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惠特曼1855年《草叶集》的第1版问世,共收诗12首，最后出第9版时共收诗383首，其中最长的一首《自己之歌》共1,336行。这首诗的内容几乎包括了作者毕生的主要思想，是作者最重要的诗歌之一。惠特曼诗歌的艺术风格和传统的诗体大不相同。他一生热爱意大利歌剧、演讲术和大海的滔滔浪声。西方学者指出这是惠特曼诗歌的音律的主要来源。他的诗歌从语言和题材上深刻地影响了二十世纪的美国诗歌。
美国诗人。生于美国长岛一个海滨小村庄。父亲当时是个无地的农民。惠特曼5岁那年全家迁移到布鲁克林，父亲在那儿做木工，承建房屋，惠特曼在那儿开始上小学。由于生活穷困，惠特曼只读了5年小学。他当过信差，学过排字，后来当过乡村教师和编辑。这段生活经历使他广泛地接触人民，接触大自然，对后来的诗歌创作产生了极大的影响。1841年以后，他又回到了纽约，开始当印刷工人，不久就改当记者，并开始写作。几年以后，他成了一家较有名望的报纸《鹫鹰报》的主笔，不断撰写反对奴隶制，反对雇主剥削的论文和短评。40年代未他加入了“自由土地党”，反对美国的蓄奴制，主张土地改革。1848年西欧各国爆发了革命，对惠特曼影响很大。他在报纸上发表文章讴歌欧洲革命，并写了不少诗来表达自己的心境，其中包括《欧洲》、《法兰西》、《近代的岁月》等等。1850年起他脱离新闻界，重操他父亲的旧业——当木匠和建筑师。这期间，他创作了他的代表作诗集《草叶集》（1855）。1861年美国南北战争爆发。内战结束后他自费发表了反映内战的诗篇《桴鼓集》(1865)。几个月后他又出版了一本续集，其中有悼念林肯的名篇《最近紫丁香在庭院里开放的时候》，《哦，船长！我的船长》等等。
由于内战时辛劳过度，惠特曼于1873年患半身不遂症，在病榻上捱过了近20年。1892年3月26日惠特曼在卡姆登病逝。
惠特曼的民主主义思想有两个主要来源，少年时代，他多次聆听了他家常客托马斯·潘恩的谈话，后者激进的民主倾向和空想社会主义的思想给他留下深刻影响，使他从小就立志成为一个潘恩式的民主斗士。成年以后，适逢超验主义运动兴起，他为爱默生的学说所迷醉，更加热爱大自然和普通的劳动人民，强化了自己的民主立场。
惠特曼从1839年起开始文学创作，写一些短诗，同时参加当地的政治活动。1842年他担任《纽约曙光》报的编辑。1846年初，他又担任《布洛克林每日鹰报》的编辑，因在该报发表反对奴隶制度的文章，于1848年1月被解职。后来还担任过《自由民》报的主编，终因政见不合而于1840年离开新闻界。
从1850年开始，惠特曼一方面从事体力劳动，作木匠和建筑师，一方面展开了他的旺盛的诗歌创作活动，他开始在报纸上发表自由诗，表达对大自然的热爱和自由民主生活的赞颂，南北战争爆发后，积极支持林肯解放黑奴的主张，并亲身参加战斗。抒发了自己追求民主进步的理想。内战期间，诗人自动到纽约百汇医院作看护，后来又在华盛顿的军医院里服务。1873年，惠特曼不幸得半身不遂之症，迁居新泽西州卡姆登养病，于1892年病重去世。
惠特曼的第一部诗集是《草叶集》，1855年在纽约出版时只有94项，包括12首诗作，到1882年版时，已增加到372首诗作；1861年美国南北战争爆发，这个时期，他写下了真实记录这场革命战争的《鼓专用集》；林肯总统被刺后，他写下了沉痛表达美国人民对林肯被刺而哀思的《啊，船长!我的船长》、《今天的军营静悄悄》等诗篇，表示了对林肯的沉痛哀悼；在有名的《神秘的号手》一诗中，他乐观地描绘了未来的自由世界。惠特曼是美国著名的民主诗人，他歌颂民主自由，体现了美国人民对民主的渴望，他赞美人民创造性的劳动，他的诗给人以积极向上的生气勃勃的精神。
晚年的惠特曼看到了资本主义发展所造成的严重的弊端，理想化社会远未到来，曾著文予以抨击并提出改良的方案，他为民主理想的实现奋斗了一生。
惠特曼的名字，中国人民是早已熟悉的。五四时期，诗人郭沫若在名诗《匪徒颂》中就赞扬过惠特曼为文艺革命家。
惠特曼是土生土长的美国诗人，他创造了一种新型诗体：自由体诗。即不受格律、韵脚的限制和束缚，人思想和语言自由自在的发挥，诗作《草叶集》奠定了美国诗歌的基础，并对美国及其他国家的诗歌艺术产生了相当大的影响。
1825 全家迁至布鲁克林。父亲放弃农业，成了一个城市木工。惠特曼就学于布鲁克林公学。
1829 由于家庭困难，给一个律师当听差。
1831 去印刷厂当学徒，开始在《长岛爱国报》的印刷厂学习排字。
1834 在《长岛爱国报》报社正式做排字工人。开始业余写作。
1837 到长岛乡下的小学教书。
1838-1839 在长岛亨廷顿办《长岛人报》。
1840 在布鲁克林长期定居下来，在《新世界》报馆当印刷工人，并开始参加当地的政治活动。
1842 2月，给《美国佬》周刊写文章，回答华盛顿某报对第一次来美旅游的英国作家狄更斯的攻击。成了《纽约曙光》小报的编辑。
1846 初，在《每日鹰报》当编辑，同时为报社撰写社论。
1847 在美国和加拿大徒步旅行。春天，在报纸上发表一篇题为《美国工人反对奴隶制度》的论文。开始了后 来编入《草叶集》诗篇的写作。
1848 1月，被《每日鹰报》解雇。
1849 “自有土壤派”在布鲁克林办起了自己的机关报《布鲁克林自由人》，惠特曼成了该报的编辑。秋天，因“自由土壤派”领导人的变节，愤然辞职，并在9月11日《布鲁克林自由人》上刊登声明。
1850 纽约各报刊登了惠特曼的三首诗：《某国会议员之歌》、《血腥的金钱》和《朋友之家》。本年，还在纽约的一家报纸上发表了一首题为《欧罗巴》的诗篇。
1851 3月11日，在“布鲁克林艺术协会”演讲，演讲全文发表在4月3日布鲁克林《广告人日报》上。
1855 诗集《草叶集》第一版在纽约自费出版。
1856 《草叶集》印行第二版，增加了二十首新诗。
1857 在布鲁克林《时报》担任编辑，开始为该报撰稿。
1860 反对黑奴制的共和党人林肯当选联邦政府总统。
1861 美国南部各州先后宣布独立，组成“南方联盟”，发动内战。南北战争开始。
1862 5月，林肯颁布宅地法，9月，发表“解放黑奴宣言”，极大鼓舞了工人、农民和黑人。支持解放黑奴的战争。12月到前线费莱德·瑞克堡看望在内战中受伤的弟弟。
1863 1月，定居华盛顿。在军医院中，以看护、顾问、朋友的身份照料伤员。
1865 4月，南部联军统帅罗伯特·李投降。南北战争结束。结束了伤兵志愿看护员的工作。1月，在政府机关找到一个差使。6月，内政部长哈南在惠特曼的桌子上发现《草叶集》这本“不道德的”小书，便把他免职了。本年出版《鼓声集》。
1871 发表《民主的远景》、《通向印度》、《毕竟不止是创造》等诗。
1872 发表诗歌《象自由翱翔的飞鸟一样坚强》。
1873 1月，患严重的麻痹症，成了一个跛脚人。
1875 完成《战争的回忆》。
1892 3月26日，与世长辞。
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