Walt Whitman is known for his excellence in writing and poetry during the mid 19th century in American Literature. The Leaves of Grass is one of his more memorable works of literature. The work expresses many thoughts and opinions about art, nature, and early nationalism. It also includes a multitude messages for the readers in an attempt to capture the reader and reinforce his points.Within the Preface of the work he talks about issues that he feels are important to inform his audience before they continue into the literature. These observations made by Whitman signify some importance to him in one way or another. Using his rhetorical skills, Walt Whitman attempts to educate his audience about the importance of self improvement and self awareness …show more content…
by highlighting poets and literary arts to make observations about the human race in Preface to the Leaves of Grass. The Preface to Leaves of Grass hides deeper meanings in a shroud pretentious wording.
Whitman appeared to be using language that sounds arrogant, although on closer inspection one can find that this wording was used as an attempt to connect with the audience. Whitman stated, “The messages of great poets to each man and woman are ,Come to us on equal terms, Only then can you understand us, We are no better than you , What we enclose you enclose., What we enjoy you enjoy.”(1321, Whitman). Whitman explained that both men and women are no different than poets and that both people and poets experience life similarly, have similar thoughts, and live on somewhat equal grounds. If poets and man are no different that means all the aspects and traits about poets must apply to man as well. Man must learn to apply these traits to improve itself to become greater as individuals as well as a …show more content…
whole. Whitman spoke to his audience in an attempt to inform them that they have potential to control themselves and become great men and women of their time and of the future. Whitman wrote, “Of all mankind the great poet is the equitable man” (1317). Here it is said that the poet is the impartial man that arises from mankind. Here Whitman proves that poets are members of mankind coexist with man and rejecting biases. Revealing that poets are members of mankind that arose from man, therefore man can rise to be on equal footing with poets. Whitman continued, “ Not in him but off from him things are grotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity. Nothing out of its place is good and nothing in in its place is bad” (1317). Whitman hints that poets do not make bias judgements or thoughts on any topic or idea. He wants man to understand that they should do the same and gain a similar personality to the poet. If people live life similar to a poet's then they will possess personality and traits that improve themselves as well as traits that allow for others to improve their life. Throughout the preface Whitman alludes to poets as all knowing and perfectionists. He does this to use poets as a representation of people. Whitman at one point talks of highly poets saying that the best truly understand morals. Whitman wrote, “The greatest poet does not moralize or make applications of morals … he knows the soul”(1320). Whitman uses poets as a metaphor for people implying that great people do not try to create excuses or justify certain actions that one know what is truly right and what is wrong. A person's true feeling about a situation is directly linked to that person’s conscience and justifying an action that one feels guilt or remorse does not better the situation. One who truly knows what is right and follows their instinctual feeling about situations. People wish to find perfections and become the elite that will know and understand the world. There is a strive for excellence in the world that is sought to be obtained by people. Whitman explains that in the work and express to the audience what that excellence is and how to go about realizing it. Whitman expressed, “Without effort and without exposing in the least how it is done the greatest poet brings the spirit of any or all events and passions and scenes and persons some more and some less to bear on your individual's character as you hear or read” (1320). The intention here is to express that the best poets take their craft seriously and attempt to connect the audience with the story. People must do the same with their works and attempt to connect themselves and others with their work doing the best they can to by applying the best possible solution to have superior results People and poets are one in the same and both try to achieve their goal through the work that they perform. People tend to take many things for granted and do not show much appreciation for what chances they are given and possessions that they own. Within this work, Whitman brings that concept to light and expresses what a person of great stature does with what they are given. “The greatest poet hardly knows pettiness or triviality. If he breathes into any thing that was before thought small it dilates with the grandeur and life of the universe”(1318). This idea of poets not understanding trivialness acts as a base to inform people that the greatest of people are able to look upon a situation that may be negative and reverse it in a positive direction gaining some sort reward from the situation. Whitman poses the thought to the audience that people have the ability to make the best out of what life has given to one. By using poets as the base for his observation, he successfully used his analogy of people and poets to express his thought about making the best of all situations. Originality is a concept that most people strive to achieve in some form, werther that is in a profession or in the creation of one's personality. The creation of original ideas tends to make large impacts in different fields or people around the origin of that idea and Whitman feel no different . Whitman expressed, “The fluency and ornaments of the finest poems or music or orations or recitations are not independent but dependent. All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain” (1318). The implication here that beauty comes from the brain and blood express that thought that people are responsible for the thoughts of what is beautiful and what is not. That beauty is determined by how one imagines and feels about certain thoughts. The world’s greatest ideas are not taken from others, but original and spawn from the thoughts one who contemplates. Whitman stressed for things not to be half complete and for them to be the best that they can possibly appear. Whitman uses poets as source to compare to people, expressing how amazing people do not slack on a final product. “The greatest poet does not only dazzle his rays over characters and scenes and passions … he finally ascends and finishes all… he exhibits the pinnacle that no man can tell what they are for or what is beyond… he glows a moment on the extremest verge.” (1320). The expression appears as a lesson for the audience that one should produce the best product possible.The expression puts the thought that the entire product should have equal work put into it. That the greatest of people not only, work hard at one quarter of the product, but also equally work has hard for the other three quarters so that the final outcome is the best. Whitman is a patriot that believes in the people of the United states and their unlimited potential to accomplish tasks. He believes in the nation wants the people of the country to show their prominence through his talk about poets. Whitman expressed,“Of all the nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and use them the greatest ” (1317). Here Whitman conveys his thoughts about the people of the United States and the potential for them to become illustrious. The poets represent the great people of the country and their ability to create new and exciting opportunities for others and the future. While “poetical stuff”(1317), is used to represent ideas and materials of considerable worth to the world. People are able to rise to challenges and create new and exciting concepts about the difficult and simple problem if effort is applied. In Preface to Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman utilized his writing style to inform his audience about ways to bring about self improvements and bring awareness of oneself through comparison of people, poets, and literary arts.
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
future.
Throughout the span of this semester, much of the literature discussed revolved around the so-called renaissance of American literature and its impact upon both the nation and its people. Of all the authors studied in this time period, Walt Whitman may well be known as the quintessential American author. Famous for breaking every rule known to poetry in the inimitable compilation, Song of Myself, Whitman provided a fresh and insightful commentary upon the dualistic nature of society, love, and life itself. Through defining these essential aspects of humanity, Whitman indeed composed one of the most accurate and enduring definitions of the individual self that literature, American or otherwise, has ever seen. Specifically, this was done through
In his poem he is trying to tell the audience how instead of the free spirited America Whitman lived in, his America cared more about rules and standards over opportunity and free will. He explains America’s lack of open minds for the people who wanted to be free to be themselves when he states, “ .. and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intelligent and shaking with shame, rejected yet confessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head.. And blew the suffering of America’s naked mind for love..”(2545). As a matter of fact, this influenced him to want to write on splitting away from that American culture and express himself with nothing but
He argues that “There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, Mad will never be any more perfection than there is now”(31-33). His conviction of nationalism, which is opposite to the popular opinion, is considered to be a great work in the mid-nineteenth century United States (Trecker 11). Although Whitman’s opinions may be disagreed with and questioned by people, it is an inspiration for the combination of the religion and the science in the mid-nineteenth century United States. Whitman not only just defines the relationship between soul and body, but also inspires one to identify his individual persona. The “Song of Myself” is indeed a transition between the romanticism and the naturalism, which is a combination of both.
The poem consists of a joyous man praising himself and his life. The Speaker is clearly characterized as self-confident, stating “I celebrate myself, and sing myself”(Whitman 1). Whitman establishes that the Speaker is experienced in life-he has come to the conclusion that “What I assume you shall assume”(2). He lives a life where he has the privilege of “loaf[ing] at [his] ease”(4). Just this small act incorporated by Whitman shows the reader that the Speaker lives a peaceful life, one where he only worries about himself and his own actions.The Speaker is quickly distinguished as a cheerful man. He seems to be very satisfied with his life and even has a bright image of the future, stating “I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin”(10). Whitman’s use of diction here perfectly demonstrates his character’s optimism. The use of the words “perfect”(10) and “begin”(10) showcase the Speaker’s hopeful outlook of his long life ahead. Both the self-confidence and positive behavior Whitman creates in the passage, develops a unique persona for the Speaker. The individuality of the Speaker allows him to have the human traits of unique likes, dislikes, and aspirations based around his personality.The man has discovered a reason to live through himself, setting goals and having
... a much bigger picture such as a lawn. Whitman also shows the each of our self-identities are vital to the universal identities when he writes about growing among different races and groups. Again, he is telling us that even though we are our own entire person, we are equal. No man is greater than anyone else. Whitman shows his transcendentalism side here because to come to this conclusion that grass is so much more than just grass, he had to look deeper than his senses or his logical knowledge of grass. Sight, taste, touch, smell, or sound couldn’t have helped him answer the boy’s question. Taking classes on the importance of grass could not have accomplished this either. Whitman shows here that a person must look inside themselves and see what their soul is telling them because at times, it can provide infinitely more wisdom than a scholar or a book ever could.
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
There is contrast in Whitman's view, which embraces all society, and that which surrounds him. He views all mankind and nature as intertwined in the past, present and future in one perpetual cycle of life and death. He speaks of the sameness of man and se...
Although Whitman uses a great deal of structural ways to stress his ideas, he also uses many other ways of delivering his ideas. First of all, Whitman portrays himself as a public spokesman of the masses. The tone of the poem is a very loud, informative tone that grabs ones attention. The emphasis placed on the word “all” adds to the characterization of Whitman as a powerful speaker. Furthermore, Whitman takes part in his own poem. Participating in his own poem, Whitman moreover illustrates the connection between everything in life. Lastly, Whitman, most of all, celebrates universal brotherhood and democracy.
Early reviews of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass evince an incipient awareness of the unifying and acutely democratic aspects of the poetry. An article in the November 13th, 1856, issue of the New York Daily Times describes the modest, self-published book of twelve seemingly formless poems: "As we read it again and again, and we will confess that we have returned to it often, a singular order seems to arise out of its chaotic verses" (2). The Daily Times's identification of "order" out of "chaos" in Leaves of Grass parallels America's theoretical declaration of e pluribus unum, one out of many—a uniquely democratic objective. Also manifesting the early perception of the democratic poetic in Leaves of Grass, yet focusing more on Whitman and his content, an 1856 edition of the North American Review asserts, "Walter Whitman, an American,—one of the roughs,—no sentimentalist,—no stander above men and women, or apart from them,—no more modest than immodest,—has tried to write down here, in a sort of prose poetry, a good deal of what he has seen, felt, and guessed at in a pilgrimage of some thirty-five years" (275). Here, Whitman is seen as the archetypal American, practicing the democratic ideal of human equality. The reviewers' awareness of order out of chaos and of the ideological American attitude of equality is a written history of the problems of nineteenth-century, post-Jacksonian America, for the presence of their observations, which celebrate Whitman's democratic vision, can only suggest the absence of that vision in American politics and culture.
In “Leaves of Grass” Song of myself section six, the poem expresses author Walt Whitman's transcendentalism views, and emphasizes Life’s role and effect on one's mentality. The speaker is Whitman, who is confronted by a child with a question, and throughout the poem responds with incomplete thoughts instead of a direct answer for the child. The speaker wishes to achieve the answer to the question himself . Through Whitman’s syntax and symbolism he establishes a revelatory tone deeply tied to transcendentalism.
American poet, Walt Whitman explores the connection between the concept of the nation and the poet as a means of further establishing the national identity of the United States of America. The preface to his collection of poetry, entitled Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 merely 79 years after the United States was founded acts as a reinforcement of nationalist sensibilities that work to define what the American is on a internal and international scale. Within this text Whitman creates an inventory of the attributes that are defining of the poet as an individual, emphasizing the positive qualities as being linked to their vocation. Described as being equal to the average citizen, the poet is a symbol of the American, reinforcing the
Whitman uses this poem to show was America is supposed to be like. He wants the country to be at peace, not just with itself, but with the countries around it,“Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,” (1). Whitman uses this line as a reference to the peace he wished America had. America was originally created with the purpose of freedom and happiness. The American people wanted the country to be a melting pot where everyone was accepted. Now, during the Civil War, everyone is fighting and the country is divided. With the Civil war dividing the nation, Whitman wished that everyone could get along. In reference to the separation of the nation Whitman says,“I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America” (6). In order to return democracy and peace to America everyone needs to get along. Whitman wanted the country to be filled with people who care about each other and want to prosper together, “I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,/By the love of comrades,” (7-8). Whitman wanted to make the country what it once was, an open place where people could live freely, by
This poem commemorates the diversity of the country, but was also an endeavor to remind Americans of their widespread association and how important it is to accept and understand one another. Throughout the poem, he conveys an unseen connection and appreciation that prevails between all things and people. Whitman is democratic not only in his concepts but his poetic skill and style. It is important that he turns down the orthodox format of poetry, which he perceived to be noble in the past. His liberation with poetic form indicates his support for all humans. The way the words flowed and the inconsistent line lengths all conveyed the feeling of innate democracy. Whitman’s material and method of writing go together to demonstrate his values of a working-class democracy and the pleasure of life. His influence has strengthened American aspirations and goes beyond them for a larger spiritual significance. Ultimately, the readers notice throughout the poem, Whitman being a huge advocate for equality and democracy. He believed that the intelligence of the United States is communicated best through the people not in its legislature, church or judicial system. Democracy to Whitman can be perfectly defined as the belief that everyone and everything is always equal and accepted no matter who the person is and or what they
Walt Whitman was a great poet who profoundly influenced American culture. From his humble beginnings on the Long Island shore to his early careers working as an office boy and apprenticeship to “The Patriot”, Whitman began to develop his ideals and educate himself. Looking back to the events of his childhood, Whitman began to author great poems and wrote his famous book “Leaves of Grass.” Whitman gave America cultural roots and set an example for poets to follow. Whitman truly was America’s poet.
In his poem he reveals, “Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else...Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs” Whitman is exhibiting his love for America and the mass amount of achievement people encounter by living there. His poem is like a description of the various whistles he hears as people work, which to him is a sign of the assorted amounts of prosperity by these people. To Whitman, America is the beautiful place of success and when anyone comes they too will fine the creative work they have longed to