The View of War in Whitman's Poetry

Whitman's democratic spirit is first manifested in his position of abolishing slavery. He lived in an era of increasingly sharp class contradictions in American society. With the rapid development of capitalist civilization, slavery has become the biggest obstacle in capitalist society. Whitman was influenced by his family since childhood and had profound democratic thoughts. Therefore, when there was a sharp conflict between the capitalist system based on wage labor in the north and the slavery system based on slave labor in the south, he followed the historical trend and resolutely joined the abolitionist movement, expressing his views and positions with poetry.

The poet's democratic spirit is also manifested in his attitude and position towards ordinary working people. The poet has repeatedly suggested that he name his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, because Leaves of Grass symbolize all ordinary things and ordinary people. Contrary to the trite aristocratic tendency that American literary circles were divorced from people and life at that time, Whitman turned his attention to ordinary people and daily life for the first time. In My Song, he reflected the life of the working class in new york and Long Island: drivers, boatmen, clams diggers, butchers' minions, blacksmiths, black drivers, carpenters, spinners, compositors, road builders and trailer workers. The poet summed up these characters as American images, and endowed this image with the noblest quality, showing the wishes and hopes of progressive people who are ready to fight for freedom.

It is precisely because of this democratic spirit that poets preach "the love of mankind" again and again, depict nature with optimistic brushstrokes, and sing about people and life with high spirits. In the final analysis, this humanitarian thought is also the embodiment of his democratic spirit.

Whitman's democratic spirit is also reflected in his artistic style of poetry. /kloc-American poetry in the middle of the 0/9th century was mainly influenced by English poetry and bound by Puritanism, which imprisoned democracy and free thought. Whitman's Leaves of Grass, with its broad realistic picture and strong romantic brushwork, created a poetic style with healthy and urgently needed capitalist democratic thought. His poems are bold and unrestrained, and completely get rid of the shackles of traditional poetry. His poems are very close to spoken and prose poems, with no rhythm, no regular stress and rhythm. He regards American language as the raw material of a brand-new poetic form. The purpose of his poetry writing is to express his thoughts and feelings, not the beauty of the form of poetry. In his view, "the best poetry has the most perfect beauty-the beauty of ears, the beauty of brain, the beauty of soul, the beauty of time and place."

Whitman's poetic style has a great influence on the development of American poetry and the formation of American modernist literature. Modern American poetry can be divided into two categories. One is classicism represented by Eliot, who advocates metaphysical poetry and thinks that the most fundamental task of a writer is to establish a dialogue with the human past. The other category, which is also the main category, is the new poetry school represented by Whitman. This kind of poet aims to inspire people to feel that the world is brand-new and blank, and everything has not been touched and described, which requires us to describe and create. This spirit of abandoning all traditions and bravely opening up a new world was first advocated by Whitman over 100 years ago.