Whitman and Dickinson.doc

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892 ) Whitmans vision of the poet and the poetry Poet as a seer, a minister, a clergyman, a teacher, the church, the prophet Poetry as an organic development / growth out of nature / from within - human heart, intuition, insight.Emersons organic principle - the intuitive response to the life / spontaneity / poets passion , heart, without restraint from outside. a natural/ spontaneous product / outcomeWhitmans poetry - free growth of thought, ideas, out of intuition free verse in form: run-on lines yet with feelings, emotions, ideas as the overriding / underlying elements/ discipline Whitman as a child of his age 1. Idealism: mans divinity, insight / intuition divine and trusted / 2. Individualism: infinitude of the possibilities for man ( I = all / you / him / they ) ( I = God ) ( I = cosmos / the whole universe ) ( I = nature: plant grass leave; extension of self ) 3. Democratic vision of life and man Opening line of the book: Ones self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Two representative poems: Song of Myself Crossing Brooklyn FerryLeaves of GrassSingularity - plurality distinctiveness - sameness individuality - commonality detachment - attachment diversity - unity Important issues in discussion: birth - death - rebirth Body and Soul Good and Evil Past, Present and Future High and Low; Aristocracy and commonality; Genteel and vulgar Sexuality 4. Spirit of American national expansion Whitman as an experimentalist or the forerunner Irregularity or unconventionality: verse form, metrical system, rhyme schemeyet disciplined: parallelismuniversality/unityrecurrent phonetic patterns; systematic repetition of words and phrasescataloguing / enumeration / listing diversity/difference - all-inclusive, endless, limitless, infinitude, possibilities - rhythm of thought, waves of emotion Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)Her Importance poetical achievement: modernism 19th century women experience: cult of womanhood (four characteristics any good and proper young woman should cultivate: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness.)Her life experience private, shy, rebellious, formal education, recluse, withdrawn the haunting image of a woman in white Her poetic achievement 1775 poems, yet a frustrating experience with the publication and universal recognition of her talent and efforts Classic or Universal themes: Death and Immortality Love Marriage Nature Success / Public recognition Longing for communication Art and Truth: Personal / Separate / Private approach: Idiosyncratic purely / exclusively defined in her own terms; her poems a case of psychological study / central to her own psyche, to her own internal world and emotional life Uniqueness of her poetry:n images as the focal point or essential to the development of her ideas: cf. Imagismn skepticism in tone: wonder about n tragic vision: realization of the human limitn enigmatic, elusive in effect: slipperiness of reality or ambiguityn unconventional poetic composition - language: clean, economical, neat, telegraphic (Every word counts.) - familiar images or words used in unfamiliar contexts, so moments of surprise or unexpectedness - without titles: - length: short, 20 - 50 lines long- versification: irregular yet hymn-like,