7___美国文学之whitman.ppt

Lecture Seven: Walt Whitman Life Experiences(1819-1892) 1819: born in West Hills farming community on Long Island, New York. 1838: founded the Long Islander 1842: editor of The New York Aurora 1848: traveled to New Orleans 1855: 1st edition of Leaves of Grass Civil War 1873: paralytic stroke 1892: died in New York Leaves of Grass 1855, 1 st edition, 12 poems, printed at his own expense 1856, 1860, 2 nd edition and 3 rd edition 1867, 4 th edition, Civil War poems 1871, 5 th edition, recognition in England and America 1876, 1881, 1889, 6 th edition, 7 th edition and 8 th edition 1892, 9 th edition, deathbed edition, containing all 400-odd poems Song of Myself 2 I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, …… I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me, The smoke of my own breath,…… Emerson said, I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. Whitman himself said, I was simmering, simmering, Emerson brought me to a boil. Emerson’s Influence on him Echoing Emerson’s call for Independent culture: “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”(Whitman) Echoing Emerson’s assertion of the universal position for the American poet: “He is individual…he is complete in himself.”(Whitman) Echoing Emerson’s view of the principle for the art Subject matters Whitman was a child of his age: His poetry is a happy medium for communicating his views on the cosmos and on man. ideals of equality and democracy, the spirit of the New Time, the self-reliant spirit of the common man. the expansion of America. In his later years, he sees the failure of democracy and the social and moral corruption in America, but he still holds a firm belief in individuals. The poet identifies himself as the reader, therefore, “I” is the poet , the reader, the poem, all America, all humanity and everything in the universe. To