Leaves of Grass is Whitman's poetry collection. 1853, Leaves of Grass 1 edition was published, including 12 poems of pre-war period such as My Song and Song of the Mainland. Later, Whitman made many revisions to this collection of poems, and by 1892, * * * published the 10 version, which became a magnificent masterpiece including 296 poems. The content of this poem almost covers the main ideas of the author's life and is one of the most important poems of the author. The poem mentions the blade of grass many times: the blade of grass symbolizes all ordinary things and ordinary people. The background of this poem is the streets of new york and the beaches of Long Island, which reflects the life of all the working class: carriages loaded with straw, boatmen and clams diggers, butcher boys, blacksmiths, black people driving carriages, carpenters and navigators, spinning women, compositors, road builders, fiber draggers, prostitutes and so on. In his poems, the poet described the image of a runaway slave with very soft brushstrokes.
My Song also expresses other important aspects of the author's thoughts. He attaches great importance to and often describes people's extremely natural sex life. "I am a poet of body and soul." He believes that nothing in human body and sexual behavior must be despised. This is shocking and outrageous to decent Americans who have long been accustomed to Puritan customs; Lowell and Longfellow, the famous poets who inherited the cultural tradition of New England at that time, were extremely dissatisfied with this and hoped that the poet would delete the description from the poetry collection, but Whitman flatly refused.
Whitman claims to be a person who likes outdoor life. He worships his naked and innocent body devoutly. He believes that the combination of sex is the combination of body and soul; Soul and body are two sides of the same thing, which is inseparable from human body. There are also many idealism and mysticism in Whitman's thoughts, which are manifested in the existence of God and "the soul of the universe". The poet doesn't believe in Christianity. He sometimes calls God a big brother or a comrade, but sometimes he thinks there is a God like Emerson's "oversoul". This is an abstract principle, which exists in all things, so every tiny creature or object contains a vast world, which is sacred and inviolable, and it is also connected with all things, so "self" or "self" is also sacred, and every man or woman also has a sacred "self". Associated with this is his view of "death". He does not think that "death" is the destruction of all things, and "death" is only the beginning of a new life belonging to the spirit, a higher life.
The 1 edition of Leaves of Grass has an important preface, which exaggerates the great achievements of young America, but the author's firm democratic thoughts are also clearly expressed.
This thin and epoch-making collection of poems received a general cold reception. Only Emerson wrote a passionate letter to the poet:
"I think this is an unusual work, and its talent and wisdom are unprecedented in the United States ... I am deeply encouraged. There is unparalleled content in it, and its statement is unparalleled ... I salute the beginning of your great career. "
Whitman got great encouragement from this letter.
1856, the second edition of Leaves of Grass was published, and * * * received 32 poems. The preface of 1 has been replaced by On the Blue Lake Ontario. Every poem also has a title. One of the masterpieces in the collection, To a Defeated European Revolutionary, is actually dedicated to revolutionaries all over the world. The poet encouraged them to make persistent efforts after being defeated, because freedom will eventually win, and victory is great, but failure is equally great; And he himself is a staunch poet who supports "every fearless rebellion in the world."
Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry is one of the poet's best works. The poet wrote about the busy scene of the ferry, especially the bustling crowd who came to the ferry, and felt that they were soul mates, exactly like what they thought, saw and felt, and integrated with them. He not only reached a spiritual agreement with him at present, but also in the future, after several generations. Here, the existence of "universal soul" and "extreme spirit" in Whitman's philosophical thought is also displayed.
The hero of bold songs is bold and unconstrained, and all kinds of images he creates. It is a pioneer, creating a new world. The work not only praises the bold entrepreneurial spirit, but also praises "the beauty of all enterprising and courageous people" and "the beauty of independent spirit, independent starting point and acting on one's own strength". The poem is also interspersed with a description of the "great city": a great city is not a place with many materials, large quantities, heavy volume and heavy weight; A great city must have neither slaves nor masters, must have the most loyal friends standing there, and must be a perfect place for both sexes. Therefore, there is an original important task, which is to create an ideal and truly democratic world.
Whitman drafted many speeches in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the most important one was about the18th presidential election, which was written in the year of 1856 presidential election. Whitman then broke away from the Democratic Party and supported the newly formed anti-slavery party and its presidential candidate. In his speech, he accused the presidents of 16 and 17 of fully supporting the interests of slave owners, demanding the abolition of slavery, and even asking armed men to oppose the fugitive slave law, but he often described the ideal United States as a country with small private owners. He also satirized politicians and bureaucrats in parliament and asked young workers to enter state institutions. This article was not published until 1928.
1859, the Christmas edition of Saturday Weekly published an excellent lyric poem by Whitman from The Cradle of Never-ending Wife Swallowers, which is an ode to love and death. In the three years before and after the publication of this poem, Whitman had close contact with a group of people gathered in Pufa Restaurant on Broadway in new york, and their leader was henry clay Pufa, editor-in-chief of Saturday Weekly. In a short period of one year from 1859 to 1860, this weekly magazine published about 25 Whitman's works and articles commenting on Whitman, but these works and articles were always ignored. In the heyday of Restaurant Party, Whitman published the third edition of Leaves of Grass (1860) at the request of a Boston publishing house, which was the first "official publication". There are 124 new poetry collections, including Never-ending Cradle and three groups of poems called Song of Democracy, Descendants of Adam and Reed Flute. The first poem, Starting from Bomanok, is an autobiographical long poem, and the poet appeared in the western world with a brand-new image. Song of Democracy contains 16 new poems, and the better one is I hear America singing. In Descendants of Adam, the poet thinks that it is not Adam who lost heaven, but his descendants. They are innocent, but they think they have fallen. In fact, the body is innocent and should be sublimated into spiritual things. The descendants of Adam wrote that the love between men and women is physical; Reed flute, on the other hand, describes the gay and friendly relationship between men, which is spiritual and people-oriented spiritual foundation, and the love between men and women is more warm and lasting. In the poet's own words, the reed flute is the largest and strongest leaf in the grass, fresh and fragrant, and grows in bundles in the water. The Reed Flute is obviously the further development of Leaves of Grass, which symbolizes the most persistent and weatherproof feature of gay love. This group of poems was strongly reprimanded by the literary world at that time because they expressed the feelings of same-sex love.
During the American Civil War, Whitman, as a staunch democracy fighter, showed a profound humanitarian spirit. 1at the end of 862, when the war was fierce, he took the initiative to go to Washington as a nurse and took care of sick soldiers all day, which seriously damaged his health. His life is very difficult. He copied for a living and spent the money he saved on the sick and wounded. During his nearly two years as a nurse, he contacted about 654.38+ten thousand soldiers, many of whom kept in touch with him.
After the war, Whitman worked as a clerk in the Indian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior. Soon, the director found out that he was the author of Leaves of Grass and fired him. Later, he worked in the attorney general's office for eight years. Because of the training in the civil war; His experience has increased, his political and ideological understanding has also improved, and his creation has entered a new stage. 1865, Whitman published a collection of poems he wrote in the late civil war in new york at his own expense, including 53 new poems. A few months later, he published a sequel, including the famous Lincoln memorial When Lilacs Bloomed in the Garden Recently.
The fourth edition of Leaves of Grass (1867) contains only eight new poems, none of which are excellent short poems, but they are included in Drum Collection and its sequel. It is worth noting that the long article "Democratic Outlook" published by 187 1 summarizes the author's literary and artistic views and political opinions. Compared with the preface of 1 edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman's understanding of American democracy in this article is much deeper. His love and trust for working people and ordinary people has always been firm. He believed that the future American culture and democratic country should be created by them, but the situation at that time was completely unsatisfactory. The author didn't see real democracy in his motherland. He said, "We often use the word' democracy', but I must repeatedly say that the real meaning of this word is still deep sleep. I didn't wake up at all, although the bottom of the pen and the tip of the tongue have thundered for this word. This is a great word, and I think its history has not been written down, because this history has not yet been staged. " Whitman's article shows that the author is mature in thought and has a strong style of writing.
The fifth edition of Leaves of Grass was printed in 187 1 and 1872 respectively. For the first time, 13 new poems were added, and for the second time, the last important long poem, The Road to India, and a few new poems, including Ah, the Star of France, were added, which were recognized by general critics. In this poem, Whitman pays tribute to the wave of French revolution whose last peak is the Paris Commune. He said: "The Star of France belongs not only to France. At present, this kind of fighting and bold progress is for freedom, for ideals, for becoming brothers in the world, and for chilling tyrants and monks. " The Paris Commune lasted only a week, but the author thinks that this star in France is very beautiful, bright and shining, and will shine forever. The Road to India praised three major projects that have just been completed: the opening of the Suez Canal, which runs through Europe and Asia by water; The completion of the North Pacific Railway connects the east and west ends of the continental United States. Laying submarine cables across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These three projects completely connect the eastern and western hemispheres, showing the power of science and technology, which has social and political significance, but also has philosophical significance for Whitman. The long poem describes that modern science and technology have shortened the space: "The distance has become closer and different regions have been welded together"; It also connects time-the ancient East in the past and the modern young West. The author also describes the maritime activities initiated by the Suez Canal, the transportation undertaken by the Pacific Railway and the magnificent natural environment along the way. When Columbus tried to find a passage to India, he discovered a new continent.
Whitman believes that poets should also be engineers in the spiritual field; There should be no gap between nature and human beings in the work in the material field. All separations and gaps must be hooked and connected. The poet and his soul also long for unity with God; He thinks that the destination he can sail to should be much farther than India. "Oh, you must sail farther and farther!"
Whitman often changes the order of poems when compiling various versions of Leaves of Grass. The principle of his arrangement is not according to the time of writing poetry, but according to the content and theme. He also changed the order of some poems or a group of poems at any time. But according to the content and arrangement of the first edition of the fifth edition, it seems to be the final arrangement. From 65438 to 0873, he suffered from paralysis, but he never recovered and his writing ability never recovered. However, his optimism, love and sensitivity to life and his democratic ideal were immortal until his death. 1884 In March, he bought a small house in Camden, where he died. In his later years, he was depressed. In addition to publishing several editions, he occasionally wrote poems and published them in newspapers and magazines in Britain and America.
1876, he published the sixth edition of Leaves of Grass to commemorate the centenary of the Declaration of Independence. This is a two-volume collection including prose works. The first volume is the content of the fifth edition. The second volume is called two streams, including prose, 18 new poems, the fifth edition of the road to India and attached poems. These poems are often abstract. The seventh edition of Leaves of Grass (188 1~ 1882) has been finalized. Whitman continued to write poems until 1892. His last poems are classified as "Attached Poem I" (1888~ 1889) and "Attached Poem II" (1892). He also charged that his legacy could be listed as "Attached Poem III" to keep the seventh edition unchanged. Another feature of the 7th edition of Leaves of Grass is that it is the only book officially published by a well-known publishing house. The 7th edition of * * * contains 20 new poems, all of which are short poems with no representative works.
1882, the poet published his collection of essays "Typical Days", including the article "The Prospect of Democracy". November Branch was published in 1888, which contains 62 new poems and some articles. The preface is entitled "Looking Back", in which the poem was later included in the eighth edition of Leaves of Grass (1889) and became "a poem attached". 189 1 year, the publishing house in Philadelphia published Whitman's new work "Goodbye, My Fantasy", and his short poem became "Attached Poem 2" of Leaves of Grass; The ninth edition of Leaves of Grass (1892) includes the first poem Seventy Years and the second poem Goodbye, My Fantasy. The poet's posthumous work Echo of the Old Days was published in the collections of 1897 to 1898 as "attached poems", and later collections were also included. The current complete works are the so-called "dying edition", that is, the ninth edition published by 1892.
Whitman is a native American writer. He did not worship the ancient European civilization, but devoted himself to the establishment of American-style democratic literature. But he is not a chauvinist. He was very concerned about the revolutionary movement in Europe and wrote many poems to encourage and congratulate him. He is a passionate internationalist.
The artistic style of Whitman's poetry is quite different from that of traditional poetry. He loved Italian operas, speeches and surging waves all his life. Western scholars point out that this is the main source of Whitman's poetic rhythm. He only used traditional poetic methods to write a few poems, such as the popular mourning song "Ah, captain, my captain! His poetic lines are closer to the rhythm of spoken and prose poems, without rhyme or regular stress, so they are closer to his thoughts and feelings. His poems can stand scrutiny, while his prose is often rough, loose and complicated. His thoughts and feelings and pantheistic world outlook are unwilling to be bound and restricted by traditional habits, but his poetic style is still organized, and a more remarkable feature is the parallel method of thinking, image and words. The simplest parallel method is that two or more lines have the same grammatical structure or similar ideas, or even the same parts of speech. It is more common that every sentence begins with the same word, the same part of speech, or the same short sentence. This form has become Whitman's usual enumeration method-a series of similar images, actions or contents are arranged together, more or less. Poetry does not have certain traditional stress, but it still has rhythm, such as the rhythm of waves, the rhythm of spoken language and the rhythm of recitation. A poem is not necessarily based on stress, but can be based on thought, intonation, punctuation or pause; A poem or the whole poem is not necessarily a logical combination, but from weak to strong, from less to more, through the accumulation process until the climax. In addition, the structure of the whole poem imitates the form of Italian opera. But both his thoughts and feelings and his poetic form are "deviant" and bold and innovative.
Whitman's poems had a great influence on China's new poetry creation after the May 4th Movement. Guo Moruo translated some of Whitman's poems, and we can see traces of Whitman's influence from his poems such as The Earth, My Mother.
Whitman is an outstanding American poet in 19 century. His works have a distinctive democratic color and optimistic spirit, reflecting the feelings and aspirations of the broad masses of the people during the rise of American capitalism. His poems, with their democratic contents and innovative forms, have had a far-reaching impact on the American and even the world poetry circles.
Whitman died in 1892.