Walt Whitman (31 May 1819 - 26 March 1892 / New York / United States)

I love Walt Whitman, he writes with the grand air and he encompasses variety, he isn't staring down a microscope though he has the attentiveness of any detail-orientated person. It's his emotional heart centre at work ant its very magical. It's that which makes his writing expansive and gives us a feeling of exuberance. He's not an intellectual, but a Lover.

Alot of contemporary poetry since the classics seems homely and nice, domestic etc, but its really the grand stuff such as Eternity that gives the classical poets their grand airs. And their poetry lasts...they are concerned with the foundations and posterity and the long term...they care about life after them and they care about their forefathers, their country, their people, they just love, that's all.

There's been a trend in the contemporary poets to be banal, like Phillip Larkin, and its a direct product of being in a godless world, and the literati push for the banal and disordered thinking of the modernists and postmodernists, so that now the national poets who work towards unity, spirituality and grand narratives (something healthy and good) are pushed to the sidelines. Yet post-structuralism and so much modern theory has destroyed the traditional sublime arts which are limitless in their level of beauty and art can is a pursuit of perfection.
I dunno but Rumi mighta reached a level of beauty in his poetry that musta been supreme this side of the galaxy!

walt whitman was a national poet and he was a traditional sage. He preserved the forms of his forefathers, and he is writing within a tradition, he has a strong sense of place and he is connected to the larger picture and yet his individuality is very pronounced.
He has his launchpad his womb of history and ancestory, and he flies his rocket.
Goethe was a rooted traveller and explorer of life so is Whitman.

the more knowing we have of whatever it may be perpetuates the unknown to which we must look to discover
as when it is life that has been lived to its utmost we shall graciously enter into death for not the end but the beginning of what is unknown

At the beginning of the poem, Whitman is filled with anguish and depression. He's so depressed and deperate that it's causing pain. He's pouring out all the emotion that's built up inside of him. Since he's been in anguish he takes a good look at himself and doesn't even recognize who he's become. During the day he acts as though it's a mundane way of life, but in the night, when no one's looking, his emotion is desperately pouring out like the ocean.

In the poem, 'Tears, ' Whitman is very depressed. He talks about crying on the shore of the beach and just letting himself go. He doesn't know who he is anymore. He talks about how he is calm during the day and doesn't show his inner feelings, and how at night he becomes very depressed again without any one knowing.

When I read the poem, 'Sparkles From The Wheel', I thought whitman was saying how something so little can turn out to be so beautiful. For example, in the line when he says, 'The scene, and all its belongings-how they seize and affect me! '

In the poem, 'Sparkels From The Wheel, ' Walt Whitman is stepping away from the crowded, busy part of life and looking beyond what the world would see. To him, he sees a man who's working hard and giving all he has into his job. For example, he 'carefully holds it' and has percision. What the world would see as a man of poverty, Whitman sees as a skill that brings awe.

In the poem 'Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb' the last line says 'And of me, as lover and hero.' I thought this line meant that whitman was now a lover of the earth, and that he was a hero to himself because he passed earth's tests.

In the poem, 'Laws of Creation, ' Whitman talks about questions people have asked while trying to make their own creation. He is trying to show that there are no rules to creation, and there are no boundaries as long as it was created.

In the poem 'Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb' Whitman is talking about how the earth in it's huge solid form, is challenging his 'ideal dreams.' He finally decides that he has to accept what is given to him.
What do you think about the statement 'And of me, as lover and hero? ' (amanda and shelly r.)

I like the poem, 'Lessons.' It talks about how people usually only teach others about the good things, but it is just as important to teach someone about bad things. It may hurt the person you are teaching the bad things to, but if you love them, like Whitman says, then you'll do it for their good.