Walt Whitman

Poetry has always been thought of as an expression of oneself. Walt Whitman certainly

seems to believe in that idea. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New

York. Whitman had a rather meager amount of formal education before he turned to the

printing trade. He worked as a teacher and also a printer and reporter for some very

well-known establishments including New World and the Democratic Review. Later, he

turned to poetry as a career. Many of Walt Whitman’s optimistic beliefs about life and

society are clearly depicted through his poetry.

Walt Whitman was very intrigued by the pseudo science of phrenology. The ideal

score for a phrenological reading is a six, five is good, and a seven or eight indicates

dangerous overdevelopment. Whitman’s readings include the following scores;

amativeness 6, philoprogenitiveness 6, adhesiveness 6, inhabitiveness 6, alimentiveness 6,

cautiousness 6, self-esteem 6 to 7, firmness 6 to 7, benevolence 6 to 7, sublimity 6 to 7,

ideality 5 to 6, individuality 6, and intuitiveness 6 (25 2). These scores indicate a nearly

Walt Whitman’s work as a volunteer during the American Civil War has a great

deal of influence on his poetry and ways of thinking. He worked

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Any people that love each

other will supposedly become invincible (Magill 3559-3560). He states, “Whitman was an original; no one before him had thrust his

presence and actual voice so boldly onto the written page. Whitman also believes that “death and

mourning must eventually give way to consolation and hope for the future” (3560). This just goes to

show exactly how Whitman states his views in ways unlike many other poets and how he

comes across to the public of his time.

Walt Whitman is viewed in many different ways by critics.

Walt Whitman uses large amounts of expression in his poetry. Walt Whitman’s ecstatic celebrations of what the self sees

and becomes as it travels the cycle of birth, death, and resurrection” (Stepanchev 4). According to Basil De Selincourt in Calamus, “Whitman advocates and to a certain

extent himself practiced an affectionate demonstrativeness which is uncongenial to the

Anglo-Saxon temperament and which those Englishmen who forgot that there are two

sides to the Channel find even shocking. Therefore, Whitman’s

works receive few positive reviews (24 1). This joy releases the poet and reader from all limitations including

time and space (Whitman xiii).

Approximate Word count = 1672
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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