Walt Whitman as a young man. Less than a hundred years after the United States was founded, the new nation found its voice in a poet who spoke to the entire world. His name was Walt Whitman. Whitman was considered the father of free verse. Free verse is poetry without regular patterns of rhyme or meter.

Whitman’s Biography He quit school at age eleven to seek employment to help further income for his family. He had many various jobs in his lifetime; work included jobs as an office boy, a typesetter and printer, a school teacher, a carpenter, a newspaper editor, a journalist, a nurse during the Civil war, and a government clerk in the Bureau of Indian affairs.

Whitman’s Education When he was not working, Whitman read Sir Walter Scott, the Bible, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, ancient Hindu poetry and other great literature. He never became a scholar; he never went to college. Whitman was a self-educated man. How do you think this make his poetry more accessible to the average American?

Whitman’s Masterpiece In 1855, Whitman published his collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, at his own expense. Throughout his lifetime, Whitman rewrote, revised, and expanded Leaves of Grass; the ninth and final edition in 1891 contained nearly 400 poems.

Literary Reception of Leaves of Grass Many critics thought the poems in Leaves of Grass were “barbaric” and “harmful” to society. They were shocked by the poems’ radical style. Other readers, like the famous writer of the time, Ralph Waldo Emerson, praised his work. Gradually, the literary world recognized the brilliance of the book.

Whitman as the “Romantic” Hero He was considered the “everyman’s poet.” The figure we know today as Walt Whitman was conceived and created by the poet himself. Whitman endorsed his “image” of the “everyman” and used this to help his readers relate to his book (and help with sales as well). People related to his poetry because it felt like it was written for the common man. He abandoned formal diction and rhyme scheme and wrote in free verse.

Whitman at the end of his life Whitman’s Legacy Whitman at the end of his life When Whitman died in 1892, he had fulfilled a great personal intention: He had enlarged the possibilities of American poetry to include the lyricism of simple speech and the grand design of the epic. Whitman was a transitional figure who wrote in both the Romantic and Realist styles.