Walt Whitman

Literature / Poet Datebook:  May 31

The life and works of Walt Whitman, American poet and journalist famous for Leaves of Grass, one of America's greatest 19th-century poets

 

Walt Whitman, famous for "Leaves of Grass" and short poem "O Captain! My Captain!", was one of America's greatest 19th-century poet. He was also a journalist. Whitman wrote one of the finest works of American literature, the poetry collection "Leaves of Grass", basis of Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony.

Early Life of Walt Whitman 

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), was born on May 31, in West Hills, Long Island, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a Quaker carpenter, while his mother took care of nine children. Even as a child he read a lot, in particular, Dante, Homer, Shakespeare and the Bible.    

As a youth, Whitman attended rural schools, originally trained to be a printer. Spending many summers on Long Island, he developed a deep love of nature that was to dominate his writing. 

Whitman the Journalist

For most of his life Whitman worked as a journalist. It was in New York that he began writing on newspapers, but as a young man, he traveled to New Orleans to work on a paper there and saw the huge difference and diversity of his country for the first time. Back in New York, Whitman witnessed the rapid growth of the city as hundreds of thousands of people arrived from all over he world to make a better life. From this experience and excitement, he was inspired to write a new kind of poetry that could capture and express his sentiment at this amazing conglomerate of people and their everyone's hope for freedom.

Whitman the Poet 

The first edition of Leaves of Grass was published at Whitman's own expense; he was thirty six years old. At that time, his poems were taken as unusual and therefore, no publisher would accept them. The poems of Walt Whitman are celebration of nature, of freedom, of the individual, and of kinship of all humanity, from his experience of the influx of diverse people moving to America. He was widely criticized for his use of blank verse, as well as his openness about sexuality.

The American Civil War to Whitman

During the American Civil War, Whitman worked as a nurse. After the war he published Drum-Taps – poems about his experience of war – including one of his most famous and monumental poems, 'O Captain! My Captain!', about the death of President Abraham Lincoln. He died aged 72, March 26, 1892.

Walt Whitman's Works:

• Leaves of Grass, 1855 (basis of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "A Sea Symphony"). Text from A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams based on Walt Whitman's poem of the same name.  
  (Magnificent work by RV Williams from an equally magnificent poem by Walt Whitman: Here.  One of the most arresting piece of work in my entire life as a chorister.)  

  
  

  I. A Song for All Seas, All Ships 
  

  II. On the Beach at Night, Alone
  

  III. Scherzo: The Waves 

  IV. The Explorers

  
  

Apology: Video no longer available from YouTube. Here's a link, "Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony", uploaded by Colin, to what I found, 20 May 2022.  (Ralph Vaughan Williams's first symphony 'A Sea Symphony' was written over several years in the 1900s and was first performed at the Leeds Festival in 1910, on the composer's 38th birthday. Bernard Haitink conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus with soprano Felicity Lott and Jonathan Summers. It's an EMI recording from 1989 CDC 7 49911 2)

• Drum-Taps, 1865

• Sequel to Drum-Taps, including 'O Captain! My Captain!, 1865-1866

• Democratic Vistas, 1871

• Memoranda During the War, 1875

• Specimen Days and Collect, 1882

Photo Credit:

Walt Whitman. NNDB / Public Domain

Resources: 

Goring, Rosemary (Ed.)  Larousse Dictionary of Writers. (1994)

McGovern, Una (Ed.).  Chambers Biographical Dictionary. (2002)

Note: This piece was originally published for Suite101.com, April 8, 2008, posted here in abridged form. / Tel  

(c) May 2010. Updated May 20, 2022. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.