The Great American Poet

Kaylyn Elizabeth Fairchild

English 244

Dr. Lee

20 March 2017

The Great American Poet

   Ralph Waldo Emerson explained his idea of a great American poet in his poem, “The Poem”. Emerson explained that his idea of a poet was someone who represented beauty in their poems, someone who can stand their ground and perhaps even apart from others on what they are saying and what they believe, and is also someone who speaks truth (296). One poet who tried to meet these expectations was Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman made it his goal to become the great American poet that Emerson called for in 1842. Walt Whitman shows that he met the expectations of the great American poet because he expressed his own originality and creativity, he spoke his reality truthfully, and represented the optimism of America.         

   Whitman greatly displayed his creativity in one of his poems titled “Song of Myself” through the style of the poem as well as some of the concepts discussed. “Song of Myself” is a poem that focuses on Walt Whitman, his poetry, and what it contains. This creativity and originality is shown by the way the poem is formed. Whitman used what we know as beat poetry; a form of poetry that Whitman may have inspired. Beat poetry is almost like music, with a certain rhythm and rhyme coming from the structure. The first stanza of section one, Whitman stated, “I celebrate and sing myself / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (1-4).  This stanza has a rhythm to it that you can hear when speaking it aloud. The structure of the stanza also makes the reading seem to flow easier, not exactly rhyming but fitting together in a way that sounds good. Not only does this poem have a certain beat to it, but the content is also a creative originality that he possessed. Whitman had a keen interest on writing about his physical being. This is shown in lines in section two of “Song of Myself,” where Whitman talked about “the smoke” of his breath, the making up of his physical being, the way his heart beat, the air and blood that passed throughout his body (21-23). Physical being is something that not a lot of poets from the time focus on. This, coupled with the structure of the poem, create an original creativity that fits what Emerson was looking for in the great American poet.

   Walt Whitman also showed the reality of his truth in one of his more somber poems “The Wound-Dresser”. “The Wound-Dresser” is a poem about a medic who looks back on the Civil War after his grandchildren, or perhaps his children, ask him what it was like. In the poem, the narrator goes back through all of his memories of the war; starting from when he was anxious for the violence, and ending with him sitting with those among the dead and wounded. Whitman displayed the awful truth of the war through the language and imagery he used, such as his description of dressing wounds such as crushed heads, arm stumps, amputated hands, clotted wounds, shot necks, then the death and mercy of death for many soldiers (41-49). Whitman does not shy away from the gruesomeness of the war, making this poem a truth spoken to both sides. Another poem that he spoke of the truth was in “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night”. This poem is about a person who keeps vigil—or watch—over a dead stranger on the battlefield. The narrator of the poem meets the stranger before the fighting starts, and then afterwards watches over his dead body (1-25). This poem is another example of Whitman giving the harsh truth through his haunting prose, something that Emerson was looking for in a great American poet.

   More common was for Whitman to write more optimistic poems, which displayed Whitman’s American optimism, especially in his poem “Song of Myself”. He showed this optimism by speaking of—and even celebrating—the diversity of America’s inner make-up. Section 15 of “Song of Myself” discusses the different kind of people that reside in America, such as newly-come immigrants, the duck-shooter, the carpenter, the pilot, and even more (263-326). Whitman ends section 15 saying that all of these people have a common humanity, which makes up America and that they are all related through their American identity (327-329). This shows optimism because it shows that Whitman considered every American to be interconnected and responsible of carrying each other’s burden because of the fact that they were American. This perspective of Americans and the diversity of the nation is the American optimism that Emerson believed the great American poet should possess and express.

   Emerson expressed his idea of a great American poet as someone who held American optimism, someone who spoke the truth through their art, and their own original creativity. Upon reading of these idea, Walt Whitman made it his mission to achieve the status of a great American poet. He succeeded at reaching this goal, which is shown through the representation of American optimism through diversity in “Song of Myself,” and his display of the truth no matter how harsh it may be in both “The Wound-Dresser” and “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night,” then finally his creativity shown through the content and structure of his poems, specifically “Song of Myself”.

Works Cited

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol.                 B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. 1330-74. Print.

Whitman, Walt. “The Wound-Dresser”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed.                Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. 1399-1401. Print.

Whitman, Walt. “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night”. The Norton Anthology of                        American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. 1396-97. Print.