Walt Whitman: Poems, Books, Biography & Facts - StudySmarter

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Walt Whitman

The poet, writer, and activist Walt Whitman is a foundational member of the American canon of literature and is often referred to as the father of free verse poetry. Most famous for his work Leaves of Grass (1855), Walt Whitman irrevocably changed perceptions of American wildness and wilderness writing. Whitman's work is controversial, sensual, exciting, and rooted firmly in the human body and the individual's placement in society. 

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• Fact Checked Content
• Last Updated: 29.11.2022
• Published at: 28.04.2022
• 12 min reading time

• American Drama
• American Literary Movements
• American Literature
• American Poetry
• 77 Dream Songs
• A Barred Owl
• A R Ammons
• A Red Red Rose
• A Story
• Adrienne Rich
• Alexander Pope
• Allen Ginsberg
• Allen Tate
• An American Sunrise
• And death shall have no dominion
• Andrew Marvell
• Anne Bradstreet
• Aphra Behn
• As I Walked Out One Evening
• As Kingfishers Catch Fire
• Balder Dead
• Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
• Ben Jonson
• Beowulf Poetry
• Binsey Poplars
• Briefings Collection
• Carl Sandburg
• Carolyn Forche
• Cathy Song
• Chicago Poem
• Concord Hymn
• Concord Hymn by Jack Spicer
• Crossing the Bar
• Crossing the Swamp
• Daddy
• Danse Russe
• Derek Walcott
• Diving into the Wreck
• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
• Dover Beach
• Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
• Dylan Thomas
• E. E. Cummings
• Easter 1916 Poem
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Edmund Spenser
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite
• Elegy For A Jet Pilot
• Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• Elegy for Jane
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Emancipation from British Dependence Poem
• Epitaph on the World
• European Poetry
• Eurydice
• Ezra Pound
• Fantasy
• Five Flights Up
• Fog
• For Jane Meyers
• For That He Looked Not Upon Her
• For the Union Dead
• Frank O'Hara
• Garrett Hongo
• Gary Snyder
• George Gascoigne
• George Oppen
• Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Gertrude Stein(1874-1946)
• Gwendolyn Bennett
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Hart Crane
• Helen
• Helen In Egypt
• Henry David Thoreau
• Here Philip Larkin
• Hilda Doolittle
• Homer
• How We Became Human
• I Carry Your Heart with Me
• I, Too Langston Hughes
• Idylls of the Kings
• If I Could Tell You
• If you forget me Pablo Neruda
• In Just
• In the Waiting Room
• Jack Spicer
• James Schuyler
• John Ashbery
• John Berryman
• John Crowe Ransom
• Joy Harjo
• Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
• Law Like Love
• Leaves of Grass
• Leslie Marmon Silko
• Let America be America again
• Li-Young Lee
• Life Studies
• Litany
• Lorine Niedecker
• Louise Glück
• Mary Oliver
• Matthew Arnold
• May Swenson
• Meaningful Love
• Midsummer, Tobago
• Mountains and Rivers Without End
• Musee des Beaux Arts (1939)
• My Papa's Waltz
• My People Langston Hughes
• Ode to the Confederate Dead
• Of Being Numerous
• Ogun by Kamau Brathwaite
• On Being Brought from Africa to America
• On Her Loving Two Equally
• On My First Sonne
• On The Banks Of Ohio
• On the Bus with Rosa Parks
• One Art
• One Hundred Love Sonnets XVII
• Pablo Neruda
• Parsley
• Paterson by William Carlos Willaims
• Phenomenal Woman
• Philip Freneau
• Phillis Wheatley
• Picture Bride
• Pied Beauty
• Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral
• Poetry of Departures
• Rebecca Hammond Lard
• Richard Eberhart
• Richard Wilbur
• Rights of Passage
• Rita Dove
• Robert Browning
• Robert Hayden
• Robert Lowell
• Roots
• Sailing to Byzantium
• Seamus Heaney Digging
• Seasons of the Soul
• Sestina
• Sic Vita Thoreau
• Sir Philip Sidney
• Skunk Hour
• Some Trees
• Some Trees Poem
• Songs of Innocence
• Sonnet 130
• Sonnet 138
• Sonnet 18
• Sonnet 29
• Sonnet 65
• Sonnet 73
• Spring and All
• Storm Warnings
• Storyteller
• Sunday Morning
• Sylvia Plath
• TS Eliot
• The Author to Her Book
• The Bean Eaters
• The Black Walnut Tree
• The Bridge
• The British Prison Ship
• The Buried Lake
• The Cantos
• The Centaur
• The Colonel
• The Convergence Of The Twain
• The Day Lady Died
• The Death of a Toad
• The Definition of Love
• The Empty Glass
• The Faerie Queene
• The Groundhog
• The Hollow Men
• The Indian Burying Ground
• The Juggler
• The Kaddish
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
• The Man He Killed
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• The Odyssey
• The People, Yes
• The Rape of the Lock
• The Raven Edgar Allan Poe
• The Red Wheelbarrow
• The Second Coming
• The Shield of Achilles
• The Unknown Citizen
• The Waking
• The Weary Blues
• The Wild Honey Suckle
• The Wild Iris
• The Windhover
• Theodore Roethke
• Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
• Those Winter Sundays
• Thou Blind Man's Mark
• To Brooklyn Bridge
• To Helen
• To His Coy Mistress
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• To Penshurst
• To a Dark Girl
• Ulysses
• Uriel
• Walden
• Wallace Stevens
• Walt Whitman
• We Real Cool
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
• William Butler Yeats
• William Carlos Williams
• Woman Work
• XIV
• Yellow Light
• [Buffalo Bill 's] by E. E. Cummings
• American Regionalism Literature
• American Short Fiction
• Dramatists
• Essayists
• Literary Criticism and Theory
• Literary Devices
• Literary Elements
• Literary Movements
• Literary Studies
• Non-Fiction Authors
• Novelists
• Poets

Contents

• American Drama
• American Literary Movements
• American Literature
• American Poetry
• 77 Dream Songs
• A Barred Owl
• A R Ammons
• A Red Red Rose
• A Story
• Adrienne Rich
• Alexander Pope
• Allen Ginsberg
• Allen Tate
• An American Sunrise
• And death shall have no dominion
• Andrew Marvell
• Anne Bradstreet
• Aphra Behn
• As I Walked Out One Evening
• As Kingfishers Catch Fire
• Balder Dead
• Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
• Ben Jonson
• Beowulf Poetry
• Binsey Poplars
• Briefings Collection
• Carl Sandburg
• Carolyn Forche
• Cathy Song
• Chicago Poem
• Concord Hymn
• Concord Hymn by Jack Spicer
• Crossing the Bar
• Crossing the Swamp
• Daddy
• Danse Russe
• Derek Walcott
• Diving into the Wreck
• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
• Dover Beach
• Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
• Dylan Thomas
• E. E. Cummings
• Easter 1916 Poem
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Edmund Spenser
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite
• Elegy For A Jet Pilot
• Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• Elegy for Jane
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Emancipation from British Dependence Poem
• Epitaph on the World
• European Poetry
• Eurydice
• Ezra Pound
• Fantasy
• Five Flights Up
• Fog
• For Jane Meyers
• For That He Looked Not Upon Her
• For the Union Dead
• Frank O'Hara
• Garrett Hongo
• Gary Snyder
• George Gascoigne
• George Oppen
• Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Gertrude Stein(1874-1946)
• Gwendolyn Bennett
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Hart Crane
• Helen
• Helen In Egypt
• Henry David Thoreau
• Here Philip Larkin
• Hilda Doolittle
• Homer
• How We Became Human
• I Carry Your Heart with Me
• I, Too Langston Hughes
• Idylls of the Kings
• If I Could Tell You
• If you forget me Pablo Neruda
• In Just
• In the Waiting Room
• Jack Spicer
• James Schuyler
• John Ashbery
• John Berryman
• John Crowe Ransom
• Joy Harjo
• Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
• Law Like Love
• Leaves of Grass
• Leslie Marmon Silko
• Let America be America again
• Li-Young Lee
• Life Studies
• Litany
• Lorine Niedecker
• Louise Glück
• Mary Oliver
• Matthew Arnold
• May Swenson
• Meaningful Love
• Midsummer, Tobago
• Mountains and Rivers Without End
• Musee des Beaux Arts (1939)
• My Papa's Waltz
• My People Langston Hughes
• Ode to the Confederate Dead
• Of Being Numerous
• Ogun by Kamau Brathwaite
• On Being Brought from Africa to America
• On Her Loving Two Equally
• On My First Sonne
• On The Banks Of Ohio
• On the Bus with Rosa Parks
• One Art
• One Hundred Love Sonnets XVII
• Pablo Neruda
• Parsley
• Paterson by William Carlos Willaims
• Phenomenal Woman
• Philip Freneau
• Phillis Wheatley
• Picture Bride
• Pied Beauty
• Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral
• Poetry of Departures
• Rebecca Hammond Lard
• Richard Eberhart
• Richard Wilbur
• Rights of Passage
• Rita Dove
• Robert Browning
• Robert Hayden
• Robert Lowell
• Roots
• Sailing to Byzantium
• Seamus Heaney Digging
• Seasons of the Soul
• Sestina
• Sic Vita Thoreau
• Sir Philip Sidney
• Skunk Hour
• Some Trees
• Some Trees Poem
• Songs of Innocence
• Sonnet 130
• Sonnet 138
• Sonnet 18
• Sonnet 29
• Sonnet 65
• Sonnet 73
• Spring and All
• Storm Warnings
• Storyteller
• Sunday Morning
• Sylvia Plath
• TS Eliot
• The Author to Her Book
• The Bean Eaters
• The Black Walnut Tree
• The Bridge
• The British Prison Ship
• The Buried Lake
• The Cantos
• The Centaur
• The Colonel
• The Convergence Of The Twain
• The Day Lady Died
• The Death of a Toad
• The Definition of Love
• The Empty Glass
• The Faerie Queene
• The Groundhog
• The Hollow Men
• The Indian Burying Ground
• The Juggler
• The Kaddish
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
• The Man He Killed
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• The Odyssey
• The People, Yes
• The Rape of the Lock
• The Raven Edgar Allan Poe
• The Red Wheelbarrow
• The Second Coming
• The Shield of Achilles
• The Unknown Citizen
• The Waking
• The Weary Blues
• The Wild Honey Suckle
• The Wild Iris
• The Windhover
• Theodore Roethke
• Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
• Those Winter Sundays
• Thou Blind Man's Mark
• To Brooklyn Bridge
• To Helen
• To His Coy Mistress
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• To Penshurst
• To a Dark Girl
• Ulysses
• Uriel
• Walden
• Wallace Stevens
• Walt Whitman
• We Real Cool
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
• William Butler Yeats
• William Carlos Williams
• Woman Work
• XIV
• Yellow Light
• [Buffalo Bill 's] by E. E. Cummings
• American Regionalism Literature
• American Short Fiction
• Dramatists
• Essayists
• Literary Criticism and Theory
• Literary Devices
• Literary Elements
• Literary Movements
• Literary Studies
• Non-Fiction Authors
• Novelists
• Poets

Contents

• Fact Checked Content
• Last Updated: 29.11.2022
• 12 min reading time

• Content creation process designed by Lily Hulatt
• Content sources cross-checked by Gabriel Freitas
• Content quality checked by Gabriel Freitas

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Walt Whitman's Biography

Early Life

Walt Whitman was born Walter Whitman to parents Walter and Louisa Van Velter Whitman on May 31, 1819. Walt Whitman was the second of nine children and aided in teaching and caring for his siblings. The Whitman

Engraving of Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer for the cover of "Leaves of Grass". Commons.wikimedia.org

family moved around a lot, and Walt Whitman described not being too fond of his childhood due to the constant moving and lack of funds.

Whitman finished his formal schooling at age 11 and began working for various writing jobs to aid in supplying income for his family. It is believed that Whitman began writing filler material for journals and newspapers as a teenager.

Whitman quickly became an editor of several publications, including the newspaper The Long-Island Star, and began publishing some of his earliest poetry as young as 15. He left The Long-Island Star at age 16 and proceeded to work a series of teaching, writing, and editing jobs that he never stayed in for much longer than a year.

He became an avid lover of theatre and the opera, and has been cited saying that he never could have written Leaves of Grass without exposure to such art. He published a series of editorials, poems, and articles throughout the 1840s and became utterly determined to be a poet after all his exposure to publishing and art.

Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass

As early as 1850, Whitman began initial work on a collection of poetry that could have been Leaves of Grass. By 1855, he had created his first bound copy of Leaves of Grass and presented it as a gift to his brothers. Whitman decided to publish Leaves of Grass on his own, and did not include an author, only the famous engraving of his portrait done by Samuel Hollyer. Less than 800 copies of Leaves of Grass were produced, and Whitman was devoted to creating a new American epic.

Despite not including his name anywhere on the cover or in the prose introduction, Whitman describes himself in the first few pages of the poem as:

Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly,

fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women

or apart from them, no more modest than immodest." (Leaves of Grass, First Edition).

One of Walt Whitman's earliest supporters was the renowned Transcendentalist poet and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is likely that, through Emerson's support, Whitman's poetry gained popularity, but even the first edition of Leaves of Grass did fairly well on its own for a self-published book. It gained the interest of a few key critics, despite not being terribly well-selling or vastly well-known.

Even from the first edition, however, Leaves of Grass received criticism for its sensuality and sexual themes, some believing the work to be uncouth. Though the second edition was already written in 1856, it almost didn't get published as a result of this criticism.

Whitman re-released Leaves of Grass nine times during his lifetime in various re-releases and publications, ending with his famous Deathbed Edition, though he himself did not publish this. During its early publications, Leaves of Grass gained enough traction that several famous poets and writers, including Henry David Thoreau, visited Whitman to discuss the work.

Transcendentalism was a movement led by prominent figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The Transcendentalist movement was created in response to Realismand used many themes from philosophers such as Plato and Emmanuel Kant and incorporated Romanticism. All humans and natural things, including the self were seen as divine under the belief structures of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalists had progressive beliefs on feminism and abolition.

Walt Whitman's affinity towards Romanticism and romantic poetry were heavily influenced by Transcendentalism and realist poetry. Whitman was a very influential romantic poet, and Leaves of Grass expressed Realist, Transcendentalist, and Romantic influences throughout.

Walt Whitman and the Civil War

Walt Whitman is very famous for his work as a medic in Washington D.C. during the Civil War. Whitman was a

Painting of the Civil War, where Walt Whitman was a medic. Pixabay.com

supporter of the North, and leaned towards being an abolitionist, but not because he wanted to end slavery.

Whitman saw the pragmatic foundations of American society disintegrating and was moved not by the suffering of those enslaved, but by the suffering of white American soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Whitman was an abolitionist in the definition of the word, but in practicality some of his writing demonstrates more of a negative perception of people of color and enslaved African Americans, in particular. Some of his poetry and writing appear to celebrate diversity, but through his letters and self-proclaimed racism, it is necessary to acknowledge this engagement as well.

Whitman was moved by the suffering of soldiers on both sides of the war and decided to personally do something about it by treating them. During this time is where we begin to have more explicit record of Whitman's presumed homoerotic engagements.2 For Whitman, the homoerotic and sensual took place most obviously in the physical form of young male beauty. Whitman's later editions of Leaves of Grass included two of his poetry collections from the Civil War Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps.

Walt Whitman's Cause of Death

Walt Whitman suffered a stroke in 1873 at the age of 54, but lived another two decades after the event. He was partially paralyzed and moved in with his brother, George, in Camden, New Jersey. He lived with his brother and sister-in-law until they moved away in 1884 and was very active and still writing poetry during this time. Despite being required to take several years to recover from his stroke, he managed to publish several more editions of Leaves of Grass and continued to receive famous guests such as Oscar Wilde.

Whitman became acquainted with Mary Oaks Davis during this time, a neighbor and widow. She eventually moved in with Whitman as his housekeeper and was not required to pay rent. She brought many animals with her, including but not limited to a dog, cat, two turtledoves, and a canary.

As Walt Whitman continued to age, he produced a final edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1891, just a year before his death. Whitman designed his own mausoleum in the time before his death, and he visited it regularly as his health continued to decline. Whitman died on March 26, 1892. An autopsy revealed that his lungs were functioning at roughly 13% of their capacity, and he was determined to have pneumonia. A public service was held for him and saw over 1,000 people attend. His burial was also public.

Walt Whitman's Famous Poems

Genre	Year	Work(s)	Description
Notable Books and Poetry Collections	1842-1891	Leaves of Grass, First Edition (1855) (Published remaining six editions through 1891) Drum-Taps (1865) Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd and other poems (1865) Memoranda During the War (1876) Specimen Days (1882)
Select Poems	1855	"Song of Myself"	Easily Whitman's most famous poem, "Song of Myself" is the opening work in Leaves of Grass. The poem is a combination of Romanticism and Realism, concentrating on the celebration of the speaker's body and mind. The poem was initially titled "Poem of Walt Whitman, an American" and it is still a reasonable assumption that "Song of Myself" is about Whitman himself.
	1860	"I Hear America Singing"	"I Hear America Singing" is a poem about Whitman's love of the American people and their vitality, as well as the chorus of different voices and opinions that come together to make the country what it is.
	1865	"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"	"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is an elegy written for Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. Though it never includes Lincoln's name, it uses symbolism to emphasize the acceptance of death at the end of the Civil War.
	1867	"O Captain! My Captain!"	"O Captain! My Captain!" is another poem that references Abraham Lincoln, this time as the captain of a ship (America). In this poem, Whitman explores themes of conflict and politics and references both the Civil War and political climate of the time.

Walt Whitman Facts

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was born in Huntington, Long Island, though he spent a majority of his career and adult life in Brooklyn, New York. He never finished formal schooling, leaving at age 11 to work and provide some income for his family.

As he grew, Whitman worked many writing jobs from government clerk to journalist to, eventually, a self-published poet. Whitman's first collectionLeaves of Grass was published in 1855 and became popular within his lifetime.1Leaves of Grass was concentrated on bringing theepicto the American population.Leaves of Grass became his life's work, with many editions being published before his death in 1892.

Anepicis a genre of poetry that is a long, narrative-style poem that tells the deeds of the main character, usually of above-average capabilities.

Walt Whitman also played a central role in the literary movement of the American Civil War and wrote poetry about it frequently. It is through letters that he wrote to male friends that he came to be scrutinized for his presumed bisexuality, and modern literary critics today take this presumption to be true.

Walt Whitman admired Abraham Lincoln greatly and wrote two of his most famous poems after his assassination: 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' (1865) and 'O Captain! My Captain!' (1867). At the height of the Civil War, Whitman moved to Washington D.C. to tend to the wounded in hospitals, and his poetry reflects on the conflict, as well as loss, healing, and embodiment.

Whitman suffered a stroke near the end of his life and moved to New Jersey to heal and live out the remainder of his days. His health greatly declined soon after his stroke, though he continued to reviseLeaves of Grass. Some of his most famous and potent poetry was written during this time.

As far as American poets go, Walt Whitman truly changed the course of history. His work created a precedent for the American population, poets and writers alike, and without him America would not be what it is today.

Walt Whitman's Quotes

The poet Walt Whitman has many famous lines and quotations that have been imprinted on the American psyche. Included here are some of Whitman's more famous quotations.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

This quotation is from the poem "Song of Myself" and is, perhaps, one of Walt Whitman's most famous quotations because it is the opening to Leaves of Grass. These lines are a good representation of Whitman's exploration into the body and the connectedness of all living things, a very Transcendentalist mindset. "Song of Myself" is commonly recited and easily recognizable through these first three lines.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."

This is another famous Walt Whitman quotation, pulled from the poem "Leaves of Grass", which was also published in the poetry collection Leaves of Grass. This quotation demonstrates Whitman's Transcendentalist beliefs as well, using something as small as a blade of grass to create an expansive and slightly existential poem about the course of humanity and the creation of the universe.

Resist much, obey little."

This is one of Whitman's more famous political quotations. Whitman included this line in his poem 'Caution', published in Leaves of Grass. This quotation is an address to the American people and is a warning against the expansion of the federal government.

Whitman was a rugged individualist and to this day is a manifestation of the "American wild". This quotation, demonstrating Whitman's resistance to a heavy-handed government, is representative of his persona as a mountain man who set off to write a new American epic.

Walt Whitman - Key takeaways

• Walt Whitman - known occasionally as "the father of free verse" - was a poet and writer who heavily influenced American literature and perception of the American wild.
• Walt Whitman's most famous poetry collection is Leaves of Grass, and he spent most of his life writing and revising this work.
• Walt Whitman's most famous poems include "Song of Myself", "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloom'd".
• Whitman was a Transcendentalist who wrote romantic poetry, and was heavily influenced by the Transcendentalist, realist, and romantic movements.
• Walt Whitman died in 1892, and there is an edition of Leaves of Grass published known as the Deathbed Edition.
• Whitman was a queer poet who concentrated heavily on the beauty of the male body.

1 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855.

2 Kantrowitz, Arnie. “How Gay Was Walt Whitman.” Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, 1998.

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• Poets
• Non-Fiction Authors
• Literary Movements
• Novelists
• American Drama
• American Literature
• American Short Fiction
• Essayists
• Literary Elements
• American Literary Movements
• Literary Devices
• American Poetry
• American Regionalism Literature

Related topics to American Poetry

• Sonnet 73
• Philip Freneau
• Allen Ginsberg
• Sestina
• Musee des Beaux Arts (1939)
• Yellow Light
• Robert Lowell
• Allen Tate
• The Bean Eaters
• Frank O'Hara
• Concord Hymn
• Anne Bradstreet
• Dover Beach
• Cathy Song
• Joy Harjo
• For That He Looked Not Upon Her
• The Death of a Toad
• On Being Brought from Africa to America
• Carolyn Forche
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• Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral
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• Songs of Innocence
• Pablo Neruda
• Phenomenal Woman
• Adrienne Rich
• As Kingfishers Catch Fire
• Dylan Thomas
• An American Sunrise
• On the Bus with Rosa Parks
• Ulysses
• I, Too Langston Hughes
• The Shield of Achilles
• Sonnet 138
• The Author to Her Book
• The Rape of the Lock
• The Red Wheelbarrow
• Diving into the Wreck
• The Indian Burying Ground
• TS Eliot
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• The Odyssey
• The Definition of Love
• If you forget me Pablo Neruda
• Ezra Pound
• Edmund Spenser
• Pied Beauty
• The Black Walnut Tree
• Leaves of Grass
• Easter 1916 Poem
• The Kaddish
• Daddy
• Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
• Homer
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Crossing the Swamp
• William Butler Yeats
• Briefings Collection
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography
• A Red Red Rose
• Sailing to Byzantium
• To Helen
• The British Prison Ship
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Li-Young Lee
• The Faerie Queene
• Walt Whitman
• We Real Cool
• Fantasy
• Derek Walcott
• Sic Vita Thoreau
• Gerard Manley Hopkins
• The Hollow Men
• William Carlos Williams
• Walden
• Uriel
• The Second Coming
• The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
• The Weary Blues
• Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• Sylvia Plath
• In the Waiting Room
• Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
• The Windhover
• Louise Glück
• George Gascoigne
• Henry David Thoreau
• Gwendolyn Bennett
• Rita Dove
• Mary Oliver
• Here Philip Larkin
• Sonnet 18
• Thou Blind Man's Mark
• Parsley
• Those Winter Sundays
• Andrew Marvell
• The Unknown Citizen
• Ben Jonson
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
• Law Like Love
• Poetry of Departures
• Richard Wilbur
• To a Dark Girl
• Litany
• Helen
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• Robert Browning
• A Barred Owl
• One Art
• Phillis Wheatley
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Flashcards in Walt Whitman

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Leaves of Grass was initially written to be what genre?

Epic

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Frequently Asked Questions about Walt Whitman

Who was Walt Whitman?

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet who changed the course of American literature and history through his famous collection Leaves of Grass.

What is Walt Whitman's most famous poem?

Walt Whitman's most famous poem is 'Song of Myself', published in his collection Leaves of Grass.

What made Walt Whitman unique?

Walt Whitman was a unique poet and writer for his time because he concentrated on controversial subjects such as sensuality, sexuality, and politics. His poetry is heavily influenced by transcendentalism, romanticism, and realism. He was a queer writer, though never expressed that openly during his lifetime, and stirred up a lot of controversy over his work Leaves of Grass that was heavily focused on the beauty of the self and male body.

What are three facts about Walt Whitman?

Three need-to-know facts about Walt Whitman include 1) he was an American poet that concentrated on the American wilderness 2) he set out to write an epic for the American people and changed the course of American history 3) Whitman's famous collection Leaves of Grass is the most famous collection in American history.

Is Walt Whitman a romantic poet?

Yes, Walt Whitman was a romantic poet who was heavily influenced by transcendentalism, realism, and the American wilderness.

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