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Walt Whitman, 1819-1892
Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" -- which first appeared in 1855 and was republished in a revised and expanded form on five subsequent occasions -- transformed the creative possibilities of poetry. By embracing "free verse" and abandoning the conventional style, diction, and subject matter that characterized the work of his peers, Whitman liberated this literary tradition. "The attitude of great poets is to cheer up slaves and horrify despots," he proclaimed boldly. A champion of the common man and American democracy, Whitman criticized this late portrait by John White Alexander as too genteel -- too "Bostonese," in his own words. Although his writings attracted controversy dating back to his career as a journalist in Brooklyn, Whitman remained dedicated to his art. During the Civil War, he worked as a "wound dresser" in this building at a time when it served as an army hospital.
John White Alexander, 1889 |