Essay On Walt Whitman In The Light Of Romanticism

Walt Whitman is an American poet born in the year 1819 in Huntington, New York (Montana Academy, 2015). He was the second child of a family of nine and had some enmeshment issues tied between him and his mom. When he was four years old, they transferred to Brooklyn, where he studied for six years until the age of ten. Months after, he became an apprentice in a printing job, and then continued working at printing shops for two more years or until the age of twelve. By the age of 19, Walt Whitman played the role of a teacher in a country school, until he became inspired of working as a newspaper editor in Huntington. It was then that he became more interested in writing, until he moved to the State of New York, where he was a printer and journalist all at the same time. His love for poems and short stories came during his late twenties, until he published his first collection of poems in his book “Leaves of Grass” at the age of 36 (Montana Academy, 2015).

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

In Walt Whitman’s first book, there was a poem that was originally entitled “A Poem of Walt Whitman” that talked about the “self” in relation to the other “selves”, as well as its relationship with nature and the universe. It made use of scents and visions, and the atmosphere that signifies the universal self. The self is being pictured as a spiritual entity, conscious of its surroundings and the elements that create the conscious life. It is pictured in the breath, the echoes, the beating of the heart and the way the oxygen gives life to the physical body. It talks of respiration and the “passing of blood and air through lungs” (Section 2, Lines 10-11). It speaks of the voice and the feeling of health, the sound of the song that rises from the self as he rises in bed. The self is the same as other selves, and the surroundings are crowded with fragrance and the perfume, to intoxicate the self, with the play of shine and shade on the plants and trees that envelope the fields. It is in this feeling of health that the self tend to possess the “good of the earth and sun” (Section 2, Lines 24). In Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, there is strong conviction that, the nature is the root of all the beautiful things (Montana Academy, 2015). This reflects the beauty of Romanticism, in which the centermost themes focus more on the self than in other aspects of the society.

Walt Whitman and Romanticism

Walt Whitman was said to be the central poet of literature, as he embraced both democracy and egalitarianism, while focusing on his ambition of giving something to the American literature, which may be called as the American’s own. As Walt Whitman claimed in 1866 in his letter to William O’Connor, his role and ambition in the movement was

Romanticism in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

In the American Romantic Movement, such as during the time of Walt Whitman, a large number of aspects of nature were expressed in poems and works of art. There was Romanticism in the way poets, such as Whitman, were able to illustrate the power and the magnificence reflected in nature, as well as the mystery surrounding it. In Romanticism, there is positivity in the manner in which humans are being viewed, specifically in the “natural goodness of man, that man left by himself would be good, moral, and fair” (Montana Academy, 2015). This is reflected in Whitman’s “Song for Myself” where it is written:

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love (Section 5, Lines 11-17)
Conclusion
Romanticism was the movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, which centers on the mystical beauty of the individual. It was the movement that centered on the transcendent aspects of the soul and nature, in which the beauty of things make way for a world of perfection to be created. In finding beauty within the soul, there is peacefulness that connects the self to the other selves, as well as to nature and the universe. It is here that fairness prevails, as the soul’s radiance transpose to the rest of the universal elements, creating a field of democracy.

Works Cited:

Columbia University. Walt Whitman: The Americanization of Romanticism. 2015. Columbia University in the City of New York. 10 March 2015 <http://english.columbia.edu/walt-whitman-americanization-romanticism>.
Montana Academy. “Walt Whitman: Biographical Information.” The American Romantic Movement. 2015. Montana Academy University. 10 March 2015 <http://montanaacademy.tripod.com/id7.html>.
Rahn, Josh. “Romanticism.” Literary Periods. 2011. The Literature Network. 10 March 2015 <http://www.online-literature.com/periods/romanticism.php>.
Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself (1892 version). 2015. Poetry Foundation. 10 March 2015 <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174745>.