1. The first American poet.
Walt Whitman
The first American poet.

2. Who is Walt Whitman? Born: May 31st, 1819 in West Hills, Long Island
The second of nine children (he has three brothers named after American leaders [George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson])
Family has financial difficulty which results in moving around New York quite a bit
Begins work after finishing formal schooling at age eleven
Whitman is a printer’s apprentice and occasionally writes filler material for the paper

3. Who is Walt Whitman?
After some early work writing articles, editing and publishing newspapers, and writing editorials Whitman decides to move into poetry.
He is determined to produce an American Epic and comes up with Leaves of Grass
Following the publication of his epic in 1855 he is declared America’s first poet

4. Leaves of Grass
1855
1856
1860
1867
1872
1876
1881
1892

5. But why is Whitman the “first American poet”?
Whitman is considered the first American poet because he breaks from the traditional style and form of poetry readers were accustomed to.
Despite the Revolution and the general ill feelings toward Great Britain, the most widely read literature at the time was still British titles and authors.

6. Who loves Walt Whitman?
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in a letter to Whitman after the first publication of Leaves of Grass, had this to say: “I find [Leaves of Grass] the most extraordinary piece of with & wisdom that America has yet contributed…I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.”

7. The Father of Free Verse
Marking a huge break from tradition and the accepted form of poetry, Whitman uses the Free Verse (no formal rhyme scheme, meter, or musical pattern) form of poetry throughout Leaves of Grass
Whitman’s poetry was obviously different from the work of his contemporaries in1855

8. Common Themes 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

9. “Democratic” Poetry
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

10. Whitman’s Poetic Techniques
Free verse: lack of metrical regularity and conventional rhyme
Use of repeated images, symbols, phrases, and grammatical units
Contrast and parallelism in paired lines