Walt Whitman

The Good Gray Poet

Walt Whitman (1819-1882)

Born Long Island, NYRaised in Brooklyn

After 1850, he left a career in journalism to devote himself full-time to poetry

Whitman lived briefly in New Orleans, but he returned to New York City, hishome and the source of many of his city images.

Whitman’s birthplace

Photo by Matthew Brady

1855 edition: 12 poems

Other editions 1856, 1860, 1871-72, 1881-82

1891-1892 edition: 293 poems (“Deathbed” edition)

1.) He typically wrote in free verse (poetry with neither meter nor rhyme).

“I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing, 

All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches; 

Without any companion it grew there, uttering joyous leaves of dark green, 

And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself; 

But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there, without its friend, its lover near—for I knew I could not. . . . “

from “I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing”

2.) He wrote about unconventional subjects such as the human body.

“O my Body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes

of the parts of you; 

I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the Soul, (and that they are the Soul) 

I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems—and that they are poems, 

Man’s, woman’s, child’s, youth’s, wife’s, husband’s, mother’s, father’s, young man’s,

young woman’s poems; 

Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears, 

Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eye-brows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids, 

Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges, 

Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition, 

Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue, 

Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of

the chest.”

from “I Sing the Body Electric”

3.) He frequently includes catalogs or parallelism, adding image onto image. Thus, repetition becomes a unifying device.

“Coffin that passes through lanes and streets, Through day and night, with the great cloud darkening the land, With the pomp of the inloop’d flags, with the cities draped in black,  With the show of the States themselves, as of crape-veil’d women, standing, With processions long and winding, and the flambeaus of the night, With the countless torches lit—with the silent sea of faces, and the unbared heads, With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces, With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn;   With all the mournful voices of the dirges, pour’d around the coffin, The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—Where amid these you journey, With the tolling, tolling bells’ perpetual clang; Here! coffin that slowly passes, I give you my sprig of lilac.”

from “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”

This poem is an elegy written to mourn the death of Abraham Lincoln.

4.) Whitman has a strong sense of democracy, a belief in the individual.

“Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,

Growing among black folks as among white,

Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.”

from “Song of Myself”

5.) Whitman demonstrates a great love for the United States.

“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;         The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.”

from “I Hear America Singing”

6.) Whitman accepts death as a fact of life, but he believes in a universal spirit of rebirth with Nature. (This indicates Emerson’s influence.)

“The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

from “Song of Myself”

Walt Whitman Reading America

Whitman Quotes

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”

"I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil."

“I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.”

“I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.”

“I see great things in baseball. It’s our game—the American game.”

Among the famous poems by Walt Whitman…

“Song of Myself”“A Noiseless Patient Spider”“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”“There was a Child Went Forth”“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”“I Hear America Singing”“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”“I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing”“Beat! Beat! Drums” (originally part of Drum Taps)“I Sing the Body Electric”

and the popular but atypical “O Captain! My Captain!”

Poets influenced by Whitman

Old Walt

Old Walt WhitmanWent finding and seeking,Finding less than soughtSeeking more than found,Every detail mindingOf the seeking or the finding. Pleasured equallyIn seeking as in finding,Each detail minding,Old Walt went seekingAnd finding.

Langston Hughes, 1954

from A Supermarket in California

Where are we going Walt Whitman? The doors close in anhour. Which way does your beard point tonight?(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in thesupermarket and feel absurd.)Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The treesadd shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both belonely.Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love pastautomobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?Ah, dear father graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, whatAmerica did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry andyou got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boatdisappear on the black waters of Lethe?

Allen Ginsberg, 1956

Walt Whitman Mall Walt Whitman Bridge Long Island, NY Philadelphia, PA

Camp Walt Whitman, Piermont, NH

Walt Whitman Hotel Camden, NJ

Quiz on Walt Whitman

1.) What is the name of Whitman’s collection of poetry that began with 12 poems in the 1855 edition and contained 293 poems in the 1891 Deathbed Edition?

2. Whitman typically wrote in __ verse, poetry that contains neither rhymenor meter.

3. With which city is Walt Whitman associated?

4. Who is the subject of both “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Lastin the Dooryard Bloom’d”?

5. What topic in Whitman’s poetry reflects, in particular, Emerson’sTranscendental view?

6. Name one modern link or reference to Whitman.