Song of Myself Pt. 1 by Walt Whitman (Sections 1-30) read by A Poetry Channel
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9 سال پیش
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About the poet:
Walter Whitman Jr was born on May 31, 1819 in Huntington, Long Island and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At age 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, a librarian, and a government clerk. Whitman's influence on poetry remains long and strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America." According to the Poetry Foundation, he is "America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare."
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died on March 26th, 1892 at age 72, his funeral was a public event. A public viewing of his body was held at his Camden home; more than 1,000 people visited in three hours. Whitman's plain oak coffin was barely visible because of all the flowers and wreaths left for him. Four days after his death, he was buried in his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. Another public ceremony was held at the cemetery, with friends giving speeches, live music, and refreshments. Whitman's friend, the orator Robert Ingersoll, delivered the eulogy. Later, the remains of Whitman's parents and two of his brothers and their families were moved to the mausoleum. His brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society in Philadelphia, but it was accidentally destroyed.
Now about the poem:
Song of Myself was included in Walt Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass. Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition himself. Astonishing how many of our greatest poets were self-published. Whitman wrote Song of Myself in 1855, but in the first edition, it had no name and in the second edition, he titled it simply 'Walt Whitman', then later called it 'Poem of Walt Whitman, an American' for a while, and it really wasn't until the end of his life that he gave it the title we all know and love. The poem's frank depictions of sexuality and eroticism earned it a somewhat scandalous reputation. Whitman's contemporary, the equally influential poet Emily Dickinson, wrote about Whitman in one her letters, saying: "You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but was told it was disgraceful." Whitman made several changes to the text throughout his lifetime, altering phrases here and there to reflect different phases in his own life. When Whitman became more famous later in his career, he edited out some of the juiciest bits of "Song of Myself".
Song of Myself has influenced almost every major American poet of the 20th century, including T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, and John Ashbery.
Whitman's choice to write the poem in extended free verse instead of a more traditional rhyme scheme was considered radical in the mid-19th century, people didn't quite know how to deal with free verse and basically derided it or 50 years. Then about 1911-12, the young Modernist poets started to experiment with the form which they thought of as not an American thing coming out of Whitman but as an avant-garde technique coming out of France. ... It really wasn't until Allen Ginsberg wrote Howl that somebody took what Whitman had done and tried to do something more with it.
You will find part 2 of the poem here: Song of Myself Pt 2 by Walt Whitman ...
About the poet:
Walter Whitman Jr was born on May 31, 1819 in Huntington, Long Island and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At age 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, a librarian, and a government clerk. Whitman's influence on poetry remains long and strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America." According to the Poetry Foundation, he is "America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare."
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died on March 26th, 1892 at age 72, his funeral was a public event. A public viewing of his body was held at his Camden home; more than 1,000 people visited in three hours. Whitman's plain oak coffin was barely visible because of all the flowers and wreaths left for him. Four days after his death, he was buried in his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. Another public ceremony was held at the cemetery, with friends giving speeches, live music, and refreshments. Whitman's friend, the orator Robert Ingersoll, delivered the eulogy. Later, the remains of Whitman's parents and two of his brothers and their families were moved to the mausoleum. His brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society in Philadelphia, but it was accidentally destroyed.
Now about the poem:
Song of Myself was included in Walt Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass. Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition himself. Astonishing how many of our greatest poets were self-published. Whitman wrote Song of Myself in 1855, but in the first edition, it had no name and in the second edition, he titled it simply 'Walt Whitman', then later called it 'Poem of Walt Whitman, an American' for a while, and it really wasn't until the end of his life that he gave it the title we all know and love. The poem's frank depictions of sexuality and eroticism earned it a somewhat scandalous reputation. Whitman's contemporary, the equally influential poet Emily Dickinson, wrote about Whitman in one her letters, saying: "You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but was told it was disgraceful." Whitman made several changes to the text throughout his lifetime, altering phrases here and there to reflect different phases in his own life. When Whitman became more famous later in his career, he edited out some of the juiciest bits of "Song of Myself".
Song of Myself has influenced almost every major American poet of the 20th century, including T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, and John Ashbery.
Whitman's choice to write the poem in extended free verse instead of a more traditional rhyme scheme was considered radical in the mid-19th century, people didn't quite know how to deal with free verse and basically derided it or 50 years. Then about 1911-12, the young Modernist poets started to experiment with the form which they thought of as not an American thing coming out of Whitman but as an avant-garde technique coming out of France. ... It really wasn't until Allen Ginsberg wrote Howl that somebody took what Whitman had done and tried to do something more with it.
You will find part 2 of the poem here: Song of Myself Pt 2 by Walt Whitman ...
9 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1394/10/30 منتشر شده
است.
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