Walt Whitman is arguably the greatest North American poet and one of the most difficult poets to judge this because his
style for writing. It is important to analyze a lot of aspects in the way that Walt Whitman
was as a writer, the way that he changes poetry by including his unique form of
writing and the way that he used free verse became predominant in all his poems and somehow became his insignia of
his talent as a writer. In the analysis of Walt
Whitman poems and how the poem is written, it
is not only important to realize because not only is the shape of the poem but also
the content of the analysis in it, it is important to see how he uses
all that surround us to compare things that might
be so insignificant to us in the everyday life, and by doing this Whitman
tries to make us realize of the importance and the essence of that little
things in life but that in the end compose ourselves.
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| Walt Whitman (1819-1892) |
Walt Whitman was the first poet who saw the
possibilities of free verse, making
full use of simple language and
close to the prose, while creating a new mythology for the young American nation. Man of the people
he wanted to create a kind of democratic poetry, never seen, to break with all
tradition, without meter or
rhyme, in a kind of prose poetry called free
verse. The individualism, the
stories of their own experiences, a revolutionary treatment of the great passion
and impulse and belief in the
universal values of democracy are the novel features of his
poetry, in line with the
romanticism of the time, proposed in his poetry a communion between
the men and the nature of sign close to existentialism.
Both its subjects and the way the poetry of Whitman
moved away from all that is usually meant by
poetic, but was able to create new materials with moments
of deep lyricism. A special
characteristic of Whitman´s poetry was the impact that he made of romanticism
with its idealism and also of scientific realism. He was particularly
influenced by scientific realism and believed in the ideas of evolution and
progress. Also Whitman creates the illusion that he and his poems are
identical, but this is his lyrical “I”.
The stated mission of his poetry
was, in the words of Whitman, to make “an attempt to put a Person, a
human being (myself, in the latter half of the 19th century, in America)
freely, fully, and truly on record.” Everything is interconnected in Whitman's
mind, and in their poems he demonstrates that by interconnecting a lot of
things with each other’s. Also Walt Whitman
celebrates the freedom of the individual and a celebration of freedom enjoyed
in the United States and also felt that one of the things that must be
celebrated was the body because he see it as an art and felt that the body was
a gateway to the soul. Whitman puts quite a lot of emphasis on the exploration
of the physical body through numerous descriptions of a variety of people, and
by doing this he establishes certain differences. He also shows his own unique
perspective on the human body through his writing, which is presented as a
broad organization of flesh, blood, and movement, but that without a soul this
organization cannot be possible in the natural way that it have now.
A factor that can be detected in the poems of
Walt Whitman is the political factor that they have such as a lot of democratic
ideas from Whitman in where he tries to imagine democracy. As an example in the
poem of "Song of myself" he notes that in democracy and in a better
way to become a perfect democracy every individual must include all individuals
equally, and if these objectives do not prevail the democracy will fail. It
appears that Whitman’s increasing frustration with the Democratic party started
to compromise the approaches of his thinking and way of writing and also the
slavery crisis led him to continue his political efforts through the more
subtle and indirect means of experimental poetry, a poetry that he hoped would
be read by masses of average Americans and would transform their way of
thinking. 
In the poem Song of Myself is contrary to what its name implies,
is more of a universal song, which aims to reach all people of the planet, a poem that tries to move and teach anyone
who reads it. And this universality that has the song, is due to the idea
of Whitman to consider all mankind as one, all
men alike and to believe that he could be your own
person or to any other and
nothing would change. In the poem we can find 3
important elements which will define the meaning of the poem, the
first one is the idea that Whitman brings of
the self, the second one was the identification of the self with other selves
and the third one is the poet´s relationship with elements of nature
and the universe (expressed by the lyrical “I”). Walt Whitman wants to eliminate the idea that the physical part of man is sinful and the term of the body as a whole
in a reality that allows the man to
experience life and enjoy it. In
the poem of song of myself Whitman it’s trying to said that everyone have a
different way to believe in something and that every soul is different. Whitman
somehow worships the faith of the people and makes us see how he is disgusted
by the people that preach the “truth” such as priests. By giving us examples
and comparisons Whitman tries to say that everyone must believe in things that grows
inside them by nature no because someone else tell them to do. Walt Whitman in the
poem describes how wonderful way that lets you view the world from hundreds of views, and so understand better than anyone.
By focusing on analyzing different parts
of the poem we can get a better idea of what is meant by the author in his poem. Taking very first
part of the poem to analyze it, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume
you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” After reading this fragment
of the poem we can see the relationship that the author tries to explain to us
between everything with everything. Also tries to explain hoe every object in
the world has its place and a reason to be. Whitman brings a connection between
a body and a soul, and tries to relate the things that may be so tiny and
insignificant for people like an atom with us or even with the earth. In the
section of the poem Whitman tries to make us open our eyes in order to see how
everything in the world is significant and important with a purpose as
important as everyone else in the world.
Consulted the 29/04/2012
from the web page: http://wenku.baidu.com/view/91db3923192e45361066f5fb.html
Consulted the 02/05/2012
from the web page: http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2005/spring/cushman-whitman-patriotism/
Consulted the 04/05/2012
from the web page: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/whitman/bio.htm
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