Life
Contribution
• One of the great innovators in American literature.
• He gave America its first genuine epic poem: Leaves of Grass.
• He created the “ Free verse ” : the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, the verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.
The Themes in his poetry
• Equality • Divinity • Multiplicity • Self-reliant spirit • Death ,beauty of death • Expansion of America • Brotherhood and social solidarity • Pursuit of love and happiness
2. Themes
This poem eulogizes Lincoln’s monumental contributions and expresses the poet’s mourning for Lincoln’s death with the background of the victory of the Civil War.
3. Special features
>>. The poem is composed of three octaves, that is, four long lines and four short ones, the latter being used as a refrain.
>>. The meter is iambic and the rhyming scheme is roughly represented as aabb cded.
Walt Whitman
1819－1892
英本五班 张丹 1003150120
Walt Whitman
• Life • Contribution • Influence • Works
Life
• Walter Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island ,the second son of a house-builder.
O Captain! My Captain!
Analysis of O Captain! My Captain!
1.Background
2.Theme
3.Special Features
4.My Understanding
1. Background
At the end of the Civil War in 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the symbol of democracy and progress, was assassinated by the obstinate slave owners of the south states. Lincoln’s death shocked the whole country. The democratic poet Walt Whitman wrote the poetry collection Elegy Collect (including O Captain! My Captain! and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d) to eulogize the beloved president, to confide his own sorrow at the death of the president. The abolishment of slavery is not only the progress of the American, but of the humankind. Then Lincoln’s death is not only the sorrow of the American, but of the humankind. Therefore, Whitman revealed the grief of his own, of the American, of all the humankind.
Influence
• Through him, American poets finally freed themselves from the old English traditions.
• His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.
>>. Oral English is also applied in his free verse to make it an effective way to express freely the feelings of common people.
4.My Understanding
O Captain！My Captain！ O Captain！My Captain！Our fearful trip is done. The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near， the bells I hear， the people all exulting， While follow eyes the steady keel， the vessel grim and daring;
• He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.
• Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.
Envelop structure :
Often in Whitman’s poetry , the first line begins with the subject ,and then more and more lines list modifiers till the verb appears in the last line of the stanza .This is like enclosing a whole list of ideas in an envelop .
>>. Phonetic recurrence is the main feature of the poem, i.e., the systematic repetition of words and phrases at the beginning of the line, in the middle or at the end.
• Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the B fall of 1848, he founded a “Free Soil" newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and continued to develop the unique style of poetry.
In the poem Walt Whitman uses writing skills of symbol, imagery, and repetition to get a wonderful effect of art. This makes readers enjoy a unique beauty of art from vision，hearing, language and metre.
Leaves of Grass
Free verse :
A kind of poetry that does not conform to consistent meter patterns ,rhyme (The line is the rhythmical unit as in the poetry of English bible).
Works
• Mainly works • Leaves of Grass • O Captain! My Captain!
Mainly works
• Leaves of Grass • Song of Myself • I hear America singing • Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking • Drum Taps • O Captain! My Captain!
• In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass.
• During the Civil War ,Whitman worked as a volunteer nurse.
Life
• Whitman died in 1892 because of his bad health ,he was buried in Harleigh(哈利公 墓).
This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck,