Walt's Whitman's Vision of America in Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman’s vision of America in Leaves of Grass

Valentine
Abbet
 TRAVAIL
DE
MATURITE


Sous
la
direction
d’Anne
Roland‐Wurzburger
 Gymnase
du
Bugnon,
Lausanne
 2012


«I have sung the body and the soul, war and peace have I sung, and the songs of life and death, And the songs of birth, and shown that there are many births. I have offer'd my style to every one, I have journey'd with confident step; While my pleasure is yet at the full I whisper So long!»
Walt Whitman, So Long !, Deathbed edition (1892)

2

Walt
Whitman’s
vision
of
America
in
Leaves
of
Grass


Contents
 I.

Introduction
………………………………………………………………………….
4
 Starting
point
…………………………………………………..…………..…….….
4
 Short
biography
…………………………………………………………………….
5
 Historical
context
………………………………………………………………….
7
 Thematic
analysis
of
poems
 a. Beauty
of
the
country
……………………………………………………….
8
 b. Democracy
………………..………………………………………….……….
17
 c. War
…………………….…………………………………………………….….
25
 d. Future
generations
………………………………….…………….……….
34


II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

Overview
………………………………….…………….……………………….….
44
 Personal
comments
………………………………..……………………….….
45


VII.

VIII. Conclusion
……………………………….…………….……………………….….
47


IX.

Bibliography
………………………………….……….……………………….….
49
 Acknowledgments
………………………………….……………………….….
50


X.

Original
copy
of
the
first
edition
of
Leaves
of
Grass
(1855)


3


 I.
Introduction


Walt
Whitman’s
vision
of
America
in
Leaves
of
Grass,
TM
2012


Despite
being
one
of
the
most
prominent
American
poets
of
his
time,
Walt
Whitman
 and
 his
 idea
 of
 a
 perfect
 society,
 based
 on
 Democracy,
 justice
 and
 love
 seems
 to
 have
 been
 if
 not
 forgotten,
 at
 least
 generally
 ignored.
 Not
 only
 did
 he
 create
 a
 new
 kind
 of
 poetry
known
as
«free
verse»,
but
he
also
invented
a
new
way
of
seeing
the
world
and
 dealing
with
numerous
issues
our
societies
were
and
still
are
confronted
to.
 There
 is
 no
 doubt
 as
 to
 his
 being
 idealistic
 and
 sometimes

Bibliography: NC, 2007. NY, 1996.