Walt Whitman: Transforming the American artistic landscape
On May 31, we commemorate the 190th birthday of Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Considered by many people to be one of America’s most pre-eminent poets, the iconic Whitman transformed the American artistic landscape and heralded our artistic metamorphosis from transcendentalism to realism/naturalism.
Poet, author, journalist and humanist, his new aesthetic and philosophic sensitivities forever changed the artistic landscape of the era of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. He transformed the second half of the 19th century, giving life to the aesthetic and philosophic concepts which would shape the coming modern era of the 20th century. His poetic canvases were resplendent with a panoramic palette of colors which grew out of his conviction and style. Whitman asserted that poems should be written to be spoken with great varieties of rhythm and tone.
Whitman’s early years
Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 on a farm in West Hills, near Huntington, Long Island, N.Y. His earliest verse and prose were published from 1839 to 1840 in the Long Island Democrat located in Jamaica, N.Y. Whitman relocated to New Orleans from March to May 1848 to serve as editor of the Daily Crescent. The significance of the exposure to the pre-Civil War south yielded the publication of his first free verse, “Blood Money,” which focused on the issue of slavery in 1850.
The completion of “Leaves of Grass” on July 4, 1855 thrust him into prominence in the literary world. Whitman published the first in a number of articles in Life Illustrated. His works “I Sing the Body Electric,” “Song of the Open Road,” (1856) and later “I Hear America Singing,” as well as “For You O Democracy,” (1860) and “Beat! Beat! Drums!” (1861) continued to mark his artistic output.
The Civil War and Whitman
During the Civil War, Whitman wrote a number of poems about the death of President Abraham Lincoln including, “O Captain! My Captain!” His focus upon Lincoln and the Civil War came to literary fruition in the composition of “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865-1866). This was Whitman’s poetic reaction to the assassination and loss of Lincoln.
On January 23, 1873, Whitman suffered an attack of paralysis. Later that spring he decided to relocate to the coast to recuperate. He stayed in Camden, N.J., with his brother, Col. George Whitman, until 1884. In March of that year, Whitman moved to 328 Mickle St. in Camden, where he would spend the rest of his life.
The Whitman works that come from the late 1880s were reflective and introspective. They included “Memories,” “America,” “Life,” and “After the Dazzle of the Day,” all written in 1888. By April of that year, Whitman’s health continued to deteriorate and he suffered another paralytic attack. The ninth edition of “Leaves of Grass,” which included “Sands at Seventy” and “A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads,” was issued as a souvenir on May 31, 1889 in honor of his birthday at a celebration provided by the citizens of Camden.
Following one of his lectures on Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1890 at the Contemporary Club, he fell ill with pneumonia. He struggled with his health over the next year but was still able to write “To the Sunset Breeze” (1890) and “Old Chants,” “Sounds of Winter,” “Mirages,” as well as “Good-bye My Fancy,” the latter all works of 1891. With continuing debilitating health he died March 26, 1892 in Camden and was buried in a tomb in Harleigh Cemetery.
The importance of Whitman
The impact of Whitman’s mature artistic output upon other artists and art forms as well as the influence that these works had upon aesthetics and artistic philosophy is evident in the numerous critical studies of his works. “Leaves of Grass” is considered to be a “watershed” in American and world literature. Transformational concepts and styles act as catalysts as new ideas and forms evolve. His individuality, creativity, distinct ideas regarding art and life as well as his willingness to make social and artistic statements that were often controversial, thrust him and his body of work into the continuum bridging the transcendental to the realistic/naturalistic tenets of the coming modern artistic era.
Whether poetry, prose or journalistic writing, his aesthetic and philosophic concepts impacted American and world art forms. The universality of his works crosses artistic idioms with their great lyrical character. They have been set by the English composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams, German composer Paul Hindemith as well as American composers Howard Hanson and Norman Dello Joio. It is this transformational character of poetry and other artistic works that transformed the artistic landscape of the 19th century and ushered in the 20th century.
