Whitman Bio PPT

8/3/2019 Whitman Bio PPT

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/whitman-bio-ppt 1/29

With a partner, consider

the following questions« Is poetry important? Why or why

not?

Why might it have been

important in the past?

If you do not think poetry is stillimportant, what do you think has

replaced it in modern culture?



Old Gray Beard

a.k.a. Walt Whitman



Walt Whitman

Whitman may have changed the courseof poetry more than any other singleperson.

Almost single handedly, he inventedfree verse, the poetry of no rhythm and

rhyme that had dominated the lastcentury.



Whitman

Walt Whitman was born in 1819,about half way between the

American Revolution and the

American Civil War. By 1855, when Whitman published his

first edition of poetry, America hadchanged dramatically.

Whitman is the first poet that seemedto speak for all of the new UnitedStates.



A Growing America

In 1783, the new country was a group of

13 new states clustered along the

Atlantic coastline.

By 1855, America hadgrown to 30 states that

stretched across the

continent and was rapidly moving toward

industrialization and urbanization.

It was a diverse country with people

coming in from all over the world.



Diversity

It was America¶s diversity that

fascinated Whitman.

He saw America as the greatestnation that ever was, and it was

great because it was a ³melting

pot´ of skilled, hard-working

people.



What is a ´melting potµ?



The Young Walt Whitman

Before becoming a poet, Whitmanheld a variety of jobs and lived avagabond lifestyle.

He was very poor as a child andstarted having odd jobs as ateenager and young man.

He was a carpenter, a printer, a journalist, and even was aschoolteacher at age 17 (showshow low he was getting).





Interested in Everything

Whitman was interested in ancient Egypt. He loved the sea--

And opera.

He was fascinated by astrology andphrenology.

The sights and sounds of everythingaround him fascinated him.

He was interested in politics, and hedelighted in the power of words toexpress one¶s ideas.



The Poet

When he turned to writing poetry, Whitman

had already lived a fuller life than many

people live in a lifetime.

But his poetry was different²very different He saw poetry as organic²growing

naturally like flowers and other plants

grow. He invented what is now called Free Verse

²poetry that has no rhythm or rhyme.



Phrenology?

July 16, 1849. Whitman

visits the busy phrenological

emporium of Fowler and

Wells to literally have hishead examined. A

nineteenth-century ³science´

that has long been

discredited, phrenologysought to identify traits of

character by the bumps and

depressions on a human

skull.



Whitman¶s analysis pleased him so much that

he reprinted parts of it in several editions of

Leaves of Grass: This man has a grandphysical construction. He is undoubtedly

descended from the soundest and hardiest

stock. Size of head large. Leading traits of character appear to be Friendship, Sympathy,

and Self-Esteem, and markedly among his

combinations the dangerous faults of

Indolence, a tendency to the pleasure of Voluptuousness, and a certain reckless swing

of animal will, too unmindful, probably, of the

conviction of others.



A Little Unusual

Until Whitman, poetry had always

had rhythm and rhyme.

Most people who saw his poetryfound it too weird, and many would

not even consider it poetry.

Whitman needed a boost²a way of

getting his work recognized.



Leaves of Grass

His first book of poems was entitled³Leaves of Grass.´ (1855)

Whitman paid for it entirely by himself

because, like Dickinson¶s poems,publishers thought they were too oddto take a costly chance on.

As a former printer, he saved moremoney by doing the typesetting.

He sent a free copy to Ralph WaldoEmerson.



Support from an unusual

source

Emerson was considered America¶s

greatest thinker and was an unlikely person

to back Whitman¶s new style of poetry.

Yet Emerson was entranced by the poems

and responded with a five-page reply.

It became the most famous piece of literary

sponsorship in American history. Emerson¶s support then caused others to

rethink and revisit Whitman¶s poems.



Emerson¶s reply included the

following lines:

³I greet you at the beginning of a

great career, which yet must have

had a long foreground somewherefor such a start.

Emerson probably didn¶t care

much about knowing about

Whitman¶s long foreground, buthe was right in assuming

Whitman had lived a full and

diverse life.



Shameless?

Walt Whitman was

perhaps a

shameless self-

promoter. He took excerpts

from Emerson¶s

private letter of

endorsement andpublished them on

his book.



Free Verse

Free verse is Whitman's expression of

the democratic concepts of a growing

America.

"What we call poems." he wrote, "are

merely pictures."

The "real poems," he insisted, "are

the men and women in all the varietyof human experience."



Leaves of Grass (again and

again and again)

Nine times, he republished Leaves

of Grass.

Nine times, it grew larger with the

addition of more poems. In many ways, as he put it, "The

United States themselves are

essentially the greatest poem." The volumes are a tribute to thecountry and to its people, especiallythe common working people.



The Civil War

In December of 1862, Whitman wasfirst exposed to the tragedy of TheCivil War when he traveled toVirginia in search of his brother George who had been wounded inbattle.

Whitman spent several days at

camp hospitals of the Army of thePotomac just after the particularlybloody Battle of Fredericksburg.





He was so moved by the scene at the

battlefield hospital that he traveled toWashington, D.C, and spent much of the next three years workingoccasionally as an unofficial nurse in

several army hospitals. Whitman made a great effort to get to

know wounded soldiers, bringingthem small gifts and writing letters

for them



Sex

Now that I have your attention: Whitman, incidentally, virtually invented

sexuality as a subject of American

literature (even though Europeans haddiscovered it centuries earlier).

After Whitman, sex became an acceptablesubject in American literature.



Abraham Lincoln

Whitman was also a great admirer of Lincoln.

Lincoln's death evoked a strong response

in Whitman who wrote several poems aboutLincoln¶s death.

"O Captain, My Captain" is perhaps the bestknown.

"When Lilacs Last in the DooryardBloom'd," is also a well-known Lincolnmemorial.



The American Chorus

In the following poem, ³I Hear AmericaSinging,´ Whitman envisions America

as a giant chorus.

Each person is like a soprano, an alto,and tenor, or a bass who is

harmonizing their voice into the giant

American song.



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 boat²the

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 atsundown;

The delicious singing of the mother--or of the young

wife at work²or of the girl sewing or washing²

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.



Question

How does the poem ³I Hear America

Singing´ reflect Whitman¶s attitude

towards America?

In answering this question, please use

evidence (quotes) from the poem.

You may also reference facts about his

life from today¶s notes.

Date post:	06-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	kellie-clark
View:	229 times
Download:	0 times

Whitman Bio PPT

Documents