Walt Whitman Influences

Walt Whitman, perhaps one of America's legendary and innovative poet's, was born on May 31, 1819, in the working class town of West Hills, New York. Walt was named after his father, Walt Whitman Sr., who was a farmer and carpenter. Whitman Sr. was an admirer of the ideas of Thomas Paine during the American Revolution, with his ideas of true American patriotism and the breaking away from the English rule ("About Walt Whitman"). Walt's own father would later be one of the influences of his works, that is, with the main themes of pride in a newly formed country.

At age eleven, now in the thriving city of Brooklyn, New York, Whitman began his life as a laborer, working as an office boy for a prominent law office. He developed a very wide- ranging education, whereas he began to read a plethora of books at a local library, visited museums, and was especially engaged in conversation and debate ("About Walt Whitman"). He never pursued a private institution for his education, but informally focused on his own curriculum of topics

Whitman emphasized the greatness of the new nation, where he first earned the nickname "poet of the people." His main theme of this work was to shine light to the idea that, "The largeness of nature or the nation were monstrous without a corresponding largeness and generosity of the spirit of the citizen." ("Walt Whitman Biography"). In these twelve poems, Whitman stressed common American speech, using not formal, but slang and informal expressions. In 1856, the second edition of Leaves of Grass was published, adding twenty new poems to the first edition. From here, Whitman commenced the practice of adding new poems to Leaves of Grass, and revising and reordering them to fit his present moods and feelings. In the later third edition, he continued these special groupings ("Walt Whitman Biography"). Unfortunately, Whitman's first works did not attract large volumes, but he continued