eng 272: sounding out barbaric yawps

Walt Whitman, photograph by Samuel Hollyer of a daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison (original lost), circa 1854, printed in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, courtesy of the Bayley Collection at Ohio Wesleyan, from whitmanarchive.org

Walt Whitman, or Uncle Walt, as he's affectionately known, is considered by many scholars to be the first truly American poet, writing in a distinctive, revolutionary style, in an entirely American manner. Stylistically, he's famous for using poetic catalogues, long rhythmic lines, and repetition. Content-wise, Whitman was also revolutionary, celebrating the body in all its messy, lusty glory, and his all-inclusive sexuality created such a stir that his poetry was repeatedly the subject of obscenity claims.

He followed Emerson's advice about the role of the poet, creating a poetic voice that was of everyday working people and celebrated everyday existence. He wrote, in the Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass that" The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem," and that "Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall. Of all mankind the great poet is the equable man" (998). What about poetry and the act of writing it equalizes us and makes us fit for the highest office of the land?

Also in the Preface to LoG, Whitman makes a powerful statement of his philosophy:
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argues not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely wit powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body..." (1000).

The Walt Whitman Archive online contains multitudes of resources for Whitman scholars and fans alike.