Walt Whitman(1819~1892)

One of the great innovators in American literature He gave American

its first genuine epicpoem: Leaves of

Grass.Whitman was honored on a 'Famous Americans Series' Postal issue, in 19402

Walt Whitman Biographical Introduction Major Works Special features of His Works O Captain! My Captain! (poems quoted in DPS)

Influence3

Biographical IntroductionLife Born on May 31, 1819, the second son of a hou se-builder Largely self-taught, acquainted with the works of Homer, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

Biographical IntroductionLife In 1836, as a teacher in the one-room school h ouses of Long Island Continuing to teach until 1841, then turning to journalism as a full-time career.

Biographical Introduction In the fall of 1848, he founded a ―free soil‖ newspape r, the Brooklyn Freeman.

In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edi tion of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve u ntitled poems and a preface.

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Biographical Introduction

Whitman released a second edition of the book in 18

56, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from RalphWaldo Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response.

Biographical Introduction Whitman struggled to support himself through most of his life. In Washington he lived on a clerk‘s salary and modest royalties, and spent little excess money,

including gifts to friends, buying supplies for the patients he nursed.

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Biographical Introduction After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buri ed in Harleigh Cemetery.

Biographical Introduction A democrat An individualist

A nationalist A pantheist(泛神论者)

An American free verse poet

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…… 此处隐藏1824字 ……

A collection of Whitman‘s poems, his lifelong achie vement. Consisting of 12 poems when first published in 185 5. over the next 37 years it appeared in five revised editions and three reissues. The most famous pieces----Song of Myself, There W as a Child Went Forth, Pioneers! Pioneers! etc. With new poetic form of free verse and oral languag e, Leaves of Grass has become a landmark in Amer ican literary history, which represents the poet, the people, and the nation in the 19th century America a nd celebrates the future of the nation and the ideals 13 of equality and democracy.

What does the title mean? What does the title mean?

草叶：随处生长,最富有生命力。1、象征普通人； 2、象征发展中的美国； 3、象征自己关于民主、自由的理想和希望。

Theme In this giant work, openness, freedom, an d above all, individualism are all that con cerned him. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sin g of the "en-masse" and the self as well.

Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the selfreliant spirit and the joy of the common man.

Major Works―I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Lea ves of Grass… I find incomparable things said incom parably well… I find the courage of treatment that so delights us and which large perception only can insp ire… I greet you at the beginning of a great career.‖ ----Emerson

But also… occasionally criticized for obscene for its overt sexu ality Geologist John Peter Lesley wrote to Emerson, calli ng the book ―trashy垃圾, profane亵渎的& obscene淫秽 的” and the author ―a pretentious自命不凡的 ass"18