Walt Whitman is regarded as one of the poets who truly celebrated distinctive American style, theme and tone. He is one of the America’s most significant 19th century poets as he raised his unique voice and embodied so many features of American character via capturing the beauty of America and its diversity, endless possibilities and opportunities. He contributed to American poetry crucially via creating a new style of writing called “ free verse” that was uniquely American. Also, he strongly believed that his book “ Leaves of Grass” will cure the nation and even put a stop to Civil war. After the Civil war, Whitman was one of the first writers to began to take America and Americans as a topic of distinctively American Literature.
Furthermore, his poetry was strongly affected by the harsh consequences of Civil war, crucial societal events and movements in America and that happenings helped to sculpt the tone and content of his works. In his “ I hear America singing” and “ Song of myself” poems he celebrated the glories and possibilities of America as a nation and praised the American self. For example, the “ varied carols” in “ I hear America singing” poem symbolize the American diversity. Furthermore, he mentions the mechanics, the carpenter, the mason, the shoemaker, the boatman, the wood-cutter, ploughboy etc. and each of them is “ singing” their own song, but there’s something special that unites them all and it is their American identity. Continually, Whitman mentions in “ I hear America singing” that “ each sings what belongs to him or her and to none else”, and that praises the spirit of America that gives everyone freedom and a right to pursue their dreams. At first glancing into Whitman’s “ Song of myself” poem, one might think that Whitman “ sings” only about himself but then, after analyzing it, it becomes clear that this poem not only refers to him but also to all Americans. For Whitman, all Americans are equal and their jobs are equally important too and America is a place where all people love each other and have a passion for everything.
And this idea is clearly illustrated in the poem “ Song of my myself”. In the poem he uses “ grass” as a metaphor for his democratic self and while taking a journey across America, he contradicts his ideology of America by mentioning a child asking him about the “ grass” or his democratic self but he had no answer for that question. In sum, Whitman’s poetry is a true inspiration for millions of people due today as he represented his nation in such a unique and great way, that every reader of his poems could feel his joy, happiness, sadness, innocence and how much emotions he put into his works.
He was a truly national poet as he devoted himself to explaining all the happenings in his nation in a period of Civil war and different movements while describing scenes in a way that the reader felt like he or she was also there with him. And finally, Whitman regarded America as the center of the universe, where only love, freedom, dreams existed and his optimistic views of America and diverse Americans are what beautifully shaped and inspired his poems.?
