Walt Whitman惠特曼

• A. the theory of universality, which is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things. The "I", beholding nature and man alike. The whole poem ends on an extremely transcendental note: "I am large, I contain multitudes（我很大，我包罗 一切）".
II. Major works
• 1. Collections of poems and prose: • --- Leaves of Grass 《草叶集》 — nine editions • --- Drum Taps (1865) 《桴鼓集》 — about civil war • --- Democratic Vistas (1870) 《民主前 景》--- collection of prose, penetrating commentary on American democracy and literature.
• 我，现在三十七岁，一生下身体就十分 健康， 希望永远如此，直到死去。 • 信条和学派暂时不论， 且后退一步，明了它们当前的情况已足， 但也决不是忘记， 不论我从善从恶，我允许随意发表意见， 顺乎自然，保持原始的活力。
2. Themes in “Leaves of Grass”
• In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism are all that concerned him. • Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-masse” (全体， 一起), ie. the great America and the self as well.
• Geographical Notes: 1. Five districts of New York: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Richmond 2. Long Island: the long island on whose west end are located the Brooklyn and Queens
• Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.
b. The use of free verse. Whitman broke free from the traditional iambic pentameter and wrote free verse. Free verse is poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. A looser and more open-ended syntactical structure is frequently favored. c. The use of parallelism and phonetic recurrence. d. The use of colorful words and vivid images.
III. Appreciation of his poems
• 1. Pr源自文库ncipal beliefs
• 2. Themes in “Leaves of Grass”
• 1. Principal beliefs: • In "Song of Myself"《自我之歌》, Whitman sets forth two principal beliefs:
Related websites



http://www.cztvu.ah163.net/cz cai/soft/kj/ymwxdl/Romanticis m/Whitman.htm http://www.whitmanarchive.org / http://www.theotherpages.org/ poems/whitm02.html
• I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. • I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. • My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
• 我赞美我自己， 我所采取的你也将采取， 因为属于我的每个原子也一样属于你。 • 我邀请我的灵魂和我一道闲游， 我悠闲的俯视……一片夏日的草叶。
• 我的舌，我血液的每个原子，是在这片 土壤、这个空气里形成的， 是这里的父 母生下的，父母的父母也是在这里生下 的，他们的父母也一样，
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. • Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.
2. Representative poems: • “Song of Myself” 《自我之歌》 • “O, Captain! My Captain!” 《啊！船长，我 的船长》: eulogizing President Lincoln • “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” 《当紫丁香上次在庭院中开放的时 候》memorizing President Lincoln • “I Hear America Singing” 《我听见美洲在歌
唱》
--- presenting an image of America, proud and healthy individualists engaged in productive and happy labor.
• 3. Style • Whitman was a daring experimentalist. a. The use of the poetic "I". Speaking in the voice of "I", Whitman becomes all those people in his poems, and yet remains "Walt Whitman", hence a discovery of the self in the other with such identification.
B. The other belief is in the singularity and equality of all beings in values. • "Song of Myself" reveals a world of equality, without rank and hierarchy.
• • • •
I. Life introduction II. Major works III. Appreciation of his poems IV. Evaluation of Whitman
• I. Life introduction
• 1. Family background: • --- Born on a farm in Long Island, New York; One of the nine children; his father was a carpenter and farmer; • 2. Early years: • --- Moving to Brooklyn at the age 4，where he received 5-year schooling (1825-1830) • --- Earning a living as office boy (勤杂员), printer’s devil(印刷所学徒), compositor (排 字工人)，and country schoolmaster （小学 教师）
• 6) Sixth edition: 1875, Centennial edition (百年版) • 7) Seventh edition: 1881; • 8) Eighth edition: 1882; • 9) Last edition: 1892, signed on his deathbed; Also called Deathbed edition (临终版), with 400-odd poems.
• Part III The Romantic Period
• Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
• Whitman was one of the great innovators in American literature. • Leaves of Grass is called the first collection of truly modern poetry and America's first genuine epic poem • The poetic style he devised is now called free verse.
• 4. Devotion to his monumental poems: Leaves of Grass 1) First edition: 1855 --- Only 12 poems in it, but it marked the birth of truly American poetry; 2) Second edition: 1856, with 20 more poems; 3) Third edition: 1860, more than 100 poems added; 4) Fourth edition: 1867; 5) Fifth edition: 1871;
• 3. Newspaperman years: • --- Editing his own weekly newspaper, The Long Islander in 1838 • --- Successively editing Aurora 《曙 光》, Evening Tatler; • --- Writing for Democratic Review, Brooklyn Evening Star, and Long Island Star. • --- Culmination of journalism: • the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, one of the leading papers in the east.