Download or read book Song of Ourselves written by Mark Edmundson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of a crisis of democracy, we have much to learn from Walt Whitman’s journey toward egalitarian selfhood. Walt Whitman knew a great deal about democracy that we don’t. Most of that knowledge is concentrated in one stunning poem, Song of Myself. Esteemed cultural and literary thinker Mark Edmundson offers a bold reading of the 1855 poem, included here in its entirety. He finds in the poem the genesis and development of a democratic spirit, for the individual and the nation. Whitman broke from past literature that he saw as “feudal”: obsessed with the noble and great. He wanted instead to celebrate the common and everyday. Song of Myself does this, setting the terms for democratic identity and culture in America. The work captures the drama of becoming an egalitarian individual, as the poet ascends to knowledge and happiness by confronting and overcoming the major obstacles to democratic selfhood. In the course of his journey, the poet addresses God and Jesus, body and soul, the love of kings, the fear of the poor, and the fear of death. The poet’s consciousness enlarges; he can see more, comprehend more, and he has more to teach. In Edmundson’s account, Whitman’s great poem does not end with its last line. Seven years after the poem was published, Whitman went to work in hospitals, where he attended to the Civil War’s wounded, sick, and dying. He thus became in life the democratic individual he had prophesied in art. Even now, that prophecy gives us words, thoughts, and feelings to feed the democratic spirit of self and nation.
Download or read book Democracy in the Poetry of Walt Whitman written by Thomas Riggs and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2012-10-05 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This informative edition explores Walt Whitman's poetry through the lens of democracy. Chapters include an examination of Whitman's life and influences, a look at key ideas related to democracy in Whitman's poetry, and a series of essays that explore topics such as Whitman's views of democratic comradeship, the role of bonds between men, Whitman's approach to patriotism, and Whitman's contradictory views on slavery and race. Readers are also presented with contemporary perspectives on democracy, such as the importance of an informed electorate and the impact of American individualism on contemporary politics.
Download or read book I Hear America Singing written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walt Whitman (1819-92) is the authentic voice of democratic America. After a childhood in Brooklyn, he spent many years in and around Manhattan and Washington, where he witnessed troops returning from the Civil War and tended wounded soldiers in the camp hospitals. Whitman's broad humanity, his love of cities (especially Manhattan), his sympathy with all conditions of people, and his visionary - even prophetic - sense of the reality of the American dream make him as much a poet for our time as he was for the time of the American Civil War and its aftermath. This selection of courageous and consoling poems focuses on Whitman's vision of democracy, his love of Manhattan, his sense of the future - and of the community of peoples of this earth.
Download or read book Poems of Democracy written by Walt Whitman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-12 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter "Walt" Whitman (1819 - 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like. He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris. He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution. He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it. Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society. This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration. As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people. Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses.
Download or read book Democratic Vistas written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Poems by Walt Whitman written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Songs of Democracy written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Song of Ourselves written by Mark Edmundson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of a crisis of democracy, we have much to learn from Walt Whitman’s journey toward egalitarian selfhood. Walt Whitman knew a great deal about democracy that we don’t. Most of that knowledge is concentrated in one stunning poem, Song of Myself. Esteemed cultural and literary thinker Mark Edmundson offers a bold reading of the 1855 poem, included here in its entirety. He finds in the poem the genesis and development of a democratic spirit, for the individual and the nation. Whitman broke from past literature that he saw as “feudal”: obsessed with the noble and great. He wanted instead to celebrate the common and everyday. Song of Myself does this, setting the terms for democratic identity and culture in America. The work captures the drama of becoming an egalitarian individual, as the poet ascends to knowledge and happiness by confronting and overcoming the major obstacles to democratic selfhood. In the course of his journey, the poet addresses God and Jesus, body and soul, the love of kings, the fear of the poor, and the fear of death. The poet’s consciousness enlarges; he can see more, comprehend more, and he has more to teach. In Edmundson’s account, Whitman’s great poem does not end with its last line. Seven years after the poem was published, Whitman went to work in hospitals, where he attended to the Civil War’s wounded, sick, and dying. He thus became in life the democratic individual he had prophesied in art. Even now, that prophecy gives us words, thoughts, and feelings to feed the democratic spirit of self and nation.
Download or read book Songs of Democracy written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SONGS of DEMOCRACY By WALT WHITMAN THICK-SPRINKLED BUNTING "Thick-sprinkled bunting! Flag of stars! Long yet your road, fateful flag!--long yet your road, and lined with bloody death! For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world! All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner! Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest born, to flaunt unrival'd? O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step, passing highest flags of kings, Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol--run up above them all, Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!" INTRODUCTION THOSE who know their Whitman will no doubt find somewhat ridiculous an enterprise which purposes to isolate a limited number of his poems under the title of the present volume, so completely is his work given up to the celebration of democracy. They will be fortified in their views, moreover, by the consciousness that the author himself would have shared them. Whitman saw in "Leaves of Grass" an organism, something which must be taken entire or not at all. Of the considerable number of "Selections" offered to the fearful, only two or three were published with his consent, and that a very reluctant consent, yielded at the promptings of a kindly desire not to wound with a rebuff the good intentions of his friends. He seems to have felt they were, after all, Edmund Clarence Stedman's or Elizabeth Porter Gould's selections, and as such were important only for the light they threw on the judgment of those excellent persons and the taste of their friends. He himself stood squarely by all that he had written, and refused to delete a line even at the urging of his much-admired Emerson. In his old age, face to face with his unpopularity, with the disapproval, even with the "anger and contempt," of his own time, he notes as "the best comfort of the whole business (after a band of the dearest friends and upholders ever vouchsafed to man or cause--doubtless all the more faithful and uncompromising--this little phalanx!--for being so few)" that "un-stopp'd and unwarp'd by any influence outside the soul within me, I have had my say entirely my own way and put it unerringly on record--the value thereof to be decided by time." Clearly it behooves one who performs yet another mutilation to prove it justified by different motives and conditions from those upon which the poet passed when he registered his veto. Let it be understood, then, at the outset, that I heartily sympathize with Whitman's attitude. I have made no attempt to propitiate the self-appointed arbiters of "the best that is known and thought in the world" by selecting those poems which seem least scornful of the time-honored... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices. This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making. We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text.
Download or read book Chants Democratic written by Walt Whitman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-12 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter "Walt" Whitman (1819 - 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like. He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris. He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution. He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it. Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society. This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration. As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people. Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses.
Download or read book Song of Myself written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Pragmatic Whitman written by Stephen John Mack and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this surprisingly timely book, Stephen Mack examines Whitman’s particular and fascinating brand of patriotism: his far-reaching vision of democracy. For Whitman, loyalty to America was loyalty to democracy. Since the idea that democracy is not just a political process but a social and cultural process as well is associated with American pragmatism, Mack relies on the pragmatic tradition of Emerson, James, Dewey, Mead, and Rorty to demonstrate the ways in which Whitman resides in this tradition. Mack analyzes Whitman's democratic vision both in its parts and as a whole; he also describes the ways in which Whitman's vision evolved throughout his career. He argues that Whitman initially viewed democratic values such as individual liberty and democratic processes such as collective decision-making as fundamental, organic principles, free and unregulated. But throughout the 1860s and 1870s Whitman came to realize that democracy entailed processes of human agency that are more deliberate and less natural—that human destiny is largely the product of human effort, and a truly humane society can be shaped only by intelligent human efforts to govern the forces that would otherwise govern us. Mack describes the foundation of Whitman’s democracy as found in the 1855 and 1856 editions of Leaves of Grass, examines the ways in which Whitman’s 1859 sexual crisis and the Civil War transformed his democratic poetics in “Sea-Drift,” “Calamus,” Drum-Taps,and Sequel to Drum-Taps, and explores Whitman’s mature vision in Democratic Vistas, concluding with observations on its moral and political implications today. Throughout, he illuminates Whitman's great achievement—learning that a full appreciation for the complexities of human life meant understanding that liberty can take many different and conflicting forms—and allows us to contemplate the relevance of that achievement at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Walt Whitman Poet of American Democracy written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 1955 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democratic Vistas written by Walt Whitman and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new release of the original 1949 edition.
Download or read book Live Oak with Moss written by Walt Whitman and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Reading this book, what becomes eminently clear is that Selznick is laying the groundwork for GLBTQIA+ literary history . . . as it pertains to Whitman.” —School Library Journal As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled “Live Oak, With Moss.” The poems were intensely private reflections on his attraction to and affection for other men. They were also Whitman’s most adventurous explorations of the theme of same-sex love, composed decades before the word “homosexual” came into use. This revolutionary, extraordinarily beautiful and passionate cluster of poems was never published by Whitman and has remained unknown to the general public—until now. New York Times–bestselling and Caldecott Award–winning illustrator Brian Selznick offers a provocative visual narrative of “Live Oak, With Moss,” and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener reconstructs the story of the poetic cluster’s creation and destruction. Walt Whitman’s reassembled, reinterpreted Live Oak, With Moss serves as a source of inspiration and a cause for celebration. “In harmony, the art, the poems, and [Karbiener’s] analysis all honor while illuminating Whitman’s work and make it more accessible to contemporary readers.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Walt Whitman written by William Gay and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democratic Vistas by Walt Whitman written by Walt Whitman, Former and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, poet Walt Whitman explores the state of democracy in America after the Civil War, offering his unique perspective on issues such as government, literature, and education. With his characteristic passion and eloquence, Whitman urges readers to embrace the democratic ideals that form the foundation of the American experiment. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
