Walt Whitman AO5 Flashcards
Christopher Beach - democracy outside political system
Whitman envisioned democracy not just as a political system but as a way of experiencing the world
McGarvey - American poets
American poets have viewed Whitman’s radical poetics as essentially intertwined with the national character, a kind of distinct and distinctive American voice
Folsom - accessibility
Whitman is now more like a public utility than a writer
Folsom - masses
His poetry is about a celebration of the single, separate individual and, at the same time, the celebration of the “en-masse”
Cornel West - empathy
He could help Americans begin to speak the language of democracy, … that the key to American identity is a vast empathy with all the “others” in the culture
M.Jimmie - american spirit
Burroughs stresses the republican theme, the view of Whitman as a kind of medium for the spirit of American life
Walt Whitman - resist
resist much, obey little
Walt Whitman - contradiction
I contradict myself; I am large - I contain multitudes of
Daniel Allott - shock
He knew the poetry was shocking, but he also knew that it’s bluntness was the source of its power
Daniel Allott - soul and truth
He was writing for those who believed, as he did, that “whatever satisfies the soul is truth
Patrick Redding - free verse good
The truest and greatest Poetry… can never again… be express’d in arbitrary and rhyming metre
Patrick Redding - free verse bad
In Eastman’s account, free verse has nothing to do with democratic freedom. It is the freedom of solipsism
Josephine Preston Peabody - limited range
Whitman was a democrat in principle, but not in poetic practice. He loved humanity, but he was kept from reaching his widest audience because his verse lacked music, lacked strongly stressed, intelligible, communal music
Eastman - expectations of poetry
Poetry that has life for its subject, and democratic reality, is rather expected to manifest that irregular flow and exuberance of material over structure with which Walt Whitman challenged the world
Patrick Redding - elites and norms of poetry
the growth of a democratic spirit disturbs these aristogogues
Christopher Beach - equality
Whitman’s poetic is predicated on equality rather than class distinction, on participation rather than exclusion, and on biological standards rather than sociocultural ones
