Walt Whitman

[Il Medico]

I rather enjoy his works. For those who may know his work but not his name; this is probably his most famous:

O Captain! My Captain!


1
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d 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 O heart! heart! heart! 5 O the bleeding drops of red (http://www.bartleby.com/142/1019.html#193.6), Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 2
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills; 10 For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head (http://www.bartleby.com/142/1019.html#193.14); It is some dream that on the deck, 15 You’ve fallen cold and dead. 3
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 anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20 Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful (http://www.bartleby.com/142/1019.html#193.22) tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Anyways, discuss. Like? Dislike?

Also, I heard Walt was homosexual. Anybody have conformation on that, or is it just a rumor?

[Random Precision]

Also, I heard Walt was homosexual. Anybody have conformation on that, or is it just a rumor?

He had a huge, shall we say, "admiration" for Abraham Lincoln. If I'm recalling sophomore English class correctly some of his poems had some pretty explicit renderings of his admiration for male beauty.

As for what I think, he's just alright. I've read the entire Leaves of Grass and found it awfully repetitive. Also despite his noble mission of freeing 19th-century verse he did not escape from the common affliction of all English-language poets of that era: way too many words. Though I do respect him for being the pioneer of free verse, it's only in the same vein that I respect Hemingway for breaking down prose to its bare essentials; he did a necessary task that could have been and was done much better by those who followed him.