美国文学2.ppt

Unit Ten Walt Whitman (1819 ---- 1892) Both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were American poets in theme and technique. Walt Whitman holds an unique position in the history of American literature. Leaves of Grass ,1855 “I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy Nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our western wits fat and mean. I give you joy of your free and brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, and which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career…” ---Emerson Special mention should be made of Emerson’s influence over Whitman. “I was simmering, simmering, simmering,” he said, “Emerson brought me to a boil.” the themes of Leaves of Grass In spite of the unconventionality of his poetic form and ideas, Whitman is related to the past in many ways. Whitman embraces idealism. Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man. One of the major principles of Whitman’s technique is parallelism or a rhythm of thought in which the line is the rhythmical unit, as in the poetry of the English Bible. Whitman’s influence over modern poetry is great in the world as well as in America. ONE’S-SELF I SING By Walt Whitman One’s-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing. Of Life immense i