There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast— The desert and illimitable air— Lone wandering, but not lost.

Transcendentalism NatureWalden

Whitman believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.

Brooklyn General Lafayette

Ended school An office boy in law firm Stayed in BrooklynA journeyman printer Rejoined his family A small town school teacher Went back to NY A founder of Long Islander An editor for different newspapers Leaved NY, Traveled A stroller ~ ~ ~1855

~ ~ ~1855

During these half-decade he wrote and printed the first edition of his Leaves of Grass and thereby created a new epoch not only in American but also in world literature.

The pure contralto sings in the organloft, The carpenter dresses his plank... the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp, The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner, The pilot seizes the king-pin, he heaves down with a strong arm, The mate stands braced in the whale boat, lance and harpoon are ready, The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches, The deacons are ordained with crossed hands at the altar, The spinning girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel Song of Myself

1. Whitman’s poetry resoponded to the more general social anxiety over the break-up of the Union. 2. As the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman published his poem “Beat Beat Dums!” as a patriotic rally call for the North. 3. Whitman, profoundly affected by seeing the wounded soldiers and the heaps of their amputated limbs. 4. In Washington, D.C., Whitman volunteered as a nurse in the army hospitals. Battle of Gettysburg

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, All, all alike endear’d grown, ungrown, young or old, Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich, Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love, A grand, sane, towering, seated mother, Chair’d in the adamant of time. America