A True Patriot: Walt Whitman
When one talks of great American Poets, if the person has any since of intelligence, then they can in now way fail to mention Walt Whitman. Whitman is unmistakingly a great American poet, So great, that Ralph Waldo Emerson said that he was an “American Shakespeare” (Tucker 247). While the debate still goes on about that comment, there is no debate about the greatness of Whitman.
Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, NY on May 31, 1819 on Long Island. He was the second of nine children. He never developed a close relationship with his father, but he was very close to his mother. When he was four, he moved to Brooklyn where he went to school for six years and, when he was eleven, dropped out and began work as a clerk in a Law Office. Shortly thereafter, he became a typesetter’s apprentice. He then began to teach school on Long Island. Bored by this, he began to edit and publish the Long Islander, an area newspaper (Funk 293). But this attempt at a steady job was unsuccessful as well, he then began to write political essays and started to write what would become his life's work Leaves of Grass. He would write various books of poems, most of which would be added to Leaves of Grass, which he re-published nine times. Whitman spent his last days as the sage of Camden, New Jersey, where he died on March 36, 1892 (Magill 406).
Walt Whitman, through his admiration for a fallen President, condemnation of war, and his theme of camaraderie, illustrates a definition of patriotism.
Walt Whitman was an American, and he loved President Abraham Lincoln. He had the upmost respect for the sixteenth President of the United States. His admiration was shown in his most famous work, O’ Captain, My Captain. This is without a doubt the most popular poem of Whitman’s career. In it, he repeats the word Captain; this word refers to Abraham Lincoln, the fallen President. He uses phrases like “fallen cold and dead” to tell of the mournful death of Lincoln. Whitman mentions a “ship”, which is the Union in the Civil War. He also uses the “voyage” to symbolize the Civil War. The overall mood of this elegy to Lincoln is grievance for the lost loved one of Whitman. He had a deep reverence for the President and it was a great pain for him when Lincoln was assassinated (Whitman 63). Another poem that Whitman wrote, that is famous for its grievance of the fallen Presi...
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...d have to be close with those around you. The only way to counteract the horrors of war is the camaraderie of the soldiers, if they developed friendships then they could look past the horrible thing that is war (Magill 406).
A patriot is defined as a person who loves his or her country. If there is anyone that has ever lived in this great country that can be called that, then it should be Walt Whitman. Whitman showed his love for his country and his allegiance to his president. One can deny that he is the greatest American poet, but no one can deny that he is a great American patriot.
Works Cited
Magill, Frank N. ed. Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry. 7 vols. Englewood Cliffs, 1987.
Tucker, Martin ed. Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. The Mid-Nineteenth Century to Edwardianism. Englewood Cliffs, 1975.
Unger, Leonard ed. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. 7 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.
Whitman, Walt. Drum Taps. Grosset & Dunlap New York: NODATE
Whitman, Walt. “Leaves of Grass.” Timeless, Timeless, Themes: The American Experience. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2000.
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 to a family with seven siblings. He started work at a printing service when he was just a boy in order to help out his family financially. During his tenure in the printing industry, Whitman began to read and write. He fell in love with the art of writing and would eventually go into editing as a career. Whitman created a new style of poetry called free verse, and at the time American culture would reject this
Heller, Joseph. The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Twentieth-Century American Literature Vol. 3. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Peter H. Smith. , & , (2012). Democracy in Latin America. (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island. His early years included much contact with words and writing; he worked as an office boy as a pre-teen, then later as a printer, journalist, and, briefly, a teacher, returning eventually to his first love and life’s work—writing. Despite the lack of extensive formal education, Whitman experienced literature, "reading voraciously from the literary classics and the Bible, and was deeply influenced by Goethe, Carlyle, Emerson, and Sir Walter Scott" (Introduction vii).
South University Online. (2013). POL2076: American Government: Week 4: People and Politics—Interest Groups. Retrieved from http://myeclassonline.com
Moulton, Charles Wells. Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors through the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1966. Print.
Walt Whitman was born to Louisa and Walter Whitman in Long Island, New York, May 31, 1819. He was the second son from a household of nine. He was named after his father who was a farmer and Carpenter. He was born just after the end of the American Revolution. When he was four, his family and he moved to Brooklyn where he went to school until the age of eleven. He left to help support the family and got a full-time job. Whitman looked back on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy, given his families difficult economic status.
Saltzman, Joe. "Paparazzi To Go." USA Today Magazine. 138.2774 (2009): 25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Whitman’s work has an arguable style that makes his work appear as an egotistical piece of literature for some and others may find a different deeper meaning within his work. This work is an excellent example of patriotic work that attempts better its audience throughout by making revelations and comparisons of different idea and thoughts about the nation's people. Whitman illustrates his interpretation of what a kind of person is a great person is and how they go about life. He intends to make his audience better as a whole and understand the underlying problem that some have. Whitman's writing truly expresses his feelings about his time and what he expects from them for a better
Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes. American Politics and Government Today. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999, pgs. 325-327.
Light, Paul C., and Christine L. Nemacheck. "Chapter 7 Congress." Government by the People, Brief 2012 Election Edition, Books a La Carte New Mypoliscilab With Etext Access Card Package. By David B. Magleby. 2012 Election Edition ed. N.p.: Pearson College Div, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Walt Whitman was an American poet, born in 1819. Whitman published a collection of poetry in which he outlined his democratic vision for America. Walt Whitman was credited with being the founder of a literature that was uniquely American. America was a very new country at this time, the Declaration of Independence, in which America claimed independence from England was signed in 1776 and was still quite recent. In 1781 America had proclaimed themselves as the First New Nation. They then began to create a culture that was uniquely American to give Americans a sense of nationalism. America had been influenced by English literature and now there was a search for a uniquely American literature. Walt Whitman took it upon himself to help to promote American identity. Whitman was very liberal as he was pro-homosexuality and an early supporter of women's equality. Whitman was also a passionate believer of an American Ideology that believed in American's exceptionalism. Whitman used his poetry to spread his democratic vision for America; there are many good examples of the theme of democracy in Whitman's poetry.
He crossed the boundaries of the poetry literature and gave a poetry worth of our democracy that contributed to an immense variety of people, nationalities, races. Whitman’s self-published Leaves of Grass was inspired in part by his travels through the American frontier and by his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson (Poetry Foundation). He always believed in everyone being treated equally and bringing an end to slavery and racism. Through his poetry, Whitman tried to bring every people in America together by showing them what happiness, love, unison, and real knowledge looked. His poetry and its revolution changed the world of American literature
Some would say that democracy has existed in Latin America for some time. As Harold E. Davis wrote in his article titled “Democracy in Latin America”, the people of Latin America are democratic but their democracy is expressed differently than other democratic countries. When people ask the question about democracy they tend to compare Latin America to the Unites States. There is a big difference in culture between the two and it is difficult to make a fair comparison. Davis believes that Latin America people express their democracy differently through their behavior and institutions. Democracy can exist in many different forms and you see all these different forms around the world. In Latin America there are diffe...
The people of the Congo faced physical, psychological damage due to the violation of their human rights and the rape and other sexual violence, which contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The health care, education and legal systems are in shambles due to the ongoing violence of the war and are still a factor today. The UN still aid in trying to end the ongoing war that’s now in its thirteenth year it is the largest and longest lasting war to date with the uncontrollable attacks from the rebels. The rebels continue to kill and plunder the natural resources with impunity. The international and political support continues but their efforts have proven futile.