ModuleIV.pptWalt Whitman
American Transcendentalist Poet
Who are the Transcendentalists?
- Think of them as non-conformist rebels—the original hippies.
- Think of their writing as a challenge to the status quo.
Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society. Without this film, someone else would probably be teaching your class. That may sound corny, but sometimes the truth is corny. I’m okay with that.
R.I.P. Robin.
What is Transcendentalism?
- Belief in direct correspondence between the universe and the individual soul
- Belief that by contemplating objects in nature individuals can transcend the world and meld with a supreme mind or over soul
- Belief that you must follow your own path
For prose writing by Transcendentalists see Thoreau and Emmerson.
What is Transcendentalism?
- Nature reveals spiritual and moral truths
- The path to the divine is not reason, but attention to the facts of nature
Walt Whitman
- Usually used free-verse poetry (no rhyme scheme or set rhythm)
- Nurse in the Civil War
- Anti-slavery
Walt Whitman
- A Democratic Poet—writing for and about everyone
- His poetry celebrates all kinds of people
- He celebrates the individual—when you read his poetry, sometimes it is like you are just out for a walk with him, the GoPro Camera on his shoulder.
- If you’ve seen Dead Poet’s Society, Whitman’s poetry is central to the story.
Apple used my favorite of his poems to try to sell iPhones in 2014 .
O Me! O Life!
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Why do I like that poem…
- If you look at the previous slide and read the poem, you see a positive turn at the end of the poem.
- A poem written in the 1900s would likely have ended before the hopeful final 3 lines (without the answer).
- Whitman ends with an assertion—our contribution to the world matters.
