1、Wang Ruixian 2014.12.13,Walt Whitman,01,Position,02,Life,03,Major Works,CONTENT,04,Writing Features,01,Position,Whitman Position,A poet, an essayist , A journalist, a humanist A giant of American letters The father of free verse One of the great innovators in American literature,Whitman Position,A p
2、art of the transition between transcendentalism and realism,He believed the American poets would create both new forms and new subject matter for poetry.,He announced and instructed a complete new age.,02,Life,Whitman Life Experience,Born on May 31, 1819, the second son of a house-builder. Brought u
3、p in a working-class background on Long Island, New York. Had five years of schooling and a good deal of loafing and reading. Tried at a various of jobs and picked up a first-hand knowledge of life and people in the new world. Worked as an office boy, a printers apprentice, schoolmaster, printer, ed
4、itor (of eight successive newspapers ), and journalist.,Whitman Life Experience,1848, traveled to New Orleans and saw much of the Mississippi heartlands. 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass came out (contained 12 poems). During the Civil War, worked as a volunteer nurse, a wound-dresser in mi
5、litary hospitals.,Whitman Life Experience,Released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. Continued to revise and expand his Leaves of Grass, and it went through 9 editions
6、altogether. 1873, suffered a paralytic stroke. died on March 26, 1892.,Whitman Life Experience,After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed and had built on a lot in Harleigh Cemetery.,03,Major Works,Whitman Works,nine editions，from 95 pages,12 poems to 400 pages,401 p
7、oems the first American genuine epic poems a collection of poems written mainly in free verse is noble for its frank delight in and praise of the senses most of the poems are about man and nature,praise the nature and the individaul humans role therein,Leaves of Grass草叶集,Whitman Works,Grass means th
8、e image of the common people a symbol of rising America an enbodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom,Leaves of Grass草叶集,Whitman Leaves of Grass,1855, the first edition, 12 poems did not sell well but made a stir on the America literary scene 1856, the secnd edition, 33 poems 1860, the thi
9、rd edition, 122 poems 1867, the fourth edition 1871, the fifth edition began to receive recognition in England and America 1876, two volumes, Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets 1881, the seventh edition first published by a reputation publisher, but was banned 1889, the eighth edition 1891-1892, the D
10、eathbed Edition, 400 poems his lifetime endeavor,Whitman Works,“Song of Myself ”自我之歌a good example of his thought “I Sing the Body Electric”我歌唱带电的肉体 “There Was a Child Went Forth ”有个小孩走过来 “O Captain, My Captain!”船长！我的船长！homage to the assassinated US President Abraham Lincoln Crossing Brooklyn Ferry过
11、布鲁克林渡口 “Passage to India ”向印度行进extol the marriage of continents and different races “Pound Music of the Storm ”骄傲的风暴之音乐 “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking ”走出永不休止地摇动着的摇篮a reminiscence of a childhood experience “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd ”当紫丁香上次在庭院中开放的时候,Icelebratemyself, andsingmysel
12、f, AndwhatIassumeyoushallassume, Foreveryatombelongingtomeasgoodbelongstoyou. Iloafeandinvitemysoul, Ileanandloafeatmyeaseobservingaspearofsummergrass. 我赞美我自己，歌唱我自己， 我所讲的一切，将对你们也一样适合， 因为属于我的每一个原子，也同样属于你。 我闲游，邀请我的灵魂一起， 我俯首下视，悠闲地观察一片夏天的草叶。, Song of myself, Song of myself,Mytongue, everyatomofmyblood,
13、Formdfromthissoil, thisair, Bornhereofparentsbornherefromparentsthesame, andtheirparentsthesame, I, nowthirtysevenyearsoldinperfecthealthbegin, Hopingtoceasenottilldeath. 我的舌，我的血液中的每个原子，都是由这泥土这空气构成， 我生在这里，我的父母生在这里， 他们的父母也生在这里， 我如今三十七岁，身体完全健康，开始歌唱， 希望不停地唱下去，直到死亡。, Song of myself,Creedsandschoolsinabe
14、yance, Retiringbackawhilesufficedat whattheyare,butneverforgotten. Iharborforgoodorbad,Ipermittospeakateveryhazard. Naturewithoutcheckwith originalenergy. 教条和学派先不去管， 暂且退回来，满足于它们的现状，可是决不能忘了， 我一味怀抱自然，我允许无所顾忌的诉说自然， 以原始的活力，谁也不能阻挡。,Song of Myself Analysis,representingthecoreofWhitmanspoeticvision Inthisp
15、oemWhitmansetsforthtwoprincipalbeliefs: thetheoryofuniversality,whichisillustratedbylengthy cataloguesofpeopleandthings thebeliefinthesingularityandequalityofallbeingsin value.Heextolswholeuniverseandtheworld. Heisthinkingofselfasapowerfulandsensitiveinstrumentforreceivingandexpressing.Hemovesfromhi
16、mselftoyoutoothers,toallhumanityalltogetherabouthim.,O Captain! My Captain! Background,At the end of the Civil War in 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the symbol of democracy and progress, was assassinated by the obstinate slave owners of the south. Lincolns death shocked the whole country. The democratic poe
17、t Whitman wrote the poetry collection Elegy Collect (including O Captain! My Captain!) to eulogize the beloved president, to confide his own sorrow at the death of the president. In the poem Walt Whitman uses writing skills of symbol, imagery, and repetition to get a wonderful effect of art. This ma
18、kes readers enjoy a unique beauty of art from vision, hearing, language and meter. The poem is highly popular among American people. It portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea-worn ship which represents or symbolizes the Union that had experienced the American Civil War and triumphant at last.,O Ca
19、ptain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship has weatherd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red! Where on the
20、deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead., O Captain！My Captain！,O Captain! my Captain!Rise up and hear the bells; Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbond wreaths-for you the shores a crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces
21、turning; Here, Captain! Dear father! This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck You ve fallen cold and dead., O Captain！My Captain！,My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm , he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchord safe and soun
22、d, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult, O shores!and ring, O bells! But I,with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead., O Captain！My Captain！,Whitman Works,The main themes are the ideals of democracy and individua
23、lism, which the author considers to be compatible. Whitman outlines a new culture order for the U.S. He condemns the degradation of democracy and the growth of material wealth during the post-Civil War period, prophesies a future greatness and announces that there must be a declaration of cultural i
24、ndependence to achieve a truly national indigenous literature.,Democratic Vistas 民主的前景,04,Writing Features,Whitman Writing Feature,the usage of free verse. thr range of subjects is remarkable and international. he broke with traditional English verses and make his poetry original, revoluntionary and
25、 American. the usage of simple and humble speech,Whitman Theme,Celebrate democracy and freedom Celebrate human indixidual power and greatness of common people Praise the great nature Be full of patrotic feeling,Whitman Style and Language,Free versethe verse that does not follow a fixed metrical patt
26、ern, the verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. Parallelism, a rhythm of thought Phonetic recurrence The use of a certain pronoun “I” A looser and more open-ended syntactic structure Strong tendency to use oral English Vocabulary-powerful, colorful, rarely-used words of foreign origins,
27、 some even wrong Sentences-catalogue techniques: long list of names, long poem lines,Whitman Democratic Ideals,Openness, freedom and individualism concerned him Bring hard-working farmers and laborers into American literature Attack the slavery system and racial discrimination Sings of mans dignity and equality,Thank You,2014.12.13,
