Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass

Context

Walt Whitman 's Leaves of Grass was published during the 1800 's . This period in the history of America can be described as being restrictive both in the social life and in the literature of the country . When the book was written , it has been a hundred years since the independence of America from England but the society and literature are still very much like the society and literature of the Victorian era of England

Men and women are expected to follow restrictive social etiquette

br They always have to be prim and proper and they have to wear appropriate clothes and dresses both inside and outside the house . They walk and talk and dress in a finessed way . It is a taboo to talk about sex and sexual organs and sexual acts . Society is prudish and there is not much room for playful and spontaneous behavior especially in public

This is also how the literature of the period is characterized . It is restrictive in the sense that the imitate the form and content of their writings from the great of England . Before the time of Whitman , there is no distinct American literature apart from the oral literature of the Indians . A poem during this time is characterized by having a rhyme and meter and the form is dependent on these two . The sonnet form for example has a specific rhyming scheme (Shakespearean and meter (12 syllables . If there is no rhyme and meter , then a written work is not considered poetry but prose

Walt Whitman against Rhyme and Meter

Walt Whitman is revolutionized not just the form but also the content of the poetry of America . In the preface of his 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , Whitman speaks of a new quality of poetry that is embodied not just in words but also in the body and in the country

The poetic quality is not marshaled in rhyme or uniformity or abstract addresses to things or in melancholy complaints or good precepts , but is the life of these and much else and is in the soul (Par . 8

With this utterance , Walt Whitman is directly going against the conventions of poetry during his time . What he is saying here is that we cannot say that a poem is a poem just because it follows the conventions of rhyme , meter and content of the restrictive English tradition . Rhyme and meter should arise naturally from the soul of the poet and not from outside . This is what he means when he says that All beauty comes from beautiful blood and beautiful brain (Par . 8 The poet does not need to go outside of himself /herself because everything that he /she can say well in poetry is inside himself /herself perceptions , beliefs , experiences and feelings

Whitman is not interested in formal conventions . What is important to him is the beauty that is in the soul of the poet . He compares poetry with the body of the poet : your flesh shall be a great poem (Par 8 . The poet can be poetry when he /she has a beautiful blood and a beautiful brain : hence a beautiful inside , a soul

Whitman also compares a good poetry that is formed naturally from the soul of the poet with the soul of the United States . He says that the country itself is the greatest poem (Par . 2 . If Whitman suggests a new form of poetry in having a new kind of rhyme and meter that is based on natural workings of the soul of the poet , he suggests that for content , poetry should stop talking about the life and culture of the people from upper class but the common people (Par . 2 . The lifestyles and experiences of the working class can be the content of poetry too as opposed to the English tradition that focuses on themes that are abstract , mythical or elitist . They are the ones who make America vibrant and the poet 's soul is the soul of the people who make up his country : His spirit responds to his country 's spirit .he incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes (Par .5 . What Whitman is saying is that these common folks are also the beautiful mind and beautiful brain of the beauty of poetry

Whitman 's New Form and Content in his Poem Song of Myself

We can clarify what Whitman tries to say in his Preface with his poem Song of Myself . In this poem , there is no apparent rhyme and meter but there is still a sense of natural rhythm because Whitman 's use of repetitions not of the ending sounds or the number of syllables but repetitions of ideas . In Part 5 of the poem , for example when Whitman is laying on the grass and someone kisses his chest , Whitman explodes in joy for God and for everyone

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass

all the argument of the earth

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own

And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers , and the women

my sisters and lovers (Part 5

In this excerpt , three lines begin with And I know ' and all of them take the place of rhyme and meter in the manner that they are also repeated and they have the quality of sameness . They all pertain to what Whitman realized instantly from the intimate physical connection that he has experienced . What he wants to say here is that through the body , he has experienced God and every human being . This also shows that the content of the poem talks about body and sensual acts which are taboo subjects during his time

The content of the poem also show the spontaneity , freedom and confidence that emanates from the poet . We can see this immediately in the first part of the poem

I CELEBRATE myself , and sing myself

And what I assume you shall assume

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you (Part 1

The language is the language of the ordinary people . It does not use highfaluting words or abstract words . It is the language of the common folk because Whitman believes that the beautiful blood ' and beautiful brain ' of the United States lie in the common people - the slaves , the working people , the people he meets in the street . These first three lines summarizes his belief that the poem , the poet (Whitman ) and the United States (its nature and its people ) are all one

Works Cited

Whitman , Walt . Preface to Leaves of Grass

------------------- . Song of Myself br

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