Walt Whitman Biography & Works (PDF)

1819-1892 Born on Long Island, NY. Life With little formal education, at 11 he started work as an office boy, then worked as a schoolteacher, writer and editor for several magazines. After entering politics as a Democrat and travelling to New Orleans, he returned to New Yor...

1819-1892 Born on Long Island, NY. Life With little formal education, at 11 he started work as an office boy, then worked as a schoolteacher, writer and editor for several magazines. After entering politics as a Democrat and travelling to New Orleans, he returned to New York where he produced the first edition of Leaves of Grass, financed with his own money. During the American Civil War, Whitman moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the government and volunteered at hospitals. He was deeply shocked by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He retired in 1873 to New Jersey, where he continued to write poetry and essays. Whitman died in 1892 at the age of 72.  Works In 1855 he published his first edition of Leaves of Grass, a poetry collection which grew throughout Whitman’s life, appearing in nine editions, and later came to incorporate most of his poetic output. Among his other works are: Drum Taps (1865) A Sequel, incuding his famous elegy on Abraham Lincoln, «When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed» Memoranda during the War (1875), a prose work.  Leaves of Grass The idea of Leaves of Grass as an ever-expanding work in progress is intimately connected to Whitman’s vision of himself as the voice and chronicler of the American Experience. The first edition was a small book of twelve poems, and the last was a compilation of over 400. Leaves of Grass was praised by Trascendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson as «the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed».  American poetry During the Victorian period in Britain poetic innovation fell into decline. The novel was increasingly becoming the preferred and most effective means of addressing the new reality. Across the Atlantic, by contrast, poetry was once again being reinvented. American poetry strongly deviated from British poetry, first of all being a celebration of individualism. Its two most significant voices, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, are in many ways diametrically opposite to each other. The open road of America Whitman’s poetry, among the most innovative of the century, was conceived as one unending journey down the open road of America. This road would bring together the many different voices of the country in an open, all-inclusive and democratic way. However, Whitman’s poetry was largely ignored by readers, partly on account of its rough manners and sexual outspokeness. In Britain, his reputation began to grow thanks to the praise of A.C. Swinburne, who compared him to Blake, and to William Rossetti who published a shortened, expurgated edition of Leaves of Grass (1868).  Language Whitman’s poems are not only interesting for their political and social ideals. Equally important is their linguistic experimentation. Whitman felt the need to recognise and develop an American voice that would be free from European influence: The expanding states of America were rapidly inventing new words and trying new linguistic combinations. Here was a linguistic gold mine ready to be used by poets. Whitman’s idea of the American language was of a flexible, mobile and perpetually mutating entity, whose changes mirrored the accelerated development of the country. With the arrival of successive waves of immigrants, a cultural melting pot also became a linguistic melting pot.  Style Whitman also frees poetry from metric regularity: using long lines and free verse adopting a syllabic technique that enables him to generate complex rhythmic patterns while giving the illusion of informal though definitely uncommon speech.