Walt Whitman and the Civil War

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Walt Whitman is a famous poet in American history and the founder of free style of writing poem. He was well-known with his work of Leaves of Grass and Drum-Taps. Walt Whitman was inspired to write poems about Civil War and changed his style of writing after experiencing the horrible result of the war.
Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, on May 31, 1819. He is the second son of eight siblings in the family. In his early life, Whitman received a formal education until age of 11 because he needed to help his father to support the big family. His first job as an office boy “opened up the world of literature to him” (Reynolds 6). No longer after that, he became a printer at local newspaper which made him interested in journalism. His interest made him published his first article “In Olden Times” when he worked for the Star (Oliver 9). When Whitman was 17 years old, he became a teacher for few years before he quitted and returned to journalism. Whitman also tried to publish his own newspaper, the Long Islander, when he was 19 years old, but he gave up on it “in the summer of 1839” (Wiener 20). Although he faced obstacles in journalism field, he did not give up and kept working in journalism career.
The Civil War in 1861 horrified Walt Whitman. He was worried if the war will broke apart the nation. Whitman did not join the Union Army, but he knew the knowledge about the war directly from his younger brother, George, who joined the New York regiment in late 1961 and always reported his experience to Whitman (Reynolds 19). In December 1862, Whitman read a name “G. W. Whitmore” was listed in the wounded regiments list. He thought the name was his younger brother’s name with a spelling mistake. Then he rushed to Washington ...

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---. “Cavalry Crossing a Ford.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 539. Print.

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