1. America ’ s Poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

2. Whitman and Dickinson From Godey's Magazine (November, 1896): "[Emily Dickinson] and Walt Whitman and Poe are this nation's most original contributions to the world's poetry. Poe was typical only of Poe. But Emily Dickinson and Whitman, with their unbending comradery with God and humanity, are our best realizations of the distinctively American spirit."

3. Walt Whitman America ’ s Poet

4. Whitman ’ s Background  Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman was the son of a housebuilder,  The family lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s.  At the age of twelve Whitman fell in love with the written word.  Largely self-taught, he read the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Homer Shakespeare

5. Whitman the Abolitionist  In 1841, he founded a weekly newspaper, Long- Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers.  In 1848, Whitman left Brooklyn to become editor of the New Orleans Crescent.  In New Orleans he experienced at first hand the viciousness of slavery in the slave markets of that city.

6. Whitman the Poet  On his return to Brooklyn, he founded a "free soil" newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman.  In 1855, Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855.  Whitman continued to refine the volume, publishing several more editions of the book.

7. Whitman and The Civil War  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Whitman wrote journalism and visited the wounded at New York-area hospitals.  He went to Washington, D.C. to care for his brother who had been wounded in the war.  Overcome by the suffering of the many wounded, Whitman decided to stay and work in the hospitals.  Whitman stayed in the city for eleven years.  He took a job in the Department of the Interior.

8. Emily Dickinson

9. The Belle of Amherst  Heralded as one of the most gifted American writers, Emily Dickinson authored nearly 2,000 poems.  Most were published after her death in 1886.  Dickinson focused on themes relating to death, eternity, and love, usually in short four-line stanzas.

10. Dickinson ’ s Background  Birth -December 10, 1830 and Death May 15, 1886  She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts  She is known for exploring personal themes of love, death, and religion in short, lyrical poems  In the 1840s she attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College)  In the 1850s She began writing poetry voluminously, organizing her work into small booklets  She sent four poems to American writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson for his opinion; he advised her not to publish them  After Dickinson's death, her sister Lavinia discovered her poems and gave them to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd for publication.

11. Emily Dickinson  In 1890, editors Higginson and Todd published about 115 of Dickinson's poems in Poems of Emily Dickinson.  In 1955, The first complete collection of Dickinson's poems appeared in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.  Of the 1,775 poems Dickinson wrote, only 7 were published during her lifetime.  Dickinson rarely left Amherst, and in her later years she rarely left her family home.  While Dickinson is often characterized as reclusive and somewhat eccentric, she is known to have maintained close relationships with family and friends.

12. Dickinson: The Poetic Influence  Emily Dickinson suffered severe homesickness and returned home after one year of college.  In the years that followed, she seldom left her house and visitors were scarce.

13. The Poet  She was particularly stirred by the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she met on a trip to Philadelphia.  By the 1860s, she lived in almost total isolation but actively maintained many correspondences and read widely.  Her poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want; but her poems are also marked by the recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of future happiness.

14. Her Work  Her work was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth- century England, as well as by her Puritan upbringing and the Book of Revelation.  She admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Keats.Robert Elizabeth Barrett BrowningJohn Keats  She was dissuaded from reading the verse of her contemporary Walt Whitman by rumor of its disgracefulness. the two poets are now connected by the distinguished place they hold as the founders of a uniquely American poetic voice.Walt Whitman

15. Can You Answer these Questions?  What was Whitman ’ s contribution to literature?  What did he accomplish with his poetry?  What poetic devices does he use?  Why and how is “ O Captain, My Captain ” different?  What were his beliefs/philosophies and how are they reflected in his poems?  What is his message and device in “ A Noiseless Patient Spider ” ?  What kind of rhyme does Dickinson use in her poetry and why?  How did the events in her life influence her poetry?  What poetic device does Dickinson use in “ Tell all the Truth but tell it Slant ” and how does it reflect the theme?  In “ Because I could not stop for Death, ” can you discuss the techniques and the views?  What were her primary themes?