Learn about the biography of Walt Whitman, one of America’s most influential writers, also known as the father of free verse.
Essayist, journalist, nurse, his poems convey passion, euphoria and joy, they speak of love, sexuality, nature and enthusiasm for life. He was first and foremost a humanist, someone who believed in freedom and who inspired several generations with his legacy.
- Known for poems such as Leaves of Grass.
- Whitman was a clear example of those capable of coping with adversity to achieve their dreams.
- And also provided spiritual support to soldiers during the Civil War and.
- A short time later.
- Suffered an attack and was abandoned.
- With a disability.
None of this has affected his character and efforts to shape a work that has always been heavily criticized, admiring Keats, Shakespeare and Emerson, but nevertheless tried to find new expressive ways.
He also worked for many years as a journalist committed to the abolition of the death penalty, the end of slavery and equality among people.
He was a brave, modern man. Someone who lamented the free verse a lot, a sometimes wild and unprofite style, which undoubtedly corresponded to his personality.
Thus, although his ideas clash with the Puritan society that surrounds him and remains linked to the strictest social conventions, he has been able to give us a unique and exceptional work that has marked the history of literature.
“I celebrate and sing, and what I suppose, you must also assume it, because every atom in my body that belongs to me belongs to you, too. -Song for me-
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in West Hills, New York, the second child of nine siblings in the marriage of Walter and Loisa Van Velsor, a family of Quakers who have faced scarcity and economic problems throughout their lives.
However, in the midst of this scarcity, little Whitman managed to become a qualified self-taught, became acquainted with classics from a young age, read Dante, Shakespeare and Homer, and quickly became captivated by literature and poetry.
At the age of 12 he began working in a printing press, an ideal environment that allowed him to help his family and then graduate as a teacher at age 17, after completing his studies and working for a time at several rural schools on Long Island, Walt Whitman began a decisive stage in his life: journalism.
After leaving his teaching position, Whitman returned to New York to found his own newspaper, The Long Islander. He himself served as editor-in-chief, journalist and delivery man.
In these publications he has already seen the traits that marked his style, such as the whitmanisms (use of invented words) that will appear later in all his stories, verses and letters, such as those he exchanged with his partner, Peter Doyle.
Moreover, one of Whitman’s most important characteristics is his social commitment, he spoke of the need to abolish slavery, end the death penalty, improve wages and social rights. This weekly edition was a remarkable success, so there was no need to publish new newspapers, until he founded the best known of all, Brooklyn Freeman.
These achievements allowed him to publish the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, a set of 12 poems that would later be praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson, yet critics and readers have seen only a carefree, passionate, and even libertine style to extol. among other things, aspects such as homosexuality and bisexuality.
Therefore, the publication of the book raised major problems. With the advent of the Civil War, Walt Whitman devoted himself to caring for the wounded. He graduated as a nurse and continued this job after the end of the war. The Home Office thanked him, for his dedication, but after discovering that he was the author of Leaves of Grass, he was fired.
Walt Whitman has struggled to make a living for years; He cared for his brothers and his sick mother; he got temporary jobs and received help from writers and friends from other states and England; his last few decades have been complicated, but he has never lost his enthusiasm, his passion for writing and defending his ideas.
He continued to write and reread many of his works and poems. In 1870 Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where he suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. Nor did he overcome his good humour, as his book Folhas de Relva continued to be published. published with the help of his friends in 1876, 1881 and 1889.
His last publication was Goodbye My Fantasy in 1891, he died on March 26, 1892 of pneumonia at the age of 72.
“I sing for myself, / and what I accept, you will accept it, / because every atom of mine is also part of you. “
Thus begins the poem Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman, along with Emily Dickinson, was one of the most important poets in the United States; however, his work was completely neglected in its day and little understood. In those years, it was a scandal. that a poet does not deal with the nursery rhyme, use a narrative style and free verse.
In addition, the most shocking and censored thing was the fact that he speaks openly about sex, promoting, for example, the beauty of loving men and women in the same way. The world wasn’t ready for characters like him yet. This was not the time, to be in tune with your humanity and this expression of nature so intense, free, happy and full of life.
Walt Whitman created a new poetry for a new people and few understood it, his verses reflected, with pure and transparent words, what one feels in loving, embracing, being aware of each other’s companionship, the greatness of loving oneself, of creating. fairer realities.
Therefore, to read his works, to return to the unique universe of his poems, is to pay homage to him, is to celebrate with him all the messages that he has left us in his free verses, to rediscover his art as if he spoke to us face to face, from heart to heart.
“If you don’t find me at first, don’t get discouraged, / if you lose me somewhere, look somewhere else, / I’ll stop somewhere to wait for you. “