American Literature: Whit and Wisdom

and Louisa were huge fans of democracy they loved it so much that they even [Walter and Louisa standing together]

named three of their sons after their heroes George Washington Whitman Thomas

Jefferson Whitman and Andrew Jackson Whitman as for Walt he had a few

different nickname The Bard which also means poet of democracy the father of [Examples of Walt's nicknames]

free verse and the penner of perfect poetry okay so he did give himself that

last nickname the guy did not lack self-confidence he's known for having

fathered free verse poetry but what is this free verse stuff anyway free verse [Walt fathering free verse poetry baby]

poetry doesn't have a rhyme scheme or a meter so it can really take any form

well maybe not any form free verse opened up a whole new world for poets

they were no longer held back by tricky little things like rhyme scheme and

meter... Walt was so taken by free verse he wrote a whole collection of poetry using [Walt with free verse poetry books]

it leaves of grass was Walt's accomplishment of a lifetime even though

he published it for the first time when he was only 35 he kept revising and

changing it throughout his life you might think that a book with such a nice

title and all that revision work would see a million copies and what would be [People in a cue outside a store and Walt bathing in money]

rollin in the dough and you'd be wrong when leaves of grass was first published

Walt's boss Secretary of the Interior James Harlan fired Walt - he said

the book was morally offensive with poem titles like to a common prostitute and a

woman waits for me it was clear that Whitman wasn't scared to write about the

topic of sex he didn't just stick to sex between men and

women either in a song of myself and many of his other problems won't wrote

about love between two men plus Harlan wasn't the only one who didn't think

leaves of grass was all that great some people said it should have been burned [Newspaper page outlining leaves of grass should be burned]

instead of published the author should off himself it was a mass of stupid

filth! ouch, all of this uproar eventually led to leaves of grass being

banned...critics called it too sensual, shocking, obscene you really want to read

it now don't you these days those are the markers of a best-seller but in the

mid 1800s people were a bit more a conservative or racist and homophobic

gender biased pick your poison anyway walt was into men instead of being a [Walt with a young man]

ladies man folks in his day didn't look too kindly to this lifestyle so if you wish

to see the process in motion today take a little trip to Saudi Arabia it's time

to see what all the hubbub was really about we're going to check out one of

Walt's offensive poems called song of myself its pretty long so hit pause now [Song of myself poem on paper]

then go and read it go on I'll be right here when you get back okay song of

myself is a pretty long poem so let's jump in and take a closer look at this

thing let's start with the basics when reading poetry what are the key elements

we look for imagery, speaker an audience, rhythm and rhyme or the lack of these in

Walt's case and theme we're going to examine each of these poetry conventions [Elements of poetry listed on board]

in a bit more detail let's start with imagery what types of mental images are

we given in song of myself there are a lot so let's zoom in on a few key

examples the beginning of part two reads houses and rooms are full of perfumes

the shelves are crowded with perfumes I breathed the fragrance myself and know

it and liked it the distillation would intoxicate me also but I shall not let [Part 2 of Walt's song of myself poem]

it ah can't you just smell that perfume that was a lot of scent...

whitman speaker is drawn into the fragrance scene before him inhaling but

not letting himself become intoxicated section eight opens the little one

sleeps in its cradle I lift the gauze and look a long time and silently brush

away flies with my hand... doesn't that sound nice well minus the fies this is [Person draws back a gauze and a baby appears]

a peaceful scene marrying youth with age or experience the process of aging was a

big theme in a lot of Walt's work but more on this in a few the wild gander

lead his flock through the cool night ya-honk he says and sounds it down to

me like an invitation in this piece of imagery we see Walt passion for nature

coming through in verse the natural world and man's connection with it is [Ducks walking in the woods]

another theme we see time and again throughout Walt poetry from the three

images we examined we can tell that Walt really like perfume the dichotomy of youth

versus age or experience was often a theme in is poetry Whitman wrote a lot

about nature and how man is connected to it now we know a little bit more about [Examples of imagery in Walts poem]

song of myself but there's a lot more to discuss next up let's talk about Walt

speaker and the audience he had in mind when writing this poem the speaker of

song is well a tough nut to crack in section 24 the speaker just busts out [Hammer smashes a nut]

and says I'm Walt Whitman - no arguing with that one but instead of just being Walt

the poet the speaker of song is more like a supercharged version of Walt like [Walt takes sip of Diet Pepsi can]

Walt on too many candy bars and sodas the Walt of his wildest dreams sometimes

poets are really connected to their poetry but have to employ some shall we

say poetic license in order to get their point across so the speaker of song of

myself is Walt Whitman but it also isn't on to our audience who do you think Walt

wanted to read song of myself? was it A politician's, B other poets, C the

entire cast of the musical rent well to be honest Whitman probably hoped that

all these people would read his poem his audience was the poetry reading people

of the world next on our poetry analyzing docket we've got rhythm and [Rhythm and rhyme definitions explained]

rhyme as we mentioned before free verse poetry isn't nailed down by a set rhyme

scheme, meter or rhythm the structure of song of myself is free verse some

critics argue that Walt borrowed bits and pieces of other poets structure to [Walt throws poet books on the floor]

create his own but that's kinda sorta what free verse is all about in our

opinion fun fact the original version of song of

myself wasn't broken into sections like the one you just read moving on we've

got theme; like any good epic poem song of myself has several important themes

more than anything else it's really about the identity of one person how it

can be broken down into three separate selves that make up a single hole Walt [Walt with a satan and angel walt either side]

explores identity as it relates to the social and natural world around him both

companionship and sex are other themes connected to identity you can't have a

good poem without relatable themes am i right we spent enough time on one song [Statue of liberty discussing Walt's poem themes]

let's check out some more of Walt's work Walt, like pretty much everyone in

America was affected by the Civil War after his brother George was wounded in [George in battle and explosion occurs]

battle Walt took off from New York in search of him he ended up serving as a

sort of nurse in military hospitals for the next few years everything he saw

greatly shaped his writing and his life Walt suffered from extreme mental

exhaustion and had to return to New York before finally having a breakdown like a [Walt having a breakdown]

good poet should Walt wrote about his experiences with the soldiers in a

poetry called drum taps the themes from this collection all stemmed from his

experience during the war Walt said that the book was put together by fits and

starts on the fields in the hospitals as I worked with the soldier boys why don't

we check out a poem from this collection you're going to read Whitman beat! beat! [Beat! Beat! drums poem]

drums hit that old pause button while you check her out

alrighty let's talk themes, obviously this

poems about war even though the speaker never comes right out and says it we're

talking about the Civil War the war is everywhere in homes, churches, schools and [People in civil war lying on the ground]

in the cities Whitman uses one of his famous lists to describe all the places

and people that the war has touched in some way to go along with this theme we

get the theme of rules and order the war is disturbing the normal order of things

which we see in lines like burst like a force of armed men and mind not the old

man beseeching the young man there's that mention of age and wisdom again [Theme examples of Drum-taps]

Death is another major theme in the poem because you can't talk about war without

mentioning death the interesting thing is though that's all Whitman does he [Death with a scythe and people firing canons]

mentions death right at the end of the poem finally let's talk about the tone

of this poem what sort of atmosphere does Whitman create in this poem does it

make you feel cheerful, angry as can be, a little sad like maybe you want to write

some poetry if you said sad you're probably in the majority this poem might

have an upbeat cadence to it but it's not a happy one beat beat drums is

representative of all the work in drum taps good old-fashioned war poetry [Soldiers marching and banging drums]

written by a good old-fashioned American patriot you've now met Walt Whitman poet,

countryman, lover of men and women but not in the same way, nurse and book

author and controversial literary figure we shouldn't leave without saying [Leaf falls and gravestone of Walt appears]

farewell property that one gets me every time....