Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is perhaps the most important American writer and poet we will study this semester. He created a new poetic form, free verse, that radically altered the accessibility of poetic ideas and the free expression of poetic ideas. Whitman’s writings on democracy continue to inform us as to our American identity, and his philosophical musings opened a path that led to the an upsurge of Transcendentalism during the 1960s-1970s. Even today, writers and musicians refer to the genius of Whitman’s inspiring and uplifting words. In the spirit of Whitman, choose your favorite poem from the selected readings and write a response in which you speak to whatever power you find resides in the words.