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Comparing Walt Whitman's Life And Work

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Whitman lived his life outside of the boundaries of the society of his time. His whole life he jumped from job to job. (norton) This way of living allowed him to live the life of a man without limits. Living this kind of lifestyle allowed Whitman to develop the free verse writing. Free verse writing is writing without any need to rhyme or have a set meter. Free verse writing became Whitman’s signature it was what made his writing different from the normal poets writing at the time. Whitman’s free verse opened many doors to changing the way he wrote, it allowed him to become a truly free thinker. Lived by his rules, he even was not afraid of going after the editors of his time, he even promoted women’s voting and their right on own property. …show more content…
Whitman would observe nature and he believed that was the only way to understand it. “ Re-examine all you have been told...dismiss that which insults your soul.”(Preface to Leaves of Grass) I believe that Walt Whitman is trying to explain the danger of science and how it can corrupt to soul's ability to see the world in an authentic way. The ultimate free thinker, does not agree with the interpretation of science, these explanations can cause him to be sick. “When, I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them...how soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,”(Whitman) Becoming sick shows how one trying to explain nature irks Whitman. Walt is a nature lover, in nature he lets the world speake to him and explain things to him. “I say to man-kind, Be not curious about God, For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God- I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.” (Song of Myself) Nature is not an easy concept, and understanding Go in it is even harder, but as a single person, the self can begin to understand thing through …show more content…
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (Song of Myself 1011) He believes that all people should be happy with who they are and be proud of themselves. Whitman also endorses the idea of all people being separate persons. “One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person,”and “Simplicity is the glory of expression.” Being separate is a beautiful thing, and Whitman lived his life not really attached to anything. The second quote is explaining how putting on a mask and not showing people who you really are is restricts us from showing our inner glory. In the Poem, Song of Myself verse 15 talks about the many different types of peoples and how they are all different. “The deacons are ordain’d with cross’d hands at the altar,... The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum confirm’d case,..As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat the plank is thrown for the shore-going passengers,” (1021-1022) All of these examples show how all people in there own way are different and unique, but in some ways people are all

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