Whitman

Walt Whitman was an American poet who lived around the civil war time period. Whitman was a doctor during the civil war and saw first hand some of the brutal carnage it the civil war. (Ferry). After serving in the Civil War Whitman went back to writing poetry. A lot of Whitman's poetry after the Civil War was much darker and more focused on death.

“As I Watch'd the Ploughman Ploughing” was one of Whitman's death poems. Or a poem where focused on death. The poem says that a man ploughing represents life. The man plants a seed to grow on. But when he harvests the plant that represents death because the seed has grown up and is chopped down like a person would be. (Whitman) Another poem of his that represents death is When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d this poem is about Lilacs. Lilacs are the most commonly used funeral flowers. Whitman talks about how Lilacs are everywhere we go and are always in bloom. It sorta represented the fact that death is always there and can happen at any time whether the world is good or bad it can still happen in the blink of an eye.

Another pretty big focus of Whitman's poems was God. In his poem Excelsior the poem is saying that the writer of it is as good as or better than everyone in everything. This could be seen as Whitman being arrogant but when the poem says “For I would be the boldest and truest being of the

universe; “ (Whitman) The line says that the main character of the poem has been there forever. Just like God has been there forever. Whitman probably turned to God more during the Civil War when he saw so much bloodshed to men then before the war. Another reason he most likely focused on God was as he got older he begin to think not just about death more. But also he began to think about his own impending death.

Of Whitman's three main focuses in his writing Self was the most important. In his poems Whitman often used self to represent how we perceive ourself. In the poem The Singer in the Prison Whitman writes:

“It was not I that sinn’d the sin,

The ruthless Body dragg’d me in;

Though long I strove courageously,

The Body was too much for me. “

This quote exemplifies self. Whitman is analyzing his own personality. Realizing his shortcomings. When he says the body was too much for me it means that he could not handle the pressure and responsibility that comes with being a human being. That reason is why he is in prison now because he could not handle him self out of it.

Whitman was a very amazing writer who explored areas that were” previously taboo to most writers. He was one of the first writers to talk about his homosexuality, albeit in a veiled way. Whitman will likely never be replaced as one of the greatest poets of his time and he will surely be relevant a hundred years from now and most likely probably even longer than that.

Ferry, Crossing Brooklyn. "About Walt Whitman." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/whitman/bio.htm>.

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." Casscom. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." As I Watch’d the Ploughman Ploughing. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .

Whitman, Walt. "Excelsior." When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .