Walt Whitman

Reading audio



2004-4-3

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with People in America in VOA Special
English. Today we tell about Walt Whitman, one of America's greatest
poets.

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VOICE ONE:

In the Nineteenth Century, one of America's greatest writers,
Walt Whitman, helped people learn to value poetry. Whitman created a
new kind of poetry.

Walt Whitman was born in
Eighteen-Nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched
America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power
in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his
poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like
President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated the common people.

VOICE TWO:

As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and
a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when he published
his first book of poetry in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He called it
"Leaves of Grass." It had only twelve poems. The poems are written
in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are
short. Some lines are long. The words at the end of each line do not
have a similar sound. They do not rhyme.

Here are some lines from the famous poem "Song of Myself" from
"Leaves of Grass." Whitman writes about grass as a sign of
everlasting life.

VOICE THREE:

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;

How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more
than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,

A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,

Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see
and remark, and say Whose?

…And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves,

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,

It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men…

…It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon
out of their mother's laps.

VOICE ONE:

One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately
recognized the importance of "Leaves of Grass." Ralph Waldo Emerson
praised Whitman's work. But most other poets and writers said
nothing or denounced it.

Most readers also rejected Whitman's poems. The new form of his
poetry surprised many people. His praise of the human body and
sexual love shocked many people. Whitman was homosexual. He loved
men. Some people disliked Whitman's opinions of society. He rejected
the desire for money and power.

Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing
poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say
them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new
poetic voice.

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VOICE TWO:

The American Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. The southern
states had withdrawn from the United States. They wanted to protect
their rights against the central government. They especially wanted
to continue owning black slaves.

The northern states fought the South to save the Union and free
the slaves. Walt Whitman hated slavery because he believed all
people are equal. He supported the northern cause.

During the war, Whitman worked for the government in Washington,
D.C. He also worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care
for wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours.
He brought them food. He wrote letters for them.

Whitman sometimes saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse
in Washington. President Lincoln was murdered soon after the Civil
War ended. Whitman honored him with a poem called "When Lilacs Last
in the Dooryard Bloomed." The poem describes Lincoln as a great
spirit and a fallen star. This is how the poem begins:

VOICE THREE:

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed,

And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,

I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,

Lilac blooming perennial and
drooping star in the west,

And thought of him I love.

O powerful western fallen star!

VOICE ONE:

After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He
watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy.

To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or
idea. It was the natural form of government for free people. Whitman
believed democracy is meant to honor the rights of every person and
the equality of all people. Whitman denounced people who believed
they were better than others in the eyes of God. He expressed these
ideas in his poem "Song of Myself."

VOICE THREE:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid
and self-contained,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of
owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands
of years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

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VOICE TWO:

Walt Whitman's poems praise the United States and its democracy.
The poet expressed his love for America and its people in many ways.
This poem is called "I Hear America Singing." It celebrates the many
different kinds of workers doing their jobs to help their country.

VOICE THREE:

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;

Those of mechanics-each one singing his, as it should be, blithe
and strong;

The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off
work;

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat-the deckhand

singing on the steamboat deck;

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench-the hatter singing
as he stands;

The wood-cutter's song-the ploughboy's, on his way in the
morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;

The delicious singing of the mother-or of the young wife at
work-or of the girl sewing or washing-

Each singing what belongs to him or her, and to none else;

The day what belongs to the day-at night, the party of young
fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.

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VOICE ONE:

Experts today praise "Leaves of Grass" as a major literary work.
In his time, Whitman thought of it as a work in progress. He
re-published the book every few years for the rest of his life. Each
time he added new poems. And he changed many of the old lines. The
last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By
then, Whitman's fame had spread to many nations.

In Eighteen-Seventy-Three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He
spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He wrote
more poems. He also wrote about political and democratic policies.

Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He
died in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. But if we can believe his poetry, death
held no terrors for him. Listen to these lines from "Song of
Myself":

VOICE THREE:

And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle
to try to alarm me…

And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does
not offend me…

And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths.

(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before)…

Do you see O my brothers and sisters?

It is not chaos or death -- it is form, union, plan -- it is
eternal life -- it is Happiness…

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun…

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless…

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

VOICE TWO:

Some critics say Walt Whitman was a spokesman for democracy.
Others say he was not a spokesman for anything. Instead, they simply
call him a great poet. We leave you now with more words from "Song
of Myself" by Walt Whitman.

VOICE THREE:

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, I am the
poet of the woman the same as the man.

(PAUSE)I celebrate myself.

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VOICE ONE:

Jerilyn Watson wrote this program. Lawan Davis produced it. Our
studio engineer was Bill Barber. Steve Ember read the poetry. I'm
Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another
People in America program in VOA Special English.

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