"Give
me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Emma Lazarus). This quote is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. These words, like Walt Whitman's
1855 Preface, speaks to and for the American people. According to Whitman,
America
symbolizes freedom for all citizens, not just white men, but for women,
black slaves, Native Americans, the illiterate, and the poor. It is
this combination that makes this country unique and different from
other countries. Whitman was inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his
1843 essay titled
"The Poet". Whitman declares that America is a "poem" and speaks of the
"greatest poet".
Whitman boldly and innovatively expresses his opinions in this work. He
speaks to the reader about unity and oneness. At the time this was
published, 1855, America was a divided country, half were free and the
other slave states. Whitman declares that we are all one people
regardless of social status, degree of wealth, gender, and the color of
our skin. He stresses this message when he states his view of hierarchy
in the line, "President taking off his hat to them not they to him"
(1), we are all equal; the President of the United States is no better
or greater than the slave, the prostitute, or Native American.
Interestingly, the original 1855 version was published on or around the Fourth of July. The
1855 Preface
is written in a ten page prose format and its style is lyrical and
includes free verse. This was the only edition that Whitman included a
preface to his
Leaves of Grass and he did not include the title or the name of the author. Only later did it become known as the
1855 Preface. Whitman uses many of the same stylistic devices found in
Leaves of Grass
such as using compound words, ellipses instead of full sentences to
indicate rhetorical pauses, and few commas so that the lines have a
continuous rhythm. This is also written without use of the first person
narrative. Whitman gives references to himself in many ways but without
the use of "I", "me" or "myself". He is talking for everyone in America
not just for himself. He speaks to all who wish to hear him. In this
point of history, rich white males were the ones who could or would
read something of this magnitude. Scholars and writers such as Ralph
Waldo Emerson would read this. Walt Whitman knows this and that is most
likely the key reason why he wrote it. He wanted the elite to see
America through the eyes of the people that make America so unique.
Whitman speaks loud and clear as the voice for women's rights.
Women, at the time, had no voice and had limited rights. They were not
able to vote or have the same opportunities that men held. He declares
throughout this essay that women should be as equal as men and
emphasizes this by frequently writing both man and woman. He promotes
his idea of valuing women in the workplace by usin the term
workwomen.
For example, he speaks about the changing roles of religion and church
and says that, "The churches built under their umbrage shall be the
churches of men and women"(11). He speaks about Americans having an
innate passion for everything from nature to sex and love. Not only did
he mention women with men but he refers to them as
freewomen. These abundant references to women tie into his philosophy of freedom for all people not just the white upper-class male.
Slavery was a key issue in America during the publication of
Leaves of Grass.
The nation was divided between North and South (free and slave states).
Whitman speaks that we are one nation with a multitude of people and
there are no differences between the plantation workers in the cotton
fields and the slave owners. Whitman speaks for the black slaves and
embraces their beauty and perspectives on life. Although they may be
owned without any rights, illiterate, and treated like animals or
property, their faith is still strong, "they never give up believing
and expecting and trusting."(5). Whitman projects his hopes for the end
of slavery when he states, "..when I and you walk abroad upon the earth
stung with compassion at the sight of numberless brothers answering our
equal friendship and calling no man master…"(8). Modern critic, Marki
Ivan notes of Whitman's declaration for equality of all Americans when
he cites Whitman's quote, "others are as good as he, only he sees it
and they do not". America has an abundance of wealth and resources.
Whitman refers to the United States as the "greatest poem" and we are
the poets in this great nation. Here is a nation that accepts all
mankind even though in this great nation people are divided according
to race and gender and status. Whitman states this throughout the
1855 Preface
and also makes references to the abundance of land and its many
resources. He articulates that resources should be available to all
mankind not just the select few (white males). Whitman also expresses
his appreciation of the beauty and diversity of its natural resources.
He believes that because of these assets people should find work and
thrive.
Contemporary critic Marki Ivan refers to Whitman as the "Prophet of his land" (Ivan 2).
Whitman gives the reader an insight to a great poem and poet in his
Preface to Leaves of Grass:
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and
the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up
for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate
tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward
the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man
or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with
the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the
open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you
have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever
insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great
poem.
Whitman strongly believes this idea and has faith in the American
people to follow his advice. He feels that by accomplishing this task
we will be one with one another, an equal and undivided nation "with
liberty and justice for all".
See annotated passage for answers to key questions about the poet:
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng372/preface.htm
Edgar Allan Poe:
The Poetic Principle (1850)
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN speaking
of the Poetic Principle, I have no design to be either thorough or
profound.
While discussing, very much at random, the essentiality of
what we call Poetry, my principal purpose will be to cite for
consideration,
some few of those minor English or American poems which
best suit my own taste, or which, upon my own fancy, have left the most
definite
impression. By “minor poems” I mean, of course, poems of
little length. And here, in the beginning, permit me to say
a few words in regard to a somewhat peculiar principle,
which, whether rightfully or wrongfully, has always had its influence in
my own
critical estimate of the poem. I hold that a long poem
does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, “a long poem,” is
simply a flat contradiction in terms.
I need scarcely observe that a poem
deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.
The value of
the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But
all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient. That
degree of
excitement which would entitle a poem to be so called at
all, cannot be sustained throughout a composition of any great length.
After
the lapse of half an hour, at the very utmost, it flags —
fails — a revulsion ensues — and then the poem
is, in effect, and in fact, no longer such.
Would Whitman agree with this?
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