Walt Whitman As A Poet And Writer During The Civil War

Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman had very similar lives. They both came from working class families and neither one of them went to high school or graduated college. They learned from watching people and by reading books on their own. They both had a certain sense for the world that made them able to see what was going on around them and grasp its significance. Although Whitman was born sixty years before Sandburg there were still a lot of the same things happening in America and they both picked up on one important factor of the time, that of the average working class man. Whitman and Sandburg admired the working class man for all of his hard work and they wrote a lot about this

Walt Whitman is a renowned American poet. He served as an example for all to follow. He put thoughts into peoples head. Whitman was very influential and had a very big effect on people. Langston Hughes was also a very influential American poet. He was known for changing others opinion of race and making their oppression evident to others. Hughes was very influenced by Whitman and he caused him to want to make a difference in people's thoughts on his race. Whitman wrote a poem called I Hear America Singing and some people believe that it influenced Hughes poem, I, Too, Sing America. Hughe builds on Whitman's poems in these categories; structure and technique, themes, and effect on people and society.

Just as Walt Whitman’s literature was influenced by what he experienced in life, Langston Hughes’ literature shows direct relationships with what he was going through in his everyday life. While racism may have shaped Hughes’ everyday life, Walt Whitman shaped Hughes as we know him today. Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes have a connection that not many people come to realize. It is obvious that Langston Hughes stood for equal rights but it’s commonly overlooked that Whitman stood his ground for equal rights as well. Whitman commonly voiced his strong opinions on abolishing slavery and promoting equal rights for all men. I believe this played at least a small role in some of Hughes’ poems and stories in his lifetime.

Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Walt Whitman all represent a period of time in which the United States was embroiled in turmoil. From the year 1861 to 1865, the Union army from the North battled the Confederacy of the South, and when it came to an end at the Appomattox Courthouse, over 620,000 men had lost their lives (Civil War Casualties, n.d.). President Abraham Lincoln had finally found a general he could trust in Ulysses S. Grant, who had forced the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army. Walt Whitman would live the Civil War life as the most influential author and poet of the times. These men represent three of the most important figures of the Civil War.

Walt Whitman was a revolutionary poet who let his emotions run free through his poetry. Whitman was never afraid to express himself no matter how inappropriate or offensive his emotions might have seemed at the time. This is why Whitman's poem still echo that same sentiment and emotion today almost as loudly as when the drums were first tapped.

The Civil War was led by many important people such as Robert E. Lee. He was a Confederate general he led the South to victories and defeats. He was offered a position as a Union general but he declined staying with his homestate of Virginia. He was born January 19 1807 he died October 12 1870 he was 63 years old when he died. He died because of pneumonia.

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

schooling to be with her family and never really had a job. Walt Whitman spent

Walt Whitman, one of the world's greatest journalist and poets, touched the lives of many different and diverse cultures through his many works in which he placed his feet in the shoes of everyday people and the experiences they faced. However, his attitude towards slavery and abolitionism were never permanent as if he was constantly torn between how he really felt or how others who did not agree with him would judge his views. As the saying goes, "your first teachers are your parents." Whitman grew up in a racist environment, in which he was a descendent of slave owners. Therefore, he grew up embodying white prejudice and coming to a conclusion that blacks were shiftless and ignorant. However, as he grew older and became more educated on the

Historians have said that the Civil War was the most photographed war until World War II. Dozens of brave photographers lugged around massive cameras, different chemicals, a portable darkroom for processing, and multiple slides of glass. Photographers like Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner were widely known for their photography in the battlefield, and their photos were spread widely throughout the United States. As these images spread, the public was shocked by the visual reality of war for the first time.

Paragraph 6: At one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy. One of his poems was about an egalitarian view of the races and his attitude in life reflected many of the racial prejudices common to the nineteenth -century his opposition to slavery was not necessarily based on belief in the equality of races.

In his essay “Death of Abraham Lincoln”, Walt Whitman recalls the first time he ever saw the future president elect when Lincoln silently passed through New York City on his way to Washington D. C. Then Whitman remarks on the rapid succession of the well-known, recent, and still yet painful events of the Civil War. The strata of session sympathizers, the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s theatre by John Wilkes Booth five days after the end of the Civil War, and the effect Lincoln’s death will forever have on our nation. Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist-in addition to publishing his poetry- was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. The Civil war lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was the result of four

Walt Whitman and Herman Melville were known for writing poetry about the Civil War. Both writers shared the same views about the harsh effects of war and ultimately wanted to end the suffering. Melville was connected to the anti-war movement because several his relatives were active duty during the Civil War. Furthermore, he believed that the war was the cause of many lives lost and innocence stolen. Walt Whitman was a poet, who also based majority of his work on the Civil War. He could draw from his experiences from his life and infuse them into his work. Based on the events happening around him he became consumed with his thoughts about the war. Whitman started his career as a journalist, one would think that because of the nature of his job he would have been more exposed to the causalities and cruelties of war. He became inspired to learn more and to be more active in the Civil War because of his brother. His brother was significantly injured during the war, seeing what his brother went through to fight for the country caused him to become a volunteer in military hospitals. He became consumed with taking care of the wounded soldiers, this became his passion. Whitman and Melville’s first hand experiences and observations impacted their work, and ultimately became their inspiration for their poems. Walt Whitman and Herman Melville shared common views about war in their poems, such as, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and “O Captain! My Captain!” and Melville’s “Shiloh”, “The March into Virginia”, and “The College Colonial”.

After the Civil War, Walt Whitman realized that the American people were in need of their own identity. Therefore, he wrote the book “Leaves of Grass” with the goal of creating a literature piece that was authentic and organic to the United States in every sense. Whitman introduced to literature the idea of the “American Dream” and highlighted how important it was for the American people to develop their own identity. Consequently, he rejected the European writing styles and adapted the use of free-verses to his writing, making it a popular writing style in American poetry. Whitman valued of humanity, nature and spirituality. Therefore, he joined the Transcendental literary movement and

Dedicating countless hours to the war and politics before President Lincoln’s death, Whitman strained to restore the Union as a whole. Feeling obligated to participate in the war effort, Whitman secured a government position making “regular visit[s] [to] soldiers in war hospitals”(Constantkis). Whitman also participated in the Free Soil Party, a rising opposition to the progression and spread of slavery, and wrote political commentaries in his effort to strengthen the Union. These undertakings not only aided the Union, but also brought Whitman closer to his idol, Lincoln, who also wanted to preserve the Union. Devastated by the assassination of President Lincoln, Walt Whitman wrote “O Captain! My Captain!,” “This Dust Was Once the Man,” and