Walt WhitmannOne of the great innovators in American literaturenHe gave America its first genuine epic poem: Leaves of GrassnLeaves Of Grass (1855) is written in free verse (poetry without regular patterns), which strongly express authors love of nature and his respect of freedom. nThis is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, This the common air that bathes the globe.n“哪里有土，哪里有水，哪里就长着草。” Life nBorn on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman, a house-builder, and Louisa Van Velsor. nAt the age of twelve Whitman began to learn the printers trade, and fell in love with the written word. nLargely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. nIn 1836, at the age of 17, he began his career as teacher in the one-room school houses of Long Island. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned to journalism as a full-time career. nIn the fall of 1848, he founded a free soil newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo Emerson. nIn 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. nHe published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. nWhitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. n“对于才华横溢的草叶集，我不是看不见它的价值，我认为它是美国至今所能贡献的最了不起的精华。我一向认为，我们似乎处于贫瘠枯槁的状态，过多的迂缓气质正把我们的智慧变得迟钝而平庸，而草叶集的出现正是我们所需要的。”- 爱默生nWhitman struggled to support himself through most of his life. In Washington he lived on a clerks salary and modest royalties, and spent any excess money, including gifts from friends, to buy supplies for the patients he nursed.nHe had also been sending money to his widowed mother and an invalid brother. From time to time writers both in the states and in England sent him purses of money so that he could get by.nIn the early 1870s, Whitman settled in Camden, where he had come to visit his dying mother at his brothers house. nafter suffering a stroke, Whitman found it impossible to return to Washington. He stayed with his brother until the 1882 publication of Leaves of Grass gave Whitman enough money to buy a home in Camden. nIn the simple two-story clapboard house, Whitman spent his declining years working on additions and revisions to a new edition of the book and preparing his final volume of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891). nAfter his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed. Works Poetry nDrum Taps (1865)nGood-Bye, My Fancy (1891)nLeaves of Grass (1855)nLeaves of Grass (1856)nLeaves of Grass (1860)nLeaves of Grass (1867)nLeaves of Grass (1870)nLeaves of Grass (1876)nLeaves of Grass (1881)nLeaves of Grass (1891)nPassage to India (1870)nSequel to Drum Taps (1865) Prose nComplete Prose Works (1892)nDemocratic Vistas (1871)nFranklin Evans; or, The Inebriate (1842)nMemoranda During the War (1875)nNovember Boughs (1888)nSpecimen Days and Collect (1881) Poetic FeaturesnWalt Whitman was one of the most important American poets in the nineteenth century and one of the great innovators in American literature. In the preface to his Leaves of Grass, he says that one of his focuses is on the sort of poet America required and the sort of poetry America needed. nThe great American poet would create both new forms and new subject matter for poetry. nIn terms of content, American poetry would not echo the sad complaints of the Graveyard school nor follow the moral preaching of didactic poets. As a matter of fact, Whitman himself was that poet and his Leaves of Grass is an example of that poetry. n Whitmans poetry is typical of Americas. nLeaves of Grass grew and changed as he and his nation, America, grew and changed. nHe saw reality as a continuous flow, without a beginning or end. He disliked the nineteenth-century poetic forms that are stiff and patterned. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about man and nature, especially common people and ordinary Americans. nHe wanted his poetry to be for the common people. He was determined “to meet people and the States face to face, to confront them with an American rude tongue”. nIn the area of poetic form, Whitman made his great contributions. Through him, American poets finally freed themselves from the old English traditions. Throughout his life he advocated a completely new and completely American form of poetic expression. nThe poetic form he employed is now called free verse - the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, the verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. nWhitman thought that message was always more important than form. So he always developed his style to suit his message and the audience he hoped to reach. nHe abandoned conventional and hackneyed poetic figures and drew his symbolism freel