Lecture Notes Walt Whitman

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Walt Whitman (1819-1892) 沃尔特·惠特曼
I. Life
Family background
Education
Work experiences

II. Literary Achievements
Leaves of Grass《草叶集》— Whitman’s masterpiece
1. Contents
Developing America
Nature – through describing and eulogizing American Nature, Whitman extols the
development of American capitalism and expresses his patriotism
Labor and laboring people
Democracy and freedom
2. Style
Free verse自由体诗:Poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme
Parallelism
Repetition
Plain language
Extremely long lines
3. Symbolic meaning
The poet himself
The common people
The flourishingly developing America
The vitality of American democratic ideas
4. Theme
Through praising the leaves of grass, Whitman extols and glorifies
-- democracy, freedom and equality
-- the greatness of common laborers
-- brotherhood / fraternity
-- the emergent flourishing America
5. Literary Reputation
An epoch-making work in American literature
-- Its democratic content marks the shift from Romanticism to Realism
-- Its free-verse form breaks from old poetic conventions
-- “the Bible of Democracy” – John Burroughs

III. Literary Position
“A mountain in American literary history”
-- Whitman’s poetry was a revolution in American literature. His innovative contents
and form of poetry push the 19th-century American Romanticism to its climax.
• The first American poet to write free verse
• One of the most original and inspiring American poets
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-- The precursor of 20th-century American new poetry and the exploiter of modern poetry
Huge impact on Chinese poetry in the May Fourth Movement

YOUTH, DAY, OLD AGE AND NIGHT
1. What do you think of the poet’s view of youth and old age? And do you agree with him?

THOUGHT
1. What does the first line modify?
2. What does the poet want to satirize in the poem?

TO THOSE WHO’VE FAILED
1. What do those who have failed strive for?
2. How should people treat them?
3. Do you think the poem has a wide appeal?

THE BRAVEST SOLDIERS
Who in Whitman’s eyes are the bravest soldiers?

LIFE
What is Whitman’s outlook on life?

UNSEEN BUDS
What does the image “unseen buds” symbolize?

from A SONG OF JOYS
1. Can you summarize what the joy of manly self-hood is?
2. What should we do when meeting enemies according to the poet?

from A SONG FOR OCCUPATIONS
1. Who do “you” mentioned in the poem represent?
2. What do you think is the theme of the poem?

TO THE STATES
What in Whitman’s mind is a good way for the development of a state, obedience or disobedience?
Why?

I SIT AND LOOK OUT
1. What does the poet see?
2. What does the poet feel after his observation?