1. Walt Whitman Antebellum Era Poetry and Literature
By Chloe Penna

2. Antebellum Era Literature
Romanticism in literature – the liberation of the human spirit (Brinkley)
Response to European low opinion of American intellectualism, or lack thereof
1820s distinct American literary voice
James Fenimore Cooper first great American novelist
American culture and conflict
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Edgar Allen Poe, poems and novels
Many Southern Antebellum writers focused on American nationalism
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson considered most important American poets
Transcendentalists, romantic-inspired writers and philosophers

3. Walt Whitman

4. Walt’s Life May 31 1819 – March 26 1892 Long Island, New York
printer, schoolteacher, reporter, editor, clerk, author/poet
Concerned with slavery
Homosexual living in an intolerant society
Civil War, freelance journalist
Visited and aided wounded soldiers
Not overly popular until after death

5. Legacy One of America’s most important 19th century poets
Helped establish America’s literary voice
Newspaper Brooklyn Freeman response to atrocities of slave markets
Anti-slavery activist, Civil War hospital volunteer
Most famous collection Leaves of Grass, six editions
Over 300 poems
Nine books
“I am large, I contain multitudes”

6. Writing Style Antebellum Era writer Romanticism Themes
Democracy
Individualism
Overcoming boundaries
Love
Nature
American life
Influenced by Biblical poetry
Irregular meter and rhyming schemes

7. Leaves of Grass First edition self-published 1855 with 12 poems
Several more following editions with more poems
Themes
Democracy
Desire for personal fulfillment
Sexuality and love
Romantic influences
Unconventional form; rhyme and meter

9. Bibliography
“Walt Whitman.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 1 Oct. 2015,
“Walt Whitman.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 2017,
Price, Kenneth M. “Books By Whitman.” The Walt Whitman Archive, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, whitmanarchive.org/published/index.html.
Brinkley, Alan. “Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform.” The Unfinished Nation: a Concise History of the American People, McGraw-Hill, 2014, pp. 270–272.
Jeffares, Alexander Norman, and Gay Wilson Allen. “Walt Whitman.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Aug. 2017, Whitman.