Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet and journalist. Whitman was born May 31st, 1819 in West Hills, New York. He was considered one of America’s most influential poets. In 1855, Whitman self-published one of the landmarks in American literature today, the collection Leaves of Grass which has been revised and expanded throughout his life. Whitman's poetry was different in style from that of any poet in his Era. In his poetry, his use of linguistic styles, metaphors, and wide-ranging vocabulary widened the possibilities for poetic expressions during that time by using regional dialects and slang rather than the common language found in the 19th-century verse. Thought to be one of the first free verse poets, his exploits in poetry far transcended those …show more content…
In fact, he believed that he had quite a few missions as a poet. One of Whitman's chief missions as a poet was equality for all people in order to maintain a stable society. For Walt Whitman, the word democracy meant equality, not just for women and men but of all of America. Whitman made an attempt to be democratic not only in life but through his poetry. All of Whitman's poetry was based on the notion of a universal union. Whitman believed that the possibility of America was to achieve a union that no other culture had yet achieved.
In Section 6 of Whitman's poem "Song of Myself," he uses grass as a significant symbol of democracy. The speaker is guessing what the meaning of the grass is- By stating "uniform hieroglyphic" one may believe the speaker is suggesting the grass is a universal symbol that is the representation of equality for all people. In this poem, grass is noted to be a democratic plant as it grows everywhere and because every individual grows from the grass and will eventually return to it. No matter the race of the individual whether Black, White, Canadian or Native American- it regards them all the
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet and journalist. Whitman was born May 31st, 1819 in West Hills, New York. He was considered one of America’s most influential poets. In 1855, Whitman self-published one of the landmarks in American literature today, the collection Leaves of Grass which has been revised and expanded throughout his life. Whitman's poetry was different in style from that of any poet in his Era. In his poetry, his use of linguistic styles, metaphors, and wide-ranging vocabulary widened the possibilities for poetic expressions during that time by using regional dialects and slang rather than the common language found in the 19th-century verse. Thought to be one of the first free verse poets, his exploits in poetry far transcended those …show more content…
In fact, he believed that he had quite a few missions as a poet. One of Whitman's chief missions as a poet was equality for all people in order to maintain a stable society. For Walt Whitman, the word democracy meant equality, not just for women and men but of all of America. Whitman made an attempt to be democratic not only in life but through his poetry. All of Whitman's poetry was based on the notion of a universal union. Whitman believed that the possibility of America was to achieve a union that no other culture had yet achieved.
In Section 6 of Whitman's poem "Song of Myself," he uses grass as a significant symbol of democracy. The speaker is guessing what the meaning of the grass is- By stating "uniform hieroglyphic" one may believe the speaker is suggesting the grass is a universal symbol that is the representation of equality for all people. In this poem, grass is noted to be a democratic plant as it grows everywhere and because every individual grows from the grass and will eventually return to it. No matter the race of the individual whether Black, White, Canadian or Native American- it regards them all the