Walt Whitman

[Silence] [Music] [inaudible] The poet of democracy. He is born in 1819 on a farm on Long Island. Poverty forces the Whitman family with its nine children to move to Brooklyn. At the age of 11, young Walt leaves school to work as an office boy, a printer's devil, and finally as a printer. Despite his lack of schooling, 17-year-old Walt becomes a teacher in 1835. Three years later, he gives up teaching, spending the next nine years as a newspaper writer, and at 27, is the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, an unusual position for a man so young. He becomes well-known in New York City as a dashing man about town. In 1848, he accepts a job on a New Orleans newspaper and with his brother, Jeff, travels south from New York. For the first time, Whitman sees life in America outside his native state. It gives him an overwhelming feeling of freedom and a sense of the greatness of his country. He sees the broad expanses of a growing America and marvels and delights as he watches and listens to its heartbeat and rhythm. Visiting its frontiers, riding its rivers, seeing its cities. I hear America singing the varied carols do I hear. Those of mechanics, each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong. The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam. Back in Brooklyn, Whitman continues to write, but also works as a carpenter, and leads a dual life as builder of homes and constructor of poetry. In 1855, he gathers his poems in a collection called Leaves of Grass. Finding no publisher, he prints it himself. He is 36, and there are to be seven more editions of this memorable book published during Whitman's lifetime. Whitman sends copies to leading poets of the day. Some scoff, but Henry David Thoreau, visiting Whitman, expresses admiration for the brilliance of the writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson praises the book, writing Whitman, I greet you at the beginning of a great career. Searching for life to describe in his poems, Whitman seeks out the common man. Pilots of boats, fishermen going out to sea, bus drivers on city streets, people on the ferries that cross the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan Island. He returns to editorial newspaper work as editor of the Brooklyn Daily Times. It is said Abraham Lincoln first hears of Whitman when his law partner brings a copy of Leaves of Grass to their office in Springfield, Illinois. The following year, with the issue of slavery about to plunge the country into a civil war, Lincoln engages in the famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas. The debates make Lincoln a national figure and the successful Republican candidate for president in 1860. The next year, the paths of America's greatest president of the 19th century and its most famous poet, Cross, in New York. I shall not easily forget the first time that I ever saw Abraham Lincoln. It must have been the 18th or 19th day of February, 1861, as he arrived to remain a few hours and then pass on to Washington to prepare for his inauguration. Two months later, the Civil War breaks out. [explosion] [trumpet fanfare] [shouting] [explosion] [trumpet fanfare] Whitman's brother George is wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg in late 1862. Whitman leaves Brooklyn to find his brother in Virginia. George's wounds are superficial, but Whitman is disturbed by the lack of medical attention for the wounded troops in the Army hospitals in Washington. He gets a clerical job and spends countless hours visiting the troops and comforting them. On one occasion, it is said a friend of Whitman visiting the president points out the poet who is passing by on the street. Lincoln nods approvingly. "Well, he looks like a man. " Whitman has an increasing regard and sympathy for Lincoln as the troubled president struggles to keep the nation united. On April 9th, 1865, the Civil War ends with a Union victory. A week later, Lincoln is assassinated. The whole nation grieves, but none more than Whitman. The poet who once heard America's singing now hears her grief. The nation's mourning is resonant in Whitman's lines. One becomes a classic. And today, more than a century later, it conjures up the feelings that common man felt about the Civil War and the nation's fallen president. The poem is "O Captain, My Captain. " Despite the critical success of his other poetry, many scholars consider this Walt Whitman's greatest literary monument. Oh, Captain, my Captain, our fearful trip is done. The ship has weathered every rack. The prize we sought is won. The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, while follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring. But oh heart, heart, heart, oh the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my captain lies, Fallen, cold, and dead. O captain, my captain, Rise up and hear the bells, Rise up! For you the flag is flung, For you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths, For you the shores are crowding. For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning. Here, Captain, dear father, this arm beneath your head. It is some dream that on the deck you've fallen, cold and dead. My captain does not answer. His lips are pale and still. My father does not feel my arm. He has no pulse, nor will. The ship is anchored safe and sound. sound, its voyage closed and done. From fearful trip, the victor ship comes in with object one. Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells. But I, with mournful tread, walk the deck, My captain lies, fallen cold and dead. (bell tolling) [bell tolling] [BLANK_AUDIO]