How Did Walt Whitman Influenced America

On the first line in the first stanza of Whitman’s poem “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” it seems that speaker wanted to share his idea to the world that Americans are very generous, have a sense of positive attitude, they live with freedom and liberty, and above all they value the spiritual equality.

In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempts to speak on behalf of the entire American population. He tries to pull the reader into a world of many possibilities. Whitman makes a

In George Washington 's Farewell Address, Washington warns against the dangers of political factions by stating, “it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views” (Washington). However, despite American leaders such as George Washington and James Madison warning of factionalism, the country would be divided by political parties arising out of the Northern and Southern states of the union. By the time Walt Whitman wrote “Songs of Myself” in 1855, tensions in the United States created by factionalism were at a high and were constantly elevating. In writing “Songs of Myself”, Whitman sought to help mend some of the wounds created by factionalism by seeking to bring together Americans whom factionalism had rendered alien to one another and by teaching to believe in oneself rather than the beliefs of political parties.

Walt Whitman explores individualism by looking through all of the diversity within America and identifying that people are different and have come from many different backgrounds. However, we are all one in the same due to the connection of being American. He does this because he wants to maintain his individual “self-hood” while finding a place within America, a happy medium. The role of the individual in this piece of work Whitman states is “one of the Nation of many Nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same,” which means everyone has a different background and have all come from many places far away, but are still apart of America nonetheless. This is what brings us together. In the opening section of Song of Myself Whitman starts by saying all human beings are the same, “And what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” I believe this is Whitman’s attempt at trying to merge his own self into society, while maintaining his “self-hood.”

Whitman wrote broad stanzas and focused on the whole of America as his inspiration. His lines covered a wide range of topics and generated multiple points of view for the reader. He called his life’s work “Leaves of Grass”; stressing the

Walt Whitman is one of the most influential writers in American History. Although greatly unappreciated in his time, Whitman’s works were truly groundbreaking and served as the basis to usher in a completely new literary movement. Growing up and writing in a era of American History of immense change on numerous spectrums, Walt Whitman’s literary works explored many of these new concepts and ideologies brought forward during this time. As possibly the most important poet of the American Romantic movement, Walt Whitman’s poetry such as “For You O Democracy” and “I Sing the Body Electric” exemplified resurging and new found American ideals stemming from the events of the early to mid nineteenth century. With economic, physical, ideological,

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.

American Romanticism was an era full of authentic styles and unusual topics. Romanticism started in 1830 and lasted until about 1870, but was the era for artistic writers to blossom into who they are known as today. Two of the most famous authors during this time period were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Each author is famous for their different styles of writing, and forever shaped the American Romanticism era.

In section fifteen of Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself, Whitman makes working Americans the subject of most of his sentences while sparingly using concepts, instead of people, as subjects on other sentences. Most of the non-living subjects are closely tied to the concepts of Life and Death, Time, and Nature. By using nonliving conceptual subjects to contrast concrete images of working Americans, he demonstrates that though working Americans control society, Life and Death, Time, and Nature control working Americans.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is an thought-provoking text for the reason that it was finished for a extended age of time and studied founded on Whitman's variations in his lifetime, involvement, and philosophy, though the material and flair remained fundamentally equivalent.

I think he is telling the reader to fully love themselves and the nature that surrounds them (Lauter, 1498). This reading could be considered as a poet’s/writer’s guide to help him/her connect with their inner selves and let it flourish through their writings. After reading this, I think life itself could be considered as a poem. Whitman says dismiss whatever insults your soul and daily life as the poet should not spend time doing unneeded work. Walt Whitman definitely knew his self-worth; I suppose this was written to enlighten others to truly love themselves and not listen to any negativity. I also believe that Whitman understood the negative forces of America’s government hence the idea to writing “Leaves of

The creation of an acceptable persona is essential to Whitman's poetic program. In "Song of Myself" this is

On this verse, we can see how Whitman tries to connect to mind, body, spirit and nature. In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempted to change the meaning of American poetry. I described identity issues that pertain to him, but that the audience was able to identify with. Whitman, opened the door to

Walt Whitman, a civil war nurse was a self-taught poet in the 1800s. Whitman is known for using lists, anaphora, free verse, and other literary devices in his poems. In his works, he focuses on American workers, diversity, transcendent approaches to nature, and individualism. “Song of Myself,” a poem written by Whitman, explores themes of nature, sex, democracy, and spirituality. Whitman uses nature to fuel his creativity in using grass as a symbol of comparison to life by using imagery, metaphors, and analogies.

This poem explores the difficulties of discovering the relevance of life. The suggestion that Whitman offers as a means of becoming distinguished, or obtaining an identity, is to live a life of self-satisfaction. The persuasive devices used in this poem successfully communicate Whitman’s own theory of breaking the molds of society by living as a self-satisfying individual. Whitman informs his audience that he has lead the same life as they had lived and the one who lead the same life as their children will and their ancestors did. The poet questions the significance of a person’s achievements by asking, “My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre. He thought that it would be hard for any person to measure their self- accomplishments on the planetary scale. The second verse of the poem introduces the metaphor of the world being a simple, compact with the people dissolved into the eternal float of solution. Sunrise, sunset circling birds on the Brooklyn ferry are woven into this poem. The continuous use of repetitive imagery conveys the feeling that our existence is in fact part of an infinitely moving machine that has no purpose or destination. By using these devices, Whitman shakes his audience with the convincing notion that life as it is normally perceived is not