( ) 组员：钱程成 范媛媛 傅云

 Born on Long Island, New York  The second of nine children  When he was four, moved to Brooklyn  Attended school for only six years before becoming a printer’s apprentice  Almost entirely self-educated

 Worked in various print shops in New York City  In , started his career as a teacher  Then turned to journalism full-time  Became an editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle  Lost this job(his advocacy of abolition of the slavery and the “free-soil” 无奴隶的地方，自由土地 movement)  Moved back to Brooklyn (1848) ， continued as a journalist, and later worked as a carpenter

 Franklin Evans (1842)  Leaves of Grass (1855, the first edition) Leaves of Grass  Drum-Taps 《桴鼓集》 (1865)  Democratic Vistas 《民主远景》 (1871)  Memoranda During the War (1876)  Song to myself (1881)  Specimen Days 《典型的日子》 （ 1882)

 Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose- like.  Use unusual images and symbols in his poetry.  openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution.  The use of poetic “I”

 Marking a huge break from tradition and the accepted form of poetry, Whitman uses the Free form of poetry throughout Leaves of Grass  Whitman’s poetry was obviously different from the work of his contemporaries in 1855

 Free verse is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.  Song of Myself is free verse.

Free verse: lack of metrical regularity and conventional rhyme Use of repeated images, symbols, phrases, and grammatical units Use of enumerations and catalogs Contrast and parallelism in paired lines

 Transcendent power of love, brotherhood, and comradeship  Imaginative projection into others’ lives  Optimistic faith in democracy and equality  Belief in regenerative and illustrative powers of nature, its value as a teacher

 The equal representation of all peoples in literature, men, women, white, black…  Whitman’s poetry is addressed to and is about everybody  He celebrates the diversity of America  America’s first “poet of democracy”

 Whitman was influenced by deism( 自然神论 ). He denied any one faith was more important than another, and embraced all religions equally  Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions  He opposed the extension of slavery in the United States.

 Whitman’s later life is devoted equally to his poetry and public service  He publishes Leaves of Grass with added sections including ‘Drum Taps’ and later editions include his famous odes to President Lincoln  In his later years Whitman works for several government offices and spends time as a hospital nurse caring for Civil War soldiers

 He spends a lot of time taking care of his family members  After suffering a paralytic stroke( 中风 瘫痪 ) he ‘retires’ and spends his remaining years in Camden, New Jersey living with his brother George. The final edition of Leaves of Grass is referred to as the ‘deathbed’ edition.  Whitman is buried in a mausoleum （陵 墓） shaped like a house that he designed himself. He would often visit it during its construction.

"The great poet of America so far." -Andrew Carnegie ( ) “ 美国钢铁大王 ” The American Romantic Poet Walt Whitman

 The End