Whitman and Dickinson A New American Poetry

Expressing American Ideas During the period in American History known as Conflict and Celebration, there were several poets who began to write differently than people had written before. Their writing style was more modern; they broke with traditional styles. Among these poets were Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Both lived during the period of Realism but were inspired by the themes and styles of Romanticism.

Whitman’s Poetic Elements Free verse Cadence Run of words that rise and fall to make emphasis of thought Need to read poems aloud to hear cadence Other poetic elements Assonance Alliteration Onomatopoeia Parallel structure Imagery

Dickinson’s Poetic Elements Dickinson is known for using poetry as private observation. Her poems are carefully crafted in rhyme and meter. Complex, unusual style, which is characterized by: the use of dashes slant rhyme ambiguous, elusive language.

Expressing American Ideas They used these new writing styles to express uniquely American ideas. Although both Whitman and Dickinson are considered modern writers, their writings can be compared and contrasted in many ways. There are by far more differences in the writing styles of Whitman and Dickinson than there are similarities.

Whitman. Dickinson Whitman vs. Dickinson structure of poems Whitman’s poems lack any structure. Whitman’s poems tend to run on and on no set length for his poems, stanzas, or even lines. Dickinson has a definite structure. She wrote ballad stanzas, which were four line stanzas alternating in iambic tetrameter and tri- meter.

Whitman vs. Dickinson Whitman vs. Dickinson use of rhyme As with structure, Whitman’s poetry has no rhyme. In this way Whitman also breaks from tradition. Whitman’s poems make use of free verse. This is poetry that is written without concern for regular rhyme schemes and meter. Dickinson’s poems, unlike Whitman’s, make use of slant rhyme. This is the use of near or approximate rhymes, and is a relatively modern idea.

Similarities: Similarities: use of modern ideas and concepts in poetry One of the poetic “tools” which Whitman uses is cataloguing, or enumeration. Catalogs are long lists of related things, people, or events. One of Dickinson’s modern “tools” is her use of startling imagery. Typical of her writing are the use of dashes that break the lines, and serve to keep them open. Most of her poems are short, but they take you on an infinite trip; they look simple enough, but what you see is not what you get.

An interesting point of comparison on Whitman and Dickinson An interesting point of comparison on Whitman and Dickinson: They are alike in the fact that they are not necessarily transcendentalists, but often express transcendentalist views in their poems Even though both lived during the time of realism they interpret nature through their poetry and use poetry as a vehicle to participate in nature’s beauty and transcendentalism. They both find inspiration from nature and find an expression or reflection of the soul in nature.