Walt Whitman and the American Poem

Walt Whitman once said that "the known universe has one complete lover and that is the greatest poet." For me, poetry has always been the one thing that has helped me understand the world. Whether it was a verse of scripture or a simple metaphor, I have always been able to relate the poetry I read to the world in which I exist. Therefore, life, for me, is poetry. While Whitman was alive, America had only been barely a generation old. His world was new and excitingly experimental like a newborn learning to walk. The way that Walt Whitman understood his world, his universe, himself was through poetry.

"The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem," Whitman said.

While reading "I Hear America Singing" and imagining the song of the carpenter, the mason and the "delicious singing of the mother," I began to understand what Whitman tried to accomplish with his poetry. America, to him, was a living, breathing instrument that performed the melodies of life and love. Each and every individual played a note that resonated and harmonized with unique notes that belonged to every one else. The product: the American symphony known as life. In this sense, life made sense to Whitman and through his poetry we are able to understand the way he viewed his new American land of limitless space and possibility.

The most interesting and unique aspect of Whitman's poetry is its style. Written in a somewhat coherent, free style, Whitman's poems reflect the beauty of the human mind. I spent about an hour reading Whitman's most famous work, "The Song of Myself," and found that it was strikingly similar to the aforementioned work. While Whitman goes to great lengths to describe himself, he also takes on the persona of several average Americans like the butcher's son, the runaway slave and the expecting mother. By viewing the same world from different perspectives, the reader begins to understand the complexity of the new American nation and the beauty of its people. Whitman intimately viewed all Americans as his spiritual brothers and sisters and strove to capture their story in the simple lines of his poetry. America, in Whitman's mind, was best understood through this style of poetry.

I think the one aspect of Whitman's poetry that I love the most is its simplicity. Much like the imagists of the early twentieth century, Whitman glorified in simplicity. Whitman, himself, said, "the art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity. . . nothing can make up for excess or lack of definiteness."

I feel that the best way we can read Whitman's poetry is by glorifying the simplicity of the work, admiring the depth of expression and voice and by recognizing Whitman's own love of the American spirit that permeate the lines of the work.

When I read Whitman's poems, I , too, hear America singing.