Walt Whitman: Background For His Works (1955)

away with old romance away with novels plots and plays of foreign courts away with L verses sugared in rhyme I raise a voice for far superber themes for poets and for art to exalt the present and the real to teach the average man the glory of his daily walk and trade Thus Spoke Walt Whitman a poet of America man who broke with tradition who found new themes for poetry and developed new Styles Walt Whitman was born in a farmhouse on Long Island New York in 1819 a time when America was primarily a farming Nation as a young man he taught school and worked on newspapers in the country in many poems he recalled rural sights and sounds looking back to his Boyhood he wrote there was a child went forth every day and the first object he looked upon that object he became and that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day or for many years or stretching cycles of years the early lilacs became part of this child and grass and white and red morning [Music] glories and white and red clover and the song of the Phoebe [Applause] bird and the third month [Music] Lambs in New York City between 1839 and 1848 he worked on newspapers so he took part in one of the great changes of the period the shift of many Americans from Village and farm to the cities and the city became part of him he was a fashionable Dandy City life was his life and New York his City Vehicles Broadway the women the shops and shows a million people manners free and superb open voices Hospitality city of hurried and Sparkling Waters city of spires and masts City nestled in Bays my city Whitman knew the movement of Americans from country to City because he took part in it he also knew at firsthand The Westward Movement of pioneers surging across the continent shaping the course of American History Pioneers Oh Pioneers all the past we leave behind we Debush upon a newer mightier World varied World fresh and strong the world we sees world of Labor and the March Pioneers Oh [Music] Pioneers in 1848 Whitman left New York and journeyed Southward and Westward to New Orleans Louisiana along the way he saw a part of America's Frontier he saw firsthand Pioneers who were hueing civilization out of wilderness he saw men and women who were braving the unknown to establish Lish new homes he saw some of the vast rich land of America as he followed the rivers down to New Orleans in New Orleans he encountered a new way of life new peoples a new culture after a stay of a few months he returned to New York by way of Chicago and the Great Lakes this trip acquainted him with other parts of the the growing country back in the East again in the late 1840s and early 1850s Whitman was writing for a newspaper and a magazine and working as a carpenter with his father now his Viewpoint was changing he could speak of farm life for he had lived it as a child he could speak of city life for he was part of it he could speak of pioneer life for he had seen it he had seen the major elements of American life so a change was coming over Whitman Walter Whitman the fashionable Dandy was changing to Walt whitmann the man who considered himself a spokesman for the real Everyday People of a changing America so Whitman a typ Setter by trade printed by hand one of the most remarkable books in the history of our literature the poems it contained were as unusual as its publication he called it Leaves of Grass when Leaves of Grass reached the hands of the critics it was read with surprise and disgust by the standards of the day they were not poems at all in all people I see myself none more and not one of barley corn less and the good or bad I say of myself I say of them the lines did not rhyme nor did they carry the regular rhythms that marked the Poetry of that day no Leaves of Grass was written in a new style later Scholars have said that Whitman style came in part from the echoing phras ology of the Old Testament familiar to Whitman from his boyhood in part from the great flowing oratory of Whitman's day and in part from Whitman's reaction to the things about which he wrote his was poetry of the Common Man using everyday rough language but common men did not read it and Whitman the poet began a struggle for recognition that he continued for almost 50 years he published new additions of Leaves of Grass one in 1856 another in 1860 new poems were added then in 1861 the Civil War tore aunder the United States and its events suffering and great personality left their effects upon Whitman and his writings beat beat drums blow bugles blow through the windows through the doors burst like a ruthless [Music] force during most of the war Whitman was in Washington helping to care for the wounded and the sick his sympathy for his fellow men deepened and his ideas turned more from man to humanity during the War years some of the forcefulness of his early poems gave way to thoughtfulness and human understanding when Lincoln was assassinated Whitman wrote hushed be the camps today and soldiers let us drape our war-worn [Music] weapons years that had changed America had turned Whitman from one of the roughs to a more thoughtful more Serene man the good gray poet as he became known this new mood and spirit reflected his reaction to the war and to the movements of the post Civil War World North and South were joined again in peace and east and west were also joined by the great industry of the railroad Builders across the Atlantic was stretched to cable to carry messages from continent to continent while America and Europe were tied more closely to the Far East by the Suz canal in all this Whitman saw a great design in the old old world the East the Suez Canal the new by its Mighty railroad span the Seas inlaid with eloquent gentle wires low soul seest thou not God's purpose from the first the Earth to be spanned connected by [Music] Network Whitman admired the products of Science and invention of the locomotive he he wrote thy black cylindric body golden brass and silvery Steel by ponderous sidebars parallel and connecting [Music] rods so year after year edition after Edition this remarkable book was changed and enlarged new works were published then Incorporated in Leaves of Grass as Whitman's appr appreciation of America and the world grew and deepened and during these years America and the world came to appreciate Whitman his style was imitated by Poets in America and in Europe yet it did not bring Whitman financial success the last years of his life he spent here in Camden New Jersey until his death in 1892 this is one of the last pictures of Walt Whitman a truly remarkable man and one of the Great American poets his use of free verse helped to establish this style of poetry there was a child went forth every day and the first object he looked upon that object he [Music] became he wrote of The Westward Movement and some of his Works develop this American theme he chose subjects for his poems with freedom and rebelliousness of spirit as did the writers of realism and he was considered a realist by many of [Music] them as the fame of Whitman's writing spread throughout our country and the World poetry of and for the Common Man by a most uncommon man became a part of American literature [Music]