiar air and arrogance (no mere imitation) -only one of the "wolfish earls" so plenteous in the plays themselves, or some born descendant and knower, might seem to be the true author of those amazing works -works in some respects greater than anything else in recorded literature."
Slavery
Whitman opposed the extension of slavery in the United States and supported the Wilmot Proviso. However, he was not an abolitionist and believed the movement did more harm than good. He once wrote that the abolitionists had, in fact, slowed the advancement of their cause by their "ultraism and officiousness". His main concern was that their methods disrupted the democratic process, as did the refusal of the Southern states to put the interests of the nation as a whole above their own. Whitman also subscribed to the widespread opinion that even free African-Americans should not vote and was concerned at the increasing number of African-Americans in the legislature.
Legacy and influence
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Walt Whitman has been claimed as America's first "poet of democracy", a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. A British friend of Walt Whitman, Mary Smith Whitall Costelloe, wrote: "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America." Andrew Carnegie called him "the great poet of America so far". Edward Hopper, who knew Whitman's poetry well, was, like the poet, "a brilliant impresario of the archetype." Hopper's pictures of naked women by their windows were (says the critic, Walter Wells) most likely influenced by Whitman, most notably the poet's controversial "A Woman Waits for Me."
The literary critic, Harold Bloom wrote, as the introduction for the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass that, "If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse. You can nominate a fair number of literary works as candidates for the secular Scripture of the United States. They might include Melville's Moby-Dick, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Emerson's two series of Essays and The Conduct of Life. None of those, not even Emerson's, are as central as the first edition of Leaves of Grass."
Whitman considered himself a messiah-like figure in poetry. Others agreed: one of his admirers, William Sloane Kennedy, speculated that "people will be celebrating the birth of Walt Whitman as they are now the birth of Christ". Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like. He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris. He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution. He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it.
Whitman's vagabond lifestyle was adopted by the Beat movement and its leaders such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s and 1960s as well as anti-war poets like Adrienne Rich and Gary Snyder. Whitman also influenced Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and was the model for the character of Dracula. Stoker said in his notes that Dracula represented the quintessential male which, to Stoker, was Whitman, with whom he corresponded until Whitman's death.
References
Notes
^ a b c Reynolds, 314
^ a b c Loving, 480
^ a b Reynolds, 589
^ a b Buckham, Luke. "Walt Whitman's Vision of Liberty", Keene Free Press. October 11, 2006.
^ a b Loving, 19
^ Miller, 17
^ a b Loving, 29
^ Loving, 30
^ Reynolds, 24
^ Reynolds, 33–34
^ Loving, 32
^ Reynolds, 44
^ Kaplan, 74
^ Callow, 30
^ Callow, 29
^ Loving, 34
^ a b Reynolds, 45
^ Callow, 32
^ Kaplan, 79
^ Kaplan, 77
^ Callow, 35
^ a b Kaplan, 81
^ Loving, 36
^ Callow, 36
^ Loving, 37
^ a b Reynolds, 60
^ Loving, 38
^ Kaplan, 93–94
^ Callow, 56
^ Reynolds, 83–84
^ Kaplan, 185
^ Reynolds, 85
^ Loving, 154
^ Miller, 55
^ Miller, 155
^ Kaplan, 187
^ a b Callow, 226
^ Loving, 178
^ Kaplan, 198
^ Callow, 227
^ Kaplan, 203
^ Reynolds, 340
^ Callow, 232
^ Loving, 414
^ Kaplan, 211
^ Kaplan, 229
^ Reynolds, 348
^ Callow, 238
^ Kaplan, 207
^ Loving, 238
^ Reynolds, 363
^ Callow, 225
^ Reynolds, 368
^ Loving, 228
^ Reynolds, 375
^ Callow, 283
^ Reynolds, 410
^ a b Kaplan, 268
^ a b c Reynolds, 411
^ Callow, 286
^ Callow, 293
^ Kaplan, 273
^ Callow, 297
^ Callow, 295
^ Loving, 281
^ Kaplan, 293–294
^ Reynolds, 454
^ a b Loving, 283
^ a b c Reynolds, 455
^ a b Loving, 290
^ Loving, 291
^ Kaplan, 304
^ Reynolds, 456-457
^ Kaplan, 309
^ Loving, 293
^ Kaplan, 318–319
^ Loving, 314
^ Callow, 326
^ Kaplan, 324
^ Callow, 329
^ Loving, 331
^ Reynolds, 464
^ Kaplan, 340
^ Loving, 341
^ Miller, 33
^ Haas, Irvin. Historic Homes of American Authors. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991: 141. ISBN 0891331808.
^ Loving, 432
^ Reynolds, 548
^ Reynolds, 586
^ a b Loving, 479
^ Kaplan, 49
^ Reynolds, 587
^ Callow, 363
^ Reynolds, 588
^ Reynolds, 588
^ Kaplan, 50
^ Loving, 71
^ Callow, 75
^ Loving, 74
^ Reynolds, 95
^ Reynolds, 91
^ Loving, 75
^ Reynolds, 97
^ Loving, 72
^ Reynolds, 5
^ Reynolds, 324
^ Miller, 78
^ Reynolds, 332
^ a b c Reynolds, 237
^ Loving, 353
^ D'Emilio and Freeman (1997). Intimate Matters - A History of Sexuality in America ISBN 0-226-14264-7.
^ Loving, 184–185
^ Norton, Rictor "Walt Whitman, Prophet of Gay Liberation" from The Great Queens of History, updated 18 Nov. 1999
^ Reynolds, 487
^ Kaplan, 311–312
^ McKenna, Neil. The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. Century, 2003: 33. ISBN 0465044387.
^ Kantrowitz, Arnie. "Edward Carpenter". Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998.
^ Reynolds, 527
^ Callow, 278
^ Loving, 123
^ Reynolds,490
^ Nelson, Paul A. "Walt Whitman on Shakespeare". Reprinted from The Shakespeare Oxford Society Newsletter, Fall 1992: Volume 28, 4A.
^ a b Reynolds, 117
^ Loving, 110
^ Reynolds, 473
^ Reynolds, 470
^ Reynolds, 4
^ Pound, Ezra. "Walt Whitman", Whitman, Roy Harvey Pearce, ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962: 8
^ Kaplan, 22
^ Wells, Walter, Silent Theater: The Art of Edward Hopper, London/New York: Phaidon, 2007
^ Bloom, Harold. Introduction to Leaves of Grass. Penguin Classics, 2005.
^ Callow, 83
^ Loving, 475
^ Kaplan, 233
^ Loving, 314
^ Loving, 181
^ Nuzum, Eric. The Dead Travel Fast. 141–147.
Bibliography
Callow, Philip. From Noon to Starry Night: A Life of Walt Whitman. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992. ISBN 0929587952
Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN 0671225421
Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0520226879
Miller, James E., Jr. Walt Whitman. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1962
Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. ISBN 0679767096