When Whitman traveled to Virginia to visit him, he saw large numbers of the wounded in hospitals. In 1862 Walt's brother George was wounded in the Civil War. It was, apparently, during this period that he began to compose the poems which were later published as Leaves of Grass. He also traveled extensively throughout America, and so could appreciate the various regions of the land.īetween 18 Whitman edited various periodicals and newspapers. The division of Whitman's early life between town and country later enabled him to depict both environments with equal understanding and sympathy. From 1836 to 1841 he was a schoolteacher in Long Island, despite the paucity of his own education. From 1830 to 1836 he held various jobs, some of them on newspapers in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1823, the family moved to Brooklyn, where Walt had his schooling (1825-30). His father, Walter, was a laborer, carpenter, and house builder. Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, New York on May 31, 1819. He is essentially a poet, though other aspects of his achievement - as philosopher, mystic, or critic - have also been stressed. His achievement is great, although it has been sometimes obscured by unfair, hostile criticism - or, conversely, by extravagant praise.

He rose from obscurity to monumental fame, coming to be recognized as a national figure. Walt Whitman is both a major poet and an outstanding personality in the history of American literature. Whitman: The Quintessential American Poet.When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?.The arrangement of the poems in Inscriptions does, however, suggest the general arrangement of Leaves of Grass, a natural biographical sequence in which the early poems deal with youth and the later ones with old age and approaching death. Some of the poems in Inscriptions were at first included with other sections of Leaves. The lack of unity in theme and the general lack of close-knit organization is partly due to Whitman's continual reclassification of his poems. The themes are diverse, the symbolism is varied, and the only thing which really holds the group together is the poet's clear intention to provide a prologue. This group of poems does not, however, indicate any well-thought-out plan or organization - it seems, rather, an improvised prologue. The Inscriptions are dedicatory poems and form a preface to the main body of Leaves of Grass. The 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass contained nine poems classified as Inscriptions the 1881 edition contained twentyfour such poems, including two long ones, 'Starting from Paumanok' and 'Song of Myself.'

Leaves of grass poem by walt whitman