A NOSELESS PATIIENT SPIDER

A NOSELESS  PATIIENT SPIDER

Walt Whitman

Whitman ,Walt  (Walter Whitman ), 1892-92 . American poet, b . West Hills , N. Y.  Considered by many to be the greatest of all American poets . Walt Whiteman celebrated the freedom and dignity of the individual and snag the praises of democracy and the brotherhood of a man content and technique ,is probably the most influential volume of poems in eh history of American literature .

Whitman left school on 1830 , worked as a printer 's devil and later as a compositor .In 1838- 39 taught school on Long Island an edited the Long Islander newspaper .by 1841  he had become a full  - time journalist ., editing a successively several and writing prose and verse for new York and Brooklyn journals .His active interest in politics during this period led to the editorship of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , a Democratic party paper  , he lost this job however , because of his vehement advocacy of abolition and the " free- soil " movement . After a brief trip to New Orleans in 1848 , Whitman returned  to Brooklyn continued ad a journalist ,and later worked as a carpenter .

In 1855 Whitman published at his own expense a volume of 12 poems leaves of Grass ,which he had begun working on probably as early as 1847 , prefaced by a statement of his theories of poetry , the volume included the poem later known as " song of Myself,'  in which the author proclaims himself the symbolic representative of common people . although the book was a commercial failure , critical reviews recognized the appearance of a bold new voice in poetry .two larger editions appeared in 1856 and 186d equally little public success .

Leaves of Grass was criticized because of Whitman 's exaltation of the body and sexual love an also because of its innovation verse form that it , the use of free verse in long rhythmical line with a natural " Organic " structure Emerson was one of the few intellectuals to praise Whitman s work, writing him a famous congratulatory latter .Whitman continued to enlarge and revise further editions of Leaves of grass ; the last edition prepared under his supervision appeared in 1892 .

Form 1862 to 1865 Whitman worked as a volunteer hospital nurse in Washington .His poetry of the Civil War, Drum -taps ( 1865 ) , Reissued with Sequel to Drum taps ( 1865-66) , included is two poems about Abraham Lincoln , "when lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed " Considered one of the finest elegies int English language , and the mush recited " O Captain My captain ! “ For a while served as a clerk in the Dept. of the Interior ,but the he was discharged because Leaves of Grass was considered an immortal book .

in 1873  Whiteman suffered a paralytic stroke and afterward lived in a semi invalid state. His prose collection democratic Vistas had appeared in 1871 and his last long poem , “ passage to India , “ was published in the e1871 edition of Leaves of Grass from 1884 until hi death he lived in Camden,N.J. where he continued to write and to revise his earlier work . His last book November boughs ,appeared in1888 .

Whitman was a complex person , he saw himself as the full blooded rough and ready spokesman for a young democracy ,ad he cultivated a bearded shaggy appearance Indeed , Whitman's early biographers John Burroughs by the poet him self  that depicted him as a rowdy , sensual man , a great lover of women ,and the father of several  illegitimate children . Most of this was false. On reality Whitman was a quiet ,gentle , circumspect man , robust in youth but sickly in middle age, who sired no children and is generally acknowledged to have been homosexual . Whitman had an incalculable effect on later poets ,inspiring them to experiment in prosody as well as in subject matter.