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    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Ebook58 pages39 minutes

    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

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    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Walt Whitman
    Making the reading experience fun!
    Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster.   Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides:   *Chapter-by-chapter analysis
    *Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
    *A review quiz and essay topics Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSparkNotes
    Release dateAug 12, 2014
    ISBN9781411478336
    Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

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      Book preview

      Whitman's Poetry (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes

      Cover of SparkNotes Guide to Whitman’s Poetry by SparkNotes Editors

      Whitman’s Poetry

      Walt Whitman

      © 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing

      This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC

      Spark Publishing

      A Division of Barnes & Noble

      120 Fifth Avenue

      New York, NY 10011

      www.sparknotes.com /

      ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7833-6

      Please submit changes or report errors to www.sparknotes.com.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Contents

      Context

      Analysis

      Themes, Motifs & Symbols

      Starting from Paumanok

      Song of Myself

      Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

      Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

      As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life

      By Blue Ontario's Shore

      When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

      The Sleepers

      I Sing the Body Electric

      Song of the Open Road

      Study Questions & Essay Topics

      Review & Resources

      Context

      Walt Whitman was born in 1819 on Long Island (the Paumanok of many of his poems). During his early years he trained as a printer, then became a teacher, and finally a journalist and editor. He was less than successful; his stridently radical views made him unpopular with readers. After an 1848 sojourn in the South, which introduced him to some of the variety of his country, he returned to New York and began to write poetry.

      In 1855 he self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which at the time consisted of only twelve poems. The volume was widely ignored, with one significant exception. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote him a congratulatory letter, in which he offered his greet[ings]... at the beginning of a great career. Whitman promptly published another edition of Leaves of Grass, expanding it by some twenty poems and appending the letter from Emerson, much to the latter’s discomfort. 1860 saw another edition of a now much larger Leaves—containing some 156 poems—which was issued by a trade publisher.

      At the outset of the Civil War Whitman volunteered as a nurse in army hospitals; he also wrote dispatches as a correspondent for the New York Times. The war inspired a great deal of poetry, which was published in 1865 as Drum Taps. Drum Taps was then incorporated into an 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass, as was another volume of wartime poetry, Sequel, which included the poems written on Lincoln’s assassination.

      Whitman’s wartime work led to a job with the Department of the Interior, but he was soon fired when his supervisor learned that he had written the racy poems of Leaves of Grass. The failure of Reconstruction led him to write the best known of his prose works, Democratic Vistas, which, as its title implies, argues for the maintenance of democratic ideals. This volume came out in 1871, as did yet another edition of Leaves of Grass, expanded to include more poems. The 1871 edition was reprinted in 1876 for the centennial. Several other prose works followed, then a further expanded version of Leaves of Grass, in 1881.

      Whitman’s health had been shaky since the mid-1870s, and by 1891 it

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