Walt Whitman: A Study of His Work and Writing Advice

Printing Apprentice

Born on May 31st of 1819 in Long Island, New York, Walt Whitman is commonly regarded as the American father of free verse due to his exploration of poetic expression that was free of rhyme and meter. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is his most iconic and demonstrative of his drastic change of free verse. Before his first book of poetry, however, Whitman had begun a literary career in journalism and fiction. After attending public school in Brooklyn until the time he was at the age of 11, Walt Whitman went to work to assist his family financially at age 12 as a printer. Through his apprenticeship for the Patriot, and later at the Long-Island Star, both weekly newspapers on Long Island, Whitman continued to learn about typesetting and work in the printing trade in both Brooklyn and New York City. During his time working for the Long-Island Star, Whitman became an active member of his community, teaching himself through frequenting the local library, joining a debate group in his town, attending the theater, and anonymously publishing some of his earlier poetry in the newspaper New-York Mirror. Although he taught school in Long Island after he left his work as a printer, he found it unsatisfying and departed from teaching in 1838 to return to Huntington, New York to found the Long-Islander, Walt Whitman’s own newspaper. This endeavor was a success and Whitman eventually sold his publication after just ten months of publishing, editing, pressing, and distributing the paper. 

Papers in Persona

SUN-DOWN PAPERS: Later in late 1840 and 1841, Whitman’s “Sun-Down Papers—From the Desk of a Schoolmaster” was published in ten serialized editorials among three newspapers. Within these essays, Whitman began employing a persona, which is also identified in his later works. The persona of the schoolmaster is the one he adopts here, and writes with his experience as a schoolteacher on hand. Because of his niched experience and his understanding of the ins and outs of school teaching, his persona as schoolmaster is not too far out of the imaginative reach, and there is legitimacy in the sources from which he draws his critiques of Long Islanders. The “Sun-Down Papers” were called prudish and rightfully caused disdain among those who were critiqued within. The essays were somewhat divided in theme. The first four, published in the Hempstead Inquirer between February and April of 1840, calls out the working class’ insistence upon pretense and warns against the growing trend of consumerism that Long Islanders seemed to implement blindly. The method of labeling of the papers is somewhat unknown, as there were a few changes within a second reprinting of the fourth paper, which is a possible sequence error or may have been considered as the fifth since a number five has not been discovered. Following this were essays six, seven, and eight, in which the theme shifts and Whitman describes the unsullied mechanic and appreciates, rather than critiques the worker. Themes of pureness and loveliness are explored within these three papers as well. Papers six through nine of the “Sun-Down Papers” were published in August of 1840 to July 1841 sequentially in the Long-Island Democrat. Lastly, papers nine and ten shift in theme further, and Whitman muses on the topic of loafing. Singularly, paper ten was published in the Long-Island Farmer in July of 1841. Much later, in 1855, Whitman writes of loafing and its consequences again with his poem “Song of Myself” in the Leaves of Grass collection. There are also two papers titled number nine though there is a slight differentiation between their titles to note their individuality. Despite the shifting themes and slightly confusing numbering of Whitman’s “Sun-Down Papers”, Whitman’s use of persona is unique, and is a method that many authors continue to write by.

Breaking the Fixed Verse

LEAVES OF GRASS: One of his most notable works that is demonstrative of his reinvention of free verse is Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. First published at his own expense in 1855 and multiple times subsequently as he would add to and revise his collection, Leaves of Grass is Whitman’s work of legacy. Within this first edition were a mere twelve unnamed poems. As Whitman would make changes to his collection of poetry to create a volume of completion, he continuously republished the work until the year of his death. The final author’s note places Whitman’s concluding word of approval on his 1891-92 “deathbed” edition containing nearly 400 poems. Traditional poems followed in the manner of those adhering to metered verse and rhyme, however, Whitman’s collection of poetry was groundbreaking in its seeming disregard for the fixed verse. But rather than being written in a spiteful indifference to inherent poetry, Leaves of Grass is written in a style similar to the Bible, and instead is open and free in its poetic expression. While poetry before this ambitious volume might be limited to words that rhyme and a specific amount of metered syllables, Whitman’s poetry is exempt from these conventions, answering Ezra Pound’s call to “break the back of the iambic pentameter,” and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay urging authors to write “distinctly American poetry.” Whitman’s work pulls from The Old Testament’s use of repetition reminiscent of a chant and its prose similar to the everyday manner of speech. Despite its split from the confines of fixed verse, there is an underlying style and form which Whitman employs. Such an example of this is Whitman’s iconic “Song of Myself” poem contained within the Leaves of Grass collection. Three consecutive lines within Section 2 of “Song of Myself” begin with the words, “Have you”, followed shortly after by four consecutive lines beginning with “You shall”. These lines in their repetition create a fortifying mantra for the reader to follow in their venture from that which they are accustomed. Here, the author encourages the reader to see beyond the perfumed, intoxicating nature of works that offer a diluted method in which to view the world. Whitman invites the reader to instead disregard the opinions and teachings of all others, seeking instead to nourish a desire for personal understanding within the reader. As this is probable to be a great and frightening experience, Walt Whitman provides a poetic form of his own to provide structure behind the theme’s invitation.

Another of the ways in which Whitman’s masterpiece Leaves of Grass was revolutionary was in its creation of intimacy between reader and writer. Modern American Poet Billy Collins addresses Walt Whitman’s use of intimacy in his foreword that can be found in the 2013 anniversary edition of Leaves of Grass. Previously, when an author used the second-person “you”, most typically that referred to the lover to whom the work was addressed. Walt Whitman’s work of poetry was one of the first that revolutionized the word “you” to refer to the reader of the work itself; “you” being the one whose hand the book rests in. In creating a “you” that means “the reader”, Walt Whitman breaks the previous long-held common omission of an author’s addressing of the reader. In addressing the reader directly, Whitman creates a direct line of communication with the reader, bringing his poetic words to the time and place in which the reader absorbs them. Billy Collins' foreword in Leaves of Grass relates this to the breaking of the fourth wall in theater, in which an actor might walk into the audience, breaking the illusion of the audience being separate from the play’s occurrences. Persona comes into the discussion on the intimate method of Whitman’s writing throughout the volume. Although there is a sense that it is the author that is addressing the reader, there is a certain persona that Walt Whitman adapts in the language and theme of Leaves of Grass. Within this persona is the rough and rugged American man that is a conglomeration of many American men. This depiction of Walt Whitman as the opposite of the typical literary figure of the time, can be seen in Samuel Hollyer’s infamous engraving of Whitman that was featured as the Leaves of Grass frontispiece. Whitman creates the persona of a common American man: Not one of a highly literate man or an entrepreneurial businessman. In adopting this persona, he creates an image and figure that is accessible to all, further shattering the stereotypical idea of the poet of his day. 

Banned and Fired

Not only was Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass known for breaking from the metered and fixed style of verse as well as the typical American poet persona, the volume also stirred interest because it contained many controversial subjects. Even though some other prominent authors of the time (such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott) commended Whitman’s work, there were those who found the work wholly distasteful. Most notably, the critical responses that Whitman received following the poetry collection’s first edition publication were in astounding disapproval of the sexual themes that critics deemed obscene. Not only were there references to relationships sexual in nature, there were also same-sex relationships within the volume that during the 1800’s were seen as outrageous. So great were the words of naysayers, that although Whitman’s second edition of Leaves of Grass was already printed, ready for release, his publisher hesitated to release it and nearly did not. During Walt Whitman’s federal government position as a clerk for the Interior Department in Washington, he kept an annotated copy of his volume of poetry among his possessions at work. When his boss, Interior Secretary James Harlan, saw the copy, he fired Walt Whitman in 1865 due to the suggestive contents within. During the time of its release in 1855, Harvard College library’s single copy of Leaves of Grass was held separate and away from their main collection, kept beside their other such tabooed books. Public libraries and retailers outright refused to purchase copies of Leaves of Grass and the poetry collection became legally banned in the 1880’s from Boston. The District Attorney of Boston also once threatened criminal prosecution to Whitman’s 1881 publisher. Elsewhere, the book was informally banned as booksellers found it appropriate to keep Whitman’s collection of poetry from being recommended or publicized to their buyers. However, despite the backlash, Whitman refused to revise his work in censorship. As Whitman had predicted, the banning of his poetic collection Leaves of Grass proved profitable as the scandal gained publicity and thousands of copies were subsequently sold.

The Secret of it All

Some valuable writing advice that the author offers as found in volume two of the 1915 With Walt Whitman in Camden, is included within Whitman’s following 1888 commentary: “And the secret of it all is, to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment—to put things down without deliberation—without worrying about their style—without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote—wrote, wrote. No prepared picture, no elaborated poem, no after-narrative, could be what the thing itself is. You want to catch its first spirit—to tally its birth. By writing at the instant the very heart-beat of life is caught.” By this method, it would be pertinent of writers to carry a manner of recording their thoughts with them at all times in order to follow Whitman’s advice of capturing the detail of the moment. Whitman also states that in doing so, one collects a vast fund of information from which to draw from in future writings. The author also urges writers to make this a habit, feeding an invaluable trove of thoughts that are not written down in hesitance or technique but rather an unaltered and natural conveyance of thought. Another piece of advice that Walt Whitman lends to aspiring writers is to become familiar with all parts encompassing writing including the mechanical: setting type, printing, and condensation. In doing so, one familiarizes themself with the physical publishing process and gains an understanding of the various moving parts within the development of print. In following Walt Whitman’s writing advice in which he reveals his secret to it all, a writer might observe with greater attention and capture the world around them in organic notes.

Discussion Questions

The following questions are starting points to help you evaluate your writing style and apply the author's lessons to your own work. Feel free to comment below or answer the questions and prompts privately. Pick and choose what works for you.

1. The volume Leaves of Grass broke from traditional poetry that adhered to metered verse. Within your own work, how are you experimenting within the conventional methods of your genre, and how are you deviating from the ordinary?

2. Whitman was fired due to the controversial contents of his work Leaves of Grass. Throughout time, many works have caused authors backlash because of societal standards. Among traditionally banned books, which have resonated with you and for what reasons? How might you put to use or steer clear of the author’s controversial topic(s) in your own work?

3. Walt Whitman gives the advice of recording one’s thoughts and observations the moment in which they occur. Keep a notebook or other method of recording, such as audio or typed notes, on hand at all times to follow Whitman’s advice. Try the following exercise to see Whitman’s idea in action: After recording an instance directly after it happens, attempt to recall that same moment some time later. Write of the instance again from memory. Evaluate and compare how the two recordings differ.