人物故事1. Walt WhitmanWalt Whitman was born in Eighteen-Nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated the common people.As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when he published his first book of poetry in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He called it Leaves of Grass. It had only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short. Some lines are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme.One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of Leaves of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's work. But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it.Most readers also rejected Whitman's poems. The new form of his poetry surprised many people. His praise of the human body and sexual love shocked many people. Whitman was homosexual. He loved men. Some people disliked Whitman's opinions of society. He rejected the desire for money and power.Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new poetic voice.Experts today praise Leaves o[ Grass as a major literary work. In his time, Whitman thought of it as a work in progress. He re-published the book every few years for the rest of his life. Each time he added new poems. And he changed many of the old lines. The last version of the book contained more than four hundred poems. By then, Whitman's fame had spread to many nations.In Eighteen-Seventy-Three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He wrote more poems. He also wrote about political and democratic policies.Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. But if we can believe his poetry, death held no terrors for him. [390 words]freeverse (诗)自由体set／set／a．固定的；呆板的rhyme／raim／v．使押韵；用韵诗表达denounce／di'nauns／v．公开指责；谴责homosexual n．同性恋a．同性恋的suffer a stroke 中风hold no terror for somebody 吓不到某人(注：单词前加注*符号的，表示该词不在要求掌握范围内。
《诗二首》资料惠特曼沃尔特·惠特曼（Walt Whitman，1819年5月31日－1892年3月26日），生于纽约州长岛，他是美国著名诗人、人文主义者，他创造了诗歌的自由体（Free Verse），其代表作品是诗集《草叶集》。
他在九个兄弟姐妹中排行第二。
1823年，惠特曼一家移居到纽约布鲁克林区。
惠特曼只上了6年学，然后开始做印刷厂学徒。
惠特曼基本上是自学的，他特别喜欢读霍默、但丁和莎士比亚的作品。
在做了两年学徒以后，惠特曼搬到纽约市，并开始在不同的印刷厂工作。
1835年，他返回长岛，在一所乡村学校执教。
1838年至1839年期间，他在他的家乡办了一份叫做《长岛人》的报纸。
他一直教书直到1841年，之后他回到纽约并当了一名记者。
他也在一些主流杂志上担任自由撰稿人，或发表政治演讲。
惠特曼的政治演讲引起了坦慕尼协会的注意，他们让他担任一些报纸的编辑，但是没有一个工作做的长久。
在他担任有影响力的报纸《布鲁克林之鹰》的两年间，民主党内部的分裂使得支持自由国土党的他离开了工作。
在他尝试为自由国土办报纸的努力失败后，他开始在不同的工作间漂浮。
1841年到1859年间，他共在新奥尔良编辑过1份报纸、纽约2份报纸和长岛四份报纸。
在新奥尔良的时候，他亲眼目睹了奴隶拍卖——当时很普遍的事情。
这时，惠特曼开始着力写诗。
19世纪40年代是惠特曼长期工作的第一个收获期：1841年他出版了一些短篇故事，一年后他在纽约出版了小说《富兰克林·埃文斯》（Franklin Evans）。
第一版的草叶集是他自己付费出版的，出版于1855年，也是他父亲去世的那年。
但是他的诗集由12篇长篇无标题的诗组成。
一年后，在草叶集的第二版，连同爱默生的祝贺信一同被出版。
第二版有20组诗。
爱默生一直企盼着一名新的美国诗人，“现在我在《草叶集》中找到了。
”在美国内战后，惠特曼在内政部当职员，但是当当时的内政部部长詹姆士·哈兰发现他是“讨厌”的《草叶集》的作者后，他把惠特曼解雇了。
