27 The I Amist: Walt Whitman
Naples National Archaeological Museum, public domain.
“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”
The I Amist
A voice over rooftops - free - abandoned - worthy to be heard - the I am
Walt Whitman
Called The Father of American Poetry, The Father of Free Verse, and America’s World Poet, Walt Whitman, started writing at a young age. And, even though he left school when he was eleven and was basically self taught, at seventeen years of age, he became a school teacher. He published his first signed article in a newspaper in 1834; he was 15. By 1842, when he was 23, he had published his first novel (a temperance novel that he later denounced) which became a best-seller, Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate. He spent a good part of his life working with various newspapers serving in several roles: printer, writer, editor, owner.
In the early 50’s Whitman began to experiment with poetry - shifting away from conventions of rhyme and meter and pushing the form into free expression. Abandoning the known and inventing free verse, in revelatory ways, Whitman wrote about anything and everything with free abandon. Denoting the shift, he also dropped the “ter” in his name and began to sign as “Walt.” A few lines from his Song of Myself, basically summarizes this: “What is known I strip away, I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.”
As he continued to work and publish, he became popular around the world, and many people traveled to meet him. Notable writers such such as Oscar Wilde and Alfred, Lord Tennyson showed great appreciation. There was mixed reaction from fellow American poets. It has been said that upon receiving Whitman’s work, poet Greenleaf Whittier threw it into the fire, while, in contrast the Father of Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, congratulated him on his grand achievements.
Sensual and often considered scandalous, his new style of writing did challenge many mainstream standards. Regardless of what people said of him, having harsh critics, admirers, and even fans, his text, Leaves of Grass, became his focus for the rest of his life. From 1855 to 1892, he published six - nine (there is a debate on this depending on what one classifies as a “new edition”) different poetry collections under this title. The first edition had only 12 poems. In his final edition, often referred to as the “Deathbed edition,”, which he finished right before his death in 1892, the collection had grown to nearly four hundred poems as well as an essay!
In Song of Myself, Whitman take the I AM poem to a new level. Celebrating life, he is all. He sings, "Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am . . . the foolish as much as the wise . . . the wicked just the same as the righteous . . . Southerner as soon as a Northerner . . . I exist as I am, that is enough . . .” He continues, “I am large, I contain multitudes.”
To Read Song of Myself - Please click here.
Resources
Barney, Brett. “Whitman, Walt.” Encyclopedia of American Literature, Third Edition, Facts On File, 2013. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101204&itemid=WE54&articleId=28452. Accessed 23 Sept. 2021.
Bloom, Harold. “Whitman, Walt.” Walt Whitman, Chelsea House, 2021. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101204&itemid=WE54&articleId=5448. Accessed 23 Sept. 2021.
Sowder, Michael. “Whitman, Walt.” Student's Encyclopedia of Great American Writers, Volume 2, Facts On File, 2010. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101204&itemid=WE54&articleId=475092. Accessed 23 Sept. 2021.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Penguin Classics, 2017.
Questions
What do you know about Walt Whitman?
Have you ever read or listened to anything written by Walt Whitman?
Do you have a favorite poem by Whitman?