Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was born in the early 1800s and lived during a period of great uncertainty in the United States. The nation was fairly young, and still in search of solutions to many of it's existing problems. First and foremost of these problems was slavery. Whitman, though, received little formal education, so most of the standard teachings of the state were unknown to him. He began working at only eleven years old, holding such jobs as journalist and editor of several newspapers between 1830 and 1850. At this point he began to write poetry, implementing a new innovative style of writing. His first major publication, the first edition of "Leaves of Grass", hit American society in 1855 with a bang. Whitman wrote about topics that had been labelled risque by the rest of society. Soon after came the Civil War, during which Whitman worked as a volunteer war nurse, where he witnessed the horrid images of death that influenced his works that followed. Most historians will agree that civil war is a nation's darkest hour, and in this dark hour, Walt Whitman developed his unique style of poetry that could never be duplicated. Fusing subject and form, Whitman frequently put forth death as the subject of his poet
"In my grave, Lying, Lying, cold in my grave. The reason In several of the works of Walt Whitman's poetry, he is able to fuse form and subject to enhance the reader's understanding of the subject. A perfect example of this is how he describes his views on death in the poems "Whispers of Heavenly Death" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." A contemporary example of Whitman's views on death may be seen in the work of a musician of today by the name of Dave Matthews. In his music, he frequently speaks of death openly and positively, as did Whitman. Also like Whitman, he appears to have conflicting views on death. For example, in one instance, in referring to death, he says "lights down, you up and die," which speaks of death as just an even that happens, and nothing particularly terrible. On the other hand, in another song he says this in reference to dying: -My reason Take my head off this terror. The fearing won't come ry, as is shown in such poems as "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and "Whispers of Heavenly Death." Whitman wrote several other pieces about death and it's surrounding aspects, but not until his volume entitled "Whispers of Heavenly Death" did he focus on it so intently. The title poem of the collection, although short, may be seen to hold the most meaning. As in several of his other works, he appears to have a changing opinion of death in the poem. In the first stanza, his positive opinion is displayed when he says "Footsteps gently ascending." This may relate to his "Nebulous Float" theory of how a soul never truly dies, but with each death becomes stronger, or rises up. On the other hand, the second stanza appears to refute the first, saying that death is again like a "half-dimm'd sadden'd far-off star.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1197
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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